Why Hire an Audio Tech Consultant?
In the world of start-ups, it can often feel as if there’s a lot of pressure to do everything yourself. Many people would have you believe that becoming a self-taught programmer or a self-made millionaire is as easy as watching a few YouTube tutorials. But what if you need to develop something quickly that requires a highly specialized skill set, and you don’t quite have the time to learn how to do it yourself? Say your company needs some sort of audio analysis tool and none of your in-house developers have any knowledge of audio programming. Some people would have you believe the only options would be to a) outsource all the work to another company, or b) work overtime to learn how to do it on your own. But there is a third option, one that can potentially save you more time, money and worrying than either of those scenarios.
Hiring a software consultant to complete a small part of the necessary work and/or train the rest of your team to complete additional related work in the future is a perfect median point between doing it all yourself and outsourcing it all. The more niche your product idea is, the more trouble it can be to try and get it off the ground. And for something like audio tech, pretty much everything is a niche idea — this can make it especially daunting to try and figure out where to start. If you are knowledgeable about music but not technology (or vice versa), hiring an audio tech consultant early in the process of developing your business idea can help build the foundation to make sure your work runs smoothly in the future without incurring extra costs or wasting time further down the line.
So, what does an audio software consultant really do? Here at Origin Audio, we do everything from technical writing and proofreading for pitches, to licensing fully developed software products for specific purposes (e.g., spectral analysis, bpm detection). We generally work on a contract basis which can be negotiated differently for each individual project. The most important difference between a software consultant and a for-hire temporary developer is that rather than just coming in and writing code and charging per hour, we help our clients view a bigger picture and make sure that our clients understand the larger impacts of these new features on their long-term business plan. We want people who don’t have the budgets of massive corporations to be able to create interesting products without having to make sacrifices to the original vision of their independent company. We don’t want to just come in and build a new feature for a quick buck.
The biggest benefit of developing software entirely in-house is that you can retain the rights to the intellectual property, and have it always considered your software, developed by your company. Outsourcing too much work or bringing in too many different contractors to help out with the code can lead to messy codebases, as well as potentially giving away some industry secrets. By hiring a trusted consultant who can help break down larger concepts and act as a guiding force rather than just a developer-for-hire, you can focus more on building a foundation for better development in the long term, rather than just quick solutions that will meet your immediate needs.
If you find yourself debating whether or not it’s better to hire a software consultant or a one-off developer for a special feature in something as niche as machine learning, computer vision, audio technology, you have probably already answered your own question. For some scenarios, outsourcing to external developers is fine — if you can afford it. But if you are at all hesitant about handing over the keys to any part of your IP to someone who doesn’t know or care about what the long-term goals of your passion project are, it may be time to look into hiring a consultant instead. Even if you need to hire additional employees (full time or otherwise) down the line, bringing on a knowledgeable consultant early on in your business development can help make sure that you have the knowledge and company structure in place to make sure you effectively utilize all your resources and always keep your best interests in mind.
