Most budding producers have a fairly straightforward idea of how they'll eventually make their living from music - write a selection of irresistible 12" releases, set the world afire with some choice DJ mixes, and then rake in the cash from the inevitable Ibiza residency. It's a nice dream... But in 2011, with sales falling through the floor and ever-increasing competition for DJ gigs, many producers are finding that they need to revise their expectations somewhat. However, it's still possible to make a living as a producer - if you look around for some other revenue streams. Here are a few ideas that you may want to consider, if you're going to pay your rent out of this.Mixdowns: If you're a good producer, you'll no doubt find plenty of novices with decent tunes but poor engineering skills who need someone to put some polish onto their beats. You can look for work on forums, and use Soundcloud to show "before & after" clips to demonstrate your skills. If you can be diligent and turn a mixdown around in 2 or 3 hours, you should be able to charge a good hourly rate.
Tutorials: On a related note, there are many novice producers around who are happy to pay for production lessons. In general, they often don't need high-level advice, but more pointing in the right direction as regards getting started, composition, arrangement and basic production techniques. Again, hourly rates can be quite high, and so one or two lessons a week can make quite a difference to your balance sheet.
Selling beats: You don't need to sign up with a label to make money from selling your tracks - you can sell them directly to people who need need them for a flat fee. There are always plenty of MC's looking for beats for their singles, demos and mixtapes, and a good producer can make a decent three-figure sum for a beat that a rapper wants to chat over. Some producers make a living from this alone, and while a flat fee means you won't get that Ferrari in the unlikely event that your beat gets into the charts, it will guarantee a lot more work!
Advertising: It's the new music model - everything is supported by advertising, from Spotify to Youtube to Last.fm. So why not get in on the act? You could try starting a website that gives away what you have to offer - free music, or tutorials in how to produce, news and reviews of the latest tunes - and charge for advertising space. In general, the more populist you can go, the more likely you'll be to get some decent numbers; to make this worthwhile you'll be needing at least 30,000 unique visitors a month. That won't make you enough to live off, but it will certainly be a handy contribution to your earnings. The downside is that it's quite a commitment - you'll need to update your site regularly to keep people coming back for more.Starting a label: If you have a good ear for what's hot and what will sell, it might be worth considering starting a label. This can be advantageous for several reasons - in addition to being a business that could make money, the contacts you build up while running the label will help when you want to promote and work your own music. Proceed with caution however - running a successful label is a huge amount of work, and many labels make only small profits at best. The work is also mainly managing, networking, marketing and accounting - not really using your hard-won musical skills!
DJ-ing: This may sound like it's contradicting the first paragraph, but have you considered DJ-ing beyond what you normally produce? As a music lover, it's likely you'll have a fairly solid musical knowledge and collection. It may be worth asking around some local bars if you can do a hip-hop night, or maybe a Sunday night reggae or funk session - whatever you can specialise in. These nights will generally require you to play for 3 or 4 hours at a stretch, and are poorly paid compared to that Ibiza residency - but if you can do a couple per month, it starts to stack up quite quickly. They'll also have the additional benefit of broadening your DJ skills beyond the standard of playing your normal tunes to your normal kind of demographic.
Making a living from music is harder than ever these days, and sadly it's no longer possible to just release a single every few weeks like it was back in the day. But by working hard and combining some of the above options, you can use the breadth of your talent to bring in enough money to pay the bills, and kiss goodbye to the day-job forever! It's tough, but then the best things are - and if you can manage it, it's immensely satisfying...
