Members xraylemur Posted April 20, 2011 Members Share Posted April 20, 2011 I'm a college student running a home built studio and charging by the hour, but i'm not getting enough business lately just by word of mouth. I really don't want to pick up a part time job haha. Two years ago I was getting lot of business off of myspace. Myspace of course died shortly after that. I've tried facebook, but nobody seems to pay any attention to business and music pages on facebook. I've put cheap flyers up at all the music stores, record stores, venues, local colleges, etc and gotten a few hits that way. But it isn't enough. I think a big problem is convincing people who don't know me or anybody that's used me to believe that I can actually get a professional level of sound quality with my budget studio run out of a storage building on a farm haha. Also most people don't know that my rig is mobile and I record concerts and theatre performances too. So i'm thinking getting a simple but professional looking website might help, maybe one of those $5 a month godaddy sites, or maybe shell out a little cash on nicer flyers or business cards. But besides that I can't think of anything else to do. Suggestions??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ggm1960 Posted April 20, 2011 Members Share Posted April 20, 2011 Perhaps a bandmix page would be an idea. If you've done some good recordings post them on any of the multitude of sites where potential clients can listen to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xraylemur Posted April 20, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 20, 2011 Well I mostly get local acts and all of them seem to come up short on sounding good in at least an area or two. Some have great sounding music, but the singer is mediocre, some the opposite. A lot of them rush through as fast as possible to save money and just give me trash to work with, so even with a lot mixing work the recordings come out sounding pretty bad. I've got some of my own recordings that I think are pretty good for what they are, but it's indie and really strange stuff and not all that comparable to normal commercial music. I've never really recorded an act that puts out a professional enough caliber of sound to really push me to my limits, but instead i'm usually trying to remedy mediocrity. So I guess a good idea might be to find a good sounding band or two and maybe offer to record a song free and get a few really good sounding clips? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted April 20, 2011 Moderators Share Posted April 20, 2011 Become part of the scene. Do some free work. Let everybody see you working. Let them hear what you do. Be in the middle of it all and be a resource they need. It's all about them, not you. It's easy to look form the inside out, but the reality is, you have to try and see what they're going through. What they need. Then provide for a price where everybody wins. It's tough if you're shy. Don't be shy. Offer a freebie remote recording. Pass out some of your studio work. Be the go to guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted April 20, 2011 Moderators Share Posted April 20, 2011 Become part of the scene. Do some free work. Let everybody see you working. Let them hear what you do. Be in the middle of it all and be a resource they need. It's all about them, not you. It's easy to look form the inside out, but the reality is, you have to try and see what they're going through. What they need. Then provide for a price where everybody wins. It's tough if you're shy. Don't be shy. Offer a freebie remote recording. Pass out some of your studio work. Be the go to guy. And my most successful sales approach has been a sincere, "I'd love to record you guys. Here's how I hear you." Then, you talk about all the envisioning you've done on these guys. How they'll sound right in a garage type setting or perhaps they'd really benefit from a mutitakes, click and comping approach. Let them know that you have an additional insight into what they're doing. And with your involvement, you will get them where they want to go. Ask who they listen to. Ask who they want to sound like. Ask the guitarist. Ask the singer. The drummer, etc. Then try to put the puzzle together. How do these influences reconcile with the sound they are producing? Should it? Can it? Or should you try to take them to a place they don't realize is their natural habitat. Be the 5th Beatle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted April 20, 2011 Members Share Posted April 20, 2011 Although websites, FaceBook, all that is helpful, being part of the scene is the most important thing. The social person is the person who gets the most business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xraylemur Posted April 20, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 20, 2011 Become part of the scene. Do some free work. Let everybody see you working. Let them hear what you do. Be in the middle of it all and be a resource they need. It's all about them, not you. It's easy to look form the inside out, but the reality is, you have to try and see what they're going through. What they need. Then provide for a price where everybody wins. It's tough if you're shy. Don't be shy. Offer a freebie remote recording. Pass out some of your studio work. Be the go to guy. Thus another issue. The whole third of the state that is upstate South Carolina has no scene. We've got one hardcore venue, one christian venue, and one small trashy place that gets a lot of high school bands. Everything else is southern rock cover bands playing bars. Anybody good based out of here is pretty much constantly on tour and records elsewhere. So I don't get many chances to talk to bands in person. I think I will offer two particular bands I know a free song recording. Only problem is they already have ep's and might just be busy enough to pass on a free recording, but hopefully I'll get somebody. Once bands do get involved with me they seem really receptive to my work style and production input, and I think that's why a lot of acts that I have recorded come back every now and then, but a lot of them have broken up or moved to different states and that combined with the declining scene here has left me without most of my old contacts. As far as price I'm down as low as I can go. I'm doing $25 an hour and if they record in big chunks I usually give them a discount too. I think that's actually too cheap for more ambitious acts to pay much attention to. I myself would probably assume that most $25 an hour studios are going to be mediocre. But the kind of bands that I get mostly are really cheap high school and college kids, or poor christian artists and want to spend as little money as possible and even at my rate try and record whole ep's in just a few hours. I've been advised by several friends in the business and even a couple of clients themselves to up my price to more like $50 an hour, but I just feel uncomfortable about it for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members gdoubleyou Posted April 20, 2011 Members Share Posted April 20, 2011 What I attempt to do, is to cultivate relationships, with small and medium sized business, for voice overs, commercials, and event video. Getting three to four accounts a year, give me enough budget, so I can choose the clients I want to work with. I prefer working with individuals and small groups, where I can use my composition and production skills. Make a business plan, for upscaling your clients. At this point you are trying to make money from clients who are least likely to have any money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xraylemur Posted April 21, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 21, 2011 What I attempt to do, is to cultivate relationships, with small and medium sized business, for voice overs, commercials, and event video.Getting three to four accounts a year, give me enough budget, so I can choose the clients I want to work with.I prefer working with individuals and small groups, where I can use my composition and production skills.Make a business plan, for upscaling your clients.At this point you are trying to make money from clients who are least likely to have any money. Well i'm doing it because I enjoy it most of the time, and I like helping local bands out as well as recording more professional projects. Problem is I wouldn't have hardly any time to do any of it if I don't make enough money off of it to pay for college kid expenses like gas, car insurance, etc and have to get a part time job. I have been wanting to do more commercial composition though. That kind of stuff is really fun. But I have no idea how to get into that business. Most of the local companies who advertise on radio and tv here already have guys they've worked with for years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bignasty006 Posted April 21, 2011 Members Share Posted April 21, 2011 I'm a college student running a home built studio and charging by the hour, but i'm not getting enough business lately just by word of mouth. I really don't want to pick up a part time job haha. Two years ago I was getting lot of business off of myspace. Myspace of course died shortly after that. I've tried facebook, but nobody seems to pay any attention to business and music pages on facebook. I've put cheap flyers up at all the music stores, record stores, venues, local colleges, etc and gotten a few hits that way. But it isn't enough. I think a big problem is convincing people who don't know me or anybody that's used me to believe that I can actually get a professional level of sound quality with my budget studio run out of a storage building on a farm haha. Also most people don't know that my rig is mobile and I record concerts and theatre performances too. So i'm thinking getting a simple but professional looking website might help, maybe one of those $5 a month godaddy sites, or maybe shell out a little cash on nicer flyers or business cards. But besides that I can't think of anything else to do. Suggestions??? I'm in college also with a "storage/practice place" to just mess around in. How did you get started recording other people and with what gear compared to gear you have now? I'm in the process of rewiring and soundproofing the old house my parents bought for my brother and I. It's big enough for a band, but I'm not sure how to layout and section everything off. Any suggestions for me? btw may I have a list of gear and PC specs you use? Like, everything, please? As far as promotion for yourself...Try www.webs.com. I use that site for my band page and it works well I guess. Lots of options. Not sure if it has a song player, but you can definitely link youtube videos to it if you'd want to upload some of your clients music you posted or they posted. Get permission to use them as a reference first though. Easy to customize too. But you need to look legit for people who may want to record, but are unsure. Business cards; and make sure your studio reflects your website. You live on a farm? Put a cow on your site or something. Once you get interest, give people more options. Are you there just to record? Or are you mixing/mastering also? Do you make CD's for them? Do you put art work on their CDs? etc. etc. etc. Those are just my opinions and questions if I were looking to record with someone. Anyone who wants to record will find you if you put yourself out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xraylemur Posted April 21, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 21, 2011 ^^^Well my Dad gave me the majority of a large concrete storage building we have on our farm to use for music stuff early back in high school. So me and my friend got a bunch of 2x4's together and framed out a 17x17 room against one side of the building and sheet rocked the inside, put up thick r30 insulation all over the outside, and I got one of those auralex foam packages with wedges and bass traps (looking back i would've just used owens & corning fiber board or rock board) I borrowed an spl meter and dampened the room with that (not all that perfectly i've made some adjustments since then). I put a window on the inward facing side of the room (my rapper friend actually gave me 2 big panes of glass) and set up a little booth made of wood scraps we had sitting in the storage building (previous owner built churches) with it's own smaller window facing that window. So I have a tracking room and a control booth. Sometimes when I record whole bands at once i'll put amps and singers outside the room. By then I already had my macbook pro but with only 1gb of ram, a presonus firepod (which came with Cubase le which I used), 4 sm57's, a shure beta 52a kick mic, 2 sterling st88 sdc's, an mxl 990 ldc, and a sm58. I started recording myself and my band, then friends and their bands for free until I got a fairly good hang of everything. I was taking jazz at our local Fine Arts Center in high school and they just happened to have just opened a music engineering course. So I proceeded to take two years of that and learned a lot about all the stuff I was doing wrong (particularly with mixing) and learned Protools. Our teacher was an awesome guy, some kids would just listen to their ipods in class and goofed off the whole time and he would let you and you just take the fall on test grades. But if you really got actively involved he would teach you a lot and use you for all sorts of recording projects. I guess he really liked me, because i'm the only student he seems to use (even now though I've graduated from his class) for paying gigs still to this day and he sends me clients he doesn't have time for himself sometimes. So I started charging for bands through that process. Starting really small with bands I knew $100 a song deals, and now i've moved up to $25 an hour and get various different acts. My gear as of now is: Same macbook pro but I upgraded to 4gb of ram, I run protools 9, an m-audio firewire 1482 with a presonus digimax pre hooked up via ADAT to give me 16 channels, Same mics plus a sterling st77 LDC, an audio technica at3050 LDC, a nady rsm-1 ribbon mic, an audix i5, a sennheiser e906, and a few other budget dynamic mics. As far as plugins I have the mcdsp emerald plug in package, antares autotune evo, izotope ozone, and all the stuff that comes with protools. Then of course I have my personal music equipment that I let clients use if they need it (tube guitar amps, decent pedal collection, decent drum set, keyboards, midi controller, etc.) So that's really a pretty modest gear setup really. What people pay for is what I can do with it though not the gear itself. There are local studios around here that have over $100,000 worth of gear vs. my maybe $15,000. But I think I'm doing a better job and care more about smaller projects than them, plus they charge $100+ an hour or do song packages and do really slack work. So yeah that's my deal right now. Thanks for the suggestions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lawrence Farr Posted April 21, 2011 Members Share Posted April 21, 2011 Unless you're a full service room with really great gear (and great spaces and great mics) you kinda have to focus on things you can better than your target client group. I mean, everyone has a daw and mics and it's not that hard to get a decent result at home these days so what you offer has to clearly exceed what they can already do without you and/or be for people who'd rather not bother with DAW's and recording at all... but almost every band these days have at least one guy doing that already. I guess what I'm saying is... if a guy or small band can do it themselves and get say a 6 (subjective quality wise) on a scale of 10, they're not going to repeat-pay you for 7's, (the difference isn't worth it financially) you'll probably have do do a 9, something that's clearly and immediately much better than anything they're capable of by themselves. If it's sample based music that doesn't require acoustic spaces or outboard gear really at all... even less reason for people to use a "commercial studio" until maybe final mix time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xraylemur Posted April 21, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 21, 2011 ^^ Yeah I think i'm doing that. Most bands do have somebody with an mbox and a mic or two you're right, cept for the old cats in gospel bands and stuff I get. But they don't know how to use what they have well enough to get a good sound and they don't have enough mics/channels to cover a full band's needs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mixwell Posted April 21, 2011 Members Share Posted April 21, 2011 Seems you have a very good start. I think you should focus your networking skills through these efforts. I also think you should maybe "put yourself out there", just a little. Sometimes doing some work to gain a client is a very helpful thing. Say you find some good talent to promote, make them feel loved, and help them cut a demo. At this point, your studio appears busy, and the image helps move people through a working environment. Networking will be huge for you, so seeking musicians and bands and whoever, and approaching them, will help you at least make a contact, and a relationship. You never know who your going to meet and hit it off with, so as long as you keep trying you'll gain at least SOME headway. But, I would not charge by the hour at a project studio. I have found that charging by the hour is somewhat intimidating for me personally, as the client, and also myself, end up watching the clock more than anything else. But I think the point I am trying to make at least for me, is that offering a fair flat rate for my services and/use of the facility takes away the edge immediately and then you can put in some extra work on top of the allotted time frame, to help develop and finish the product just so you guarantee that the client feels the love and will come back with his cash for more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xraylemur Posted April 22, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 22, 2011 Seems you have a very good start. I think you should focus your networking skills through these efforts. I also think you should maybe "put yourself out there", just a little. Sometimes doing some work to gain a client is a very helpful thing. Say you find some good talent to promote, make them feel loved, and help them cut a demo. At this point, your studio appears busy, and the image helps move people through a working environment. Networking will be huge for you, so seeking musicians and bands and whoever, and approaching them, will help you at least make a contact, and a relationship. You never know who your going to meet and hit it off with, so as long as you keep trying you'll gain at least SOME headway. But, I would not charge by the hour at a project studio. I have found that charging by the hour is somewhat intimidating for me personally, as the client, and also myself, end up watching the clock more than anything else. But I think the point I am trying to make at least for me, is that offering a fair flat rate for my services and/use of the facility takes away the edge immediately and then you can put in some extra work on top of the allotted time frame, to help develop and finish the product just so you guarantee that the client feels the love and will come back with his cash for more. Explain more sir. What would you charge? The thing with a flat rate per song is i'd have to enforce a pretty rigid formula for bands to follow to get stuff done. I'm not going to charge them by song and then let them take all day screwing around figuring stuff out on their own. They'd have to more or less follow my program, and i'm not sure a lot of people would like that. Though some definitely would. I've thought about offering a flat rate for a "day" of recording. Let them come in on a saturday as early as they want and leave as late as they want. That'd be pretty cool. I suppose I could offer both hourly rates and the day rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Bignasty006 Posted April 22, 2011 Members Share Posted April 22, 2011 ...$100,000 worth of gear vs. my maybe $15,000. Only wish I had a fraction of what you own Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Mixwell Posted April 22, 2011 Members Share Posted April 22, 2011 Explain more sir. What would you charge? The thing with a flat rate per song is i'd have to enforce a pretty rigid formula for bands to follow to get stuff done. I'm not going to charge them by song and then let them take all day screwing around figuring stuff out on their own. They'd have to more or less follow my program, and i'm not sure a lot of people would like that. Though some definitely would. I've thought about offering a flat rate for a "day" of recording. Let them come in on a saturday as early as they want and leave as late as they want. That'd be pretty cool. I suppose I could offer both hourly rates and the day rate. A couple of things firstly - you are paid to be a leader and show people how its "done"....Recording Engineers are Leaders....I think. Whoever becomes the leader of the situation, automatically gets king bull attention from all the people in the room. The key is knowing how to do this passively and still accommodate everyone. You must take charge, as you are running the session. These can offen be trying times, knowing which way to move.....I know.......and what I have found is that you need to prove yourself to a lot of different people, which is not an easy task. This is in regard to the "putting yourself out there" comment, which is a very universal statement I know, but I think I mean you might have to work longer hours w/ out pay; just to get paid at all. I can't say what you SHOULD charge, without knowing what you are capable of in your studio, and many other variables, but I will say that I myself don't have a set rate, that I patch into a time based musician calculator, because it constantly changes depending on what is being done, and where I am doing it. I think a freelance engineer has a much harder time making his way, [unless he has paved his own road] but I do think it may be equally hard operating a project studio as a commercial entity. You gotta start "carving out your niche", or "getting in, where you fit in", or "making your own home", or "making your own bed and lying in it", and all that jazz.... This investment of time and effort is not easily forgettable for your growing list of clients. This opinion is born from a desire to work and promote myself as an engineer to which I put in many hours of my time to develop. True, I do not like "working for free , but you are not working for free so long as you view it differently. This attitude may be viewed as malignant in a way, but it works for me for several reasons I think the studio business is somewhat of a buyers market. Not really a sellers....unless you have something that REALLY....sells....itself......to.......others........... This includes skill, people management, tangibles......the whole vibe. Gotta start somewhere. Start from a place that is fair. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chris carter Posted April 23, 2011 Members Share Posted April 23, 2011 You need to Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members xraylemur Posted April 23, 2011 Author Members Share Posted April 23, 2011 ^ Number 1 and 2 is where i'm feeling weakest right now. For number 1 I'm getting my sister to come over with her nice camera tomorrow to take pictures and i'm going to build a website. As for number 2, the best sounding stuff I have is stuff i've performed on myself (i know that sounds prickish but it's true. Since I do it in my free time I could really spend time on it and get it sounding as good as possible), but I can't sing too well and my music isn't very commercial at all. I'm definitely going to find a good sounding act to get a song from. The main thing is a good singer, and a solid band. If the band doesn't have good tone and equipment i'll just force them to use my stuff haha. Number 3 I had down great up until half a year ago. I'll have to get back out there and meet whoever is new on the scene. For number 4 if I ever do record anything that I feel is just really great i'll get help from my mentor, the guy who taught me in recording engineering class. He's a wizard at mixing. He's from the gospel/christian rock scene mostly but he's one of the best mixers/masterers i've met and he'd probably be glad to sit down with me and help me out with whatever I bring to him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Rikv Posted June 1, 2011 Members Share Posted June 1, 2011 A website will not give you more customers...sure as that. If you do want to launch one, you damn make sure to be on the first google-pages... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members chris carter Posted June 1, 2011 Members Share Posted June 1, 2011 A website will not give you more customers...sure as that. If you do want to launch one, you damn make sure to be on the first google-pages... Yes, a website will give you more customers. Nobody asks for a CD demo rell anymore. It has to be online. And there is so much competition out there you can't make people work to find out if you are the guy for them. You have to have samples of your work, info about the services you offer and why you are better than the other guy, contact info, and anything else that's pertinent. It's not that people will google "recording studio" and see your site and decide to hire you because that's not going to happen so who cares where you pop up on the google pages. It's that someone meets bob who says, "yeah, this guy chris carter has a studio called the feisty chicken you should look into" and they google "feisty chicken recording studio" and get to my website and all my info. Or they meet me at some event and I give them my card with my website on it and they like what I have to say so they check out the website and get all my info. That's how a website works for you. You have no idea how much work I get because someone heard about me from someoen else, or saw something I posted in a forum, or heard a record I did and found out I did it, and had enough info to find my website and AFTER checking out my website, they inquired about hiring me. Unless your name is Chris Lord-Alge, you should have a website. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted June 1, 2011 Members Share Posted June 1, 2011 In particular, a website will give you more business if you are offering a specific service that people are Googling for. For example, I get business because I do Akai tape transfers, a specific service that most studios cannot offer. And I've also gotten some business mixing songs and tracking as well through the website, although admittedly not a lot. For that kind of thing, it's been primarily word of mouth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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