If there’s one thing Nashville has in abundance, it’s talented songwriters. But despite the many avenues technology has provided people to listen, share and buy music, the “for hire” creatives in the industry have never had a way to benefit.

With MusikPitch, the huge community of songwriters everywhere — be it aspiring or full fledged professional — has a platform for which to offer their services across the spectrum of potential clients. It’s very similar in scope to 99design, a site that allows clients to set their own price for graphic design work and then allows freelancers to compete for the money.

Right now that crop of clients includes Nashville eatery The Local Taco, a documentary film maker, the California Competitive Youth Baseball Club and MusikPitch itself, who is looking for background music for their homepage videos.

So how does it work? It’s actually pretty simple.

Clients chose a category based on who they represent (blog/corporate brand/video game/ etc.),  fill out a brief explanation of the song, specify the duration of the pitch contest and set the price they’re willing to pay for the work (referred to as the prize). Songwriters then submit pitches and the client eventually chooses one.

On the songwriters’ end, it costs precious time and energy with no guarantee of a payoff — especially since clients can opt out of the contest if they don’t like what they hear. Clients, on the other hand, pay $39 USD to post a brief  and a holding fee of 10 percent of the total prize money.

Of the four contests currently listed on the site, all of them offer a prize of at least $500 (Local Taco ponied up $1,000), which gives a decent idea of how much to offer for work. Obviously the higher amounts offered will get the most pitches submitted and better talent putting in their time.

While MusikPitch is likely to cause headaches for small firms in the business of producing songs, it may very well become a savior for individual freelancers looking for steady client leads and a simplified Intellectual Property licensing and other legalities.

[VIDEO - What is MusikPitch?]

[IMAGE - Screenshot: Musikpitch contest brief entry]