Music & Sound Annotation Expert

micro1 Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 28,000 - 34,000; Full time

Job summary

micro1 is engaging Music & Sound Annotation Experts to contribute to a customer's project at the forefront of music and audio technology. Your ears are the ground truth.

You'll listen to short field recordings and document exactly what's audible through a structured web platform. The role involves annotating instruments, tempo, key, and background sounds, comparing paired recordings, and later reviewing AI model descriptions with brief explanations.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of hands-on music or audio experience.
• Strong analytical listening to identify instruments in busy mixes.
• Ability to identify tempo within a few BPM.
• Ability to recognize musical key with reference pitch.
• Detail-oriented with experience in web-based annotation platforms.
• Clear written English for brief notes.
• Quality headphones, quiet workspace, reliable internet.
• Available 20–25 hrs/week for the engagement window.

Responsibilities

• Listen to 30–90 second field recordings and annotate instruments, tempo, key, background sounds, and scenes.
• Compare paired recordings and judge what stayed the same or changed.
• Review AI model descriptions and mark correctness with brief explanations.
• Attend onboarding/calibration session and weekly sync.

Job description

Role Title: Music & Sound Annotation Expert

Role Type: Contractor

Location: Remote

micro1 is engaging Music & Sound Annotation Experts to contribute to a customer's project at the forefront of music and audio technology.

Your ears are the ground truth. You'll listen to short field recordings and document exactly what's audible — instruments, tempo, key, background sounds, crowd reactions — through a structured web platform built for this project. Later phases involve grading AI model answers against what you actually heard.

What you'll do

1. Listen to 30–90 second field recordings (headphones, your own quiet workspace) and complete structured annotations: which instruments are present, tempo and key, timestamps of background events (traffic, sirens, applause), scene details
2. Compare paired recordings of the same song captured at different locations and judge what stayed the same and what changed
3. In later phases: review AI model descriptions of clips and mark what's correct, wrong, or invented, with a brief written explanation
4. Attend a paid onboarding/calibration session and a short weekly sync

Who we’re looking for (any of these backgrounds)

1. Working or gigging musicians, session players, producers, or mixing engineers
2. Music educators, ear-training instructors, band/choir directors, conservatory students or graduates
3. Location sound recordists, sound designers, foley artists, or podcast/documentary audio editors

Requirements

1. 3+ years of hands-on music or audio experience
2. Strong analytical listening: you can pick individual instruments out of a busy, noisy, real‑world mix — not just studio recordings
3. Can identify tempo (within a few BPM) and musical key (relative pitch with a reference is fine)
4. Comfortable with detail‑oriented, repetitive annotation work in a web platform — dropdowns, timestamps, short structured notes
5. Clear written English for brief, evidence-based notes (e.g., "accordion enters around 0:12")
6. Quality headphones, quiet workspace, reliable internet
7. Available 20–25 hrs/week for the engagement window