2024 Music Goals and Resetting my Studio

Happy New Year! I’m excited to begin a new year of making content and teaching music.

I’ve been watching a lot of “2024 reset” videos lately, and thought I’d make one of my own. Watch the video and read about my 2024 music goals below!

Watch the Video

Goal 1: Buy a House!

My first (and biggest) goal of the year is to buy a house! We’re currently house hunting and are on our way. We’re currently renting, and while my studio space works well, buying our own house means I might get an even better setup!

Once that happens, you can expect to see some videos of me setting up the new studio space and sharing how I decide to decorate and organize it when left fully to my own devices. 🙂

Goal 2: Make $50,000

To be fully transparent with you, I want to reach $50,000 this year! I know that’s not a lot now that inflation is so high, but I think this is a doable goal for me.

I haven’t talked too tangibly about how much I make, but I think it’s important for professional musicians to talk about how much money they actually make so that young musicians who want to go into music can have a better understanding of what their lives might look like.

The amount of money you make as a musician is dependent on so many variables: how many students you have and what you charge per lesson; how many gigs you take on; if you have an orchestra (or other steady performing-based) job; and so many more.

Personally, in the last year I’ve taught 25-30 students per week, I do freelance writing (1-2 articles per week), I have this blog and Youtube channel where I bring in ad and affiliate money, and I played in four gigs. I also do some odd jobs here and there like monthly sectionals, judging auditions, and masterclasses.

With all of these income sources, I made a little over $46,000 last year. This is before removing business expenses and tax. My goal this year is to make (at least) $4,000 more.

My business and income have grown steadily the last three years:

• In 2021 I was just getting started, with 3 students at the beginning of the year while I finished up my masters degree, and around 15 students by the end of the year. I didn’t play in any gigs, and my Youtube and blog wasn’t bringing in money yet. I made almost $9,000.
• I started really building up my studio in 2022, began making money through affiliate links, and I started freelance writing in the fall. That year, I brought in about $38,000. (A huge difference from 2021!!!)
• Now last year (2023), I almost reached my limit for number of students, and I’ve made more from affiliate links and started making money through YouTube and website ads. I started gigging in my new area, which has helped pad my income.

So, to make an extra $4,000+ this year, I’d like to take on a few more gigs, add maybe four students to my studio, get more consistent with my videos and blogs to create more “passive” income, and start building a collection of instruments to rent to students who need one.

Goal 3: Grow my Youtube Channel and Blog

In 2023, my channel and this blog fell behind a little bit. I switched to an every-other-week schedule, which has helped me make better content more consistently, but I still needed to take a few extra weeks off.

Part of the problem is that I have a hard time planning my content. I get stuck in thinking “what topic should I do next?” and I just get stuck in a loop until I finally decide on a topic and make the video and blog post all in one day a few days before it goes up.

I hope to schedule my content better to be more consistent and thorough, and to provide higher quality content.

I hope that by being more consistent, the community can grow more!

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What are your 2024 music goals (or any goals in general!)? If you feel comfortable, please share in the comments! Hope you’re all having a great start to the new year!