MasterMind Drummer
Newsletter #38
Sep 9th, 2024
Your 2024 Drumming Income Blueprint: 8 Proven Revenue Streams
Being a full-time musician is tough.
We all know it.
First, it’s finding the work, and then, once you do, it becomes a constant struggle to find work that you actually resonate with. Work that stimulates you creatively and professionally, and that doesn’t kill your desire to develop your craft further.
Sounds like the golden goose, right? Well, it’s not. I can help…
I often say, but the biggest mistake we make as creatives, is that we commoditize our craft.
I say this in gest, of course, but there is some truth to it, too.
Now, you personally may not be looking to be a full-time musician, which is totally fine, and in many ways I recommend that option too! But for this newsletter, I’m writing to those that are hoping to make a little more cash from their craft, in some shape or form.
When it comes to income, I’ve always been quite an open book.
Not so much with sharing how much money I make, as that’s quite irrelevant, but more so, how to make it.
That is what has most value here. The HOW.
Now, one thing that I am a firm believer in, in this day in age, is if you want to be a full-time creative, you need to DIVERSIFY.
But in this context, what does that actually mean?
It just means multiple streams of income. So money is coming in from many areas as a professional musician.
I do this intentionally for a number of reasons, but I’ll give you the main two –
1. Spreading my income stream lowers my risk.
This means if something was to happen outside my control, e.g. Lockdowns again, I have other options I can lean into, to get me by.
2. My desire to play.
I find if I diversify, I don’t get bored. I stay hungry, and manage to sustain my desire to get better at my craft – which ultimately, as I have said 1000 times now, is the most important thing to me.
The way I want to approach this is simply by listing all these in order of traditional income streams, to the more non-traditional.
The last thing I’ll say is, yes, these are all legitimate, and yes, these are all the current ways in which I make money, BUT!!!! Some may require necessary tools, skills and/or abilities to implement them. Nothing is for free in this world, we often need to increase our value and level-up in certain areas, in order to get what we want, and to live the life we see fit.
Here we go.
1. Live
Like I said, we are starting with the more traditional route, and this one should speak for itself as Live is Live, right? But I want to explore the spectrum in which we can tap into this as an income stream.
I started off in a very active covers band when I was 18years old, with a bunch of older ‘cats’ from that scene, and was making good money, too. 3-4 nights a week at $150-200 per show, was pretty dam good at that age.
But, after 6 months or so, I decided to leave the band and go back to being a barista. The reason being, although the money was great, it was killing my desire to play the drums, and my love for the craft. This was my first big lesson in commoditizing my craft – it comes at a cost.
BUT, I will say, that was just me personally. The income stream itself is still a fantastic way to generate income, and fast way to do so, too.
So where am I at as a live drummer now? Well, I only play for artists that I truly get excited about playing with, and that lend themselves to my style. The gig has to be enjoyable for me.
So lately, it has been NZ artists like Georgia Lines, Dan Sharp, Tiki Taané, to name a few, as well as my band Black Comet, and then when things pop up, I weigh them up then and there.
For example, I was recently contacted by Natasha Bedingfeild, as at the end of the year she needs a drummer for her New Zealand and Australia dates. It’s pop, it’s fun music, the gigs look great, so of course, I’m in!
So I have my regulars, and then just leave the rest to the universe, as I know that things will always pop up.
Gigs vary from $500-3000, depending.
The level/type of Live gigs you do, will come down to 3 things –
1. Knowing what you want to do – Whether it’s a pub gig, or a high profile gig for a major artist, it doesn’t matter. First, just set the goal, and then start working towards it.
2. The quality of player you are – As Aristotle said, ‘water finds its level’, meaning, you get the gigs your playing can and will match. If you want more, increase your value on the kit by working harder, dialing in areas you struggle with, and then get your playing out there via networking and social media, for all to see.
3. The quality of person you are – As I always say, the playing is only half the story, you need to be a legend off the kit too. This just basically means don’t be a dick. This is a small industry and word travels very quickly, trust me. So remember, you are a walking business card for yourself, so carry yourself with that in mind.
2. Studio
Once again, this one speaks for itself, BUT, there are levels which I want to get into.
Now, my position on Studio work is a bit different to Live. What I mean by that is, I will happily work in the studio with an artist on material that I may not be interested in performing live, purely as I enjoy the studio process. I love dialing in sounds, experimenting, going for a take, and getting exactly what the artist had in mind. I find the studio process quite fulfilling and rewarding.
When it comes to the work itself, I do this in two ways. It’s either in my studio, or someone else’s. Thats it.
I was recently in Auckland, at Parachute studios, and worked on a couple of tracks, but they have amazing studio drummers up there, so more often I’ll just track from my little room as I have fantastic gear, and it ends up saving a ton of money for the artist, too.
Hiring a studio, an engineer, and then the drummer, is super expensive, and much much more than just hiring me in my room.
To have your own studio/place to record has quite a high bar of entry as a drummer, as we need so much more gear than just a guitarist or bass player.
I personally have two Apogee Element 88 interfaces (worth about 5-6k NZ), a slue of amazing sE Mics (15-20k worth I’m guessing), and a couple of computers to run it all (6-7k). It’s taken years to build this up. It ain’t easy.
But when it comes to studio work, much like with live, just work on the quality of player you are. Everything is under a microscope in the studio, so you need to know what you’re doing, and how you are doing it. Dynamics, touch, feel, groove, etc. It ALL needs to be of a high standard. The highest I’d say.
If/when you have a studio of your own, look into fiverr as an option. You offer your services at different tiers, and whatever value you determine, and people come to you. This has become very popular as a way to do a ton of studio work on your terms.
3. 1 on 1 lessons.
This one speaks for itself also, and is pretty obvious, but I’ve gone through my journey with it also, so it needs to be discussed.
I’ve been teaching for over 22years now, in some shape or form.
When I was 18, I was given a roster of about 20 students, from a drum teacher who was moving towns. This was a great introduction to teaching, as I had to pretty quickly get my head around exactly how I do what I do, and how to teach it.
It also helped me isolate what is important and what isn’t when teaching a beginner, e.g, Chops – maybe not needed for a day 1 student?
Teaching, like everything, is very much on my terms these days. I don’t teach beginners anymore, as I found over the years that doing so is detrimental to my own growth on the kit. I find it quite taxing on my drum energy.
What I do is, I focus purely on intermediate to advanced players (mostly advanced), and teach the curriculum that I specialize in. So, mechanics, facility, stuff you’ve seen me talk about, etc.
I teach what interests me most, and because it’s specialized, it means I can charge more for it too, which I do.
Pricing is hard, as often people just want the work, so they will punch the industry down in order to get it. But my price is currently 100USD for 60mins. This will actually be going up more soon, too, as I’m not interested in getting more students. I feel my time is more valuable elsewhere.
That is a personal journey though.
4. Selling drum products (drumgear.co.nz)
We are now getting into the more obscure means of income, for the average drummer anyway.
I started selling drum products about 10-15years ago now, starting off with the custom footboard plate I made for the Pearl Eliminator Pedal. I was with Pearl at the time, and liked the pedal, but not the grips, so I created my own solution to the problem.
I started sharing photos online, and people started asking for them, so I started making more, and shipping them all around the world!
I now have 3 products that started this way, and that I ship all over the world, including my Aluminum Practice Pad Sticks, and my Grab ‘n’ Go Stickbag.
Once again, these were solutions to my own problems, that then became products. That’s how I recommend approaching this. Look at your drums. You’ve solved problems that have helped you. Little tweaks to gear, here and there. Solving your own issues you were having. Can any of those tweaks become a product?
Open your mind up and have a good think about it. You never know, you may have the next Tandem Drops in your head.
Now, I took this a step further. 3 years ago, (2 years after already being an endorsee), I decided to become the NZ distributor of Wincent Drumsticks.
This was a big undertaking, and actually needed a ton of capital upfront in order to buy the stock. But in short, I had that capital as I worked my ass off for many years, and then sold my previous business. This put me in a good position, but as I say, it took many years of hard work to get there.
5. Group Coaching
So this year I started my MasterMind Drummer 30-Day Coaching Program, a concept I had in my head for some time.
This whole premise is built around developing the person alongside the player. So what I do is, each week, for 4 weeks, I go live and teach large groups of drummers from all around the world, and focus on a piece of drum curriculum alongside an area of personal development – so, Health, Wellbeing, Relationships, Business.
I believe that the journey on the kit and off the kit, are one and the same, and so I wrote a whole curriculum around this concept, and I teach it over 30-Days.
I charge high for this, so $297USD per person. This is because the student gets access to me for the entirety of the 30-Days, even outside the weekly Live Lesson, and it also covers a large portion of my overall experience on and off the kit.
I stopped doing this mid-year as my touring and shows picked up, so I couldn’t fit it in, but I am currently in the process of writing the 2.0 version, and will be offering it again very soon, for November.
I will say, this is a unique concept, so you’ll need to spend some time really thinking about who you are as a person, an educator, and a player, in order to see if you can genuinely do your own version of what this is. It is very much a labour of love, and an extension of me as a person.
6. Lifetime Access Online Courses.
This may be how you actually ended up here reading this – via buying one of my courses!
I’m of the opinion that a problem you have solved for yourself is a solution that can benefit someone else, and that’s what I’ve done here.
I thought about this for a LONG time before executing it, but created online courses focusing on what I believe to be ‘high value ticket items’, e.g Tuning, Double Stroke, Chops (facility), Single Kick development, which are all areas I specialize in, and that I am very passionate about.
I’ll be honest, the bar of entry is quite high here, as not only do you need the skills in the area in which you choose to sell a course in, but you need to have an analytical mind so to know how to turn that information into a modulated course, and in a legible manner.
Then there is the learning curve in how to make the course itself (cameras, editing etc), and where to put it all!
This is not impossible by any means, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t have MasterMindDrummer.com, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t without many many sleepless nights learning about the necessary backend skills required to pull this off.
I run everything at MasterMind Drummer myself, and although you CAN teach an old dog new tricks, I’m telling you now, its pretty dam hard… lol.
In short, it was a ton of work.
7. Mentorship
Separate to my 1on1s and my coaching groups, I also mentor, too.
So what’s the difference here? What separates Mentorship from my 1on1s? Great question.
Basically, the investment from both parties. This is not to undervalue my 1on1s, and although there is always an element of personal development in my 1on1s, they tend to be more curriculum focused, and much shorter. Whereas, with mentorship, it is a lot more customized, and a lot more involved, from both parties.
This option really comes down to having a lot of value and experience in the area in which you are mentoring. I have been playing for 27years now, and at this point have worked/performed/experienced pretty much every level and area of the drum industry, as well as taken a heavy interest in my personal development off the kit too, and that, has a ton of value.
The price of this varies, as it depends on the person and what their needs are, but in short, I charge a lot for it, as it requires a lot from me.
8. Brand Deals.
Firstly, I will say, when it comes to gear, I only play the gear that I love. I’m truly not led by offers or opportunities when it comes to what I play. It starts with only playing what excites me.
But, with that in mind, what’s great, is that some of the companies that I am fortunate to work with actually pay me too! Yes! Its true!
Now this is a case-by-case, and is not every company (thats for sure), but aside from receiving gear as compensation, which is very common for an endorsed artist in this industry, I also get paid by some too, which is great.
I won’t get into specifics, but just know, it happens. It has in the past, and is currently happening too, and to be honest, is totally available to everyone. But once again, it really comes down to the perceived value you bring to that said company. It always does.
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So there we have it, 8 ways to generate revenue as a drummer, in 2024.
And are all of these legitimate income streams? Of course, they are! They are ALL currently how I generate money as a drummer. 🙂
Now, I will add in a 9th option here too, and one that I think is super important and incredibly undervalued, and that is….
SUPPLEMENTATION!
Know this. There is absolutely nothing wrong with generating an income from outside this industry. I did so for many years.
Alongside my journey as a player, I set up and ran cafés, and even a coffee roastery, as my kids were young, so I didn’t want to be on the road.
This financial freedom gave me the space to focus on my craft, develop my voice, and ultimately, increase my value on and off the kit.
And its THAT, that is the big takeaway here. The connective tissue in and among all of this…
Increase your value on and off kit.
That will always determine the financial outcome of the opportunities you get. This, and this alone.
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I hope this was helpful and even somewhat inspiring for you, as that is always the goal with these newsletters.
Let’s leave it there this week, as I need to get my day sorted!
Remember, this was…
Your 2024 Drumming Income Blueprint: 8 Proven Revenue Streams
As always, thanks for taking the time, and thanks for all your feedback, too. I really appreciate it.
I read them all. So please, if you have any thoughts, send them through, and let’s get a dialogue happening.
Don’t forget… Stay hungry (and stay healthy!)
See you next week.
Stan