Top 10 Music Affiliate Programs – Chime Into People’s Evergreen Hobbies

by Lewis Ogden | Last Updated: May 27, 2022 | Monetization

Music is a beautiful, artistic language, and it’s something that’s universally loved. Whether they’re headbanging along to a great song on the radio, performing Concertos for huge crowds, or making their own music with funky beats, most people have some connection to this lovely art form.

A lot of people are happy to spend a good deal on musical instruments, equipment, and lessons, and if you’re a part of a music affiliate program, you could earn money from audiences that do make those purchases.

Though it’s not a huge affiliate market, there are plenty of lucrative options out there. Here are some of the best music affiliate programs out there, as well as some ideas for how to promote them.

Music Affiliate Programs

• Audimute
• Guitar Center
• Jamplay
• Musician’s Friend
• Pianoforall
• Rocket Piano
• Sam Ash
• Singorama
• Virtual Sheet Music
• zZounds

1. Audimute

• Commission Percentage/Value: Varies
• Cookie Length: 60 days
• Link to Program

Audimute was founded by an experienced drummer named Mitch Zlotnik and born out of his own experiences. The company focuses on acoustic management, designed by experts to provide sufficient soundproofing and acoustics to musicians and performers. They allow for soundproofed, dedicated music rooms that don’t lose good acoustic property and even soundproof barriers that are portable!

For those unsure of their needs, Audimute provides an additional room analysis service. The company has catered not just to at-home musicians, but government agencies, theaters, churches, production studios, and a wide range of other industries as well. They claim to offer great customer service that puts their clients first.

Affiliates with Audimute simply need to sign up and await approval. Upon being accepted into the program, they are given a wide range of marketing materials, including links and banners, that can be used in promotion on any chosen platform. You also receive 24/7 access to real-time statistics via a dashboard, through which you can track balance, sales, traffic, and overall performance. The average order from Audimute runs around $900, so though commission rates vary along the lower side, you’re likely to earn a decent amount from each sale.

Why Audimute?

Audimute is family-owned, so promoting it feels more personal and more connective than when you promote a big brand that doesn’t have as much of a personality – and chances are, your audience will think that too! The top-notch customer service allows for high rates of conversion among customers, so you’re likely to earn well from the high average order price.

2. Guitar Center

• Commission Percentage/Value: 6% base, 8% maximum
• Cookie Length: 14 days
• Link to Program

You can probably guess what Guitar Center specializes in from its name. But it isn’t just guitars that this company has to offer. They sell accessories and amplifiers, too, as well as a range of other instruments and equipment ranging from drums to DJ equipment and from keyboards to PA systems and microphones. They also offer many kinds of recording hardware and software. With over 40,000 products in their inventory – a number that grows more and more weekly – there’s really something for everyone.

Guitar Center has been in business for more than 5 decades, growing and growing over the years to have 260 stores across America today (and they ship to 100 countries!). As a leading retailer, they’re reputable, and they have many equally or similarly famous sister brands.

Affiliates with Guitar Center get risk-free applications and are able to sell products in huge price ranges, from items as cheap as $5 to ones 10,000 times that price. To sign up, you read through the terms, send in your form, and follow the instructions in the email you receive. You get to make your own links to their products and the company monitors your progress and sends you sales reports for your ease.

Anyone with a website can sign up as an affiliate with Guitar Center. Tools and guides allow you to create good links and market products in a smart way. Admittedly, the cookie length is a little short, but it’s not too short that it’s a big turn-off for most affiliates.

Why Guitar Center?

Guitar Center sells a lot of their products at a low price thanks to their great buying power, so they appeal to plenty of musicians who are eager to get their hands on a good price and a nice discount. They also offer a lot of webstore-exclusive products, so affiliates can entice audiences by focusing on marketing items that can’t be purchased in stores.

3. Jamplay

• Commission Percentage/Value: $40
• Cookie Length: 120 days
• Link to Program

JamPlay is a huge player in the world of online music lessons, specializing in teaching guitar and bass. Over 5,800 lessons live on the platform, with more added semi-regularly, teaching based on skill level, genre, and other variations. These lessons are taught by skilled and renowned teachers, providing high-quality tutelage to all.

Today, JamPlay has more than 500,000 customers and amazing reviews across all platforms, and they’ve only been around since 2006! They claim to work hard on finding the balance between their business goals and their customer’s desires, and their aim is to serve their customers with purpose and transparency.

Affiliates who are interested will have a fine time promoting JamPlay, which already has a good reputation. You simply need to sign up and then use the creative media provided to you in order to promote the site via any chosen medium. Banners, video embeds, and more are among the interesting advertisement offerings you can use. You also receive an affiliate manager dedicated to you and can ask for assistance whenever you may need it.

Why JamPlay?

JamPlay has a unique system known as the first-to-send policy; if one customer is linked by multiple affiliates, the first affiliate is the one who gets the credit, so you don’t need to worry about your thunder being stolen. The commission amount is also pretty high and remains the same value whether or not a customer uses a discount code, and the cookie life is impressively long.

4. Musician’s Friend

• Commission Percentage/Value: 4%
• Cookie Length: 14 days
• Link to Program

Musician’s Friend is the biggest company for music gear in the entire world. More than 85,000 unique products are in their inventory, with more added every month, and they’ve earned the title of being a true “friend” to musicians everywhere with all the gear and items that they have to offer.

The company saw humble beginnings more than 30 years ago when Ron and DeAnna Eastman, a married team, borrowed an investment fund from their parents of $5000 and opened up their business from a suburban garage. Their business went well and they upgraded to a barn, and then it grew even more and more!

Interested persons who have websites can sign up via Commission Junction, which provides approved affiliates with commission checks, tracking, and real-time reporting. Once you fill out the application form and read the terms, you need only wait for the approval.

When approved, you’ll be able to begin selling (through your site only) right away! It’s worth noting that the 4% commission rate and 14-day cookie period are a little disappointing, but the company is so well-known that the number of customers converted can make it worth it.

Affiliates receive access to a wide range of creative materials, including banners, links, and other customizable material. A dedicated account team provides assistance where you need it, and you’ll also get access to exclusive discounts, promotions, and contests.

Why Musician’s Friend?

Musician’s Friend provides a long list of policies that are inherently attractive to customers, including price-matching, free ground shipping for a majority of orders, and a no-hassle return policy that spans 45 days, so customers you send to them will be enticed. The provided creative material library for affiliates is a great tool to take advantage of, and the site has good conversion rates, too.

5. Pianoforall

• Commission Percentage/Value: 60%
• Cookie Length: 90 days
• Link to Program

Pianoforall is a platform designed to provide digital tuition to customers, teaching them how to play the piano. To date, more than 250,000 students are “enrolled” in the site, learning how to read sheet music, play the piano correctly, and understand music theory, all through the use of a handy-dandy application that works on all devices.

The site claims that you can learn to play confidently within just a few weeks and learn to sound like a professional or trained pianist in just a few months, provided that you practice sufficiently. Pianoforall provides its students with over 500 audio lessons, 200 videos, and 10 eBooks to use and learn from – and it’s all available via one quick, simple one-off purchase.

Pianoforall uses ClickBank, which is a rather unique affiliate network choice. The site’s Gravity score on ClickBank is an impressive 51.27, which is a very high number compared to other similar programs which have scores of 9 or lower.

After you sign up as an affiliate, you can use Pianoforall’s banners and promotion videos to help encourage clicks and direct customers to the site. You can also opt to write your own reviews of Pianoforall, though you will have to follow certain requirements in order to do so. Pianoforall also provides some informational pages on how to better promote them, and you can even request a free review copy of their lesson plan!

Why Pianoforall?

The Pianoforall affiliate program has an extremely high commission percentage and an impressive 90-day cookie length, which makes it appealing for many. Pianoforall also prides itself on its effectiveness and allows potential customers to request the email addresses of past students so that those potential customers can learn more about the program from people who have finished it.

6. Rocket Piano

• Commission Percentage/Value: 25% for print editions, 75% for download editions
• Cookie Length: 90 days
• Link to Program

Rocket Piano was founded in 2005 and focuses on providing video lessons and step-by-step learning instructions to individuals interested in learning to play the piano. These tools have been successful over the years and continue to sell well to this day, and the piano teachers who worked on it have decades of experience under their belts.

Rocket Piano is somewhat similar to Pianoforall in the sense that it uses ClickBank and uses a one-time purchase, all-inclusive product that customers buy in order to access their piano lessons. Other than that, there are some differences – the commission rate is higher, and the promotional tools provided are primarily in the form of text links, though other options may be available.

Why Rocket Piano?

The commission percentage offered, especially for download editions, is very high, and the cookie length is great, so you’re provided with more opportunities to encourage your audience to make a purchase that nets you a big commission. The fact that there aren’t that many affiliates with this program means that you have a better chance of converting your readers into buyers.

7. Sam Ash

• Commission Percentage/Value: 10% maximum
• Cookie Length: 30 days
• Link to Program

Sam Ash is a musical instrument retailer and is one of the biggest family-owned businesses of its kind in all of America. The company first opened its doors in 1924 and has grown immensely since, accumulating a catalog of 50,000 products for sale online alone, with live support available on their website to provide assistance to incoming customers as needed.

Affiliates sign up via LinkShare, which also provides sales reports to approved affiliates and handles their payment. To sign up, all you need is a website of your own! You also, unfortunately, cannot be an affiliate if you are based in North Carolina, Arkansas, Rhode Island, or Connecticut due to tax laws.

Why Sam Ash?

Sam Ash is a trusted company with a huge amount of products, so it has good brand recognition among music-lovers and has something that can appeal to everyone. As a family business, it’s also somewhat more marketable, as many people naturally feel more inclined to support family-run companies over big-name, faceless brands.

8. Singorama

• Commission Percentage/Value: 40% on shipped media, 70% on instant downloads
• Cookie Length: 60 days
• Link to Program

Singorama is a site designed to help those who want to better their singing skills. As a program, it offers 28 audio lessons to guide clients through their newfound voice, and it also provides a mini studio recording software that allows for vocals to be recorded and played back, whether plain, with pre-recorded scales, or with the aid of Singorama’s virtual piano.

Singorama claims to teach its clients how to maximize and extend their vocal range, develop and master perfect pitch, gain vocal agility and flexibility, develop a stronger voice, master the mixed voice, form a delightful tone, get over anxiety related to performance, and transform vocal ability into what can rival professionals. It doesn’t require prior experiences or a lot of time per day, so it’s convenient, too.

Singorama uses ClickBank for its affiliate program, which is one of the most trusted affiliate networks available today. To sign up, you must first input your contact information so that the site runners can stay in touch with you. Then, if approved, you’ll be directed to multiple different promotions and product packages to promote.

It’s worth noting that Singorama runs high-discount promotions very often, which does mean your commission value will drop with the sale. However, this also increases the chances of your audience clicking through and making purchases, so it is likely that you will be able to make up for profit value decrease with volume.

Why Singorama?

Singorama offers some of the highest commissions in the music affiliate market, as well as a decently long cookie, so you’ll get the opportunity to maximize your earnings. A huge number of testimonials from past students on the site show audience members you direct just how effective the program can be.

9. Virtual Sheet Music

• Commission Percentage/Value: 30%
• Cookie Length: 30 years
• Link to Program

Virtual Sheet Music is one of the go-to websites for sheet music downloads, with more than 20,000 unique site users arriving on the daily. It’s one of the easiest websites of its kind to stumble upon thanks to its keyword optimization, which makes it appear at the top of most relevant search results. The site is run by two violinists, a husband-and-wife team consisting of Fabrizio Ferrari and Laura Caldera, so the people behind it are experts.

But it’s not just internet credit that this site has. Virtual Sheet Music has earned reviews in big classical music magazines, including Classical Music, International Musician, and Music Teacher. The hype surrounding the site is likely due to its high-quality sheet music coupled with audio files, arrangements for other ensembles and instruments, and exclusive transcriptions.

Interested individuals can sign up for Virtual Sheet Music’s affiliate program easily and with no cost, and approved affiliates get instant access to a 1-year membership of Virtual Sheet Music! Affiliates are also given links that they can use to begin earning right away.

Why Virtual Sheet Music?

Virtual Sheet Music offers its affiliates a good 30% commission percentage on memberships, instant downloads, and similar services, and there is, of course, the amazing cookie length of a whopping 30 years. On top of that, you get even more earnings because whenever a customer referred by you makes a purchase, all their future purchases from the site continue to net you a good commission!

10. zZounds

• Commission Percentage/Value: 6%, with potential 20% – 80% bonuses
• Cookie Length: 45 days
• Link to Program

zZounds is one of the big players in the musical equipment and instrument market, providing top-notch service and very low prices. Their inventory is huge, boasting approximately 50 times more products than the average music retail shop.

zZounds has a special lowest price guarantee. This guarantee states that any customers who find a purchased product for a cheaper price at a different location within 45 days can contact zZounds and receive a refund on the price difference. On top of that, most shipping is free and there are no hidden fees to speak of – and customers can opt to use payment plans for more expensive purchases.

The affiliate program of zZounds is far from new and has been around since 1999. The program continues to improve regularly and offers generous bonuses for meeting sales goals, which make up for the lower commission. The high average sale price is also a factor that boosts sales right off the bat.

Why zZounds?

zZounds has so many products to offer that your audience is sure to latch onto at least one of their extensive stock. The incentive of earning big bonuses on certain sales goals is also a great way for affiliates to stay motivated and earn even more from their efforts.

Products You Can Promote

Now that you’re aware of the top music affiliate programs in the industry, where do you go from here? It’s simple – pick a niche and market to it!

It’s worth noting that if you run any music-related website at all, you’re likely to be able to promote partnered businesses through your site with ease. But, as usual, you’d likely want to avoid broader topics when choosing a niche, so get specific.

You can choose a very specific kind of product – for example, a keyboard synthesizer – and focus on promoting that. You could also opt to simply focus on lessons for a demographic. You can promote guitar or piano lessons for kids, or bass lessons for adults, or singing lessons for beginners.

Another option is promoting specific genres of music, like jazz. You would market jazz sheet music or audio, or perhaps some genre-specific lessons in an instrument your audience may be interested in.

For a more general promotion option, consider big retailers that offer low prices. Music is an expensive hobby and an expensive career, and most musicians are thrilled to get the best deal on whatever they need. Marketing products with low prices or even low price guarantees is more likely to entice an audience.

Tags: Affiliate Programs