Are you passionate about music and want to start a business in the music industry? If YES, here are 50 best music related business ideas & opportunities. The world of music is very glamorous, and it has a way of drawing people into its embrace, though a lot of people do not know what to do with the myriads of potentials the music industry offers.
It is a proven fact that millions of people all over the world spend hours every day plugged into their devices or linked into one music streaming service or the other.
If you are such a person that loves everything music, you could base your business in or around the music industry. You only have to find an aspect that suits you and latch on. If you are at a loss of how to turn your passion into your profession, here are 50 music related businesses that can give you some ideas.
Best Music Business ideas
1. Start a music academy
If you have a good grasp of music through years of practice, you might want to start an educational academy so that you can share your expertise with others.
Loads of people want to learn how to make music, and as such you may discover that you may have more customers than you even thought possible. If you have more clients than you can manage alone, you can hire other teachers to work with you.
2. Become a songwriter
A lot of artistes have been known to sing songs written by others. So if you have the talent to actually write great songs, you can build a business as a songwriter where you sell your songs or offer your services to other musicians.
3. Start a music review site
If you know a great deal about new music, you can launch a website where you can start reviewing recently released gigs and records. If people like your reviews, they will read them all the time. Gaining an online following is an easy way to make a sustainable income for yourself through Google.
4. Start a Recording studio
A recording studio is where music production starts and ends. All the background work involved in making music is usually done in a recording studio.
You could set up a recording studio and hire a good sound engineer and then charge artistes hourly for using your recording studio. With the huge number of people that wish to produce their songs daily, this business is indeed a profitable one.
5. Disc Jockey
If you have great taste in music and you know from experience what people like in live settings, then you can train to become a disc jockey. With a little mastering of the technology, you can make an excellent disc jockey. Disc jockeys are also popular for weddings, clubs and other special events. So you can start your own business and then start booking gigs.
6. CD Retail
If you love music, then selling CDs, vinyl LPs and cassettes is a good way to be part of the industry. Because they don’t deteriorate, you can pick up decent old stock very cheaply, and retail them with some markup. You should either cater for a specialist area of music like jazz, classical, pop etc., or stick to popular records that you know will sell. Encourage people to bring in CDs, which you can buy off them and resell at a profit.
7. Band Management
If you have paid your dues in the music industry, you can decide to manage a band or an artiste. The difference between working with a band and working with an artiste is that a band manager works with a group of musicians while an artiste manager works with solo artistes. Band managers present, promote, project and protect the careers of their clients.
8. Rent space for music rehearsals
If you have some space that you are not using, why let it lie fallow when you can make money from it by renting it out as a rehearsal space? Bands and dance groups would especially find this useful as they would space to practice their songs.
You do not need to wait till you have gotten like a warehouse or an empty land; you can equally rent out your garage, that is if you can stand the noise.
9. Talent Hunter
You can decide to become a music talent hunter where you bring people to contest and pick out the best and most talented. If you can fund it, then you can go this route; and you would make your money back when your chosen talent becomes a sensation in the industry.
10. Dance Choreographer
No music video is complete without some dance steps to spice it up. If you are a good dancer, you can set up your own dance choreography business where you would provide dance services to artistes and the like. You could also teach people new dance steps to bring uniqueness to your business.
11. Dance Studio
Starting a dance studio is a wonderful business and it has proven to be very profitable. You should just set up your studio and start inviting people to register and learn. You can start this business in two ways. One is a normal dance school giving instruction of the basics and another one is specialized dance studio for a specific dance. You can equally train video vixens in your studio.
12. Video Vixen
Video vixens are dancers that normally feature in music videos. You can be a vixen if you are young, creative, athletic and energetic. But if you are none of these, you can opt to train video vixens or start and a vixen agency where you find jobs for vixens.
13. Open a night club
Night clubs are basically where people come to dance to the beat of various songs in order to relieve the stress of the day. Owning and running a nightclub can be a very exciting and lucrative business for an entrepreneur. Success in the nightclub business is very much possible if done properly; it demands dedication, and meticulous attention to every detail of your business.
14. Mobile DJ
A person who loves music, has an outstanding personality and is full of energy can successfully own and run a mobile DJ business. If you enjoy spinning tunes, making people happy and earning a steady stream of supplemental income, then the mobile DJ business is perfect for you. Starting out this way would help ensure you grow your gigs portfolio in a short time.
15. Online Record Seller
If you are a records collector, and you have amassed a good number of them, you can choose to start selling them online. Though records are seeing a growth in popularity, it still lags behind CDs and streaming music.
You can find these records in garage sales, estate sales, online auction sites, etc. If you can buy in bulk, all the better. Set up a website focused solely on your online store, and pretty soon, you will have tons of record lovers flocking your site.
16. Music blog
If you love writing and you love music too, you can fuse both interests together and start a music review blog where you would discuss happenings in the music industry, criticize new songs, upcoming artistes as well as the life and career of already established artistes.
17. Musician
This is one of the most obvious jobs in the music industry that we tend to forget it. You can become a musician or an artiste if you are quite talented. You can make lots of money from being a musician if you find a good record label to sign you and a very good manager.
18. Fan Page Administrator
If you have a musician or band group that you adore, you can start an unofficial fan page for the band. You can start by writing reviews, posting schedules, etc., in order to attract members of like minds.
You can even start selling unofficial merchandise, or charge a small subscription fee so members can get the latest news on their favorite band and continue to talk with like-minded individuals. You can equally start hosting fan events if your membership starts growing.
19. Music Therapy
Music therapy is an emerging business that is gaining more popularity in recent times. Music therapy is the use of music to address the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of a group or individual.
It employs a variety of activities such as listening to melodies, playing an instrument, drumming, writing songs, and guided imagery. Music therapy is appropriate for people of all ages. Music therapists work in places like psychiatric hospitals, prisons and nursing home.
20. Music promoter
New artistes when they start out in their careers, they usually find it difficult to penetrate the challenging waters of the music industry.
At this point, they need a promoter to help them gain recognition. If you have an eye for the next big thing in music, you can make some serious money from that. For you to be successful, you need to make sure the bands under you get gigs and contracts.
21. Music tour manager/coordinator
A music tour manager or coordinator manages and organizes music tours for artistes. They take care of the financial aspects of musical touring which includes budgeting, reconciling show settlements, and negotiating band, crew and vendor deals.
22. Roadie
A roadie is a lot of things in one. He could be part of the road touring crew, an Event Technician, Production Technician, Guitar Tech, Keyboard Tech, Lighting Engineer etc. Cut in short, roadie is the catch-all term for any touring professional in the live music industry. If you fit into the music touring industry, you can become a roadie.
23. Advance Person/agent
This is a person or agent that travels to each city on a tour days or weeks before the touring band and crew arrive. This person goes before in order to check facilities, accommodations and promotional materials to make sure they are ready for the artiste and his or her crew.
24. Touring Artiste
If music is your life, and you are not content with just plying your trade in a city, then you can take your talents on the road and build a business as a touring musician. You can make money from selling tickets and merchandise to people at each location you visit.
25. Music Publicist
A music publicist is a person employed by artistes to secure regional interviews, show s and concert reviews for them. You can also become a tour publicist by promoting the artiste at every stop on an artiste’s tour.
26. Production Manager
Production managers are responsible for all technical production elements of a live show, including sound, lighting and staging. If you have any of the above mentioned skills, you could become a music production manager.
27. Wedding Band
As a musician or owner of a band, you could focus specifically on performing at weddings and at events relating to weddings. You need to create a catchy website and market your services so that couples can find you and book your services. In order to break into the market easily, you can choose to offer your services a little cheaper than your competitors.
28. Composer
The position of a composer is a bit more than that of a songwriter; a composer has the skill set to create not just melodies and accompanying chords but to write more sophisticated musical arrangements for every instrument. If you have the talent to actually compose full arrangements of music, especially for larger groups of musicians, you can work for movies, TV shows, events and more.
29. Jingle Writer
If writing quick catchy tunes is your forte, then you can start writing jingles for radio, TV commercials and other advertisements. You can comfortably build this career if you are quite talented.
30. Entertainment Lawyer
Artistes are always getting ripped off by unscrupulous record labels and as such, they need legal representation. Entertainment lawyers help to resolve disputes which have to do with the music industry, from licensing, contracts, and the overall protection of musicians’ rights. Not just musicians alone, entertainment lawyers also represent agents, managers, organizers etc.
31. Musical Instrument Rental
You can make money from music by renting out instruments such as drums, guitars, pianos and electronic keyboards, plus amplifiers, microphones, public address and sound recording equipment. You can offer hourly, daily and weekly rates and promote the service to individuals, bands, schools and community groups. You can also offer delivery services to your clients.
32. Make music Videos
These days every pop single released has to be accompanied by a promotional video for it to gain recognition. This brings a superb opportunity for aspiring video directors. If you have the necessary skills and equipment, try contacting record companies to see if they need anyone to make videos for them. It only takes one success to get your name known, at which point the sky will be the limit.
33. Organize virtual reality music festivals
Technology companies and music/audio companies have been putting their heads together and making a lot of things possible. You can make your very own private music festival with the help of virtual reality as long as you are creative. You can charge music fans a fee to participate.
34. Create a music podcast
A podcast is an audio file that is automatically received from the internet and then synced to your MP3 player. The files are received by subscribing to what is called a podcast feed. You can create a music podcast and focus on a theme or subject matter in each of your shows.
The cost to start podcasting is so low that anyone can do it. You can make some massive profits from music podcasts when they take off.
35. Parody Artiste
You could even start a business as a parody artist, turning popular songs into fun spoofs to be performed live, through other media or on YouTube or other online video channels. Although the intention of a musical parody may be humour, the recreation of the music would draw the required crowd.
36. YouTube Personality
You can showcase your music talents by creating music videos and uploading them on YouTube. You can make money from the ads or royalties if your site gets the required followership.
37. Booking Agent
Individuals or corporate organizations who are organizing events usually, find ways to contact artistes to come and perform at such events.
This is not always easy because artistes are generally very busy people. As a booking agent, you would serve as the link between people who need to hire artistes and the artistes themselves. You would earn commissions for each deal you broker.
38. Record Label Owner
You could focus more on the business side and start your own record label, signing various artistes to record work under your label.
39. Musical instrument training school
If you have the wherewithal, you can start a music instrument school to train future musicians and instrumentalists. You may not need to be a professional musician before you can start a music school; all you need to do is hire qualified trainers and teachers to teach in your school. Though this business is a bit capital intensive, but it is also lucrative.
40. Music Teacher
A lot of people wouldn’t mind parting with some money in order to learn how to make music, sing, or play certain musical instruments. If you are talented in playing instruments or singing, you can easily become a music teacher in a training school.
41. Musical Mobile App Developer
If you are music fan, and you also have a knack for developing apps, you could put your skills to work and develop apps that can help people write and record music, or even to find music easily on their phones.
42. Music Magazine Publisher
You can start a business publishing a magazine that is centered on music. Yes, people still read hardcopy magazines and still subscribe to them. You can equally follow up with the online version to attract the younger generation.
43. Voice Coach
If your musical talents lie more with singing than with playing instruments, then you can start giving voice training classes to people.
44. Karaoke studio
Karaoke is a form of entertainment in which an amateur singer sings along with recorded music. This studio draws music fans who are looking for outlets for their creative sides or who just want to have fun. To be successful in this, you need to make such you have very extensive genre of songs in your studio, and you can also decide to run a private karaoke studio instead of a public one.
45. Start an online music download service
Free music download sites have been around for a long time, and while you can buy music online on Amazon.com, iTunes and other big names, smaller sites can thrive by offering legal music download at cheaper rates. You can offer this service but at a cheaper price to draw patrons.
46. Private Tutor
You could work with clients on a more individual basis as a musical tutor. This can be an especially helpful format if you want to teach people how to play specific instruments like the piano.
47. Online music steaming service
Streaming music is a way of delivering music without needing to download the music files from the internet. Music services like Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music use this method to provide songs that can be enjoyed on all types of devices.
If you can handle this niche, you can start your own streaming service. You can break into the market by offering a cheaper service than the big brands.
48. Session Musician
If you want to play music but don’t necessarily want to be in the front of it all, you could work as a session musician. Session musicians work with bands or artistes by offering them backup instrumentals to go along with their songs.
49. Backup Vocals/singer
If you can sing, but can’t produce your own music just yet, you can offer your services as a backup vocalist to other musicians on a freelance or contract basis.
50. Song Licensing Business
If you are familiar with product licensing, then you know what this business is all about. You can write your songs and then offer to let others use them for various purposes in exchange for a fee.