Muse Group
at a glance
With headquarters in Cyprus, Muse Group is a fast-growing music tech innovator building digital tools, apps, and resources for playing, recording, and composing music. They are a remote-first company with a globally distributed team.
Muse Group partnered with Oyster in order to compliantly hire top talent in countries where they don’t have entities. With Oyster, they’ve been able to scale quickly and confidently with expert guidance to navigate cross-border compliance and reduce in-house admin.
- Muse Group has hired 30 people in 8 countries with Oyster
- They’re able to onboard talent faster, reducing time to hire
- Muse Group saves money by avoiding entity setup costs
The challenge
Following a plan to centralize product development and business operations in Cyprus in 2022, Muse Group grew quickly through key acquisitions to establish itself as an industry leader in music technology, housing popular brands like Ultimate Guitar, MuseScore, and Audacity. Today, Muse Group’s digital products for musicians reach over 400 million users worldwide.
Since Muse Group operates in a global market and builds truly unique products, they often need highly specialized international expertise, explains Kate Rakhmanina, People Partner at Muse Group.
“Before Oyster, we could only hire through our own entities, offering relocation if necessary. But to expand and facilitate growth, we needed a solution like Oyster in order to recruit talent without any geographical restrictions.”
Navigating the complexities of cross-border employment in-house is often laborious and time-consuming for HR teams. It also involves compliance risks since it’s hard to stay current on labor laws and tax regulations across multiple countries.
What Muse Group needed was a fast and compliant solution to onboard talent regardless of location, without the legal hassles or the high costs of entity setup.
The solution
After researching other options, Muse Group chose Oyster as their global employment partner in December 2022 because it offered a modern software platform as well as expert guidance and support to navigate the complexities of cross-border hiring.
“We were looking for a reliable partner with strong global coverage, a user-friendly platform, and proactive customer support. Oyster stood out for its transparency, speed, and ability to simplify global employment in a way that gave us peace of mind.”
In their day-to-day work, the People team can work more efficiently thanks to an easy-to-use platform that offers contextual guidance when onboarding a new hire. “The Oyster platform is very intuitive. We especially appreciate the clear onboarding steps, localized contract templates, and real-time updates,” she says.
If they reach out to the Oyster team with a question or concern, Kate’s team can always count on fast and proactive support. Whether it’s navigating parental leave in the U.K. or visa paperwork in Finland, they’re able to get country-specific guidance to simplify complex processes.
“Working with the Oyster team has been a consistently positive experience. They’re always responsive, knowledgeable, and proactive in helping us navigate the complexities of global employment. We always receive quick, helpful responses—and if an issue is more complex, the team doesn’t hesitate to dig in and provide tailored advice.”
Hiring in a new country involves a lot of unknowns, from payroll regulations to statutory benefits, but the Muse Group team can rely on Oyster for local knowledge and expertise to cut through complexity and ensure compliance.
“Oyster provides detailed guidance and localized expertise for each country. We rely on their legal insights and recommendations to make sure our contracts and benefits are fully compliant. We feel like we have a real partner, not just a vendor.”
On the team member side, Kate is happy to report that Oyster ensures an excellent employee experience, from a smooth onboarding and clear communication to more complex processes like visa and relocation support. “Our team members have shared positive feedback about how seamless their onboarding process was. They feel supported by Oyster and appreciate the clarity in their contracts and benefits,” she says.
“Oyster’s ongoing commitment to clear communication and problem-solving has made a real difference for our team. They make complex processes feel simple, and we feel confident that our employees are in good hands.”
By partnering with Oyster, Muse Group is able to compliantly onboard global talent in countries where they don’t have entities, which has given them a strategic edge when competing for talent. They’ve hired over 30 team members in 8 countries with Oyster.
“Oyster has enabled us to hire the right talent, regardless of location. That flexibility has been a huge strategic advantage, especially for competitive roles. It also supports our remote-first culture by enabling us to grow globally without complexity.”
The ability to hire the right talent means they’ve scaled quickly and seamlessly and achieved business targets more effectively. “Oyster has helped us scale faster and attract top talent, and allowed us to meet product and business goals faster,” says Kate. Thanks to Oyster, Muse Group can fill roles faster while reducing admin work for their HR team and saving money on entity setup costs.
“Since partnering with Oyster, we’ve seen a clear ROI in terms of reduced time to hire, faster onboarding, and lower administrative overhead. The efficiency alone has saved us weeks per hire. It also helped us avoid the high costs of setting up legal entities in multiple countries.”
With Oyster handling employment logistics, Kate’s team can work more efficiently, with peace of mind regarding compliance. “Oyster saves us time and allows us to focus on our people instead of worrying about local legal requirements,” she says. “Both our HR team and employees have a much smoother experience.”
Looking ahead, Kate is excited about Muse Group’s continued expansion with Oyster by their side as a strategic partner supporting their People leaders, their global team members, and their organizational goals.
“With Oyster, we can hire amazing talent wherever they are, which gives us a huge competitive edge. It’s been a true partnership. Oyster understands our needs, supports our people, and helps us scale faster and smarter, so we couldn’t imagine our global hiring strategy without them.”
Based on Muse Group’s success with Oyster as an EOR partner, Kate is happy to recommend Oyster to other companies looking to expand globally.
“Oyster takes care of the heavy lifting so you can focus on what matters: finding the right people. It’s not just a compliance tool—it’s a strategic enabler for global growth.”
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