175
8 min 4 sec

Lawyer Earns $400/Month With Stock Music Side Hustle

An online music marketplace offers a young lawyer an opportunity to fulfill his dreams of having his music heard, and also provides him with a new source of passive income.
Arts & Crafts Music Product Unique Ideas

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What It's About

A stock music marketplace helps a lawyer bring in extra money each month.

Business Model
Arts & Crafts
Skills Required
Musical & Production
Complexity
Medium
Profit Potential
Medium

Words of Wisdom

After a bit more discussion Evan admitted that he did have some specific tips for wannabe stock musicians:
 
First, keep it short. People buying stock music are looking to establish a mood quickly, they don’t want an extensive montage. Secondly clearly establish a mood. Whether it’s joy, anger, fear, surprise or something else, you want the listener to feel something since they’re considering buying your song to establish a mood. Even though the first tip is to keep it short, you still need to tell a story. There should be a clear beginning, middle, and end of the song. Which leads to Evan’s fourth tip: have a strong ending. The last note should be interesting and leave a strong lasting impression.

Fun Fact

When Evan first started researching stock music, he had a hard time finding useful information. Once he was up and running, when he would talk to other musicians about his stock music success, they mostly all expressed shock and surprise that he was making money.

He’d spend a long time explaining how it all works to them, and even then some thought it sounded too good to be true. So he created another side hustle to help musicians break into stock music without wasting as much time as he did figuring everything out.

Notes from Chris

Episode 175

In 2014 Evan Oxhorn found himself three years out of law school, working as a successful lawyer but with a ton of student loan debt and almost no creative life. A longtime musician, he had a hard drive full of half-finished songs and his dreams of having his music heard (by someone other than his friends and family) were slipping past him. During law school, he had put aside all serious attempts at making music a part of his life, but now that he had a steady job, he wanted to add some creativity back to his life.

He missed playing the guitar but knew that his lifestyle wouldn’t allow the time commitment of playing in a band. And since he doesn’t sing, he couldn’t do solo gigs. With his options narrowing, he started researching how to get his own music out there, with a minimal time commitment.

With his student debt looming in the background, he knew he needed something, no matter how small, that was a net positive. Which is how he got started with music licensing marketplaces.

  Online music marketplaces deal with all the logistics, allowing musicians to produce songs and license their music directly to clients. After weeks of research, Evan was confident this was the route for him, and it turns out that he was right! For his efforts, he’s making about $400 a month and number is steadily growing.

He laid it out for me like this, “Honestly, if you're skilled at recording and mixing, you can get by with a computer, $400 worth of software, a $100 audio interface, and some decent headphones ($100-$400).”

While the extra $400 a month makes a difference financially, for Evan this hustle is mostly about the satisfaction he gets from being able to say he’s a musician. This hustle has allowed him to get better equipment and kept him motivated to keep playing. His songs have been broadcast on NPR and used by Verizon on TV. On top of that, his side hustle has spawned another side hustle!


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

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

Yours in the revolution,

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Resources

CREATE YOUR ONLINE STORE

Create your online store with Shopify using an exclusive discount for Side Hustle School listeners. For a limited time, get a free 21-day trial and a 10% discount for a whole year.

Many Side Hustle School listeners are building sites using Shopify's easy-to-learn platform. Try it free today!

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GET YOUR FIRST 1,000 EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

Social media is nice, but building an email list is still the single best way to get customers and clients for your hustle. It's not hard to get started—sign up for a 30-day trial and join the list-building challenge! You’ll be up and running in no time.


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Quote of the Day
"One of the most important "breakthroughs" I had was realizing that my songs were never going to be perfect. It is really hard to let go of a song, especially when you hear it differently in your head, but eventually, you realize that while a song may not be perfect, it's the best you can make it right now. That kind of mindset allowed me to really accelerate my recording process."
—Evan Oxhorn #SideHustleSchool

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau