8 Tips for Getting Started as a Freelance Musician

It’s one thing to have a love and passion for music. It’s another to be a musician for a living. Because of the nature of the music industry, most musicians nowadays take the route of doing freelance work, which means taking on different projects from various employers, rather than working for one person 9 to 5, Monday through Friday.

Don’t be fooled, musicians are always needed — probably more than you’d imagine! But your chances for success may be better as a freelance musician than trying to find a full-time gig. Of course, you’re still going to have to work really hard. But if making music is truly something you want as a career path, you should give it a try. And to give you a bit of help, we’re going to give you eight tips to help get you started as a freelance musician.

Record Music

Probably the most important thing you can do as a freelance musician is recording yourself. You never know when an opportunity is going to arise, and you may not be able to give a live demonstration of your talents.

Whether you’re an instrumentalist or vocalist, you need recordings that showcase your skills and your performance style.

It is especially important for songwriters to have recordings. If you prefer to have someone else perform your material, talk to your talented friends. Be sure to use the best performers you can find. First impressions matter.

And make sure that the songs or pieces you are recording showcase your very best! To separate even further from the pack, try recording a variety of styles and genres to prove your versatility.

Once you’ve made some recordings, keep them in an accessible place.  You can post them online to platforms like YouTube or Soundcloud, keep them all on a hard drive for easy access, or post them to a website or your social media channels, which we’re going to talk about next!

Create Social Media Channels

It’s no secret that social media is slowly and surely taking over the world as we know it. If you want to be taken seriously as an artist, you should have profiles on most (if not all) social media platforms so that people can find you.

If you already have personal social media accounts, consider creating separate accounts for your music. You don’t have to do this, but if you are looking to be hired on a case by case basis (as a performer, for example), this is a good idea, as it makes your music look more like a business and less like a hobby.

We recommend creating profiles on

• Facebook (create a Facebook page)
• Twitter
• Instagram
• YouTube

Make sure all of your social media handles are the same.

For example, you don’t want to be @johndoe on Facebook, @johndoemusic on Twitter, and @johndoe12 on Instagram. We recommend keeping your username short and straightforward, preferably @firstnamelastname or @firstnamelastnamemusic. Structuring your social media handles this way allows you to be taken seriously, rather than something like @prettypiano_1992.

Once you’ve created your profiles, commit to posting regularly. Start with posting at least once a week in the beginning, and as you become more comfortable and your platform grows, try posting two or three times a week. Of course, the exception to this is YouTube, where you will likely be posting less, however once a week is a still a great goal to have for this platform.

Social Media Pro Tips:

• Try sticking to an aesthetic on Instagram, so that all of your posts look like they go together. In this way, you are establishing a brand, again, setting yourself apart.

• Post pictures and videos of yourself. How can anyone know who you are if they never see you?
• Post videos. If someone comes to your page for the first time and sees that you’re a musician, but doesn’t see any evidence, you’ll leave them unconvinced.
• Make who you are and what you are doing obvious.

Create a Website

In addition to social media profiles, creating a website is a great way to make yourself look more professional. It’s also a great way to get booked!

There are plenty of free and paid website builders out there such as Wix, Squarespace, Wordpress. You can create a website for free with a service like Appy Pie, which requires no coding experience.

Of course, all of these websites also offer paid options, if you’d like certain features or custom domains. These services are incredibly user-friendly, so don’t worry about your design skills! You will find many built-in templates and themes, as well as images and art at your disposal.

If you can spend a little cash, we recommend getting a custom domain because it comes across as very established. For example, www.yourname.com sounds a lot better than www.yourname.wix.com.

On your website, you can

• Post a catalog of all of your music
• Share videos
• Create a booking or contact system
• Write blog posts
• Share information about yourself and your accomplishments
• Keep people updated on current projects or upcoming events
• Sell music or merchandise
• Link to all of your social media profiles

The possibilities are endless.

Yes, having a website will require a little more time on your behalf, but if things begin to take off for you, it’s a great way to stay organized and keep all of your information in one place. It’s also perfect if you’re meeting a potential employer or client to be able to send them to one location, instead of several different sites and resources.

As you begin to find work and make money, you can hire a website manager. A key part of getting noticed by search engine algorithms is regular website updates. These need to be quality updates, not just filler material. Search engines can spot good content and will promote it. You, or a website manager, can add photos, interesting blog posts, and other media to your site weekly, thereby increasing your search engine profile.

Network

We can’t stress this point enough! Networking is so important in the music industry, and it’s absolutely essential for your success. You can’t get a job if you don’t know who you’re working for! But where do you even start?

As a musician, you’re probably familiar with going to events, competitions, and conferences. If you went to college for music or even studied music in high school, you’ve been to more events than you can count. These are great places to start. At the next event you attend, make an effort to talk to conductors, businesses, event coordinators, other musicians, or anyone else you can engage in conversation.

Ask them for their business cards. Ask them what the next year looks like for them. Are they hiring musicians? Booking concerts? Sponsoring a festival? Find out what their work is and how you can become a part of it. Be genuinely interested in what they have to say. It can’t be all about you, it must be about the potential for collaboration.

In addition to events, you’ll already be attending, try and get in contact with local recording studios, music businesses, teachers, and musicians. You may have a little bit of trial and error here, but you never know who you might meet that could provide an excellent connection or opportunity for you.

And of course, it goes without saying that if you already have a connection, take advantage of it! For example, suppose you’ve just played the piano at a gala, and you’d like to do it full time. Talk to whoever it was that hired you and ask if they’d recommend you to others. Tell them to keep you in mind for future events. Give them your contact information and make it your goal to be memorable.

This leads us to our next point: self-promotion.

Self-Promote

If you’re not the overly confident type, self-promotion may be rather difficult for you. But in a sea of talented musicians, you have to stand out from the rest, and that’s going to require a little bit of persuasion.

Self-promotion will happen in two ways: in person and online.

Promoting yourself in person doesn’t necessarily mean talking about how great you are. It’s good to talk about your abilities and versatility, but more than anything, you need to make an impression. And the best way to make an impression is to simply be prepared. You can do this by

• Having business cards
• Having recordings on hand
• Being ready to perform at a moments notice
• Doing your homework (knowing about the person you’re trying to connect with, being educated about the event you’re at, etc.)
• Asking someone else for a business card
• Knowing your schedule in case a meeting is set up

It’s likely that self-promotion in a conversation or at an event will take you some getting used to. But just like anything else, practice makes perfect!

Tip: if you need a template for an upcoming in-person or Zoom meeting, check out these presentation websites.

Self-promoting yourself online is going to happen through your website and on social media. You can always post a video or recording on Instagram, but the self-promotion occurs when you change the messaging and ask your followers to listen, buy, share, or like your music. Because you’re asking them to take some sort of action, their attention is being drawn to you. This is one of the easiest ways to promote yourself because you don’t actually have to go anywhere or do anything, and it’s a great place to start if you’re feeling a little weary about talking yourself up.

Just remember, when you self-promote, you have to be able to follow through. Don’t promise anything you can’t deliver on!

Consider Joining Your Musicians Local Union

This may not be an option for every musician, but if you live in a large city, joining your local musicians’ union can open up a lot of freelance music jobs. Many theaters, orchestras, opera companies, and ballet companies will only hire union members. If you want to get onto their lists, you may have to join.

Do your research. If your area is more non-union, then this advice is likely not for you. You can find plenty of non-union jobs.  Freelance musicians in cities like NYC and LA should all be union members for the best gigging opportunities.

Save Your Money

Freelancing is a lot of fun until tax time. Then it can be a nightmare. Spare yourself unnecessary grief by planning ahead and saving your money. Many of your freelance jobs will be as an independent contractor. This means the organization that hired you will not withhold anything for taxes or pay any portion of your taxes, such as the 6.2% employers pay for Social Security.

Independent contractors are responsible for their own income, social security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes. You must pay the whole amount come April 15. So you must save a portion of your money for taxes. Experts recommend between 25 and 30%. This takes self-discipline. You’d really like to blow it all on a new Roland keyboard. Resist the urge, save for taxes, and you will be much happier in the end.

Be Open

Music touches more businesses and people than you might realize, so it’s important that when you’re pursuing a career as a freelance musician, you don’t limit yourself to what you think is your area of specialty.

For example, say you want to be a vocalist for various live events. Maybe you’re singing at an event, and there’s a producer in the crowd who wants you to be a session vocalist at his or her studio.

Say your goal is to be a singer-songwriter. Maybe there’s a night where you’re performing at an open mic, and a university professor invites you to teach songwriting part-time at the local college.

Part of the beauty of being a freelance musician is that you’re likely not doing the same thing every day. If you’re offered a new kind of job you haven’t had before, take it! Who knows where it could lead? At the very least, you might acquire a new skill or two. So don’t discount anything just because it’s outside of your usual gig.

We hope these six tips have helped you feel a little more confident in becoming a freelance musician. Of course, the most important thing you could ever do is practice, practice, practice! Become the best musician you can be, and hone your craft! Like we said at the beginning, it’s going to be a lot of hard work. But you’ve heard the phrase “it isn’t work if you love what you do,” and we think you’re really going to love what you do. We’re rooting for you!