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Any other musicians having a slow month?


paolanoelle

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Hey!
Is everyone else having a slow month or is just me? Since the beginning of March, I’ve only gotten one order and that was from someone outside of Fiverr…so no organic orders in March after getting almost one a week since Christmas, before that.

This also happened when I started the Seller Plus but could be coincidence. Either way, it’s upsetting if that investment isn’t helping me turn a profit…

So I’m just curious if it’s a low period for music gigs or if it’s just me. I’ve been fighting hard for my last two orders / $100 I need for next level with no success and it seems like i spend more time advertising that actually working on music. It’s frustrating.

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It is always more miss than hit with me on Fiverr. I did get a bit active there for a bit but then back to just extreme stupidity.

One I keep seeing is people wanting a mix but showing only the commercially released song they want to clone and not their own track. How bad is their track??? I feel like I am being lured into a trap - big or small T, all the same from what I can see 😉

Something else I noticed was that I saw several sellers who seemed really cheap, then I realized that their Gig wording was a bit of a scam, things like Pro Mixing for Radio Ready (one of those weird terms but hey) then look carefully and the base price doesn’t include basic things like Reverb. How can a mix be considered done if reverb is deliberately missing? It definitely explains some the nasty things I hear where clearly the mix was done by the Pinball Wizard.

All of this scumbuggery cannot be helping anyone and must be making buyers looking for a quality service stay further from places that are full of that sort of thing.

🙂

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It is always more miss than hit with me on Fiverr. I did get a bit active there for a bit but then back to just extreme stupidity.

One I keep seeing is people wanting a mix but showing only the commercially released song they want to clone and not their own track. How bad is their track??? I feel like I am being lured into a trap - big or small T, all the same from what I can see 😉

Something else I noticed was that I saw several sellers who seemed really cheap, then I realized that their Gig wording was a bit of a scam, things like Pro Mixing for Radio Ready (one of those weird terms but hey) then look carefully and the base price doesn’t include basic things like Reverb. How can a mix be considered done if reverb is deliberately missing? It definitely explains some the nasty things I hear where clearly the mix was done by the Pinball Wizard.

All of this scumbuggery cannot be helping anyone and must be making buyers looking for a quality service stay further from places that are full of that sort of thing.

🙂

Yeah for sure! Some bad sellers would unfortunately turn off buyers. I wish I had an additional method of music related income, but alas, COVID makes it hard to perform services locally.

I’ve also seen similar buyers and it’s so frustrating…I look at buyer requests and almost every listing there makes me wary…people wanting quality service but saying “don’t message me if you can’t work for my budget” (the budget in question being $15), or the ones like you mentioned, or people expecting samples based on their request, not a previous portfolio…not worth it

At least I’m not alone in this misery

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Yeah for sure! Some bad sellers would unfortunately turn off buyers. I wish I had an additional method of music related income, but alas, COVID makes it hard to perform services locally.

I’ve also seen similar buyers and it’s so frustrating…I look at buyer requests and almost every listing there makes me wary…people wanting quality service but saying “don’t message me if you can’t work for my budget” (the budget in question being $15), or the ones like you mentioned, or people expecting samples based on their request, not a previous portfolio…not worth it

At least I’m not alone in this misery

I am trying an experiMetal: lowering my Mix pricing a bit for 1 month to see if it makes any difference.

When I look at sellers who do reasonable work and get regular business, I see that once you get past the loss-leader options that their pricing for the kind of work I offer from the get-go (without the flim flam) is very similar.

I have grave concerns over doing this “remove the steering wheel” style of marketing. I see how it is clever but I also feel it dishonorable to the craft. I can’t see it is ok to say here is the mix oh by the way did you want reverb with that as that costs more despite the initial promise-expectations.

Lowest option was to start at $25 but that is $20 for 4+ hours of specialist work. If it brings quality work and activity maybe, but I have tried that before and gotten nothing but chancers who waste time and make me look like them. Don’t get me wrong, I have no drama with mixing sub-optimal work if the person has passion, I just don’t like chancers who have neither passion nor talent.

So starting at $50 ($40 for me) for a straight 5-Stem Mix. That was $75 and aimed at Rappers but honestly, most of them are only willing to spend $15. I’d rather a Rock Band or anyone who cares about what I can do as me (not just some kid listing Waves Plugins like they make songs good - pah).

Diarised to see in 1 month what, if anything, happened.

🙂

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I don’t know about music related gigs, but this month is my best ever.

Congrats on that.

Sadly many think that music works like web scraping or something. They try to apply the same thinking: $5 for 5,000 Stems. Except that working a stem (audio track like lead vocal or rhythm guitar) takes more time & skill than a bot that does it in milliseconds. Matter of fact when you care about music, there can be no bots involved.

🙂

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Congrats on that.

Sadly many think that music works like web scraping or something. They try to apply the same thinking: $5 for 5,000 Stems. Except that working a stem (audio track like lead vocal or rhythm guitar) takes more time & skill than a bot that does it in milliseconds. Matter of fact when you care about music, there can be no bots involved.

🙂

I beg to differ.

favicon.png.6005e1f3f367e3c85d8149fb55983477.png sites.research.google
og-image.thumb.png.a33d4244264c036e6fb561788f1f704e.png

Tone Transfer — Magenta DDSP

Play around with different inputs and outputs to see how machine learning transforms sounds.

This bot most certainly plays saxophone better than I could.

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Hey!

Is everyone else having a slow month or is just me? Since the beginning of March, I’ve only gotten one order and that was from someone outside of Fiverr…so no organic orders in March after getting almost one a week since Christmas, before that.

This also happened when I started the Seller Plus but could be coincidence. Either way, it’s upsetting if that investment isn’t helping me turn a profit…

So I’m just curious if it’s a low period for music gigs or if it’s just me. I’ve been fighting hard for my last two orders / $100 I need for next level with no success and it seems like i spend more time advertising that actually working on music. It’s frustrating.

The opposite, it’s just picked mad steam for me.

Not to brag, eh, just over the moon!

This also happened when I started the Seller Plus but could be coincidence. Either way, it’s upsetting if that investment isn’t helping me turn a profit…

Is that available to anyone? Not minimally interested in it (I’m a DIY kinda guy) but I thought it was only open to Level 2 sellers and on or something.

I beg to differ.

favicon.png.52dd947fac484a86589ddf035390c8d5.png sites.research.google

og-image.thumb.png.05e5387dfabf2f5c0b50c9346fbfad88.png

Tone Transfer — Magenta DDSP

Play around with different inputs and outputs to see how machine learning transforms sounds.

This bot most certainly plays saxophone better than I could.

Honestly, I saw this today, and to me it looks like a waste of machine learning. Unlike with pictures, mapping sounds starting from samples is lame.

Yes, a human breath from a voice track getting turned into a violin’s bow-hitting-string transient and the network picking up some cool physical accents is nice, but it’s easily replicable with indistinguishable accuracy in simpler ways.

A violin can do something like 4 distinct sounds. Nothing that a somewhat varied sample library, the FL Studio mapper thingy and a pitch detector can’t emulate after a 5 minute setup. Herbie Hancock could’ve done it 40 years ago with his Fairchild computer had it got a similar plugin, probably!

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I beg to differ.

520387f5263129e136eb843ac01fb1efd18f4f55.pngsites.research.google
eeb8449007e2cbf0df7079ea7ec6ee8b0e2e3cd4_2_690x362.png

Tone Transfer — Magenta DDSP

Play around with different inputs and outputs to see how machine learning transforms sounds.

This bot most certainly plays saxophone better than I could.

Oh geez, don’t get me started on how sad that is. i already talked about that over here: Mastering music with an automated software (Ozone)? - Fiverr Music & Audio - Fiverr Community Forum

Besides that is simply extracting performance data and applying it elsewhere. No different from what any player does. Interesting as a novelty but not an advance in music making in any real way seeing Matt is right that this has been boing done since at least the early 80s (and did you mean Fairlight CMI?).

🙂

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The opposite, it’s just picked mad steam for me.

Not to brag, eh, just over the moon!

This also happened when I started the Seller Plus but could be coincidence. Either way, it’s upsetting if that investment isn’t helping me turn a profit…

Is that available to anyone? Not minimally interested in it (I’m a DIY kinda guy) but I thought it was only open to Level 2 sellers and on or something.

I beg to differ.

520387f5263129e136eb843ac01fb1efd18f4f55sites.research.google

eeb8449007e2cbf0df7079ea7ec6ee8b0e2e3cd4

Tone Transfer — Magenta DDSP

Play around with different inputs and outputs to see how machine learning transforms sounds.

This bot most certainly plays saxophone better than I could.

Honestly, I saw this today, and to me it looks like a waste of machine learning. Unlike with pictures, mapping sounds starting from samples is lame.

Yes, a human breath from a voice track getting turned into a violin’s bow-hitting-string transient and the network picking up some cool physical accents is nice, but it’s easily replicable with indistinguishable accuracy in simpler ways.

A violin can do something like 4 distinct sounds. Nothing that a somewhat varied sample library, the FL Studio mapper thingy and a pitch detector can’t emulate after a 5 minute setup. Herbie Hancock could’ve done it 40 years ago with his Fairchild computer had it got a similar plugin, probably!

Is that available to anyone? Not minimally interested in it (I’m a DIY kinda guy) but I thought it was only open to Level 2 sellers and on or something.

It became available to me after i commented in the thread. I would also prefer to do it alone but I thought the investment would help me gain a few orders additional orders fast or more consistent orders…doesn’t seem the case 😕 All I learned so far was that I have a high satisfaction rate (which is something they calculate with many stats) and some gig tweaking

I am trying an experiMetal: lowering my Mix pricing a bit for 1 month to see if it makes any difference.

Yeah I tried lowering a bit but i’m afraid to go too low! My price is already quite low ($70 for the lowest level) compared to industry prices in my area for people of my skill (i’ve been price based on studio prices, minus a bit since they don’t get me as a recording engineer), especially for those buyers who make those annoying revisions where they come up with new things to complain about each time…

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Is that available to anyone? Not minimally interested in it (I’m a DIY kinda guy) but I thought it was only open to Level 2 sellers and on or something.

It became available to me after i commented in the thread. I would also prefer to do it alone but I thought the investment would help me gain a few orders additional orders fast or more consistent orders…doesn’t seem the case 😕 All I learned so far was that I have a high satisfaction rate (which is something they calculate with many stats) and some gig tweaking

I am trying an experiMetal: lowering my Mix pricing a bit for 1 month to see if it makes any difference.

Yeah I tried lowering a bit but i’m afraid to go too low! My price is already quite low ($70 for the lowest level) compared to industry prices in my area for people of my skill (i’ve been price based on studio prices, minus a bit since they don’t get me as a recording engineer), especially for those buyers who make those annoying revisions where they come up with new things to complain about each time…

Yes it is only an experiMetal and I expect it to nosebleed.

I have had cause to compare my work to many both online and in my country.

  • The Shiny Sydney Studio $850 and flatter than a cassette.
  • The online $599 and I’ll teach you to mix too, totally brutalizes everything no matter the genre. At least he is equal-opportunity.
  • The freelance platform sellers from $20 to $150 that seem to be averse to making the track actually sound beautiful. Maybe they all have Doctor’s Certificates that say they must avoid reverb or character lest they come out in Hives.

I’m listening to a backyard recording from 1996 of a local band that sounds nicer overall (even tho the band I am ambivalent about). But nothing like that exists in the cyberverse as they all expect nasty like it is honey.

I think either I should put my prices right up to make people really notice that I am not just another idiot who applies thoughtless-presets from oh-so-thoughtless Waves plugins. Or accept that people in these places actually think that sort of work is what they really want and therefore have no ability/desire to actually sound like what Radio Mix used to really mean.

🙂

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