So, have you been twisting your brain to come up with a great idea for an affordable, unique gift for a musician?
Finding the best gifts for a musician could often be a tedious and frustrating process.
But don’t panic. This list is specifically designed for you to easily get some unique and solid ideas for a present – whether it’s for christmas, birthdays or other reasons.
Us musicians are a weird breed. None of us are the same, but there are some things that you can be sure every single one of us would enjoy under the Christmas tree, such as:
- Ebooks
- Subscription at MasterClass
- Guitar accessories
- A second-hand computer for music production
- Zoom Recorder
- LED Multicolor Strip Lights
- A unique musical instrument: the Hurdy-gurdy
- A portable keyboard
- Headphones
- Virtual Instruments (VSTs)
- Travel Bag
- External SSD Samsung T5
Whether you are looking for unique gift ideas or just trying to look for ways to not break
1. Ebooks
If you are short on money or need to get ahold of a gift quickly, you can buy a downloadable ebook, like “All You Need to Know About the Music Business”.
An Ebook has a fast delivery. You can get this within 5 minutes after reading this article. And it is an extremely helpful ebook for every musician out there who wants to pursue a career in music.
If you want to do something more special, you can print it out and bind it together to create a nice physical gift out of it.
Other great Ebooks music themes to consider:
- Mixing
- Film Music
- Composition
- Songwriting
- Orchestration
2. A subscription at MasterClass.com
Places like Masterclass are great sources to develop music skills and learn from the best.
If the lucky recipient of your gift is an aspiring musician, he or she will find great pleasure in binge-watching helpful content from people who have succeeded in their respective fields.
(In addition, Gordon Ramsay is also on there, so your gift might end up improving their cooking skills as well).
Example of courses MasterClass offers:
- Hans Zimmer Teaches Film Scoring
- DeadMau5 Teaches Electronic Music Production
Btw, you should definitely go for the all-access offer, which is much more value for money-deal than paying for one single course.
3. Guitar Accessories
If your musician father, sister, brother, or whoever you are looking to buy a present for, plays the acoustic guitar, I have come up with a couple of suggestions for you.
Acoustic guitar accessories guaranteed to be well-received:
- Humidifier
- Guitar Pick
- Capo
- Strings
- Oil (for maintenance of the guitar)
- Guitar stand
- Guitar case
4. PC (second-hand)
If your daughter or son wants to start recording their own music, you shouldn’t break the bank.
Why, you ask?
Well, because investing in expensive equipment at a beginner stage might be a little bit risky. You never know if they maintain their interest or not, so be sure to not spend more on this than you are comfortable with.
That is why building your own computer from second-hand parts could be a great way to ensure that your kids get the best workstation without you struggling to pay for the electricity for the next 9 months.
I bought a second-hand PC myself, and with a few, cheap upgrades, I was able to put together a quite powerful workstation.
If you want to give this a go, you should definitely read my article where I documented the build process. In the same article, I share valuable information on what really makes a great second
5. Zoom Recorder (H1n)
If your musician friend likes to create melodies everywhere he goes, a portable recorder is a nice choice.
The Zoom H1n is perfect for just having in the bag, ready to be used if he needs to record a promising melody.
This is also a very solid solution if you have a friend (or kids) who wants to begin recording their songs, but not so professional that they need to use computers and all that other stuff.
Also, the
I ́ve had this for a couple of years now, and I can say that I am pleased with the sound quality it produces. It is also very practical and lightweight, which makes it ideal to carry around for everyone that has pockets.
Visit Amazon to read more about it if this seems like the perfect present.
6. LED Multicolor Strip Lights
LED strip lights are getting increasingly more popular.
If the recipient of your gift has a music studio or is planning to build one, LED lights will provide the studio with a totally customized look.
Some companies, like
So, if you don’t want to break the bank, the multicolor LED strip lights will definitely make for a very original and unexpected gift.
Oh, and combine the lights with the free music studio setup – checklist you can find here on AndyaxMusic.com and you have a pretty solid bundle to give to your musician friend.
7. A Unique Musical Instrument: the Hurdy-gurdy
Have you ever heard of a Hurdy-gurdy? Well, it is definitely not the most common musical instrument. But man, they are cool!
The Hurdy-gurdy was used in the opening theme of the awesome pirate series “Black Flag”, and is a pretty rare instrument. It is quite an old instrument as well, dating back to medieval times.
Most H
The thing that makes this even cooler is that you must assemble the model yourself before you can play it.
So if your musician friend is quite nerdy, likes to be unique, or likes to assemble things, you have just found your gift.
No doubt – giving one of these as a gift are sure to be remembered.
8. A Portable Keyboard
If your musician girlfriend is producing music on her laptop, be sure to consider getting her the very affordable Komplete Kontrol M32.
In case you are not too familiar with what this is: The Komplete Kontrol is what we call a MIDI controller. They look like a digital piano, but they come with more knobs, faders, and wheels. In addition, they need to be used with a computer in order to produce
Even though your friend might have a larger keyboard already: this is perfect if she has a laptop and wants to be more portable as well.
It is small and lightweight enough to put in most travel bags, and since it is a MIDI Controller with faders and everything, there is no need to buy and bring external devices with faders and other types of controllers.
You can check out the current price on Amazon.
9. Headphones
In the jungle of headphones – which one to buy?
I actually used to work at HiFi-Klubben, which is a speaker store. During my time there, I got to test a lot of various headphones across all prices.
Some headphones artificially boost the lower frequencies to make them sound more bassy. If you buy headphones to a musician you should avoid such headphones like the plague. For headphones to be useful when making music, they need to be as honest as possible, and not coloring the sound too much.
In addition, it is a solid plus if they have noise-canceling and are what we call “over-ear”, meaning they cover the whole ear.
Personally, I have been using the Sony WH-1000xm2 for the last year, and I am especially pleased with the build quality, how comfortable they are and how well-balanced the sound is.
The best thing is, that they are no longer the newest in their line-up, which of course impacts the price. Last time I checked, the price discount on these was nearly half the original price, so check out the current price on Amazon to see if you are still in luck.
10. Virtual Instruments (VSTs)
As a musician, I know one thing: there is always something I need for my music studio. More instruments are always on the list, but I have neither the space and money required to get a full orchestra inside my living room. And that is why VST instruments are so wonderful.
Imagine having the whole orchestra in your pocket, and you could take it wherever you want. VST instruments let you do this.
A VST is a virtual instrument that is sampled from a real one, and a great gift for every musician out there. One of the most popular developers of such instruments is Native Instruments.
If you want more information and advice on the best virtual instruments you should read about my favorite ones in this post.
11. Travel Bag/Backpacks
This gift is perhaps the safest gift you can find. Everyone needs a travel bag, right? Yup, and you can bet that a musician is bound to travel with his gear once in a while.
There are travel bags specifically made to please the traveling musician, whether he is on tour, on the way to rehearsals, or a DJ (they travel with their equipment all. the. time.)
Well, Pelican is a robust and durable backpack with lots of room for both music equipment, laptops, etc.
It is not the cheapest of backpacks, but man, the case is actually both crushproof and watertight! What a present this is. If you dare, check out the price on Amazon.
12. An external SSD – Samsung T5
To a musician or a music producer, an external SSD is a must-have. We tend to acquire quite huge software programs and instrument libraries that take up a lot of space on the computer, effectively destroying the computer performance as well.
To get rid of this problem we have to store our virtual instruments on an external hard drive or SSD.
Giving a fast SSD as a gift is sure to be well received. Personally, I would be overjoyed if I got an SSD for my next birthday (And If my girlfriend reads this, I would choose the Samsung T5 with 1 TB of storage).
Prices on computer parts fluctuate all the time. You can check the current price on Amazon to see if you are in for a good deal.
Now you know
I hope you got some ideas to what to buy your musician friend. All these tips have been on my own wish list at some point.
