The Ledger of Blood, Sweat & Batteries
Why Your Music Isn’t a Hobby — It’s an Investment Portfolio
When people talk about musicians, they picture the glamour: guitars slung low, lights flashing, a crowd singing along. What they don’t see is the credit card bill.
Because every weekend gig carries a hidden ledger. Let’s itemise it:
Instruments: Guitars, amps, drum kits, keyboards — never “one and done,” always needing upgrades.
Cables & leads: The gremlins of the live music world — tangled, broken, lost, repeat.
Mics, stands & tech: Essential, but every second gig seems to break one.
Lights, batteries, power boards: You bring the vibe and the electricity.
Sticks, skins, strings, pedals: The consumables no one factors in.
Vehicle costs: Fuel, rego, insurance, late-night servo stops.
Apps & software: Bookkeeping, tax, invoicing.
Time: Hours rehearsing, loading, unloading, driving, chasing invoices.
That is not a “hobby.” That is an investment portfolio.
The problem? Until now, most musos have been juggling family, jobs, and gigs just trying to keep up. There was no Musoverse dedicated to showing you how to leverage this investment into real returns.
So let’s start here: your gear and your grind are not sunk costs. They are assets — and assets are meant to generate income.
Example:
That $8,000 PA system? It’s not just for your duo gigs. It can be hired out to other musos for $150 a night.
That spare guitar? Perfect for offering beginner lessons on Tuesdays.
That rehearsal room? Rent it out by the hour when you’re not in it.
Shift the lens: stop seeing expenses as drains, and start seeing them as tools.
ACTION BOX
Write down your top 10 music expenses.
Next to each, jot down two ways it could generate income.
Pick one and test it in the next 30 days.
Written by Nichola Burton. I work in partnership with Agents, Artist Managers and Event Producers, who juggle a diverse range of relationships in the Musoverse, to curate, manage and measure data in systems, experience, creative and content to support the entire Musoverse operation in my enterprise A Little Pitchy Copyright 2025
