This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello. Hello, hello, and happy almost Thanksgiving. It is in fact almost Thanksgiving in the United States at least. I believe Canada got it a few weeks earlier. Of course we have a global audience, people all over the world.
But nevertheless, wherever you are, I am thankful for you. I don't always love holidays, but this is one that I do appreciate. So I'm grateful for this time as well. And now without further ado, let's jump into the podcast, right? We are here to talk about side hustles and how to make money without quitting your job by using a skill you already have, et cetera.
Today we've got a listener question about Apple Music. Let me look here. Oh yes, Apple Music. And of course it could apply to Spotify or other platforms as well. Basically what she's wondering is, can she upload cover versions of popular songs?
Like if you are a songwriter, of course you got your own songs, but maybe you'll actually reach more people or a different group of people by uploading some covers. So Apple Music, of course, it's one of the top five platforms. It's on your phone. If you use an iPhone, whether you want to have it on your phone or not, that's kind of how Apple generates so much market share. And so if you're familiar with any of these platforms, like however you listen to music, you're probably aware that there are cover versions of lots of popular songs.
How does that work in the business sense? Can Linda, our listener and a musician, make money from her versions of these songs? What kind of permission do you need and how are royalties handled? All right, lots of questions. We'll try to answer in a brief period of time.
Keep it action packed. Keep it short. New episode every day, of course. So quick shout out to our sponsor and then Linda's question and my answer. [Music]
Hello, Chris.
This is Linda and I've been following your show for a while. Thanks for all the helpful advice. For every popular music artist with millions of streams on Apple Music or Spotify, there are a bunch of cover artists who upload their own versions of the songs. These versions don't usually get millions of streams, but some of them do very well with tens or hundreds of thousands of streams. How much money are these cover artists making?
And how can anyone upload their own versions of other people's songs? I thought there'd be copyright issues, but it looks like a lot of people have been doing it for a long time. Do you know anything about this? Thanks. [Music]
Hey, Linda, thanks for being out there.
Thanks for your question as well. So short version, yes, you can do this. You can get paid royalties through this. Some of those royalties do need to go in fact to the original artist because it is their song. And so it can be a little bit complicated depending on the platform, depending on the artist, various exceptions and such.
So you wanna do some research if this is your situation. But to kind of sum up, you usually have to secure a license because again, that original artist or copyright holder is owed royalties. And thankfully there are services that manage that process. So you don't actually have to reach out to Taylor Swift yourself to hand her the two cents that you owe her for your cover of Blank Space or whatever. I mean, it actually might be cool if you could reach out to Taylor Swift, but that's not really how it works.
So there are services that kind of do this. One service, no affiliation here, just as I did some research in my own, one is called DistroKid, like distribution kid, I assume, DistroKid. You pay them $20 a month just as a flat rate. Obviously it's gonna go up with royalties and such, but they get your music uploaded to Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Pandora and others. And then they can also handle that process of royalty payment.
So getting back to covers, as I said, there are some exceptions. Also, we are talking specifically about covers here. A cover is your own version of another song, not sampling, right? Where you take a portion of an original recording and then make it part of yours. That is a totally different concept.
It's actually more complicated. Usually actually have to have permission to do that as opposed to the licensing thing where you just kind of pay it and move on. So yes, you can get paid for covers. And in terms of how much each of these artists are making, well, there's just tremendous variance there. You really do need very high numbers in streaming to make good money, but you can make some.
So definitely worth trying. And your whole goal of course is to get more people to follow you on Spotify or Apple Music or wherever else. So that when you have new music coming out, you have a built-in audience. Just kind of like it goes with a podcast or a blog or lots of other services. So Linda, anybody else out there, good luck.
I'm cheering you on. If you've got a question, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Let me know what you're up to during this holiday season and more as we begin looking forward to another year. I can't believe it's coming to the end of a year, but in fact, that does happen just as the calendar turns. So I thank you once again for being out there.
I too will be here every day with a new episode. So I hope we can continue to share this space in your headphones for your car or wherever you listen. All right, my name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
