Beyond Streaming: Unlocking New Revenue Opportunities for Artists

As an artist, there’s never been a better time for brand partnerships. With brands eager to tap into the growing experience economy, they’re always on the lookout for opportunities to connect with audiences in authentic ways.

And by the way, this isn’t only relevant for big artists. Many brands aren’t focussed on partnering with the world’s biggest names — and that’s where emerging artists come into play. They have a chance to expand their reach by collaborating with brands to create unique audience experiences, particularly if they can carve out their niche.

But how do you approach brands as an artist? Both Anjali Nazarenko and Myradh Cormican emphasised a key point: make sure your interests, passions and values are known. If you have a skill set or passion that is aligned with a brand, they can help to create alternative revenue opportunities for you in a space where you naturally show-up — as synergies are important. Remember, if you don’t communicate these passions, brands and their agency partners won’t know.

Focus on building relationships with the various agencies who partner with brands, for example creative, music & PR agencies. Be sure to publish your passions outside of music on your own channels — things that you’re a natural advocate for, so people can see this. Plus, think about the brands you appreciate and engage with regularly. When you can demonstrate your genuine loyalty to a brand, you become a more authentic advocate for them.

Creating bespoke compositions can be another way to increase your revenue. This is because you can get paid twice — once as a hiring fee and then for any additional royalties.

It’s also a fantastic way to hone your craft as a music producer. Composing to creative briefs requires craft, professionalism and speed. All brilliantly transferable skills to an artist’s career. As well as being an exciting creative challenge, artists can choose to compose under an alias - quietly pocketing extra revenue and perhaps expanding into genres beyond their public projects.

With custom compositions, you can let your creative side flourish while also building skills, relationships with other top musicians and brands, and a potentially high-value side hustle.

Sync licensing offers artists the chance to get paid for licensing their existing music for a variety of media including advertising, games, TV shows and movies. It can offer fantastic alternative revenue, as well as generating royalties on placements. The best thing about sync? It’s totally passive income, because the music has already been created.

To up your chances of getting your music synced, make sure your music is registered properly with Performing Rights Organisations (PROs). This allows music supervisors to easily identify the track's creators and get in touch with you and any co-writers. Make yourself reachable. Music supervisors can’t license music for brands if they can’t track down all of the writers and artists associated with a track. A simple step like including your email address in your Instagram or any other social media bio can make a difference. Don’t forget to check and respond to your DMs!

And be quick to reply to enquiries - with your .wav files, instrumental files and stems ready to be shared. When licensing music for media, music supervisors work at pace. There are often backup tracks and backups to the backups. So be responsive to make sure the sync opportunity lands with you!

If you’re not selling directly to fans — and most importantly, superfans (you have them, we’re sure), you’re leaving money on the table. Sites like Bandcamp allow artists to interact directly with their fans, fostering a sense of community and elevating their levels of engagement.

Artists can sell digital music and physical merch side-by-side on Bandcamp, with over $200 million paid out to artists in 2023 alone. Bandcamp operates a fair-trade music policy; taking just a 15% cut of digital sales income and only 10% of physical merchandise. Not only. Bandcamp also allows artists to directly communicate with their fans, using both in-app messaging and email data collection, turning casual listeners into dedicated fans.

As a developing artist, building a community around your artist persona is crucial. Bandcamp, for instance, provides great opportunities to connect with fans of indie and underground music. Crafting this community can lead to other possibilities, such as podcasts or new venues for shows.

To further promote your music, leverage social media. Share fun facts and behind-the-scenes content through Instagram Stories, run live sessions and engage with your audience on a regular basis. Social media continues to thrive as a powerful tool for building direct-to-fan relationships. In fact, 80% of TikTok users say it’s their number one platform for music discovery, and TikTok now boasts over a billion users.

Merchandise continues to represent a significant portion of artists' income — often around 70%. On Bandcamp, sales of physical products account for 50% of the revenue paid out to artists and labels. The benefits of selling merchandise are numerous: not only does it provide superfans an opportunity to support their favourite artists financially; it also allows artists to reinforce their brand and personality in a tangible form. From high-priced items like vinyl records and hoodies to limited-edition products like postcards or guitar picks, merchandise is an essential component of building lasting connections with an engaged audience.