How To Build A Music Team Using Odesk Part 1

If you want to consistently present yourself well as a musician, you can't do everything by yourself. You won't have the time needed to do everything, and most likely you won't have all the needed skills. This is why all big musicians have teams around them, whether or not the team is formed by a record label.

Today we'll look at why you need a team, as well as how the website Odesk can help you put that team together. If you want to take your music career to the next level, this is the guide you need to pay attention to. It's actually a two parter with part 2 coming this Thursday; I'll link to the second part once it's ready.

Why You Need To Build A Music Team

So why even build a music team? Can't you do everything in your music career by yourself? Well, not really. Ask yourself these things:

1. Can you graphic design to a high level?
2. Have you got somewhere to record your music?
3. Can you do all your music marketing yourself?
4. Are you good at networking and getting shows?

Even if you answered yes to every one of these questions (which most musicians won't be able to do), there's still one important thing you need to take into account:

The time it takes to do all of these things!

The truth is, even if you're world class at all of the above, you simply wouldn't have enough time to put everything you need to do into practice effectively. There simply aren't enough hours in the day. You'll get some nice work done, but you wouldn't be getting enough work done.

Now think of it, if you have another 1, 2, 5 or 10 people all as good as you (if not better) working on those things, how much more would you get done? That's right, 1, 2, 5 or 10 times more! And guess what? That increases your chance of succeeding in music a lot (as long as you have the talent of course).

Don't try and do everything yourself. You may be able to initially when you're a new musician with unlimited time, but if you're starting to gain traction or you're working a full time job alongside doing music, you're going to need to get help on board.

What Is Odesk, And How Can It Help You With Creating Your Music Team?

Before we look at what kind of work you can get outsourced to Odesk as a musician, let's look at what Odesk is.

So you've decided you need a music team. But what if you don't know anyone who can help you build your career? Well then you can turn to a website like Odesk.

Odesk is job marketplace which anyone can go on to either find people to do work for them, or to get freelance work. This is where you can find your team.

Now remember, other people go on there looking for work, meaning they want to get paid for their time. That said, you can hire people very cheaply compared to what you'd spend if you was going through a company which specializes in the task you want done. This is because not only can you hire people from all over the world, but you also have plenty of people who are new to the site and will work a bit cheaper initially to get their feedback up. This can mean big savings for you; a fully professional cover design for example can easily be bought for say $50 – $80.

There are also higher priced options if you have the money, but there is a real choice and options to fit any budget.

What Your Music Team Can Help You With

So now you know what Odesk is, let's look at what you can get people to do which will help your music career.

The Designing Of Cover And Promotional Art

Cover art and general promotional art is something all musicians need at some stage of their music career. Unfortunately though, many don't know how to design, but feel it's a good idea to learn this skill themselves.

Wrong!!

If you want to be a professional designer and design art for a living, go ahead and learn how to do design work. If you want to be a musician, this isn't something you should be doing. Not only is it a waste of time (it'll take ages to learn, and each piece will take long to design), but most likely it won't come out anywhere near as good as if you got an experienced graphic designer to create it for you.

You can get great designs for a great price on Odesk, so if you want your artwork to stand out from the crowd, look for a designer on Odesk.

The Creation Of Your Music Website

I've actually looked at the importance of why you need a music website and how to make one in this guide. Hundreds of musicians have used that guide to make their own music site. That said, many still aren't comfortable setting up their own website. And that's ok.

If you don't want to deal with the technical side of things (even though it's not really that technical if you're already good with a computer) you can always pay someone to do it. These kind of tasks are pretty standard on Odesk, so post a job asking for someone to set up your WordPress site and you'll get lots of people applying and for a good price.

The Management of Your Music Website And Social Sites

So now you've got your website set up, but what about managing this site? Things like:

• Updating plugins and WordPress to ensure your website is as secure as it can be.
• Adding new blog posts with updates about what you're doing?
• Adding new plugins and features to your website?

Again, all of these things can be outsourced to someone on Odesk. You can hire a team member to run your website and even your social sites, leaving you more time to do things only you can do. Things like writing songs, recording songs, and performing.

Conclusion

As a musician you can't do everything by yourself. You need a team, people who will put the time in and who have the expertise to manage certain aspects of your music career better than you.

In part two of this guide we'll look more at other things you can get people in your team to do for you, as well as how to build up this team if you're concerned you don't have the budget for it. For now though, let us know in the comments if you've outsourced any other tasks to Odesk and what the results have been. Or if you have any questions, let us know.