The Recording Connection

[MadMax]

@Bob... hehehehe... funny how much truth, like the best cream, rises to the top, huh?

[jasonthomas]

Any course is only as good as the mentor and how willing the student is to learn.

[Paul999]

I clearly do not share the view that there is no money, respect or dignity to be had for engineers in this business. This is definitely not the "go to school, get a job, work 35 years, retire" type job but there is more money on the whole being spent into recording albums then ever. It is spread out differently but if you look at the collective dollars being spent on gear from bottom to top, music lessons, recording lessons and all the other factors that are music I think you would find that the money is still being spent and then some. You just need to be smart enough to tap into the resource. Just like the loudness wars the people who haven't figured out how to make things loud tend to complain about how loudness is destroying our industry. The people that haven't figured out how to tap into a money stream tend to complain that there is no money in the music business. The money is all around your feet you just need to be smart enough to kneel down and pick it up.

If decide you are going to try to earn a living by the old studio model I agree you might as well take your money and start a nice big fire. You'll need to be passionate about business just like you are music. Matching your sets of skills with the needs of those around you and then charging a fair amount. Todays picture of a successful studio is not one thing. It is multiple sources of income. In my studio we mix and record from 6.am-2p.m, have private music lessons from 2p.m. until 9p.m. and then the tracking the late night type musicians begins again at 9 p.m. until whenever. There is also tracking on weekends. I have 10 employees and yeah, I work a lot of hours but I do a lot of what I love. I love teaching even though I don't do that much of it anymore. I mostly teach working professional musicians, teach business to people that want to learn how to make a career out of music, prep people for recording and some special cases. The rest of the time I am mixing the clients I track plus I have 2 assistants that track as well and then I mix their projects. I basically have found a way to keep this building earning money 24/7. Don't forget about administration, taxes, book keeping and the boring stuff. You must be passionate about this as well.

There is no way that in a single post I can show you how to build a career in music but I can tell you with out a doubt that the first step is aligning what you believe about money with what successful people believe about money. In every desolate environment there are always success stories. That is no accident.

[bigtree]

I couldn't agree more.

[bigtree]

Paul,

I'm very interested in your business model for the Prince George area. I've thought about buying or leasing a large space, building a stage and surrounding a business around it all. Can I ask you more questions about this here or in PM?

[Steve@Russo]

get yourself a foster 4 track tape recorder, that is a good start

[jasonthomas]

I clearly do not share the view that there is no money, respect or dignity to be had for engineers in this business. This is definitely not the "go to school, get a job, work 35 years, retire" type job but there is more money on the whole being spent into recording albums then ever. It is spread out differently but if you look at the collective dollars being spent on gear from bottom to top, music lessons, recording lessons and all the other factors that are music I think you would find that the money is still being spent and then some. You just need to be smart enough to tap into the resource. Just like the loudness wars the people who haven't figured out how to make things loud tend to complain about how loudness is destroying our industry. The people that haven't figured out how to tap into a money stream tend to complain that there is no money in the music business. The money is all around your feet you just need to be smart enough to kneel down and pick it up.

If decide you are going to try to earn a living by the old studio model I agree you might as well take your money and start a nice big fire. You'll need to be passionate about business just like you are music. Matching your sets of skills with the needs of those around you and then charging a fair amount. Today's picture of a successful studio is not one thing. It is multiple sources of income. In my studio we mix and record from 6.am-2p.m, have private music lessons from 2p.m. until 9p.m. and then the tracking the late night type musicians begins again at 9 p.m. until whenever. There is also tracking on weekends. I have 10 employees and yeah, I work a lot of hours but I do a lot of what I love. I love teaching even though I don't do that much of it anymore. I mostly teach working professional musicians, teach business to people that want to learn how to make a career out of music, prep people for recording and some special cases. The rest of the time I am mixing the clients I track plus I have 2 assistants that track as well and then I mix their projects. I basically have found a way to keep this building earning money 24/7. Don't forget about administration, taxes, book keeping and the boring stuff. You must be passionate about this as well.

There is no way that in a single post I can show you how to build a career in music but I can tell you with out a doubt that the first step is aligning what you believe about money with what successful people believe about money. In every desolate environment there are always success stories. That is no accident.

That is so true..

[BobRogers]

... but there is more money on the whole being spent into recording albums then ever. It is spread out differently but if you look at the collective dollars being spent on gear from bottom to top, music lessons, recording lessons and all the other factors that are music I think you would find that the money is still being spent and then some....

I'm not sure this is quite true, but if you expand the world from the "music industry" to the "entertainment industry" (including, film, TV, video games, etc.) this is very true. There is a lot of money out there. It is being distributed in very different ways than it was 30 years ago, but it's out there to be earned.

[Thomas W. Bethel]

I have been audio multi tasking for years. We expanded our business a couple of years ago into the video arena and never looked back. We now do mastering, on location audio recording, audio restoration of tapes and discs and video production. It is hard to be ONLY a one task shop anymore. There are still way too many people who are doing bad recordings and mastering for next to nothing and even though they may not realize it they are really hurting legitimate recording businesses because they do such terrible work that musicians say "hey I could do that better" and go out and purchase their own equipment and start doing their own recordings. This is then repeated Ad infinitum as the new kids on the block open their "personal" studios to other musicians and so it goes.

No one that I know of around here is getting rich off the audio business. Many professional studios have closed their doors due to the lack of business and "competition" from the basement studios. One studio here has closed all of their other rooms and only has the one room going and is renting out the space to other producers and engineers. Another studio that just went under has moved to the suburbs and is cohabiting with a video production company. Times are tough but you have to change your way of thinking and acting if you are to survive. Owning a recording studio was never a 9 to 5 job and weekends were always set aside for doing work when other people had time off. What has changed is that you have to reinvent your studio and your ways of doing business while staying true to your core values like quality and good service.

It is IMHO not going to get any easier any time soon and if anyone thinks that just by going to college or an audio trade school they are going to "make it" they are sorely misinformed. When I started into the pro audio business 40 years ago it was a much different landscape and I knew almost every other "audio engineer" by their first name in this geographical area. Today there are literally hundreds of people in this area that call themselves "audio engineers" but aren't.

It all boils down to do what you love, do it well and you will always have clients.

MTCW and YMMV

[Paul999]

Multiple avenues of profit are crucial for music businesses. When I am helping a person develop their career plan I usually get them to write down all the things they feel are considered "working in music". Some feel sales is music some don't, some feel teaching is music some don't. The more ways you can make money the more secure you'll be and the more likely that you can find a niche in your area.