20 Pop Culture Business Ideas You Can Start Today [2024]

Updated: July 24th, 2023

Interested in starting a pop culture business in 2024?

We put together 21 of the best pop culture businesses you can start in today.

For each business idea, we’ll show you real-world examples of other pop culture businesses to help you see what it really takes.

Here's the full list:

1. Become a music band manager

A music band manager is a professional representative and advisor to a musician or a band. The main duties of a band manager include negotiating contracts on behalf of the band.

The music band manager earns a commission of what the music band earns from gigs. To maximize earnings, the manager should act as a liaison between bands and the key players in the music industry and secure the best contracts and deals.

How much you can make: $40,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $5,000 (?)

How long does it take to build: 730 days (?)

How I Transitioned From A Career In Law To Starting A $40K/Month Business Managing Music Artists

A former attorney has successfully transitioned into managing musical artists, producing live events and recordings, grossing approximately $40,000 per month - all based on his lifelong passion for music, clients and employee's passion-led performance.

About
Charles started Blind Ambition Management about 24 years ago
Revenue
Charles grew the business to $40K/month
Costs
It cost Charles $5000 to start the business
Read by 6,186 founders

2. Design a wearable for musicians

How much you can make: $280,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $5,000 (?)

How long does it take to build: 540 days (?)

How We Designed A $230K/Month Wearable For Musicians

Soundbrenner raised $1.6M on Indiegogo and sold close to 100,000 smart wearables for musicians, featuring a vibration metronome that can be felt, rather than heard, and released a full smartwatch for musicians; the company's mobile app is the world's most popular metronome with over 6 million downloads and over 600,000 musicians that use it every month.

Revenue
Florian grew the business to $280K/month
Costs
It cost Florian $5000 to start the business
Read by 9,189 founders

3. Become a music blogger

A music blog covers different topics of interest among music lovers. With the music industry so popular in 2024, it is a great time to start a music blog. A music blog offers you a chance to get as creative as possible and is also a precious tool to help you promote and publicize music genres.

Starting a music blog is as easy as selecting a music niche. Identify topics of interest and create shareable content.

How much you can make: $996 — $160,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $50 (?)

How long does it take to build: 48 days (?)

How I Started Created Niche Infoproducts For DJs That Now Generate $1K/Month

Learn how DJ Tobander created a successful niche info-product business generating $1,000 a month through selling collections of DJ sets for special occasions and working with affiliates, with only modest costs and simple tools like WordPress, AWeber, LeadPages, and Digistore24.

About
DJ started DJ Tobander about 9 years ago
Revenue
DJ grew the business to $996/month
Costs
It cost DJ $50 to start the business
Read by 6,871 founders

4. Start a fashion accessories business

If you love fashion and clothing design, you may want to start a fashion accessories business. As a fashion accessories consultant, you help clients develop and adapt personal and professional styles.

Fashion accessories are decorative items that supplement one’s outfit. They include jewelry, gloves, belts, scarves, watches, sunglasses, bow ties, leggings, suspenders, and tights. To work as a professional stylist, collaborate with clients to understand their needs, and tailor styles and aesthetics to each individual’s preferences.

How much you can make: $1,985 — $40,480,000/month

How much does it cost to start: $550 (?)

How long does it take to build: 60 days (?)

Woodies Sunglasses: $3.5 Million Per Year With One Employee

Uncover all the details of Cory's journey:

  • Start: Made $5K/day scalping football tickets while he was at college
  • Launch: Hired Kendall Jenner for the Kickstarter campaign
  • Growth: They focused completely on Amazon, getting 100 new customers per day

Believe in yourself and keep going no matter what. If you stay in business, you almost can’t help but grow.

Read by 20,454 founders

5. Start a teaching business

A teaching business involves providing educational services to students of all ages, either in a group or individually. This can include tutoring, teaching language skills, music lessons, or providing educational workshops or classes.

To run a successful teaching business, it is important to have a strong background in the subject matter you will be teaching. This may involve obtaining a degree or certification in a particular field. Additionally, practical communication skills and the ability to adapt to different learning styles are essential in teaching.

Marketing and networking are also vital to growing a teaching business. Building relationships with schools, community centers, and other educational organizations can help to attract more students. Social media and other online platforms can also help promote your services and reach a larger audience.

Another tip for running a successful teaching business is to be organized and efficient with your time. Creating lesson plans and keeping track of student progress can help ensure that you provide the best possible education for your clients.

Overall, a teaching business can be a fulfilling and lucrative venture for entrepreneurs with a passion for education and a desire to make a positive impact on the lives of others.

How much you can make: $4,000 — $833,333/month

How much does it cost to start: $1,500 (?)

How long does it take to build: 105 days (?)

How I Started A $20K/Month Private Music Lessons Business

This case study follows Brooke Schrager's journey of starting a customized in-home music lesson business with only 10 students in January 2016 and growing it to over 200 students with monthly revenue of $20,000 in May 2021.

About
Brooke started Lessons By Brooke & Company about 8 years ago
Revenue
Brooke grew the business to $45K/month
Costs
It cost Brooke $1000 to start the business
Read by 6,359 founders

6. Become a costume designer

A costume designer designs costumes for a film, stage production, or television show. The costume designer works with directors, producers, writers, and production designers to contribute to the look and storytelling of the film. As a costume designer, you will work to ensure costume choices not only fit the character but also enhance the overall feeling of the scenes involved.

The costume designer must showcase creative imagination skills to perform on the job. You can earn creativity skills through professional development or higher education.

7. Start a musical festival promoter business

8. Start a t-shirt customization kiosk

One of the great things about starting a T-shirt customization business is that you only need a minimal overhead, and you could do it out of your backyard without issues.

However, before you ask how to start a T-shirt customization business in Mumbai, take a minute to consider why you want to create a T-shirt business. Probably the promotional products or uniforms niche is under-served in your area.

Before starting, you should outline your foray into the T-shirt customization business. Then, you need to identify the target market to understand better how you want to sell your customized t-shirts.

Once you have defined the niche market, you can develop custom designs as per the customers’ expectations. The following steps will be making the business legal and determining the overhead. Finally, market the business but do not overextend yourself financially.

9. Start an online studio business

How much you can make: $160,000/month

This 38-year-old makes $160000 per month in passive income - after losing his job: 'I work only 5 hours a week now'.

How Graham Cochrane founded The Recording Revolution, an online platform offering music instruction, and has grown it to train over 350,000 songwriters and musicians to produce songs suitable for radio from their homes, while also earning $160,000 per month in passive income and working only five hours per week.

About
They started Recording Revolution about 15 years ago
Revenue
They grew the business to $160K/month
Costs
It cost $60 to start the business
Read by 654 founders

10. Become a theme song creator

11. Become a song writer

A songwriter is a musician who composes musical compositions and writes lyrics for songs. To become a songwriter, you must start writing songs regularly and improve your creativity.

12. Start a costume rental business

Costume rental businesses are one of the newest and fastest-growing industries. These businesses can be found in almost every city, town, and state across the United States. Although these costume rental businesses range in size, they all have one thing in common: they are a great businesses to own.

Costumes are not an everyday use but there are a lot of situations where people want to wear their favorite costumes for a given occasion. It's like people want to eat candy, salad, plates of seafood, and meat every once in a while. The same holds true for costumes and party rentals. A costume rental business also means no sewing and less stress.

13. Start an online custom tailoring business

14. Start a music classes business

15. Start a musical instrument sales business

How long does it take to build: 30 days (?)

16. Become a fashion influencer

How much you can make: $4,000 — $380,536/month

Starting A Men's Style Publication Reaching A Million People Per Month

Learn how one entrepreneur built a million-person audience across various digital channels while generating $10-15k in monthly revenue through advertising brand partnerships, digital products, and affiliate programs with his digital media brand focused on helping shorter men dress better.

About
Brock started The Modest Man almost 12 years ago
Revenue
Brock grew the business to $4K/month
Read by 7,455 founders

17. Start a tech youtube channel

18. Start a video game streaming channel

19. Become a fashion influencer

How much you can make: $4,000 — $380,536/month

Starting A Men's Style Publication Reaching A Million People Per Month

Learn how one entrepreneur built a million-person audience across various digital channels while generating $10-15k in monthly revenue through advertising brand partnerships, digital products, and affiliate programs with his digital media brand focused on helping shorter men dress better.

About
Brock started The Modest Man almost 12 years ago
Revenue
Brock grew the business to $4K/month
Read by 7,455 founders

20. Become a beauty blogger

How much you can make: $8,000 — $380,536/month

How much does it cost to start: $250 (?)

How long does it take to build: 30 days (?)

How I Make $96K/Year As A Beauty Blogger

Delilah Orpi's blog "The Holistic Enchilada" is making up to $7,000 a month in revenue through sales of digital products, display ads, affiliate marketing, and sponsored posts in the niche market of clean beauty and curly hair, with a focus on retaining customers through email marketing and SEO.

About
Delilah started The Holistic Enchilada over 6 years ago
Revenue
Delilah grew the business to $8K/month
Costs
It cost Delilah $250 to start the business
Read by 3,573 founders

21. Start a sports youtube channel

How much you can make: $4,500,000/month

MrBeast Net Worth {{ current_year }}: How MrBeast Gained 90 Million Subscribers

Discover how MrBeast raised $20 million, donated over 100 cars, gave away a private island, and $1 million in one video, all while building and growing his own successful business.

About
They started MrBeast YouTube Channel about 12 years ago
Revenue
They grew the business to $4.5M/month
Read by 855 founders

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.