For you to make a full-time income as an independent artist, you’ll need to sell stuff to your followers, as streaming income won’t be enough unless you get lucky and have a hit record.
Which majority of artists won’t.
So you’ll need some way to complement any money you make from streaming, and selling stuff to your followers is the way to go.
And there are a couple of things that you can sell on your podcast, stuff like merch, concert tickets, vinyl, and so on, however, my favorite and the number one thing I recommend all artists should sell is a membership site.
What is a membership site?
A membership site is simply a service that followers pay a fee every month for and in return, they get access to different perks, discounts, exclusive content, and so on.
Patreon or a premium fan club are really good examples of this, and they’ve become very come in today’s world.
For me, they are a must-have for any independent artist that wants to do music full time, and in this post, I’m going to talk about 5 reasons why.
1. You make money regularly and consistently
Unlike other things you can sell to your followers, a membership site is the only one that guarantees you make a steady and reliable income every month.
And this is the thing I like the most about a service like this.
As long as fans keep paying their monthly fee and don’t cancel their subscription, you’ll keep making money.
This is awesome as it saves you the hassle of worrying about where your next sale will come from.
So for example, if 50 fans subscribed to your Patreon at $10/month, as long as these 50 fans keep paying that $10 every month, you’ll be making $500 each month.
Pretty cool isn’t it?
2. A membership site is more affordable for fans
One of the big advantages of a service like Patreon is that you can charge a very small monthly amount for it.
This way, fans don’t have to think too much about signing up as it’s very affordable.
The whole point of this service is to get as many followers as you can to sign up for it, and charging a really affordable price will help out a lot.
For example, you could charge followers $9.99 a month for your Patreon, which is less than the price of most takeaway meals.
And while the thought of making $9.99 a month from one fan might not sound like a lot, if 50 fans signed up, you’d be making $500 bucks every month.
3. You can make more money with membership sites
That’s right, you’ll be able to make more money in the long run with a site like Patreon, as you can sell additional stuff to paying members.
This way, you’d make money from subscriptions as well as money from those sales as well.
A great way to do this is by offering a special discount to members of your Patreon, so that they could use it when they shop in your merch store.
So let’s say you offered a 10% discount to Patreon members, and one of them bought a T-shirt for $30 in your store, you’d make a total of $37 from that follower.
Also, because members get a discount for your merch, they’re very likely to buy more stuff from you, which will make you more money in the long run.
4. Membership sites are easier to sell
You can make it easier for your fans to sign up for your membership site by offering a 30-day free trial.
This way they get to try it and see if they like it or not.
And while not every fan that tries it out will end up paying for it, a small percentage will, and that’s exactly what you’re aiming for.
Just as an example, if 1000 fans signed up for the free trial every month and 1% of them decided to continue paying after their trial ends, you’d have 10 new customers every month.
5. Membership sites can scale without limit
There is no limit to the amount of money you can make with a membership site.
It all depends on how many followers you can get to pay for a subscription, and as there’s no limit to the number of subscribers you can have, the sky is the limit really.
In theory, you can grow your membership site to over 10,000 paying members or more, and if you’re charging $10 a month for it, you’d be making $100,000 every single month.
Crazy isn’t it?
And the best thing about growing a membership site is that, no matter how many members you have on your site, the amount of work you’d need to do remains the same.
Want to learn more about how podcasting can help you do music full-time?
Got any questions about podcasting and how it could help you do music full-time? Feel free to book a chat with me. I could talk about podcasting all day and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have.
Just click on this link and pick a spot on my calendar. Chat soon.