26-Year-Old Made $33,000 Last Year From A 'Very Easy' Side Hustle He Only Spent 3 Hours On

Zinger Key Points
  • Michael Turner is a 26-year-old musician who makes "lo-fi" music under the name PLVTINUM.
  • He made an extra $33,139 last year making tracks for YouTube that take two minutes to produce.

Looking to supplement your income but can't find the time? Michael Turner's side hustle helps him bring in more than $30,000 in extra income per year and it barely takes any time at all

What To Know: About a year and a half ago, Turner, a 26-year-old musician who makes music under the name PLVTINUM, discovered that he could generate significant income by making beats for the passive music space.

If you've ever listened to an Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL YouTube video titled something like "lo-fi beats to relax to," you may have contributed to Turner's earnings. 

He was able to make an extra $33,139 over the last year producing "lo-fi" (low-fidelity) music tracks on YouTube, according to CNBC.

"Lo-fi" beats are meant to be listened to in the background while the listener is focused on something else. That means the tracks are "very easy" to make and don't go through the same production found in most professional music. In fact, Turner tries to spend no more than two minutes on each track — that's two minutes to write, produce and name each song. 

The more than $33,000 Turner made last year came from 85 "lo-fi" YouTube tracks that took a total of approximately three hours to create. 

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The production is "much simpler than people realize," Turner said. 

He and a friend make the tracks with a guitar, a keyboard and Apple Inc's AAPL Logic Pro software. You can even use GarageBand, which is free software that comes with Apple products, he said. 

“The barrier to entry is so low that anyone who is a professional or casual musician can start on this as a side hustle immediately,” Turner said. 

Turner uses TuneCore to distribute his music to other streaming platforms like Apple Music and Spotify Technology S.A. SPOT, but there are other options out there, he said. 

Some of his friends who do the same thing have had even more success in the space. One made roughly $100,000 from one song meant for sleep and relaxation. Another sold the rights to his portfolio of "lo-fi" tracks for $1.68 million, he said. 

Read Next: What Does 'Wealth' Mean To Americans Today? Survey Yields Unexpected Responses

This story is part of a new series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire.

Photo: Daniel Peters from Pixabay.

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