Musicians Earning Revenue Via Fiverr’s Newly Upgraded Gig Platform
Fiverr is a growing gig platform for services beginning at $5. Higher prices are possible and musicians are included among those using Fiverr to provide extra income and increased flexiblity. The recent redesign gives Fiverr a more professional look and improved backend services to better support those seeking gigs which is in keeping with CEO Micha Kaufman's enthusiasm for building a major platform for gig seekers.
I initially wrote about Fiverr last year as a low-cost marketplace where musicians might purchase unique marketing products from the cute to the somewhat risque.
Yesterday I spoke with Fiverr co-founder and CEO Micha Kaufman about the relaunch. He was very enthusiastic about the potential for building a gig platform that disrupts established freelance platforms with an emphasis on inviting design, ease of use and unique offerings.
He also shared some figures revealing that Fiverr has 1.5 million active buyers and sellers in over 200 countries.
One of the more interesting facts is that rather than becoming a platform where individuals in low-income countries serve first world entities, the U.S. has the largest market of sellers with a large percentage overall from developed nations. In addition, higher priced gigs are growing with 55% of orders currently greater than $5.
The redesign gives the site a better look overall which supports musicians offering services. The backend has also been redesigned with analytic features that make it easy to stay organized whether buying or selling. You can check out screenshots of the backend.
A Music & Audio section is prominently featured. Quick simple offers that feature unique voices or music styles in voiceover, shout out or quick message form tend to dominate but that doesn't mean you can't come up with something out of the ordinary now that the ordinary has been established.
The company shared some examples of how musicians are using Fiverr:
- Elliott Osborne has been using Fiverr as a platform for his career as a beatboxer, and was discovered by MTV2 to be featured on their newest show, Jobs That Don't Suck.
- UK band ToyPop! recently released their first album and was able to have their artwork designed by artists on Fiverr.
- English musician Max Tundra is funding his next album through Fiverr gigs.
- Fiverr user Ceneworksmedia let us know they love Fiverr for being able to make extra money while on tour, "Addie and I (Brad) have been able to quit our dead end cubical jobs and live off of recording music for a living, and finally tour the country with our band Halocene. It's great, because we get to further spread the word about our band while meeting the needs of our clients. We record practically anything from e-greetings, voice overs, parodies, commercials, to radio beds, and anything else our Fiverr clients ask for. Even better, many of our fans are clients, and many of our clients become fans. It's definitely a win-win!"
When I first wrote about Fiverr I was also concerned about the proliferation of offers to sell Facebook likes and similar items that seemed a little shady. They were a fairly obvious feature at the time. If you dig you can still find such things but they've clearly been delegated to a second tier and the site organization and presentation looks a lot more professional in that respect as well.
Overall Fiverr has taken a big step forward with their new look and features.
Hypebot Senior Contributor Clyde Smith (@fluxresearch/@crowdfundingm) also blogs at Flux Research and Crowdfunding For Musicians. To suggest topics for Hypebot, contact: clyde(at)fluxresearch(dot)com.
