Before you decided to venture into/pursue music, you must have already known that the big bucks wasn’t going to start rolling in immediately.
It’s a well known fact that until you can earn a living being a full-time musician, you’ll need to do some other things on the side to help pay the bills and supplement your income.
To do this, you need to find flexible jobs that wouldn’t encroach on your studio time or other music-related things like gigs, tours, and writing, while helping you be a little financially stable.
The 6 jobs below can help you work part-time as a musician before you start earning a full time living with your music career.
6. Sound technician
Learning all about sound tech and using the knowledge practically, is another way you can make money on a part-time basis.
A lot of music venues, studios, event centres and even churches, are always in need of people who know their way around things entailing sound technology.
Or if you are the kind that loves to travel, you can reach out to touring agencies like Glo Fest, Star Trek, and others like that to work for them during the tour.
5. Uber/Taxify driver
If you have a car, then being an Uber/Taxify driver certainly can’t hurt your chances of making money at all. If anything, it’s a really decent way to make some side cash.
You get to choose your own time, and you don’t have to report to anyone. It’s pure convenience and a good way to make money part-time.
4. Graphic designer
Did you know that TB1 was (and probably still is,) a graphic designer? Even though graphic design is kinda specialized, if you have the patience to learn, coupled with your creativity, you can start making some beautiful work in no time at all.
You can work from home and create logos, banners, or anything your client needs. All you need is a laptop with a good design software (Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw) and you are good to go.
3. Freelance writer
Freelance writing is another good way to make money. You can draw from your experiences and write good, engaging, and inspiring articles/posts.
Make a list of your favourite artists, critic singles and albums, advice and give tips, etc. The once-popular vocalist, Et Cetera, started doing this and his posts were always one of the most trending topics for that day, sometimes, for a week or two.
There are still many other part-time jobs you can invest in. I’ll be sure to update this list as time goes by, so always be on the lookout.
In the mean time, if you have any other suggestions for musicians to work part-time, please tell me in the comment section below.
2. DJ
There are a lot of DJs who are now singing, rapping, and releasing albums; and for good reason – they know music, having worked with it for so long.
Why not reverse it? Since you are a musician who creates music, you can also function as a DJ. Play at weddings, clubs, bars, etc.
You can get basic DJ gear at affordable prices now, and as a musician yourself, you’ll have a leg up over much of the competition.
1. Music teacher
Teaching is a great way to earn some money as a musician. If you watch Nollywood movies and you know ‘Saka’, then you will be interested to know that he is a lecturer in Unilag.
In fact, many actors and actresses teach in film schools, but sadly, there are little to no musicians teaching in music schools.
It’s still an untapped market and there are many people who will pay big bucks for good music lessons; be it singing, learning an instrument like the piano, guitar, teaching sound engineering, production, etc..
The best part is, you can open a school or do private/home lessons… All at your own time.
Want To Promote Your Song?