How To Make Money With Music In The Sims

The workweek is truly a never-ending slog in The Sims 1. Without weekends or personal time off, being a part of the regular rat race takes up a lot of a Sim’s time. For some Sims, it might even be better to escape the traditional career ladder altogether and start something of their own – like becoming a musician around town.

For the musician Sim who wants a little more structure, there’s also the option of joining the Musician career path which was introduced in The Sims: Livin’ Large. Either way, The Sims: Legacy Edition gives your Sims plenty of ways to pursue music professionally.

Making Money With Music In The Fame Career

Sims who embark on the Fame career path have the option of specialising in music. Fame is treated as its job in The Sims: Superstar, where your Sim works gigs for fame and fortune around Studio Town.

Super successful Sims have the chance of winning The Twang; a prestigious music award. It can come in Bronze, Silver, or Gold.

Sims on the Fame career path can earn money from gigs and tips around Studio Town. A good number of those gigs rely on your Sim being at least a little musically capable. For example, your Sim might choose to record jingles or perform at karaoke to help cement themselves as a household name.

Using the Fame items in Studio Town is useful to add depth to the storytelling parts of your gameplay because you can choose what genre of music your Sim performs. You can do karaoke or shoot videos for a few different genres, including Dance, Country, and more.

Sims with higher star power earn more money per gig. At first, your Sim can only earn tips from karaoke and open mic stages. Once they’re on the road to fame, they earn 50 Simoleons per job. Five-star celebrities at the top of their game earn 1,000 Simoleons per job.

Musical Items In Studio Town

As your Sim gets more famous, they’ll unlock more items they can use to make money with around Studio Town. Some of the music-focussed items they can use are:

• Karaoke
• Recording Studios
• Music Video Sets

If you want your Sim to make money from music, you should focus on doing these jobs specifically. Even before their future stardom is recognised, they can earn tips from doing karaoke, so don’t feel like they already have to be famous to make the magic happen.

Sims have to reach certain fame levels to be able to use some items. If your Sim doesn’t have enough star power, they’ll get rejected whenever they try to use them. The karaoke stage, on the other hand, is perfect for newbies and nobodies.

If you’re confused about anything in Studio Town, look out for Lana. She’s a local talent agent who can answer any questions you might have. You can generally find her on most lots in the area.

When it comes to recording studios, a Sim has a couple of different options depending on how famous they are. Less famous Sims can expect to find more success recording jingles for adverts, while Sims with more star power can record their album at Midlock Multiplex.

Music videos are also a must for the divas of Studio Town. Four-star celebrities can film music videos at the aptly named Music for the Eyes. If the video is a success, then your Sim will be rewarded with Simoleons and fame. You can record Rock, Pop, or Dance videos.

When you’re heading to Studio Town, use the guitar toggle at the top of the map to filter it. This indicates which lots have music opportunities on them.

How To Perform Music For Tips

Sims in the Fame career can get tips for performing music in Studio Town. This usually happens while using the karaoke stage, which can be found on the following lots:

• Cameron’s Lounge
• Midlock Multiplex

Be careful to make sure you’re using the karaoke stage and not the open mic stage. They look similar, but you can only use the Entertain interaction on the open mic stage, which doesn’t seem to involve singing at all.

It can take a while for tips to start trickling in. Some things you can do to try and improve your chances of getting a good income from performing are:

• Level the Creativity skill
• Join the Fame career
• Go to community lots in Studio Town with music opportunities available

Sometimes, if a Sim’s mood is too low they’ll refuse to perform at all. This can seriously hamper their chances of making it big with music, so try to avoid this happening by making sure your Sims are happy before heading to Studio Town.

As well as making sure their mood is good, you should also make sure their Creativity skill is high to improve their chances of success and to earn as many tips as possible. Thankfully, they’ll increase their Creativity as they perform anyway.

If your Sim has low Creativity, they’ll be heckled by the other Sims around them, which in turn decreases the relationship they have with each other.

Given how hard it is to actually build relationships, it’s best to try and avoid this if possible by rehearsing in private before the big show. You also want to keep your famous friends happy if you’re hoping to become a superstar, so try not to get on people’s bad side by caterwauling at them.

Joining The Musician Career

If having a regular, steady income is more your Sim’s style, then they can join the Musician career track using either the daily newspaper or a computer. It has ten levels to it, ranging from being a Subway Musician up to (inexplicably) a Celebrity Activist.

Which careers are available will change randomly each day, so it might take a while for the Musician career to cycle around. In the meantime, consider taking on another job or get your Sim to flex their Creativity skill by selling paintings on the easel.

At the start of their career, a Sim in the Musician career path will earn 90 Simoleons a day. It’s not a lot, but it isn’t terrible considering they work five hours a day, leaving some time for them to practice their instrument and hone their skills.

Musician Sims need to build a few skills throughout their career, but for the first five levels, they can just focus on improving their Creativity and making family friends. Later on in their career, they’ll also need to build Mechanical, Body, Charisma, and Logic.

Sims who max out the Musician career can expect to earn 1,400 Simoleons a day. It makes it a pretty lucrative career if they can stick it out. It can be a bit of a slow burn until you get to the top, though.

Which Musical Instruments Can Sims Play?

The Sims: Legacy Edition offers all of the items from the game’s first generation of DLC, including a guitar, keyboard, and several pianos. You can find them in Buy Mode under the Creativity section of Miscellaneous. Their names and prices are:

If singing is more your Sim’s style, then you can buy The Genius Loci Karaoke Stage for 4,413 Simoleons instead. It’s in the Other section of Miscellaneous. However, you can save your Simoleons by just using them on community lots instead.

Sims build the Creativity skill while playing instruments, so it’s pretty useful to have some kicking around for your future celebrity.

If you’re good enough, then they’re also a great way of entertaining guests at parties but be ready to be booed if your skills are a little lacklustre.