“I tried it, it didn’t work…”. This phrase can often be heard from those who have ever tried to make money through freelancing. Throw away the tie, take the cup out of the office – in this article, we will talk about how to make money on freelancing. What product is in high demand and what does it depend on? How does seasonality affect sales and orders, and how to turn competitors into teachers?
Freelancing, by its very nature, is a real springboard for creative self-realization. Thousands of people are looking for those who can fulfill their orders for a decent fee. Music? Design? Animation? Voice-over? You name it. The main thing to know is that this is a competitive world. Whether you get this order or someone else depends on many factors: prices, experience, work samples, and communication skills. You will learn about all this any minute now. I suggest you start by analyzing the market and offers.
Analyzing the market
So the moment has come and you’ve registered on a freelance platform. Let’s think about what kind of music will be in demand. It’s a mistake to think that almost all orders will be related to songs for artists, two chords – three hits. Here are the most popular items from the “audio menu”:
- Jingles;
- Cinematic music;
- Creating backing tracks of famous songs to order;
- Vocalist/instrumentalist services;
- Children’s music;
- Online lessons;
- Author’s music, songs;
- Arrangement/mixing of the finished composition;
- Video sounding (selection of FX, SFX, background music);
- Making playlists;
- “Cleaning” vocals, mixing podcasts, audiobooks;
- Music transcription.
If you have sound engineering skills, then the field of work is not plowed. To be fair, not all orders are about advanced skills, and inexperienced freelancers will also find something to pay attention to. One way or another, the issue of quality is acute there. Develop yourself, improve yourself. I recommend starting with such sites as Upwork and Fiverr, as there is always a lot of different work for musicians. You can also consider Weblancer and Freelancer, especially since no one asks you to limit yourself to one platform for promotion;) There is no particular difference between them, as such. Orders are of the same format, somewhere more, somewhere less, at different times there will be jumps and falls on one platform or another. From my own observations, I’d like to note that Fiverr and Upwork have been on the rise lately for music and sound work. Advertising works wonders.
Whatever site you choose, start evaluating competitors. Under each order, people leave links to their work, thus setting the bar for quality. Try to understand what distinguishes top freelancers from others, why their music is in demand. There are 3 types of freelancers who can actually earn money, each with their own approach in the “Experience – Price – Quality” coordinate system:
- Uncompromising quality: experienced professionals with a long resume. They are expensive, but the quality of the product is at the highest level. Most often, they are entrusted with the most serious and expensive projects, for example, the film industry (cinematic music, selection of effects and sounds in 5D), and copyright music (top performers looking for experienced authors);
- The golden mean: quite experienced freelancers who are ready to place an order for not fabulous money. In fact, it’s the purest value for money. When setting the price, they focus primarily on skills, not ambitions;
- Workaholics: those who can do tons of work for almost nothing. They try to charge the cheapest price, trying to earn money by the number of orders they fulfill. A good strategy for getting a strong and competitive resume, the competent ones move into the “golden mean” category, especially the unlucky ones move into the bonus fourth category, called “failed, going back to the office”.