First $1 in AI Music: Why I'm celebrating and why you should too | AI Music Journey | Monetization

Why Hitting My First $1 in AI Music Royalties is Worth Celebrating

Big news! I just hit my first $1 in royalties from my AI music, and I wanted to share why I'm celebrating and why you should too.

As you can see from my screenshots, I have earnings from my first single that I released on January 14th, 2025 on DistroKid. This is from my earnings dashboard on March 1st, 2025, when I hit one dollar and thirty cents. That was within 47 days or 1.5 months.

The speed at which I was able to hit this milestone is a whole other story that I'm gonna save for another video, but right now I want to focus on something that was actually bothering me.

The Problem with Downplaying Our Achievements

As an AI music creator, I'm in a bunch of online communities to stay connected and support each other. They are great communities, and I recently saw a post that said "great news, I've made $0.94 in royalties, drinks are on me."

I'm not trying to call this out negatively - I know it was made in jest - but I think this is an opportunity to talk about owning our achievements as solo creators. Specifically, I want to talk about why going from zero to $1 is a huge achievement.

The Zero to One Concept

You might have heard of the book "0 to 1" by Peter Thiel. If you're in tech, you most definitely probably have heard of it - it's all the rage amongst startups and the tech scene.

Here's the rundown: 0 to 1 represents the most significant leap possible in innovation and business. Why? Because it's creating something that did not exist before. This is the jump from nothing to something.

In this book, he points out how going from one to something is completely different from going from nothing to something. Going from 1 to 10, 1 to 100, 1 to 1 million - that is still just improving something. Versus going from 0 to 1, which is vertical progress where you're inventing something, versus 1 to X, which is horizontal progress where you're just improving something that already exists.

Why Zero to $1 is a Huge Deal

Just like in a startup, when you make your first dollar, that is a pivotal, critical moment. Before that, you just had theoretical potential. But as soon as you make that first dollar, you just crossed a critical threshold and turned potential value into proven value.

This is tangible proof that AI music has real world value, and this transforms you from an aspirational creator to a professional who got paid for their work. Now this is a title you can legitimately own.

Around this principle, they talk about how the first dollar is the hardest to earn. It's much harder to go from zero to one dollar than it is to go from one to 100.

Why We Should Own Our Achievements

Earning any royalties on your music, on your art as a solo creator, is a pivotal moment that should be celebrated, and you should own it.

Here's a little meta moment for you: another reason why we should own our achievements is that creation is not an easy path. There's no guarantee of success, we might not get the support we need, people might not understand what we're trying to do, and we're venturing into the unknown. A lot of people will not take this path.

Music as Apps for Your Mindset

The funny thing is, the album that I created where I earned my first dollar of royalties is made of songs that kept me going when I was feeling defeated and made sure that I didn't quit so that I could get to the $1 milestone.

I designed these songs to be like apps for your mindset. If you're feeling low, you just press play, and it's like downloading empowering beliefs that are backed by real psychology. But it just feels like you're listening to cinematic pop R&B bangers, and it's effortless. So you're just listening to music and at the same time, you're getting empowering beliefs.

I still listen to it daily whenever I need a pick me up. So wherever you are on your creator journey, I hope you'll give it a listen and that it inspires you as much as it has inspired me and continues to inspire me.