If you’re an independent musician, you probably know the pain of looking at a royalty statement. You put your heart into your music, but the payout is often just a few cents. Streaming is great for getting discovered, but it’s not enough to build a real income.
The good news? Your biggest fans want to support you directly.
This doesn’t mean you should leave Spotify or Apple Music. Instead, you should build another income stream that you control. In this guide, I’ll show you how to set up your own online store to sell music and merchandise. This way, you’ll stop depending only on third-party platforms and start building a home for your music and your brand.
Why Selling Directly to Fans Is Smart
The Problem with Streaming
Streaming pays very little. On average, a single play earns about $0.003 to $0.005. To make $100,000, you’d need over 58 million streams on Spotify. That’s a huge number, and it’s why most musicians struggle to earn enough from streams alone.
The bigger issue? You don’t own your audience. Platforms like Spotify keep the fan data, and you just rent space on their app.
The Power of Direct-to-Fan Sales
When you sell directly through your website, you control the relationship. You collect email addresses, learn what fans like, and connect with them on a deeper level.
You also keep more of the money. Direct sales usually let you keep 85–95% of the revenue after fees. Compare that to fractions of a cent from streaming—it’s a game changer.
Creative and Financial Freedom
Selling directly means you control everything—pricing, product choices, and profits. You can create special items that labels would never consider. This makes you not just an artist, but also an entrepreneur. You’ll gain freedom, stability, and more room to be creative.
How to Sell Music and Merch: Step by Step
Step 1: Pick Your E-Commerce Platform
This is the foundation of your online store. Free website builders may look easy, but they often limit growth. Here are strong options for 2025:
- Bandcamp: Easy to set up and built for artists, but limited customization.
- Shopify: Great for serious musicians. Offers apps, email marketing tools, and full control. Costs money each month, but very professional.
- WordPress + WooCommerce: Best for full control. Flexible and scalable, but you need some tech skills.
- Other options: Big Cartel and Gumroad are simple and useful for smaller setups.
Step 2: Decide What to Sell
Offer different products for different budgets. Some ideas:
- Digital music: Sell WAV files, instrumentals, or exclusive tracks.
- Physical music: Vinyl, CDs, or even cassette tapes for collectors.
- Merch: T-shirts, hoodies, hats, stickers, patches, posters.
Start small. Stickers or digital downloads are cheap, easy to sell, and great for testing the market.
Step 3: Handle Production and Shipping
There are two main ways to fulfill orders:
- Print-on-Demand (POD): Services like Printful or Teespring only make items after a fan orders. No upfront costs, low risk, but lower profit margins and less control over quality.
- Bulk inventory: Buy products in advance. Higher profit per sale and better quality, but you’ll need to invest money upfront and manage stock.
As sales grow, you can also use third-party logistics (3PL) companies to handle shipping for you.
Step 4: Set Prices and Create Bundles
Fans want to support you, so price fairly but confidently. Bundles work really well. For example:
- A vinyl + digital download + sticker
- A T-shirt + early-access track
Bundles make fans feel like they’re getting value, and they also raise your average order size.
Marketing Your Store
Use Your Email List
Email is gold. Social media posts can get lost, but emails go straight to inboxes. Share new products with your list first and give them exclusive deals to reward their loyalty.
Promote on Social Media
Don’t just post links—create stories around your merch. Share behind-the-scenes videos, show sneak peeks, and use urgency (“only 100 available,” “first 50 orders get a bonus”).
Encourage fans to share photos of themselves with your merch. Fan-created content usually gets way more engagement than traditional ads. It builds trust and boosts sales.
Final Word: Start Small, Dream Big
Launching your own store may feel overwhelming, but you don’t need to do it all at once. Start with one product—like a T-shirt or sticker—using print-on-demand. Once you get momentum, expand step by step.
This isn’t just about selling things. It’s about owning your audience, building real connections, and taking control of your career. Every sale puts more money and more freedom back into your hands.
Start today. Your future as an independent artist depends on it.