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There are many ways to add income to your music business. You can do the obivous and see t-shirts and merch at yoru gigs, you can teach students (guitar for example), sell your music etc. But what about those days when there are no gigs, students, etc. I’ve been playing arounnd with odesk.com This is a site where people posts jobs of all sorts (I’ve been finding a few jobs as a podcast consutlant), and when I typed in “Music Producer” into the search box I not only found some jobs, but some ofthese were ongoing jobs (people want 30 second version of cover songs for some reason).
I’ve also seen jobs for music for video games, presentations, indie movies, etc. Be careful as I’ve started looking at jobs where I was “kind of” qualified and it turned out to be a waste of time.
oDesk is free. They stay in business by adding a percentage to the fee that you charge. For example, if I charge $18 an hour the final price to the client is $20 (with oDesk taking an additional $2).
Check it out at oDesk.com
Another alternative is elance.com, however there is a monthly fee to use this service (in addition to the percentage they take), and there seemed to be less music related jobs.
Do you know of any other sites where musicans can be hired to free lance work?
Tags: odesk
Leave A Reply (2 comments So Far)
Anne Roos
210 days ago
I personally like GigSalad.com. You can list yourself as a musician, entertainer, speaker, you name it. I’ve landed some really great corporate gigs from people who found me there.
Anne
http://www.celticharpmusic.com
Author of “The Musician’s Guide to Brides: How to Make Money Playing Weddings”, published by Hal Leonard Books
AND I’m branching out, too. Visit my new site at http://www.YourWebWriter.com
David Hooper
130 days ago
oDesk is a great site, but something to consider is that the majority of people are non-US workers and, unless you have a specialty, such as podcasting or musician skills, you’re going to be competing on price and that won’t be a living wage for US workers. Maybe $3/hour for data entry, SEO (like link building), or research. In addition, many non-specialized projects get HUNDREDS of bids.
Regarding cover songs only 30 seconds long, it probably has something to do with the RIAA rule that allows you to stream them without paying royalties. This is why all iTunes and Amazon samples are only 30 seconds.
If you’ve got a good voice, or just a unique one, Voice123.com is a similar site that specializes in voiceover work. A good match for musicians, I think, as many already have the needed recording equipment.