6 Unusual Ways To Make Money As A Music Teacher

Are you looking for a way to earn extra income as a music teacher, but you’re having trouble attracting more students?

What if I told you there are creative ways to make money as a music teacher without actually teaching your students face-to-face.

In this post, you’ll find unusual ideas you can try out to boost your income as a music teacher.

Let’s get started!

1. Offer Transcribing Service

 

You probably spent years learning music theory in a music school/university as a music teacher.

If you know how to read music and feel confident writing down music – you can start offering transcribing services and earn additional income this way.

Many businesses and musicians require this service.

They would send you an audio file or a video that they need help transcribing.

Usually, this service specializes in specific instruments, like guitar transcription, piano, or even drums transcribing. You could offer it for multiple instruments or even orchestra transcribing, depending on your skillset.

The easiest way to start offering this service online is to join an online job marketplace, platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, or PeoplePerHour, and set up an offering.

Usually, you would charge for this service using two different models:

➡️  Per 1 minute of audio/video transcription

➡️  Per project quote – in this case, a client sends you the material, and you provide the quote

Popular software for transcription that you must learn how to use is Sibelius, Finale, or Guitar Pro.

You will need to transcribe music using this software and provide the files to the client, usually in the native format of the software used with notation in PDF or PNG (images) format.

Work on building a reputation on these platforms to get more work as a transcriber to boost your income as a music teacher.

The next step would be to start offering this service via your own website and as part of your own online business, and moving away from just freelancing.

2. Remote Recording (Session work)

 

This is another fun and unusual way to make money as a music teacher online.

If you have a home music studio that some music teachers have or have access to a local studio, you can start offering remote session work.

You will be recording music tracks from your home studio for clients worldwide.

This is the same as old-school session musician work, but today is easy to do this remotely as quality home recording studios emerge and gear evolves in this direction.

For example, as a piano music teacher, you can offer recording piano tracks for clients.

You can find different projects online, where you’ll be recording music tracks for bands, online businesses, or solo artists.

As with transcribing services, you can find this work via online work platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, or PeoplePerHour, It’s a great way to get started quickly.

Clients will send you different projects with details of what music tracks they need you to compose and record (or just perform as per their provided notation).

These projects will range from tracks for ad jingles music backing tracks to film soundtracks and recording tracks for solo artists.

You can charge for this service like this:

➡️  Custom quote per project

➡️  Fixed price per X minutes of audio

Two most important things to succeed in offering remote music recording service as a music teacher is to:

1. Compose and perform beautiful tracks following instructions about the project and vibe needed
2. Top-notch audio quality

Work on learning how to use recording gear and capture impressive sounding tracks at home.

As a music teacher, this kind of work can be refreshing as a break from teaching.

It’s so creative, and there will be no two projects the same.

3. Make Money Blogging As A Music Teacher

 

Blogging is a great way to make money from your music teaching skills.

You get to choose what you’d like to write about. First, you need to find your niche audience and attract traffic to your blog.

Choose a topic that you’re passionate about.

Blogging means building a simple website to start posting articles that you write about topics you care about.

To make money from your blog, you need to first start getting traffic on your website.

This will happen if you consistently write high-quality content and update your blog.

Once you start getting traffic, it’s time to monetize your blog.

As a music teacher, you might want to write about music education, providing recourses for potential students.

If you do this, you can monetize your blog by attracting new students who will take private classes from you after reading your instructional blog articles.

Music teachers can also provide resources for other teachers who teach the same instrument. In this case, you can consider selling those digital resources (or physical like study books, programs, etc.).

There are more ways to earn money from your blog as a music teacher.

You can write reviews of instruments, books, or even albums. Then you can earn income from those blog posts using affiliate links.

Those are special links that enable to you make money whenever someone, for example, purchases a music instrument on Amazon after reading your article and clicking on a link that you have included on your blog.

4. Start A Music Teacher YouTube Channel

 

If you’re not into writing but love teaching music and feel comfortable on video – you might want to consider starting music teaching YouTube Channel as an additional income source.

Making it on YouTube nowadays is not easy, but the good thing is that you can start this career as a side hustle.

You can shoot instructional videos between music classes and start building your channel.

To make it on YouTube as a music teacher, you need to consistently upload new videos on interesting topics that your audience will love watching.

This is an excellent chance to take your teaching on a new level, as the YouTube format will force you to be more engaging in your delivery, storytelling, etc.

There are three ways you’ll start making income as a music teacher on YouTube:

➡️  Via YouTube ads

➡️  Via sponsorships by other brands looking for exposure on your channel

➡️  By selling private classes and other products, you might have to your Youtube audience

I know that you might need to invest time into getting the required gear for shooting high-quality videos and learning how to do video editing – but this is a great side hustle that you can grow into a significant additional income stream.

Keep in mind that it takes time to build your presence on YouTube as a music teacher.

They say you need to be online at least a year posting every week and that you need at least 100 videos to start seeing your channel grow.

I don’t know about that, but for sure, YouTube is a long game, don’t expect overnight results.

This is pretty much the same as any other online business effort you make as a music teacher.

5. Sell A Digital Music Course

 

Moving on to another income stream, you can set up as a music teacher.

You can make a digital course and starHere’s t selling it online.

This might be relatively straightforward to you as a music teacher, as you might already be teaching a specific curriculum to your in-person students.

Now is the time to turn this teaching into a digital course that you can sell online.

Decide on a course topic, delivery method, and how you will sell it.

You can sell it via online marketplaces like Udemy, Skillshare or offer it via your own website that you build.

To succeed, you need to make a high-quality course that helps your students learn the instrument and overcome obstacles they are facing.

Once you have created a digital music course and decided where you will sell it – you can move on to promoting it to a broader audience.

The good thing is that although it will take you a long time to build this course, it can function as a sort of passive income over a more extended period.

I’ve had my courses published both on Udemy and offered via my own website, and it’s a great way to make more money as a music teacher.

6. Offer Correspondence Lessons

 

If you’re overwhelmed with students and don’t have any free slots, or you’re just looking for a new way to make income as a music teacher – correspondence lessons might be a way to go.

You can offer your students a correspondence lessons package as a music teacher.

How does this work exactly?

Usually, it goes like this: students buy a correspondence lessons package. For example, weekly correspondence guitar or piano lessons that students can purchase for a month in advance.

You deliver the teaching materials via email in the form of a PDF lesson or even pre-recorded video lesson.

The student works through the material and can send you emails with questions.

You answer those emails in written or video form.

The main thing differentiating correspondence lessons from standard online music lessons is that correspondence is not done in real-time.

You can choose to answer questions once a week or a few times a week.

The student doesn’t expect to be given an immediate response to their query.

This format of lessons is great for adult students who don’t have a lot of free time for attending live classes or practicing.

Correspondence lessons can easily accommodate individual students learning tempo and progress while not feeling overwhelming.

Conclusion

 

As you can see, there are unusual ways you can make more money as a music teacher.

All of the ways I have listed here are ways to earn income online as a music teacher.

This is because I believe the future of music teaching is online.

Something especially true in the last few years with changing circumstances, where going digital is kind of a must.

As a music teacher, you should adapt, and setting up new ways to earn income online is a good idea.

If you wish to get helpful insights for music teachers & tips on how you can make more from your teaching by going digital, I’d like to invite you to get on my newsletter.

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Hope you’ll find these ways for diversifying income as a music teacher helpful.

Cheers,

Bogdan Radovic

Founder, MusicTeachingBiz.com