5 Insanely Simple Tips to Save Money As a Composer

As a composer, my main focus often is how to make more money with my music and talent. Probably yours too. To have a thriving composer business it is crucial to have good cash flow, for sure. Over the years I learned that saving money can also have a huge impact on financial stability and lowering overhead. So here are my top, simple tips to save money as a composer.

The best way to save money as a composer will be to plan ahead in your day-to-day operations, be mindful of the necessity of buying new gear, saving money for times when you need it, and making sure your music, projects, and data are saved and secure.

These are not only great hacks for saving money.

Being a composer not only means being super-creative in composing music but also being mindful of the future of your business and your day-to-day operations.

After all, without functioning tech and a comfortable financial cushion, the work and fun of being a composer can soon become a burden. 

I’ve decided to give you my 5 best, and insanely simple tips to save money and headaches.

So, keep on reading!

Be patient before you buy new gear

Patience is a virtue. We all know that. When it comes to practicing that on the other hand, it is not that easy. At least for me. Practicing this virtue though, especially when it comes to buying new gear, plugins, instruments, and anything else that you might need for your studio and productions is a great way to save money. There are many occasions throughout the year when instrument developers or music stores give you great deals on what they sell. Black Friday, Summer, Spring, Christmas are all great times to buy almost anything for as much as 50% off. 

Pro Tip: Search for emails that you got within the last 12 months. Soon you will see a pattern emerge, when and how often your favorite sample developer offers special deals.

Become your tech support

That saved me a ton of money. Getting into the nitty-gritty of how a computer works or at least how to change a hard drive or get new memory storage installed makes a lot of sense. 

I even got so far and upgraded my Mac Pro from an 8 Core to a 12 core processor. Very technical, I know and it involved some serious research and also a good half-day of my time. But, in the end, I learned something, and, you guessed it, saved a lot of money.

You not only save money but it’s also much quicker than waiting in line at the computer store. Be careful though to tell anybody that you can do that kind of stuff. They will come and ask for favors. You have been warned!

Backups will save your life

The first reliable backup system that I built for myself, was when an insurance agent made this really good point, that not only my gear and setup but also my past work was my livelihood. He said I should insure my things. And I did. The insurance company recommended, no, demanded I have a dual backup system. One in the cloud and one physical backup in another physical place

So I started backing up all my old sessions, recordings, samples, and plugins. Just a month into my first full backup my studio got broken into and everything was gone. This was devastating, of course. But all my past work and ongoing projects were safe.

So start backing up your stuff today. Multiple backups, in the cloud and physical. Saves headache when a drive crashes or your studio got robbed.

Be creative with what you have

This perfectly ties into my earlier point of waiting for deals before you buy. Sometimes, out of desperation for a good idea, I buy a new Kontakt library. More often than not, I feel compelled (and sometimes a bit mislead) by the demos produced for that library. I’ll buy it in the hope to make something as good and get that creative burst. Unfortunately, in most cases, that‘s not happening. It happens, don’t get me wrong. But mostly I end up using the plugin or instrument that I already own and am very familiar with, to get to that first sketch and produce the track. And only much later use this impulse buy for another track. Being constrained by what we have already, brings out the creative side of us. It seems much harder, yes, but also much more rewarding. Our gear does not make us great composers.

Economize

There is nothing more constraining us in our daily business decisions, than not having the funds or savings to pay our studio rent, ongoing costs, for website, email service provider, subscriptions, and things like that. An what makes it even worse is, if we take out a loan to pay for that kind of stuff. I made this mistake not once but twice. What I learned from that is that loan money is only for a real investment. With that I mean, to buy or invest in something with loaned money only if you’re certain it will make money for you. And I hate to break it to you: new gear, a bigger, better, more expensive studio, or the newest sleekest car won’t make you any money. So, for the normal things that we need in our day-to-day business life, we need to have some kind of fund, call it an emergency fund, to be able to pay our bills on time and have a clear conscience to create and write new music. 

I know that this is hard, especially you’re not making as much as you need. But try to save at least 15% of your fees from every project you do. 

The common misconception that you have to spend money to make money had me trapped for a long time. The above-mentioned tips will help you to not get trapped by that, I’d even call it, “lie”. Saving money is a skill that everyone can and should learn without being overly cautious of not spending or investing money in the right opportunities. And, don’t worry, we all have to learn it, and with learning come mistakes. And these mistakes are easier to correct if they are made early on, so they are easier to correct.

What are your special money-saving hacks for composers?