How This Musician Makes $500K/year Working 2 Hours A Week
Here are the top 10 key takeaways from Lars Tiger's incredible journey of building a $500,000 per year music production business while working just two hours weekly.
1. Volume equals stability
Lars discovered that releasing a massive volume of music tracks created financial stability. Rather than experiencing unpredictable income spikes from occasional hit songs, his large catalog of 15,000+ tracks generates consistent revenue. This approach spreads risk across many pieces of content.
Each track acts like a "fishing hook" in the ocean, with about 10% of tracks generating most of the income. As streaming platforms expand to new countries, his extensive catalog continues to grow with them. This stability allows him to confidently make future plans, knowing his income will remain predictable.
2. Quantity leads to quality
Contrary to conventional wisdom that places quality and quantity on opposite ends of a spectrum, Lars discovered that producing high volumes actually improved his quality. By creating thousands of tracks, he refined his process and skills through repetition.
His thousandth track was significantly better than his first, even though he already had decades of experience as a jazz pianist. This principle mirrors the pottery class experiment, where students tasked with making as many pots as possible produced higher quality work than those focusing on creating a single perfect pot.
3. The 80% quality principle
Lars realized that the final 20% of "quality" in music production consumes 80% of the time. However, what a creator considers 80% quality may be perceived as 100% quality by the audience. This insight allowed him to dramatically increase his output.
By stopping at what he considered 80% completion rather than polishing tracks to perfection, he could produce 10-100 times more content. The audience received sufficient value, and his volume approach proved more successful than spending a month perfecting each track.
4. Passive income through experimentation
Lars created a passive income system generating $500,000 yearly while working just two hours weekly. His experiment began after traditional music production became increasingly difficult to monetize. He recorded 1,000 piano tracks in about 20 days, releasing them without marketing or promotion.
After analyzing which tracks performed well, he scaled to 25,000 tracks. This approach required significant upfront work but resulted in predictable passive income. Lars discovered that most success came without marketing, contradicting conventional music industry practices.
5. Testing in a risk-free environment
Lars released his music under different artist names rather than his own, removing the fear of reputation damage. This approach allowed him to experiment freely without worrying about critical reception.
Creating under pseudonyms or alternative brands provides creative freedom while protecting one's main identity. This strategy enables creators to test different ideas and markets without risking their established reputation. Nathan mentioned other creators like James Clear who built skills under pseudonyms before applying them to their main work.
6. The algorithm advantage
Lars discovered that understanding platform algorithms was crucial to his success. While most artists obsess over Spotify, Lars found that Apple Music generated about 50% of his income, with numerous smaller platforms accounting for significant revenue.
With a large catalog, even small streams from lesser-known platforms accumulated into substantial income. These platforms were previously ignored when he only had 12 data points (tracks) per year. Volume changed his perspective on which platforms matter.
7. Rethinking the role of marketing
Traditional music promotion involves extensive marketing efforts and social media presence. However, Lars found that releasing music without any marketing or promotion still led to significant streaming success.
This challenges the conventional wisdom that creators must spend substantial time and money on promotion. Instead, the data suggested that algorithmic discovery played a much larger role in streaming success than deliberate marketing campaigns. This insight can help creators redistribute their energy toward production rather than promotion.
8. Scaling without sacrificing lifestyle
Lars faced the dilemma of whether to scale his success by building a team or maintaining his current lifestyle. At $500,000 yearly with minimal work hours, scaling up might actually reduce profits due to increased overhead.
Nathan observed that many creators see their profit margins decrease when scaling from $500,000 to $1 million in revenue. Lars prioritizes quality of life—spending time with family and pursuing hobbies—over maximizing revenue. This highlights the importance of questioning growth for growth's sake.
9. Creating creative flywheels
Lars developed systematic processes for content creation, which he calls "creator flywheels." These repeatable systems allowed him to produce high volumes of content efficiently and consistently.
By creating these flywheels, Lars could maintain quality while increasing production speed. This approach works across creative industries—Nathan described his own flywheel of writing 1,000 words daily for 600 consecutive days. Creating these production systems allows creators to build sustainable content engines rather than relying on sporadic inspiration.
10. Embracing multiple creative outlets
Lars regrets advising artists to avoid content that didn't fit their brand. Instead, he now recommends creating separate outlets for different creative expressions, similar to how Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park created Fort Minor as a side project.
Creators shouldn't limit themselves to one identity or style. Having multiple creative outlets provides freedom to experiment without brand constraints. Like Picasso, who created between 75,000-120,000 pieces in his lifetime, creators often don't know which works will resonate most with audiences, so they should create abundantly across various formats and brands.