Whether you are an employed musician looking for a part time job for earning some extra money, or looking for some more serious job opportunities, you might start looking for the best freelance websites for musicians.
There are many jobs you can do as a freelance musician. First of all is to perceive your own skills and music knowledge. If you are a professional musician, then the question is whether you would like to teach music or work as a composer for example. If you are a self-taught enthusiast, you might also get involved in teaching and composing, depending on your preferences. Apart from these two opportunities, there are many other things a freelance musician can do. There are opportunities for creating music for video games, getting involved in the film industry, audio design, music production and many more that are offered on freelance websites for musicians. Starting any of those might be tough in the beginning, but don’t give up! Promote yourself, work hard, show your best work, follow tips and ask for the help of experienced colleagues.
We’ve sought for advice from the professionals and thus first went to see what Berklee Career Center has to say on this subject. Then for personal preferences, we’ve checked Quora and Reddit. We’ve also checked some common freelance websites not specialized in music to check the offer they give for jobs for freelance musicians. Some of them you can also find on our list of 10 Best Freelance Websites for Programmers.
Another option might be starting your own website, where you would introduce yourself, your music background and present your offers. That is one way of advertising and promoting your music skills and knowledge. You might also join communities such as the Portfolio composer or follow Music Publishing Podcast that will give you further guidance in developing more skills (concerning business and promotion) at any stage of your music career.
Although freelance music jobs do not only include things you can do from your home, we have mostly (though not exclusively) concentrated here on those kinds of jobs. We have chosen the following best freelance websites for musicians:
10. Upwork
This freelance site offers many different job categories, among which are music freelance jobs. It is easy to search through those categories, you just need to sign up of course. In order to get hired quickly, and gain higher visibility to clients choose the preferences and skills to promote yourself wisely. The payment can be arranged as you wish, and Upwork charges a certain fee for freelancers.
9. Monster
Monster offers a great deal of jobs world widely, not only for musicians, and not exclusively stay-at-home jobs. The better account resume, the better job offers you are likely to get. A simple search engine offers exploring job opportunities fast.
8. Peopleperhour
This is yet another freelance job finding website that ranks 8th on our list of best freelance websites for musicians and offers many job categories. Being here among best freelance websites for musicians is the nicely done transparent search engine that gives you direct insight into pricing, posting time and ease of access in terms of sending proposals.
7. Production HUB
This website offers a lot of jobs concerning film, TV, video, digital media, and live events. Apart from freelance music jobs, this website offers full- and part-time jobs as well. As a freelancer, you can get a great number of benefits on this website (in terms of number of categories your profile is listed on, and other useful things) for $59 per month license.
6. Gamejobhunter
This is a simple website for fast search of freelance job opportunities in game industry. Minimalistically built, it only gives you filtered search through game industry jobs classes. Good thing is that the registration and job posting is free.
5. Taxi
This website is targeting mainly musicians who compose and make music, in order to promote and publish their work. The great thing is that Taxi takes in mind songwriters, bands, composers, and accept literally any kind of music. Taxi members end up being involved in Hollywood, Discovery Channel, Vh1, Fox and many other major labels. The good thing about this website is that they do not charge any fee for any amount of money you earn except the $5 fee per song you submit, and a full membership of $299.95.
4. Games Jobs Direct
This is a great website connecting game companies with freelancers. Registration is free of charge and it offers save and re-run job searches, uploads your CV that makes it more acceptable for employers, and also reviews your previous job applications. Here you can find nice job offers as a freelance musician concerning video games.
3. Takelessons
This is a great job opportunity for those who would like to teach online. The only thing you have to do is create your professional profile and the students will find you. Another great thing about this website is that listing and maintaining profile is free, and the fee charged is 10% of the total lesson price per student.
2. Soundbetter
We are continuing our list of best freelance websites for musicians with Soundbetter that offers serious freelance music jobs for professional singers, producers, mixing and mastering engineers and session musicians. Here you can get hired for any of those categories, but you better be good in what you are doing.
1. Music freelancer
At the top of our list of 10 best freelance websites for musicians is Music Freelancer. Just sign up for free, and start looking for any of freelance music jobs among many that this site has to offer. This is perhaps the best offer for completely freelance musicians who want to work completely from their homes, with their own flexible working time. After a finished job, payment is received immediately and safely.