Odesk For Musicians – Using Freelancers In Your Music Team

Spread the love

Odesk For Musicians - Using Freelancers In Your Music TeamDon't have enough time to handle all aspects of your music career? Need help with the business side of the music industry? Then Odesk might be able to help you as a musician.

Odesk is an online marketplace which connects people who need others to work for them and are willing to pay for that. There are a huge mix of workers on there, many of whom are very talented and can be hired for a fraction of the cost you'd pay if you went with a company.

Odesk if a great place for musicians to go if they need help with any of the following:

  • Marketing your music,
  • Creating graphics for your covers and promotional materials.
  • Email management.
  • Finding and booking gigs.
  • Etc.

This is just a small example of what you can get done on there, but it should hopefully give you an idea of what kind of use it could be to you.

So let's say you've decided to give it a go and hire someone through Odesk. How do you go about getting people to work for you and help your music career? This is what we'll show you in this two part guide guide on Odesk for musicians (Note: part 2 is out now). If it's useful, please share it.

P.S. I've already looked at why you should build a music team, so if you're not sure if you should then have a look at that too.

But first, if it's your aim to do music professionally, you'll want to check out our free ebook while it's still available:

Free Ebook 5 Steps To A Profitable Youtube Music Career Ebook Sidebar

Free eBook: Discover how real independent musicians like you are making $4,077 - $22,573+ monthly via Youtube, let me know where to send the details:

Basic Odesk Set Up For Musicians

Before you can hire people to help you and your music on Odesk, you need to create a free account with them. Choose the option that says you're looking for a freelancer and will pay for this help. The sign up is pretty straight forward and they'll guide you through this process. In short though you'll need to add your details and add a payment method (this won't be charged until you hire someone of course). There are a coupe of other small bits, but it's all pretty straight forward and not worth going in to right now. I'd rather get you into the meat of things. 🙂

Should You Hire People For Fixed Price Contracts Or Timed Ones?

The next thing you'll want to think about is whether you'll hire someone based on how many hours they work for you, or if you'll pay them based on what work they complete for you.

The option you go for will depend on two things:

  1. What kind of job that person is doing for you, and
  2. How you feel comfortable paying them.

Musician using OdeskFor ongoing jobs like weekly marketing, you may want to pay people hourly. Jobs like this are hard to put a price on, so hourly paying will usually be easiest for all parties.

If you've got one off jobs like CD cover creation for example, you'll probably be better off giving a one time fee for anyone who you hire. This is because you know you'll get that work done for a set price. Even if they have to go back and edit the CD cover a couple of times (which would cost more if they're working hourly and put in more time than normal) you still won't pay above the agreed cost.

Both options are available to you, it's up to you which you choose.

How Much Do People You Hire On Odesk Cost?

So, this is the thing most people want to know.

The amount you have to pay someone to become part of your music team really depends. Some people will charge you next to nothing for the work they do, often because they're new and want to get their ratings up. Or because they're from a country where money goes further. Others on the other hand will try and charge you a premium. It just depends on who you approach or who applies for your job.

There's no hard and fast rule for prices on Odesk; you'll have to see what other people are charging and offer more or less from there.

If you post a job and it doesn't get many people applying, you'll probably have to offer more to people. But if you get a lot of application or you see people are doing the work for cheaper generally, you can offer less next time.

Posting A Job On ODesk

So you know you want to hire someone, the next step is to post a job on Odesk. While this is pretty straight forward (Odesk gives you help along the way) there are a few tips I want to give you in addition:

  • Always be specific in your job posting. While you don't want to give every single detail here (e.g. you don't need to let them know the exact color of the text for a cover design, or the exact audio file they're going to edit for you) you do still want to give them enough for them to work out if it's something they can do or not. So include things like the skills they'll need, and similar outcomes you'll want. For example, if you're looking to get a cover designed, post a couple of links to covers similar to the style you'd want.
  • You should let them know when you'll need this job completed by. Some won't be able to do it in that time frame, so it'll filter out people not right for the job.
  • Let them know how much you're paying. This will make sure only people who are within your budget apply.
  • Ask them about their experience. This is especially useful if you're hiring someone to market your music for you; you won't want to hire them if they've got no experience marketing, even if you can give them a step by step plan. You can add this question in the ‘Screening Questions' section.
  • Make sure they include a cover letter. It's always good to get to know a bit about who's going to be working with you.

Conclusion

So that's it for part one in this guide on Odesk for musicians. In part 2 we'll look at the hiring process, how to interview people, and how to get your work done. I'll also touch on building a team on Odesk, as well as other important tips not often talked about.

P.S. Remember though, none of what you've learned will matter if you don't know how to get your music out there and earn from it. Want to learn how to do that? Then get our free ‘5 Steps To Profitable Youtube Music Career' ebook emailed directly to you!

Similar Posts

One Comment

  1. Hey Shaun, good article! I also wanted to mention there is an Oodesk-like site for music production soundbetter.com you can hire out someone to help you with mixing and mastering.

Comments are closed.