Key Takeaway
Sims can write songs by reaching a level 8 or 9 of musical instrument skills. Once they finish the song, they can license it and get royalties from it.
Creatively gifted Sims can work as songwriters in The Sims 4. As in real life, it will take a bit of time to perfect. However, it’s worth the trouble since you can earn a little side cash from it.
Table Of Contents
Level Up Your Musical instrument Skill
Unlike other artistic activities in The Sims 4, Sims can’t start writing songs right from the get-go. Instead, they have to fulfill an important prerequisite first.
After picking a musical instrument, they need to get to level eight of the instrument skill. So, for example, they need to be a level eight in playing the piano, the guitar, or the violin. To level up faster, it helps to read educational books, visit skill-building courses, and, of course, practice, practice, and practice!
Start Writing the Song
Once your Sim gets to level eight of playing a musical instrument, they can start writing their own songs. Simply click on the musical instrument and pick the “Write Song…” option. You then get to choose from several musical genres or melodies (for example, a classic piece or a jazzy piece).
Finishing a song takes a lot of time, though—about twelve hours. As such, it’s highly unlikely that Sim is going to finish the song in a single writing session.
The good news is that you can take breaks between writing the song. Once you want to return to working on the song, don’t click the instrument again. This way, you’d only start writing a new song without finishing the older one first.
Instead, open the Sim’s inventory where you will find a sheet of music. The sheet either looks like a blue book or a black electronic file. Click the file and choose the option to resume writing the song. After finishing the song, name it and you’re ready to license the song!
License The Song
Licensing songs is a good way how to make extra money in The Sims 4. Other than actually finishing the song, the only other major requirement is for the Sim to achieve skill level nine in a musical instrument.
Afterward, you can click on the mailbox and choose the “License Song…” option. If your Sim writes songs for multiple musical instruments, you also have to pick which song for which instrument you want to license.
After completing the process, Sim will get royalties for a week. The amount of money differs but it’s usually between 200 to 800 Simoleons per day. This makes songwriting a perfect option for all Sims who work from home.
The downside is that you can usually license only one song per musical instrument at a time. The good news is that unlike with paintings or novels, it’s possible to license the same song more than once.
All players should know that they can also write and license lyrics. While the requirements and method of working are similar to songs, it’s possible to license both songs and lyrics at the same time. In other words, this will bring your Sim twice as much income.
Bonus: How to Level Up Faster
It takes a while to reach a level eight or nine of a musical instrument skill. Impatient players who would like their Sims to achieve the required level faster can use cheats to do so.
The procedure is simple. First, press “Ctrl+Shift+C” to open a bar in the top-left corner of the screen. Input testingcheats true and click “Enter.”
The final step is to type stats.set_skill_level Major_(skill) (skill level) in the tab. So for example, if your Sim plays the violin, it’s going to look like this:
stats.set_skill_level Major_Violin 8
Sims who have the Creatively Gifted trait also tend to learn to play instruments faster. However, the cheats are the quickest way how to get to the level you need almost immediately!
