Music freelance jobs offer ways to make income online. From designing album art to session work, Melody Nest provides tons of ways for musicians to make money. It is also a great place for musicians to find freelancers to help them complete projects. Listen as Nick Voorhees, the founder & CEO at Melody Nest, talks with Bree Noble about opportunities for freelance musicians.Nick Voorhees started playing the piano when he was about 6 or 7. His mom signed him up and he fell in love with it. Music became everything to him. He played piano quite a bit until the age of 14 or 15, then he switched to guitar. He learned drums and bass, and also played in bands.
He got into the electronic dance music scene and was deejaying and touring a little bit. In college, he attended Icon Collective Production School in Los Angeles. He started paving his way in the industry and tapping into new networks and meeting new people. In 2017, he was working at a company and got laid off. He remembers sitting in a room with friends and they were talking about how they didn’t know where to go for their album art or cover art.
He thought, “Why don’t I make a website and put a bunch of graphic designers on it so musicians can easily connect with designers for whatever they need?” That’s the genesis of Melody Nest. His friends didn’t know where to go and neither did Nick for his own music releases. From there, a company was formed, and that’s basically the story of how Melody Nest started.
It was in August 2020 during the pandemic that Nick relaunched Melody Nest with a bunch of other freelancers. It was mainly because the artists wanted to sell music freelance jobs. They expanded and built a better website as vocalists, engineers, music producers approached them. The pandemic shifted everything in the marketplace out of creative necessity.
Melody Nest’s job as a company is to help artists find those connections, whether that’s another individual artist, a label, a company or even video content creators that need music for their videos.
Compared to AirGigs, Melody Nest offer more music freelance jobs. They have a pre-made cover art gallery that artists can choose designs from and they can get it within 1 or 2 days. We are faster. We are more holistic and have a vision for the marketplace that we think is different than AirGigs or SoundBetter.
For artists offering music freelance jobs, those that are talented, serious, willing to react and message quickly, the odds are very good that they will find a lucrative home on Melody Nest.
Something that we have seen in the music industry is that things are still very fragmented. A lot of connections are made because of people that you know. A lot of opportunities are landed because of nepotism. Marketplaces and technology like Melody Nest are some of the things that democratize the industry. If you are talented and there is traffic coming to this platform, you are as likely to book work versus people that might have a bigger name than you do. Names don’t always matter in this sector. It’s how well you can do the job. Their goal is to utilize the technology that we have now and to bring and prop up the music industry because they have seen patterns of falling behind technologically speaking, and they are aiming to keep musicians in the present.
What we have seen from the pandemic is that the freelance marketplace proves to be efficient. It brings in clients and creates an ecosystem where it’s fast, frictionless and personalized. You have a skillset and you can connect with people that need that skillset. There’s nothing new about the marketplace idea but the way it’s being implemented now and the freelance sector itself is something that will be with the music industry for a long time. It is heading in the right direction.
To use Melody Nest, you need to enter the site. You can see on the front page, there are categories clearly listed out. There are graphic designers and also a pre-made cover art selection. It depends on your needs. If you want something quick and efficient, let’s say you have a music release in three days and your label is hounding you saying like, “If you want to pick your own cover art, great. Go do it. You have three days.” You can come to Melody Nest, scan the cover art, and get what you need in and out pretty fast.
You can purchase it before, even talking with the graphic designer, if you love it that much, which is what a lot of musicians do. They value speed in that sense and you are in and out the door. Once you purchased, the designer messages you, and you get your cover art. It’s an efficient process. If you are looking for something custom and want to talk with a designer beforehand, you can go to the Graphic Designer category, which is one click away from the landing page. Scan profiles, see their pictures, the past work, their prices, and then direct message them.
You can communicate from there and work on the platform. When you send your money in, Melody Nest holds it in escrow. It’s where the third party basically escrow account in that sense where we hold onto the money until you are happy with what you get. We release the money to the designer. In this case, we provide security for you in the sense that if you did it on your own, it wouldn’t be available for you then. If you are working with someone you met, you are wiring money to someone you have never worked with before. We provide that security blanket for those that want auto-assistance when working with others that they do not know. It’s free to sign up but they take a small commission per transaction.
This episode was previously published on the Profitable Musician Show.
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