How To Actually Make Money With Music

Last year I sold around $7,000 of merch for my music, and in this video I show you how I did it. Start your 14-day FREE trial of MusicFunnels here:
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#MusicMarketing #SellMusic #MusicPromotion #MusicFunnels #SpotifyMarketing #SpotifyPromotion #MusicGrowthMachine
The following are Amazon / Sweetwater Affiliate links for various products I personally use. If you purchase anything from these links I get a small commission for referring you to the product, which helps my channel for no additional cost to you :)
Video Gear I Use:
Canon EOS R: amzn.to/2Qhx7Rl
Canon EF-S 24mm f/2.8: amzn.to/2sHqiiY
Canon EF 50mm f/1.8: amzn.to/35gT8np
Joby 5K GorillaPod: amzn.to/2MRurrt
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LimoStudio 9ft Green Screen: amzn.to/2Ewo9th
ESDDI Softbox Lights: amzn.to/2EwoxIf
Adobe Premiere Pro, Full Creator Cloud Suite
Music Gear I Use:
Computer: iMac 2019, MacBook 2018
DAW: Logic Pro X & Ableton Live 10 Suite
Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Audio Interface: imp.i114863.net/JrmobQ
Monitors: Mackie MR8 MK2: imp.i114863.net/gbWLP5
Ableton Push 2: amzn.to/2WoyEc2
Maschine mk3: amzn.to/2M4GfZj
Komplete Kontrol S61: amzn.to/2EwoKev
Eurorack Custom Case: www.casefromlake.com/
Eurorack Case (old): imp.i114863.net/XxXoy5
Sennheiser HD650: imp.i114863.net/za2Xgm

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Start your 14-day FREE trial of MusicFunnels here: ►► musicfunnels.io/ **Note that the product shown in this video is being rebranded to FanFunnels, you can also get a 14-day free trial of that here: fanfunnels.io/

[@PatternShift]

To me, building a drop shipping empire out of a free w/shipping funnel built on FOMO doesn't feel like making it with music. But I don't say that to knock anyone who's making it that way, it's hard to get paid for any kind of art these days. It's a tricky path to try to walk, keeping a listener relationship positive while standing out enough to survive in the modern era's attention economy.

[@MajorMoment]

take a look at the artist called Manafest, just got served his Free CD + S&H ad the other day. 800K ML on Spotify. That’s a big paycheck, keeping in mind he has quite an extensive catalogue. 3M streams every month. If he’s running that promo, why do you think that is?

[@PatternShift]

@@MajorMoment he’s got to fund a company he’s running on ads while building a brand around cover songs, inspirational quotes, and merch. I’m sure there are listeners he’s also building a relationship with, but it’s not my niche and not what I want to do personally. I don’t personally see a point in being an artist if you’re gonna overfit the market, though you certainly can run a business that stays above water that way.

[@PatternShift]

@@MajorMoment it’s really easy to underestimate ad spend for a lot of these strategies. Creator economies are real goofy right now. I also write science fiction. If you’ve seen an ad for a self-published ten book boxed set priced at $0.99 on Amazon with a gazillion positive reviews, here’s what’s going on: that author is spending something like $10,000 on ads a month to make $13,000, the upside of which doesn’t come from the people who buy the boxed set outright (where they’re just barely covering CPC) but the people who page through the whole thing in kindle unlimited.

[@cblanchhiphop]

Appreciate your videos - keep it up man!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

thanks man!

[@EricNivoBeats]

I really like this Andrew. Just like your training course on FB ads, this provides great value to the creator community. Thank you ✅

[@naveedahmedny]

Yeah you really building your empire. Congrats on this launch man!

[@myfriendstutta]

Dude never quit making these videos. So informative, without you I’d be lost.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Thanks dude glad to help!

[@happ13e]

Andrew I’m seriously proud of you! You’re changing music bro.

[@thelibraryisonfireOFFICIAL]

this is ahead of the curve, still trying to wrap my mind around it - kudos!

[@AndrewSouthworth]

thanks man!

[@ThiagoCamposOfficial]

It's all about the bigger picture. Great content!

[@KILLMOORE]

Andrew, love the vids. If our song is not out yet and we want to get a campaign approved in advance, shall I just use the URI (that's all I can get) for Toneden when putting the landing page? It's something like open:spotify bla bla. I'm guessing when the song is on spotify that link (URI) will be ok?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I’d use the Spotify profile link on ToneDen and then on release day swap it to the song link.

[@KILLMOORE]

@@AndrewSouthworth thanks mate that’s what I did :) btw is there a reason you never run retargeting campaigns in ur videos? Maybe I’m wrong but normally seems you target other bands but given ur click data must’ve built up so much by now is there a reason I don’t normally target those ppl? Just doing this on my audience of 1000 pics clickers but it’s costing me like $3 per view content wtf? With normal targeting I can normally get it about .20 or less

[@PaulineMancini]

This website is a game-changer! I will work really hard to be able to use it :D Congrats Andrew!!

[@PaulineMancini]

I'm wondering if we cancel at anytime or not?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Hey Pauline thanks! Yeah you can cancel / downgrade / upgrade whenever you want.

[@wormsali]

Collaborating with other artists is the best way to build your audience

[@titanjake8640]

I agree!!!!!

[@probarsukov]

One question in mind, why you do not do a mini Vinyl instead of CDs? I think people like to collect vinyls still.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

CD's cost around $1 to make and take less than 2 weeks to arrive, Vinyl costs $10-$15 with a minimum order of 100 and a minimum 10 week lead time. Some shops require a 6 month lead time. It's just a much bigger investment, more can go wrong, it takes a long time and you have to sell them at a much higher price. You couldn't do a free plus shipping offer with vinyl. Shipping costs are also higher, CD's can be shipped USPS letter rate with non-machinable surcharge for $1.50. Vinyl would be media mail for $3.80 or so. I was thinking of doing it anyways and got some quotes. It was around $2k-$2.5k for 200 standard black discs with basic packaging and a 10 week lead time. But its also a good idea to have your album remastered for vinyl to avoid issues (too much bass causing stylus jumps, too much sibilance causing distortion etc), so that was going to be another $500 or so plus a couple weeks of extra lead time.

[@rubendebiasi]

Ehi andrew i have a question for you. I've been running facebook ads and I put my distrokid's hyperfollow page for the song i wanted to promote. I can see in distrokid that the hyperfollow page got increased in views but the actual streams on the linked platforms weren't at all (100 views on hyperfollow = 3,4 on KZbin + Spotify). What can be the issue?

[@KrisTiasMusic]

Hey Andrew, big fan of your content. And Music Funnels is an eyepoppingly good solution for many ideas and problems I have. But I can't find info what it costs after a 14 day trial. Be more upfront with followup costs, otherwise people like me get a scetchy feeling really quickly.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Hey Kris. Feedback noted, just updated the sales page to have the pricing information back. Was running a test to see if only showing pricing after someone enters their email helped increase free trials (a common tactic for platforms like this), but since you're the 3rd person to bring this up i'm going back to keeping the pricing on the home page.

[@halflovesband]

Maybe I'm missing something but it sounds like you're saying if we spend huge amounts of time and money we can hope to maybe almost recoup costs? You're way smarter with this stuff than me but if you're still losing money after all that time, work and sales, I don't see much hope for the average musician who's just trying to make a few bucks

[@BOF303]

Hey I was wondering why don't you do a huge facebook ads for spotify campaign? Like spend 2000-3000$?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I have several campaigns i've done that. Usually if a song does really well for me i'll leave it running for several months or a year at a low budget. Chains had about $3,500 over the course of 18 months or so. Life is Short probably had around $2k lifetime. Aside from that the reason I don't do a huge campaign in the month when the song drops is the same for most people, I have a mortgage haha.

[@kaysha]

Bro, I gotta tell you about my song that has been trending on tik tok for a year. 2 billion tik tok views. Madness

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Start Your 14-Day FREE Trial Here: fanfunnels.io/ Here's what we offer: - Unlimited Sales Funnels - Unlimited Websites - Email / SMS Marketing & Automation - 2-Way Communication with Email, SMS, FB Messenger and IG DM - Unlimited Contacts - Social Scheduling on FB / IG / TikTok - Membership Platforms (Patreon and/or Courses) - Sell Products & Subscriptions - Unlimited Forms - Unlimited Surveys - Blogging - Shopify Integration - FB / TikTok Lead Form Integration - Stripe / PayPal Integration - Pipelines - Onboarding Course Filmed by Andrew - 24/7 Support - Private FanFunnels Community Area **Updated** Based on a bunch of great feedback from our community, i've renamed the site to FanFunnels. Huge update on MusicFunnels coming soon!

[@nkolelonjokweni9489]

what's the subscription cost

[@overlords2722]

@@nkolelonjokweni9489 This is what I wanted to know as well, musicfunnels have hidden it well.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

It’s on the landing page for the website 🙌

[@tgunmusicchannel1973]

I love what you do man, but £47 per month for the basic platform is way beyond what I can afford as a musician. I get it though, it's a chicken and egg thing.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

No problem man, I know it's not going to be for everyone at every stage in their journey. Definitely a chicken and egg thing, you need certain software packages to collect fans, but you need fans and support to have money for software packages. In terms of other tools we replace, MusicFunnels is actually a way to save money. But it's all relative and if you need funnels, email/sms marketing and websites right now or not.

[@TwoGunToast]

What are the fuckin odds we have the same last name and also both create music in some form or another. Holy shit.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

Haha that’s awesome. I wonder if we’re distant cousins or something. Are you also in Massachusetts?

[@TwoGunToast]

@@AndrewSouthworth no, my parents are from Pennsylvania though and moved out to Arizona. I suppose it's not impossible some branch of family connects us but I also know last names can be the same without any family connection. One of the original Power Rangers actors shares our last name (and my first name too coincidentally). Thought it was rare we both create music as well too though haha

[@MajorMoment]

come on man, you just “forgot” to mention the most important thing, in the video and on the page lol. how much are the plans? 🤷🏼‍♂️

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I'm gonna be 100% honest with you on this and hope you understand where i'm coming from. I'm running some A/B testing on the page to see if I get more or less signups when the pricing is shown on the front page or if it's shown on the sign-up page. Just like how we test different ads on FB to try and get lower costs per conversion, i'm testing different page strategies to see what gets me a better conversion rate on the landing page. I'm more of a fan of showing prices on the front page but a LOT of software companies don't do that, because you want people to see the value of your product without factoring price into the equation. Some people look at price first and then ignore everything else, whether it would have been a good fit for them or not. So pricing is on there after you choose a plan, but yesterday it was on the front page, and it's probably going to change over the next week.

[@MajorMoment]

@@AndrewSouthworth yeah, totally get it, but you also realize it looks a bit shady when you’re choosing between things that are in the bag you can’t see through. like, from the consumer perspective, I want to go for the highest tier but if the price jump is too steep, I’d choose the “better” option and not “best”. I def want to know what each tier costs and offers to consider the best one for my needs. The biggest issue everyone is having with click funnels is its price, you know that. So that’s why it’s even more important in this case. ✌🏻

[@MajorMoment]

just saw the prices and now I wish I didn’t 🤣

[@AndrewSouthworth]

I can see how the pricing might be a hard pill to swallow, but using the standard plan as an example it's significantly cheaper than going out and getting all those services individually. ClickFunnels - $97/mo Drip - $37/mo Superphone - $20/mo Squarespace - $20/mo Then you factor in our 2-way social integration, CRM and pipeline features, and that we offer unlimited funnels and contacts... ClickFunnel's classic plan for $97/mo would limit you to 20 funnels and 3 domains or something, no email or SMS features, no CRM. Then we have the templates designed for various music marketing applications that we already have, and the ones we'll be adding over time. If it's not for you, thats cool. I just want to point out I don't think you could get the features we have at a price point as low as ours.

[@MajorMoment]

@@AndrewSouthworth well, there are alternatives to click funnels that are a lot cheaper, but that’s beyond the point. for a brand new service coming from an independent musician himself, I honestly expected it to cost like 1/3 of what it does. like I applaud you for developing a competing service, and I hope it goes well for you, but it’s not exactly catered to your audience who are mostly developing artists. just my personal opinion. like I said, best of luck with the project!

[@blanktintin]

…GHL?

[@BOF303]

I kind of skipped the video because I saw CD's , those are quite obsolete really. You might sell something, the problem is nobody has a device that can read cd's anymore. It's more of symbolic value. That being said I made a lot of money in 2015 when I was selling CD's to people I knew that wanted my music, super quick to make good money. But that was almost a decade ago.

[@AndrewSouthworth]

The thing is, you don't have to do this with CD's. CD's are just ideal because they're so cheap to have made and ship ($1 to make, $1.44 to ship). Any merch / merch bundle that costs less than $2 to make and less than $2 to ship could work (things you can ship first class mail). For some people CD's still sell quite well and for others it doesn't. Depends on the genre / brand. In any case they make more sense than vinyl in every way - cheaper to make, higher profit margins, cheaper to ship, most people don't have record players.

[@VaughnFelixMusic]

The way to make money with music… become a KZbinr etc

[@AndrewSouthworth]

You could become a KZbinr, but keep in mind it took me 700 videos and 1,000+ hours of unpaid work to get to this point. Honestly the *easiest* way to make money with music (still not easy) would be to get into production, mixing / mastering, lessons / courses or session work. Even these take many years to even get to the point where you're capable to charge anything though.

[@viciousv9671]

@@AndrewSouthworth so even if you perform you won’t make money ?

[@AndrewSouthworth]

You can make money with performing too.

[@BOF303]

hey andrew sorry for being a bit of a spammer on this video, I finally managed to get a successful facebook campaign going, with pixel and hypeddit. I'm getting clicks all over the platforms, I noticed 5 itunes clicks and 1 amazon click, how often does this mean they actually download it ? - I'm so thankful to you I think I learned everything from you. Such a thrill seeing the clicks, today I got my first spotify stats from ads and every listener also saved the track (I am testing a track that is newly released and not on any playlists so I can track fb ads performance precisely)