By: Nick Ratcliffe

David Sherbow offers a fairly comprehensive list of potential income streams for musicians .

I would like to elaborate on one of these points: Music Teaching – Lessons and Workshops.

At first this might seem like a very limited income stream for some. After all, you might be a singer-songwriter, not a virtuoso guitar shredder and never considered the idea of sitting down and teaching scales to unwilling students. But, keep in mind that if you have a fan base online, you already have a group of people who are interested in your work and what you have to say.

Musicians are constantly being asked during interviews to explain how their creative process works or how they went about creating a specific aspect of their work. What your fan base represents is a group of people who are interested in learning from you in some capacity. Now imagine if you could make this information available to them at a personal level. What you end up with is a great way to connect with fans as well as another potential income stream.

Here are some examples of how this is being done:

Play This Riff

This a site where guitar players (for the most part) are uploading videos that show fans how to play the riffs in their songs as well as scales and exercises that they recommend. Once a user registers and pays a membership fee, they gain access to all of the videos.

Derek Roddy

Derek Roddy is a death metal drummer who has used his website to give himself exposure outside of the death metal scene. His site offers a forum in which he posts and answers questions about the music business and how he practices. He also sells an instructional DVD that explains his techniques in depth.

Giving lessons on tour

Social media offers a tremendous opportunity to book lessons during downtime on tour. Doing so offers an opportunity to connect with fans outside of your city plus it’s a great way to make money on the road and it sure beats busking on a street corner. An example of a band doing this is The Dillinger Escape Plan, who have been advertising lessons on their Myspace blog.

Downloadable lessons

Cliff Almond is a New York based drummer who offers downloadable lessons through his website. His lessons include audio files and PDF charts.

Skype Lessons

Skype is another way of delivering lessons and it also has the advantage of allowing the student to ask questions. Tim Price (a New York based saxophone player) is an example of someone offering Skype lessons.

Technorati Tags: advice, Direct to Fan, Music Promotion, Social Media & Marketing

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