Selling original music in beat marketplaces and freelancing online have become viable options for music producers in recent years. One of these platforms is Gemtracks, which has been online since 2016. Music producers are able to charge a premium fee to artists looking to collaborate, and then have the rights and ownerships of the work done transferred to the artists for a one-time lumpsum. This allows the seller to earn a higher amount, while giving the buyer complete freedom with what they can do with the finished song. Other platforms that offer similar services include BeatStars, Airbit, and SoundBetter, as well as general freelancing websites like Fiverr and Upwork.

A growing number of Latino music producers finding success on Gemtracks is what making the platform standout. An example is DJ Cheko from Mexico that has already made Gemtracks one of his flagship income sources, while working with countless other artists. Other examples include IYFFE, Lucas Gold and Beowulf. The result of this has seen an increased interest in genres like reggaeton, salsa and Latino pop.

In fact, looking at the user statistics on the website, a majority of them are from South American countries, most selling exclusive beats. Others are either music curators that have listed their playlists for music submissions or studio owners opening their places for artists to record in.

According to The Source, Gemtracks has recently launched a new feature to allow music producers to offer subscription plans to their customers for access to loops, samples and other exclusive musical assets that can be used in their own music production. Payments are billed yearly, and gives unlimited access to the files. The one thing to note is that some of the downloadable content have limited numbers of how many users can download from them, while others are only available between certain time frames.

There are currently more than 20,000 members signed up to the website with the number growing. However, according to trends found online, the website gets more than 1,000,000 visits each month. The differences in visits and members may be due to the fact that members do not need to have their own accounts to participate on the website as there is an option to pay as a guest.

"Gemtracks is currently on a mission to make our website the number one destination for everything related to the music industry," Jesse Neo, the founder of Gemtracks, said to us in an email. "Eventually, we will be releasing new features to allow artists to hold virtual and real-life concerts, organize meet ups and distribute tickets as well. The possibilities are endless and we are constantly meeting with our members to decide what they want."

We had a look at the website ourselves to see how the process of hiring a freelancer to compose a song for us worked. We headed over to the section that showed available freelancers offering their talents. We posted a job with details that we wanted our track to have an electronic and hip hop vibe. Eventually, we received 13 applicants, which we chatted with using the in-built Gemtracks messaging system. The freelancer we became interested in eventually sent us an offer for $299 for a custom song, and instructed us to fund the escrow - which means Gemtracks holds onto the payment and will only release it to the freelancer once the job is completed.

All in all, the experience was very easy, and the track I got was exactly what I envisioned. We were suggested to find a singer too from the array available on the website, but we decided to give that option a skip. At the end, I gave the freelancer a perfect 5-starssfor their work.

Besides being a paid platform, Gemtracks also houses a public collection of royalty free music and free backing tracks that anyone can contribute to. These are just free assets for sellers to get their names out, and perhaps be seen as samples for buyers to try out before deciding to hire.

According to our research, the gig economy is here to say, and is the perfect excuse for the growing number of people working from home.