At the end of this email, you can take action and offer your fans a direct way to support you.

A few months back, I chatted with a friend who's a musician and producer. He was talking about starting live streams soon but first, he "had to finish his instrument setup".

(He's an electronic live musician.)

While saying this, he sent me a link to one of his recorded sessions that he didn't broadcast. They sounded great. He just avoided it because he was afraid of the reactions. So we agreed on him going live the next day—and lucky for him he did. But first, let's talk about one thing that I told him he should set up right after our chat.

A virtual tip jar. 

There's nothing better than having a virtual tip jar when you're streaming live. Of course, you can post links to your music, merch, etc. But if you don't have it yet, or if someone just wants to support you (especially with higher tips), they can use the tip jar. 

This friend of mine did stream live, however. And due to the existing virtual tip jar, he made over 100 Euros in two hours. 100 bucks more than he would've got if he only jammed without giving the option to tip him. 

Cool?

I think so! 🙂 

So how do you set up a virtual tip jar?

I personally prefer Paypal.me for this. I did this when I was working as a DJ and even though I didn't stream live, people tipped me in the clubs (instead of buying me drinks).

It's quite easy to set up your Paypal.me account. Keep in mind though that you can only choose your name tag once. You can't change it once you did set up your account. So if you have three projects you better choose a name that fits them all and can still be used if you quit these projects and start new ones. 

The best thing about virtual tip jars is that people can decide how much they want to donate to you. 

You can even add a link to your Paypal.me account on your website, social media profiles or where ever you are visible to your fans. You can also tell people about it at your venues in between your songs. Or write a sign for your merch stand. Or, or, or... 

(However, don't beg for money. Just show your fans an easy way if they want to give you some...)

Oh, and one last thing. If you want to predetermine certain amounts, you can just add a slash (/) and the amount to the link, e.g. PayPal.me/yournametag/10 for $10 (people can still change it though).

Now it's up to you.

How will you set up your tip jar?