How to Make Money as an Artist & 21 Best Paying Companies

If you want to know how to make money as an artist, strap yourself in… as this article is going to be very helpful!

It reveals some of the best ways you can really make money as an artist and some of the very best companies that either pay you directly or help you get paid.

 

Can You Really Make Money as an Artist?

Of course you can!

There is a common stereotype earning cool cash as an artist is not feasible. Well, this is absolutely wrong at least not while you’re still breathing.

Although, this stereotype might have been true in Vincent Van Gogh and Vermeer Johannes days as artists weren’t really making it at that time.

That’s not the case today as this age we are in, is quite vibrant! In this age building a strong follower base is certainly very much easier and very possible.

A creative individual will find it quite easy to turn his/her talent into a lucrative occupation that will bring both cash and popularity.

Keep reading to learn of some of the best ways to make money as a creative artist, and reputable companies that help/pay creative artists.

 

How to Ways to Make Money as an Artist (6 Easy Ways)

 

1. Sell Art on Social Media Platforms

Of all social media platforms available, Instagram is the No. 1 when it comes to entertainment.

Instagram is seen as a great news for beginning creatives as you wouldn’t have to mount the social ladder and wait for critics to decide your fate.

On Instagram, you can easily connect with potential buyers across the globe, buyers that are willing to make payments for your art.

However, Instagram isn’t feasible if you don’t have enough engaging followers because the larger your fan base, the higher the demand of your product.

You can only increase your fan base by gathering more followers.

Let’s check out some tips you could use to boost your fan base on Instagram and as well boost your sales:

• Post images with high quality
• When photographing your work, make sure you make use of natural light and a neat background
• Write creative captions for your posts
• Make use of relevant hashtags
• Make sure your bio is attractive
• Post artworks regularly
• Choose a unified style to represent your brand

 

2. Teach Art to Others Offline to Earn Money as an Artist

If you have a closer look at your surroundings, you’ll find out that your neighborhood offers huge opportunities for making lots of money with art.

It’s even much better having an attractive niche like the astrophotography, street photography or calligraphy niche.

Here’s are some tips on how you can successfully run a face-to-face teaching:

• Offer adults/kids in your community painting classes or daily workshops
• Organize events that will bring together other talented artists
• Offer interactive art symposiums, events, or parties
• In nature, organize plain air painting sessions.

 

3. Teach Art to Others Online to Make Money as an Artist

Teaching online courses is one of the best options for engaging a wider audience in your art.

However, being a tutor for a wide audience will be way more difficult online than physically.

An alternative is transforming your teaching into a type of passive income.

This way, you’ll only get to create the material once, and you can earn cash for several months or even for years.

Here are some ways you can become a successful online tutor:

• Sell your courses on Skillshare and Udemy
• Sell tutorials and art guided on your personal website
• Own a YouTube channel and showcase your artworks on the channel

 

4. Sell Art Designs on the Reputable Platforms

If you’ve developed interest in graphic designing, this is a whole new opportunity for passive income for you.

Selling your designs is one of the best ways to make money as a graphics designer, it’s also a means of realizing your creative potential.

On platforms like the many mentioned further in this article, you could sell different kinds of artworks, from logo designs, character designs, illustrations, and icon packs, all these alongside other types of templates and graphics.

As an artist, your opportunities aren’t restricted, you can do more than just visual arts- you can even sell music online, creating knitting patterns, sell ebooks, and lots more.

Keep reading to find many of these platforms – as many as 20+

 

5. Apply for Art Competitions and Grants

Several international programs, non-profit organisations or local communities offer great grants for artists.

The sole aim of this gesture is to promote culture, aid young artists, and address some social issues.

Other times, some institutions require pieces of art to decorate their buildings or to grant a nice touch to ceremonies.

Here is how you can apply for these programs:

Try a simple search on the web like “artists’ grants” or “competitions for artists”. To narrow down your web search, include your country, city or state.

This way, you will find several programs or competitions that you can apply for and earn huge rewards if you come out victorious.

It’s also a chance to showcase your artworks.

 

6. Sell Wall Art

Sculptors, illustrators, painters, and even graphic artists can earn cash by simply selling off high-quality prints to people.

Here’s how you can transform your wall arts to high-quality posters:

• Digitise the art with the help of professional scanning
• Make use of top-notch graphic design programs like Adobe illustrator, to create solid posters.
• Make sure there are printable

Here’s how you can sell off your artworks:

• Sell Artworks from your portfolio website
• Set up an online shop on social media
• Set up a sales medium on some of the biggest international platforms like the ones mentioned in the rest of this article

 

21 Best Companies That Pay Artists Who Want to Make Money

 

1. Big Hit Entertainment

The Big Hit Entertainment is based in South Korea, it’s seen as the big machine behind the popular K-pop group known as BTS and its global chart-topping takeover.

The BTS got to this level because of this company’s level of experience in tech, marketing savvy, and data management.

In June, this company establish a online platform called Weply, as well as a social media application called Weverse, both platforms are targeted toward the fan communities surrounding TXT, BTS, GFriend, and the popular Big Hit’s roster.

The sole aim of this company is to become a one stop service for artists around the world, giving them a great platform to link up with other artists, as well as sell off their works of art and make enough sales.

With over 2.5 million users, this company is definitely on its way!

For more details about Big Hit Entertainment, check here.

Also See: How to Make Money as a Catalog Model & How to Make Money as a Glamour Model.

 

2. Bravado

The sole aim of Bravado is bringing artist merchandise into a highly coveted keepsake.

For a long time now, Merch has been touted as one of the major ways in which artists earn cash, that trend isn’t slowing down in any way.

UMG- the Hniversal Music Group made it known that the revenue they accrued from sales on Merch in 2019, doubled that of the previous year.

Bravado is a UMG division in charge of Merch sales.

Credits were given to Bravado as it’s effort in elevating UMG through Merch sales were duly noticed as the sales return were quite high.

Bravado’s impressive performance over the years made it acquire collaborations with artists like Billy Joel, David Bowie, Britney Spears, and Madonna.

How does bravado help you do artists? Check here.

 

 

3. Songclip

Social media platforms like Tiktok and Instagram have incorporated legit music productions into tools’ suites.

They also decided to make use of Songclip to fill the void for dating applications and texts.

Through the Songclip platform, random individuals can check through works of several artists around the world, including artists with reputable labels like Sony Music, Warner Music Group, and Universal Music Group.

Songclip is basically an avenue for artist to showcase their artworks and earn huge income.

Details about Songclip could be found here.

 

4. BMG

With BMG, records deals are constructed in a unique way.

Normally, record deals obtain about 80% of the total cash accrued by artists, but with BMG, only about 25% doesn’t get to the artists as they get the lion share.

BMG has continued to give its users the best as it recently partnered with a music licensing and sampling platform Tracklib, this platform offers artists modern revenue stream.

With a distribution deal with Mexico’s best, DEL, BMG has made its global presence felt. This great company also launched its 15th international office in Hong Kong.

More details about BMG can be found here.

 

5. 88Rising

88rising is a very important artery in the entertainment industry as it adequately links Eastern Youth culture with Western audiences. 88rising is seen as a label, creative agency, and a media company for artists.

This company has helped artists from different parts of the world, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, China, and lots more.

With this platform, artists from these countries have been able to break into mainstream hip-hop and R&B.

Artists working with this company have made billions of sales from their product as this company is widely known hence, a great platform for publicity.

Check for more details about this company here.

Also See: How to Earn Money with Junk Removal, Earn Money with Jury Duty, Earn Money Selling Your Colorings & Earn Money Recycling Electronics Waste,  Earn Money Selling Movie Ideas.

 

6. Gold Rush Vinyl

The reemergence of old-school vinyl in the art industry seems antithetical to digital culture.

A culture where if you can’t own and click something in less than a minute, it ceases to be of utmost importance.

The demand for the popular crack-and-pop auditory pleasures of vinyl continues to increase and the popular Gold Rush Vinyl has found a perfect way to get its artists’ products into the hands of their fans way faster than the normal industry standard.

So basically, with Gold Rush Vinyl you can earn as much as an artist, as your products will sell off quickly, your fan base will increase and customers will keep appreciating your products.

Want to know more about Gold Rush Vinyl? Click here.

 

7. Dolby

This company marks a major progression in the production and recording of art, Dolby has been in operation in the two-channel stereo format for years.

With Dolby, producers are able to work with this company to create an immersive audio setup which will be able to feed up to 128 artists.

Given this range, users can easily change tracks as they wish, whereas previously all artists’ sounds can also be fed into different channels.

Listening to recordings using the appliances supplied by this company, plunged users into a 360-degree sonic environment. Basically, sound is better with this company’s appliances.

Top music groups like Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group have partnered with this company to make classic recordings readily available.

Check out more details on Dolby here.

Also See: How to Make Money Work for You even if you have No Purpose in Life.

 

8. NVAK Foundation

If art and music is a universal language that is capable of bringing a wide number of people together, this company puts that principle into practice adequately. NVAK foundation was established by an Eurovision competitor.

Tamar launched NVAK in Armenia and his sole aim was to support young artists who are finding it difficult to break into the music industry.

Through several programs, NVAK offers different services to individuals, some of these services include mentorship, songwriting, education, and music instruction.

Some of the services offered are most times overlooked by the entertainment world.

Looking to learn more about NVAK foundation? Click here.

Also See: How to Earn Money Writing Erotica & How to Earn Money from Dancing.

 

9. Gener8tor

In 2019, GENER8TOR had already extended its traditional accelerator model for startups for musicians and artists.

Each artist received $20,000 and this cash was to help these artists build up their career, with GENER8TOR, your revenue as an artist wouldn’t be shared, there will be no equity, and there will be zero royalties.

Artists, however, have access to GENER8TOR’s network of resources and producers to help come up with different sound models for better business growth and monetisation.

Want to join GENER8TOR? Check here for more details.

 

10. Pandora

Pandora is a major force in the industry. In 2019, pandora made a good choice to expand into podcasts, this is seen as one of the fastest-growing sectors in the music industry.

Podcastsom Pandora makes use of the company’s Genome Project to host thousands shows by artists.

They also help to pair up artists with listeners, thereby increasing sales made.

Learn more about Pandora here.

 

Other websites that help artists make money include:

11. TurningArt 

12. UGallery 

13. Zazzle 

14. Shopify 

15. Saatchi Art 

16. Society6 

17. Storenvy 

18. Redbubble

19. Artplode 

20. Artsy 

21. Sellfy

 

Conclusion  

As this article has revealed, there are several ways to earn cash in the music industry, and a large number of them come down to different contracts and deals.

It’s for this reason that every aspiring artist needs to work with the best companies and be on even terms with the payment scheme.

This article also revealed the top companies that pay artists well!