How To Earn $10,000 Per Month As A Profitable Professional Musician
How to Make Money With Music
How to Make Money With Music
Josh Ross J-RO & his team can help you earn $10,000/month or more as a professional musician.
How To Earn $10,000/Month As A Profitable Professional Musician
By Josh Ross J-RO
Are you interested in learning how to earn at least $10,000 per month through music?
If so, then read on. This article may be for you. 🙂
If you are not interested in earning at least $10,000 per month as a musician, then feel free to stop reading. This article is not for you.
It is actually quite simple to earn a 6 figure income as a musician.
But it is not easy.
My name is Josh Ross J-RO.
For the past 20 years, I have helped ordinary people become the confident musicians they want to be.
Whether you want to be a Happy Hobbyist or a Profitable Professional, I can help you.
At the J-RO Pro School of Music, I help ordinary people become Profitable Professionals who earn at least $10,000/month through music.
If you are interested, you can go to jropro.com/pro to get a free consultation.
There are several career paths to earn at least $10k/month through music.
Here are some possible options:
- Music Teacher
- Music Producer
- Songwriter / Composer
- Musical Theater Performer
- Rock Star
- Music Minister
- Author
While all these career paths can offer the possibility of earning a 6 figure income, most professional musicians do not earn anywhere near this level of income.
Most professional musicians, if they are pursuing music full time, struggle to make ends meet.
Making 6 figures through music sounds like an impossible pipe dream to most musicians.
I will not pretend that you are guaranteed to make this level of income simply by reading this article.
However, I can guarantee that if you choose to work with me directly, I can help you make success inevitable.
Why try and fail on your own when you can learn from the successes and mistakes of others who have come before you?
Earning a 6 figure income is possible for ordinary people.
I first achieved this level of income when I was 23 years old.
It is largely because of this income that my wife and I were able to buy a house in 2015, when I was only 22.
Admittedly, that is not the whole story.
If you get to know me, I may be willing to tell you the whole story of how I got into a house at age 22.
For starters, I chose the perfect woman to be my wife.
She is the Queen, and I am grateful that I married her.
I believe that choosing your life partner is one of the most important decisions you can make.
This one decision can make or break you for decades to come.
That said, my wife and I would be the first to admit that we are far from perfect and make many mistakes on a daily basis.
Success does not require perfection.
But success does require a plan and the willingness to execute the plan and adjust along the way as needed until you succeed.
Keep reading to get a quick overview of how you can earn $10k/month through music.
Let’s start with the math:
$10k/month = $120,000 per year
Making money is all about speed.
For example, is $1,000,000 a lot of money?
Well it depends.
How long did it take to earn?
If you work a normal job and earn $40k per year and save a little each month for 30 years, you can retire at age 65 and have $1,000,000 in the bank.
That is a great option for most people who want to retire with stability.
However, that is not what this article is about.
If you earn $1,000,000 in 10 years, that is an average of $100k per year.
That is far better than taking 30+ years to reach $1,000,000.
What if you earn $1,000,000 in one year?
Even better.
What if you earn $1,000,000 in one month?
Outstanding.
What if you earn $1,000,000 in one day?
Impossible.
Or is it?
See, the speed or velocity of making money is very important.
Most musicians never stop to consider this fact.
Many aspiring singers and songwriters spend $10,000 of their hard earned money to record an album or EP and sell their record for $10.
Yet how many people have to buy your $10 record before you can make a full time living?
You would have to sell at least 1000 records per month every month to earn $10,000/month and $120,000 per year.
Do you know 1000 people who want to buy your music right now?
And can you find another 1000 people next month and the month after that?
If so, you probably don’t need to read this article anymore. You are already earning $10k per month.
Most musicians and songwriters lose money on recording and releasing albums.
Most people who release an album sell less than 100 copies.
At $10 a pop, that's at most $1000.
If it cost you $10,000 to record the music, and another $500-1000 to print the CDs, then you just lost $10,000 down the drain to record your record.
If music is just a hobby, then no worries.
Most people should release music for fun.
Most people cannot and should not try to make a full time living by selling albums.
To make $10k/month, you need to find, serve, and keep enough customers and clients who will pay you.
Here are a few options for making $10k/month:
- You can charge low ticket (ie $10) to many people.
- You can charge a recurring membership fee for a smaller number of people (ie $200/month).
- You can charge high ticket (ie $5-10k or more) to an exclusive group of people that you can serve on the highest level.
You may do a combination of some of all of the above.
I built a 6 figure business by exclusively focusing on option 2.
If I charge $200/month, I only need 50 clients to earn $10k/month.
Someone who wants to be on Broadway would pursue option 3. They want a professional theatre company to pay them $10k/month to perform 8 shows a week on a Broadway stage.
Taylor Swift makes many millions of dollars by selling her low ticket albums for $10-20.
However, she does a combination of all three options.
A venue such as Ford Field Stadium will pay her over $1million to perform for 1 night.
Target will pay her several million dollars for exclusive rights to sell one if her deluxe albums or her Eras Concert Tour Book.
AMC will pay Taylor millions to play her Eras Concert Movie to millions of admiring fans.
The bottom line is that to be a Profitable Professional, you need to think and act like one.
This brings us to an important topic.
Read on…
Happy Hobbyists vs. Profitable Professionals
What is a Happy Hobbyist?
A Happy Hobbyist is someone who sings or plays music for the fun and fulfillment that music provides.
Most people want to be happy hobbyists.
This is a great goal for most people who want to learn music.
What is a Profitable Professional?
A Profitable Professional is someone who makes money by providing music services and earns more money than they spend.
Very few people can or will become profitable professionals.
Music makes up a relatively small part of the economy.
Accounting and business services make up a large part of the economy.
Every business needs to pay taxes and desires to be legal (unless they sell drugs or desire jail time).
That’s where accountants and other business professionals come in.
Not every business needs a singer, musician, or composer.
So to be a Profitable Professional, you need to make your products and services valuable enough that people pay for them.
When it comes to be a Profitable Professional or business owner, you need to master 5 levels of income growth:
- Lead Generation
- Conversion
- Retention
- Referrals
- Re-activation
Lead Generation means attracting one or more potential people who will pay you. At this stage these potential people may or may not pay you.
Conversion means persuading someone to actually start paying you
Retention means keeping people paying you.
Referrals mean inspiring people to tell all their friends and family about you
Re-activation means inspiring former customers and clients to pay you again.
If you increase by 20% on each of the 5 levels of income growth, you double your income.
We can explore this in more detail later on…
Competence
If you are not yet a competent musician, I don’t recommend becoming a professional musician yet.
What is a Competent Musician?
A competent musician is someone who can sing or play music at a high enough level to create value for someone else.
As a reminder, this section of the book is not for hobbyist musicians.
If you only want to play music for yourself, then competence means that you can sing or play music at a high enough level to please yourself.
A Profitable Professional has a very different mindset than a Happy Hobbyist.
Although a Happy Hobbyist is content to play for their own enjoyment, a Profitable Professional must make money with their music services and earn more money than they spend.
As a Profitable Professional, you are in the business of trading your skills as a singer, musician, songwriter, producer, etc. in exchange for money.
Many musicians cringe when they hear the word “money” or think about making money with their art.
If you are one of those people who cringe at the thought of making money with music, then I recommend you stop reading.
Music Mastery Levels 1-6 focus on mastering the fundamentals of music and artistry.
Feel free to re-read those sections.
Most people cannot and should not pursue music as a profession.
For many people, trying to make money with your passion can lead to situations that make you hate the very thing you love.
Many musicians become starving artists and become bitter and resentful about the fact that they cannot pay the bills with their music.
They resent successful musicians and mainstream artists like Taylor Swift, they stick up their nose, and accuse her and others like her of “selling out.”
I get it.
Who wants to listen to an artist who sold their soul to the devil, makes overly manufactured formulaic bubble gum pop music, has no creativity, makes music for stupid single lonely people who just had a bad breakup, and only makes music to make money?
(Before any Swifties sue me, I am not accusing Taylor Swift of doing this. I actually have tremendous respect for Taylor Swift on multiple levels).
I did ask my wife, Lea, to take me to see the Taylor Swift Eras Concert Movie at the movie theater as my birthday gift. I was doing “research.”
Lea was skeptical of my birthday request.
But she was able to justify it since she had a gift card to the movie theater and only spent $4 and some change.
Lea is clever like that.
By definition, if you want to sell out venues, concert halls, or stadiums then you have to “sell out.”
If you want to earn a living as a music teacher, producer, songwriter, etc, you must promote yourself and become somewhat of a marketer.
I remember in 2004 when the album, “American Idiot” by Green Day came out. This album changed my life.
I was an angsty pre-teen in middle school when the album came out. I listened to this Green Day record constantly.
In fact, it was almost 100% because of Green Day that I decided to learn guitar in the first place.
Their rock and roll guitar riffs and larger than life attitude spoke to my soul.
The first song I ever performed live was, “Time of Your Life” by Green Day.
I even dressed the part by wearing all black, a red tie, spiky hair, and eye makeup for the performance.
(I didn’t dress that way everyday).
I still remember playing this song at the Smith Middle School talent show. I recently found a video my mom recorded from that day.
It’s embarrassing yet inspiring to see how far I have come since then.
When I got into high school, I remember overhearing some other teens talking about Green Day and saying that American Idiot was not as good as their older stuff from the 90s.
These teens expressed disgust that Green Day has become “sell outs.”
I was irritated by that accusation at the time, and I am still troubled by it…
Why not celebrate someone else’s success?
Although I understand that there are plenty of people who do not like mainstream or popular music for various reasons, I am not ok with tearing other people down.
My best friend, Adam, introduced me to countless lesser known indie artists and bands.
One of our favorite memories was attending the Warped Tour in Detroit where we saw dozens of rock, pop, screamo, and other types of bands.
It was at Warped Tour that I crowd surfed for the first time.
Don’t tell my mom.
Mom, if you are reading this section of the book, I am sorry to disappoint you with my wild behavior from 15 years ago.
Although there were some hard core rock and screamo bands that played music that I would not normally choose to listen to, I had tremendous respect for their high level of musicianship, competence, and ability to connect with the crowd.
I believe that competence as a singer and/or musician are essential to become a Profitable Professional.
However, competence is not enough.
You need something else…
Confidence
I think almost everyone has had the experience of listening to a singer or musician who lacked confidence, competence, or both…
A singer or musician without competence is painful to listen to…
A singer or musician without confidence is awkward to listen to…
A singer or musician without competence or confidence is a cruel form of torture to listen to.
What is a Confident Musician?
A confident musician is someone who can sing or play music with enough emotion and oomf to inspire people.
Is there such a thing as a confident musician who is incompetent? Sadly, yes.
If you ever watched American Idol, like I did as a kid, then you may have watched the countless audition videos of wannabe singers who thought their voice was God’s gift to the world, yet their actual singing abilities were very limited to say the least.
Some of these wannabe singers still live on in infamy.
Some became viral sensations despite a lack of talent, such as the “Pants On The Ground” song and William Hung singing “She Bangs.”
You have permission to temporarily stop reading this book so you can go to YouTube and search up “William Hung Audition She Bangs.”
You’re welcome.
You can become a viral sensation with enough confidence, even if you lack musical talent.
However, I do not recommend this approach.
If you become super famous after reading this book and become a viral superstar with no talent or become a famous TikTok lip singer, please don’t tag me or mention me.
Unfortunately, in the social media world of today, confidence is actually more important than competence if you want to get noticed.
That said, if you are a competent musician and want to become more confident, there are simple ways to become the confident musician you want to be.
In this article, I gave you a brief overview of how to earn $10k/month as a professional musician.
Reading this article alone will not make you a 6 figure musician.
It is simple to earn $10k/month.
But it is not easy.
If you are serious about becoming a Profitable Professional who earns $10,000/month through music, go to jropro.com/pro to schedule a free consultation.