Music Industry Careers

What Music Industry Careers does

Music Industry Careers (musicindustry.careers) is a privately operated, US-only web-based two-sided marketplace that lets musicians, music professionals, educators, and students post and browse music-specific job listings and paid service or collaboration opportunities, with filters for position type, payment band, location, and compensation rate. The platform is built as the Career & Opportunity Marketplace component of the four-platform Music Career Map family — alongside Musicians Desk Reference (project management), Music Industry Academy (online courses, quizzes, and certifications), and Music Career Map (news and media) — all developed by founder Brian Penick and operated under The Counter Rhythm Group, LLC, a Delaware LLC. Account registration is free, no paid tiers or pricing are publicly disclosed, and at the time of scraping the Careers and Opportunities modules both showed zero active listings, while the Privacy Policy references collection of payment-card and transaction data indicating payment infrastructure has been built for future monetization (transaction fees, service fees, or subscription tiers).

The company addresses a stated gap that most generalist career and opportunity marketplaces are not built for the music industry, causing music-specific posts to be scarce or buried under unrelated content. Its go-to-market is community-led, relying on cross-promotion and mutual linking across the Music Career Map family of platforms rather than paid marketing; distribution is exclusively through its own web storefront with no mobile app, API, or third-party channel. The platform has no disclosed funding rounds, operates with 1–10 employees, has no AI/ML capabilities referenced anywhere in the source material, and exposes no public API, SDK, or developer documentation — positioning it as an early-stage, founder-driven vertical marketplace whose primary assets today are its niche focus, integrated ecosystem of sister platforms, and a built-but-unmonetized payment stack.

Name

Music Industry Careers

Legal name

The Counter Rhythm Group, LLC

Website

https://musicindustry.careers

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Music Industry Careers is a US-only web marketplace where musicians, music professionals, educators, and students post and browse music-specific job listings and paid collaboration or service opportunities, operated as part of a four-platform Music Career Map family by The Counter Rhythm Group, LLC.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Brooklyn

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Marketplace listings (potential): Although the platform is free to sign up and browse, the Opportunities section explicitly lists 'Service Fee', 'Free', and 'Paid' compensation options — indicating the architectural ability to monetize transactions between music professionals (mentors, service providers, collaborators). The current revenue capture mechanism is not explicitly disclosed in the public site copy.
2. Payment infrastructure readiness: Privacy policy states the platform collects payment information (payment card number, expiration date, authorization/security code, delivery and billing address) and purchase/refund/transaction information, indicating the company has built payment processing capability for paid listings, services or subscriptions even though specific monetized tiers are not publicly enumerated.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

Music Industry Careers is a vertical online marketplace built exclusively for the music industry that lets registered users post and browse music-specific employment listings (internships, freelance/contract work, part-time and full-time jobs) under "Careers" and service/collaboration listings (mentors, consultants, music lessons, peer-to-peer collaborations) under "Opportunities." The platform bundles both sections into a single product with shared account, filtering, and listing taxonomy, and is positioned as the Career & Opportunity Marketplace within the Music Career Map family of platforms operated by The Counter Rhythm Group, LLC.

Product overview

Music Industry Careers is a single unified web platform (a music-specific marketplace) rather than a modular platform-plus-add-ons architecture: it bundles two interconnected sections — a Careers job board and an Opportunities collaboration/services board — into one product, plus a 'Create Post' authoring flow for members. The Careers and Opportunities modules share a common account system, filter/search interface, and listing taxonomy (position type, payment band, location, and compensation structure), and together address the company's stated mission of giving the music industry a dedicated alternative to generic job marketplaces. Music Industry Careers itself is one of four platforms in The Counter Rhythm Group, LLC's Music Career Map family, alongside Musicians Desk Reference (project management), Music Industry Academy (online courses, quizzes, and certifications), and Music Career Map (news and media outlet), so the named offerings in this portfolio are: the core Music Industry Careers marketplace, its Careers module, its Opportunities module, its Create Post feature, and the three sister/parent platforms (Musicians Desk Reference, Music Industry Academy, Music Career Map).

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Music Career Map: News and media outlet; one of the platforms in the Music Career Map family developed by Brian Penick.
• Musicians Desk Reference
• Music Industry Academy

Products and services

• Music Industry Careers marketplace A dedicated online marketplace built exclusively for the music industry where registered users can post and browse music-specific careers (internships, freelance/contract work, part-time and full-time employment) and opportunities (mentors/consultants, music lessons, professional services, peer-to-peer collaboration).
• Musicians Desk Reference (MDR) Sister platform in the Music Career Map family providing a Project Management System for musicians, music professionals, educators, and students.
• Music Industry Academy (MIA) Sister platform in the Music Career Map family offering Online Courses, Quizzes & Certifications for music industry education and career development.
• Music Career Map (MCM) Parent brand and news/media outlet of the Music Career Map family, providing broader news, reference, and resource content for musicians, music professionals, educators, and students.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• Music Career MapflagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerMusic Career Map is the parent news & media outlet of the platform family. Music Industry Careers is described on its About page as 'a part of the Music Career Map family, a series of platforms built to help musicians, music professionals, educators and students gain access to the best education and career development resources.' Both share mutual homepage links and operate under The Counter Rhythm Group LLC.
• Musicians Desk Reference (MDR)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSister platform in the Music Career Map family, described as a 'Project Management System'. Cross-promoted on the MIC homepage logo strip and on the About page, with mutual linking to musiciansdeskreference.com.
• Music Industry Academy (MIA)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerSister platform providing 'Online Courses, Quizzes & Certifications' in the Music Career Map family. Cross-promoted on the MIC homepage and About page, linking to musicindustry.academy.
• The Counter Rhythm Group (TCRG)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerParent operating entity. The footer of every page reads '© The Counter Rhythm Group LLC 2020', and the Terms of Service confirm the Website and Services are 'owned and operated by The Counter Rhythm Group, LLC'. TCRG is also displayed as a homepage partner logo and was founded by Brian Penick, who developed the Music Career Map family.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• SoundBetter: Music-focused freelance marketplace for producers, engineers, session musicians and vocalists — directly comparable to MIC's Opportunities module for collaboration and paid music services. Acquired by Spotify in 2019, illustrating both the strategic value and the consolidation risk in this category.
• ReverbNation: Artist-services platform offering promotion, distribution and career tools to musicians, with elements of opportunity/job discovery overlapping MIC's mission to give working musicians a dedicated career venue.
• Sonicbids: Long-running platform connecting musicians with gigs, festivals and industry opportunities — historically the closest direct competitor to MIC's Careers module for music-specific paid opportunities and bookings.
• Vampr: Mobile-first networking and collaboration app for musicians — closely mirrors MIC's combined career + collaboration thesis and targets the same 'find musicians to work with' use case that drives MIC's Opportunities section.

Broad incumbents

• ZipRecruiter: SMB-focused generalist job board with AI matching; competes for the same small-business and individual-employer posting budget MIC targets on the supply side.
• Indeed: Largest generalist job marketplace globally; absorbs the 'default' recruiter posting behavior MIC is trying to divert with music-specific verticalization.
• Fiverr: Global freelance services marketplace where musicians already offer production, mixing, lessons and session work — overlapping with MIC's Opportunities module at the service-provider level.
• LinkedIn: Dominant generalist professional network and job board against which MIC must compete for music-industry recruiters and candidates; has scale, SEO authority and free posting that MIC cannot match.

Emerging players

• Backstage: Casting and creative-jobs marketplace with strong overlap to MIC's performance/entertainment gigs use case, particularly for one-time and freelance positions.

Regional players

• Music Connection Magazine: Long-running US trade publication with classified ads for music-industry jobs and opportunities; represents the legacy offline channel MIC is attempting to digitize and own online.

Market position

Strengths3 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/MusicIndCareers
• Facebookfacebook.com/MusicIndCareers
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/musicindcareers

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Music Industry Careers