AirGigs Review
The music production setting has completely transformed over the last years. Studio producers and engineers are given smaller budgets and shorter session lengths to work with. It used to be that you could live off of a few records each year; now numerous studio experts need twice as many clients, if not more, to withstand their business.
AirGigs is the solution to that problem. It bridges musicians, producers and engineers in an online service market. Musicians can sign up without paying anything and list their service such as drum tracks or vocal arrangements to name a few, in a very simple profile with a nice Soundcloud incorporation. Studio professionals can do the same as well.
What is AirGigs?
AirGigs lets you search for top talent throughout the music realm. From session musicians to add that unique xylophone sound you wanted on your latest record to expert engineers ready turn your not so nice demo into a sleek, well-polished radio ready album, everything you need is under one website.
AirGigs is arranged in a marketplace setup, where users can browse service listings in categories such as vocal tracks, bass & guitar tracks, mixing, mastering and more. In addition, all gigs have an upfront fixed price instead of an hourly rate that has you rushing the work often at the cost of quality.
The ability to eliminate a lot of the unnecessary costs of doing studio work has enabled the prices for these services to come way down as well. There are numerous of options to choose from as well so you can find exactly what you want and need. AirGigs also recently added a Music Marketing section which we will be adding gigs to over the next few days.
AirGigs keeps track of the projects in your queue, as well as the satisfaction rating of the people who hire you. This reputation tracking adds a much-appreciated layer of trust to incentivize a transaction with a stranger online. The site is still in beta — there are hundreds of listings, though we’re not seeing a whole lot of marketplace activity yet. Filtering tools allow the user to easily browse the cream of the crop, a smart feature to include.
How to Make Money from AirGigs
Lessons
This might be pretty obvious but you could offer lesson to make some cash or you could make yourself more valuable by investing in some lessons.
Transcription
You could do the transcribing for others of course but transcription rates seemed fairly reasonable and you could have some of your original stuff transcribe into sheet music. Generally you can get more money for sheet music than a recording especially if you have music that gets used for special occasions like weddings.
Music Promotion
The music promotion section feels a tad spammy with all the “5 million YouTube views for $5” stuff, but I suppose it isn’t hurting anything (as long as you don’t use it IMHO). But if you have a large audience it could be useful to offer an email exchange or an email blast with a similar artist for a small feel.
Final Thoughts
Overall, the AirGigs site is a great foundation for building an active community around a roster of in-demand talent. Only time will tell how valuable that will be. We certainly hope to see it grow and give more musicians and producers an opportunity to adapt to the changing studio landscape. And at the moment, it’s a no-risk, no-brainer for musicians and audio professionals specializing in these kinds of gigs — it’s always good to be listed in any marketplace you can.
While the site is free to join, AirGigs will take a 7% commission on the price of every gig sold. This information could be more prominent in their site. Nonetheless, it’s a very reasonable fee. When that’s added to the PayPal transaction fee, you’re giving up a 10% cut to the platform for facilitating the gig
