Sep 24, 2017
So, you want to quit your day job and start a music blog? Well, you probably shouldn't. But just in case, here are five ways that you can earn income running a music blog.
1. Display advertising
So, you've got a spanking new website and the visits are starting to flow in. One of the first things most budding webmasters do at this point is try to put ads on their site.
There are two popular forms of online advertising:
- CPC (Cost Per Click) -- pays about $0.10 to $0.50 every time someone clicks on an ad
- CPM (Cost Per Thousand) -- pays $0.10 to $10 per 1,000 views
No one willingly clicks on ads these days, so most folks end up trying to get a "CPM" setup. If you're big enough you might be able to sell a campaign directly to an advertiser. For example, you could say to Pepsi that you'll sell them 100,000 ad impressions for $5 CPM = $500 total. Back in 2011-2013, the music blogging industry was ripe with advertisers willing to pay such sums, but today things are a bit different. On a website like Indie Shuffle we're lucky if we can pull off an average of $0.50 per 1,000 views -- we're normally much lower.
Then there's the headache of a) implementing ads; b) selling them all. Your best bet is to find a network or agency who wants to take that difficult management job on for you. Chances are they won't really want to work with you unless you're doing well over 1 million ad impressions every month (keep in mind that 4 ads on 1 page = 4 ad impressions).
2. Advertorial
If display advertising is failing you, advertorial is another route to go. This basically means sponsored content. It's a bit of a slippery slope in the music industry -- music bloggers generally frown on anyone who is willing to accept money to promote a song or artist. For the purists out there it should be first and foremost about the quality of the music, and accepting money to sway your opinion basically means you don't have much integrity.
There are other options such as Wavo, though my own personal experience was that it paid even worse than the aforementioned display advertising while taking up space and distracting from my own content.
The holy grail? Convincing a brand such as Sonos, Jack Daniels or Red Bull that your website can reach an audience that they want to reach. With an effective enough piece of written content you might be able to command anywhere between $100 and $2,000 per piece. It's been a long time since we've done anything like that at Indie Shuffle, but I imagine that if we genuinely put the effort in to find advertising partners we might be able to wrangle one or two.
3. SubmitHub
Righto -- your music blog has grown, but suddenly everyone has your email address. At first it was cool, but now you're getting 50+ emails a day from budding artists / publicists / record labels who all want a feature on your website.
That's why I made SubmitHub, a platform that makes it easy to manage your submissions -- and earn money for doing it at the same time. Many of the blogs on there are making $500 - $1,000 per month for putting in the time and effort to listen to new music sent their way. Getting to listen to music while making money? Probably goes on the resume of many as a "dream job." If you're looking to go that route you can sign up here.
That said, it comes with its drawbacks and there are plenty of critics. More information here.
4. Throw your own shows
For a few brave souls out there hosting parties and live shows ends up becoming far more lucrative than blogging every could. Why brave, you ask? Well, you have to a) book a venue; b) book bands; c) get people to actually show up; d) pay all the people involved. And unfortunately, the last part almost always comes before all the others so you end up putting your own money on the table before getting any back. It can be a risky endeavor, but for the brave few it can become a whole new career.
A perfect example is the blog All Things Go who now host an annual music festival in Washington, D.C.
5. Expand to other networks
These days more and more music brands are starting up their own YouTube, SoundCloud and Spotify channels. While the latter can't generate any income, the former two can: YouTube from advertising and SoundCloud by charging artists for reposts. That said, YouTube is becoming harder and harder to generate meaningful revenue from, and SoundCloud reposters are considered the a blight on the music blogging industry (at least, that's my opinion).
In conclusion...
If you want to earn a living music blogging, it's going to be a lot tougher than you think. You're best off approaching it as a passion and part-time hobby. Over time, who knows -- it might grow into something bigger than you could have imagined :)