One way for musicians to earn money without having to sign with a record label is through selling their music through services such as Spotify which is known amongst smaller artists as a service where they can get discovered and attract new audiences through features such as genre radio. However, major artists such as Taylor Swift has come out against Spotify, stating that the royalties that artists receive are way too low for what the music should actually be worth and also with the feature of using Spotify for free, she doesn't think it's acceptable. It is important for smaller artists that are not signed as they could be getting underpaid without realizing it and with lower numbers of streams, they wouldn't be getting paid much in first place.

 

Another way to earn money is through uploading the music onto youtube, money that way is earned through monetization, which is easy to set up though companies such as AdRev, where the money is made through advertisement which is placed before the video. While the company still gets a percentage of the ad revenue, it is more likely that the music may get discovered and gain more views.