Notes from Chris

Episode 1697

Evan Oxhorn has a demanding day job as a lawyer. But when letting loose at night, he engages in his favorite hobby, producing beats and making music. Over the course of the last decade it’s become a true passion for him.

It’s a passion that’s easier and more accessible than ever, even for a one man band. Gone are the days where you needed a full band or sound studio. That’s been replaced by a laptop and music production software. Software that’s known as a digital audio station—DAW for short. You can think of DAW software as a recording studio in a box.

There are a lot of DAWs on the market, but Evan uses a relatively less popular one called Reason. And, over the course of ten years he became quite an expert at it. In fact, he liked the software so much that he became an active participant on their official forums. He’d often provide guidance to folks just starting out, as well as anyone who wanted to level up their skills. Overtime, he became somewhat of the go-to guy for advice.

That got Evan drumming up an idea: surely, he thought, making video tutorials about making music would be more effective at helping people than writing about it—so he started his own Youtube channel with the intent of posting how-to guides and tips for producing great music with Reason.

Startup costs were effectively zero. He already had the equipment he needed to start recording. Although, as he discovered, producing high quality videos was easier said than done. In his haste to get content out, he didn’t really focus on quality. That led to a lot of hurtful comments, including some from people claiming he shouldn’t be teaching others about audio, if he couldn’t even be bothered to touch it up on his own videos.

Eventually, his channel ended up with over ten thousand subscribers and he explored additional monetization strategies including; affiliate marketing, where he recommended products on his site and would receive a commission for each sale, as well as ad revenue from his growing views and subscriber base. He even started one-on-one consulting for those that wanted a little more instruction.

With all those streams of income, it’s little surprise Evan is now making a solid two thousand dollars per month from his musically-pleasing instructional side hustle.

 

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  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Learn more about Evan and check out his website, StockMusicMusician.com.

SEE ALSO:

• High School Teacher Spins His Way to Profits: After he learns about a little-known manufacturing technique, the world of vinyl records becomes a full-time occupation for this high school teacher.n
• Turn It Up to 11! Musical Mash-Ups Provide Passive Income for New York DJ: This New York DJ wants to rock and roll all night... and party every day. After he mixes recordings from classic rock and roll songs, he sells the packaged shows to international music markets.
• Part-Time Music Teacher Tunes Up Piano School to $100,000/Year: A music teacher learns to subcontract her piano lessons, radically increasing her annual income.

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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