Making a Living

[dbyboth]

Hi all,

I've been on this forum for quite some time now... rarely posting but reading lots. Most of my time has been spent in the studio design and construction forums.

Let me set up my question for discussion

I'm a 47 year ol High Tech executive. I have a small studio in a bedroom of my house, Almost all of my tracking is recording live bands but I produced and engineered a studio album for a band last year (tracked in a different location on my D8B and mixed ITB in Protools in my studio. I also produced and engineered a live album for another band last year.

Today I'm working on another full band live CD which I tracked this weekend. I'm also recording my first CD of myself (I'm also a singer/songwriter) in a studio in Austin with a producer and another engineer.

I have a house on 25 acres in the Texas Hill Country. My long term goal is to build a stand alone studio with a minimum of a live room, control room and two vocal booths as well as a small kitchen and bathroom facilities. I will most likely put a Control 24 with ProTools HD as the console and I already have plenty of preamps, mics, etc.. I also do a lot of live sound so this studio will have storage space with a roll up door and ramp for all my PA gear.

It will also have a pad with electricity and sewer for parking an RV on.

The plan is to have a hideaway space in the Hill country for artists to come and record. I will most likely focus on Acoustic acts, local bands, etc. I'm pretty connected in the business in the area and feel I could build up clientel relatively quickly. There are several other studios in the area but almost all of them are bedroom studios and small.

I found out this week that I will be laid off from my High Tech job of 13 years at the end of the month.
Therefore I'm very seriously thinking about taking the leap of faith and going full bore into this business.

My question is what kind of income can I expect to make if I keep the building relatively busy with recording, rehearsals, etc?

Who out there is doing this full time and what advice can you give me?

Thanks for the great info on this board....db

[gyefinger]

This post is creepy. Everything you described is the same situation except at this time still have the job but have been wanting to go back into music full time. I too am 47, high tech job, building a studio in the woods to cater to the same type of artists you are talking about and will be making my own CD as well so I am very interested in the feedback you will receive.

[dbyboth]

This post is creepy. <snip> .... I am very interested in the feedback you will receive.

Unfortunately, with all the people on this forum who have built and are building studios I haven't received any feedback... I'm quite surprised. Have you started building your studio? Where in Oregon are you? Today was my last day at work so I have to decide how deep into a studio I want to go soon! ..db

[tmix]

db,
I am 49 and live south of you a ways.
I don't do this as my only gig so I feel unqualified to answer completely, but I will share with you my experience.

I started about 12 years ago operating out of my 3rd garage bay.
It started as a place to practice as I am a drummer. What ever band I was with at the time rehearsed there.
I really love music, playing , mixing live sound and the like , so I guess it was a natural progression to delve into recording demos of he bands I was working with. I eventually worked up a small amount of gear and ecoded other friendly bands as well.
This forced me to set some sort of price. It was obviously low at the beginning ($10-15/ hr) but the only "cost" was paying off the gear I would buy.
Eventually I was swamped with more work than I had time for and upped my price to stave off some of the work. I found I could not say no. I felt better about the customer saying it. I worked my way up to $25 hr.

My wife then went through a period of being bed ridden with Illness, and I thought of running the studio full time so I could be with her.
It never really panned out. My facility was too small, I did not have time to beat the bushes AND work the studio enough to make anything but a musicians wages.

I raised my prices to $35/hr and kept enough work to book at least 2 weekends a month and some occasional weeknight sessions.

I recently took the plunge and built a freestanding studio (with the help of these fine folks) about 900 sq/ft .(1 main room with tracking nook, vocal booth, drum booth, equipment room, storage, bath room) Because of the increased cost I have to amortize monthly and my relatively limited time I can afford to spend making money in the studio (maybe 10 hrs/ week) I went up to $45 for past customers and $55 - ? for new customers.

At this price the balance has been struck to where I can make my monthly studio payments and keep up with at least a small amount of equipment upgrade.
But that does not allow for anything to live on at that small amount of hours.

At around the $45-50/hr mark I could make it if I could keep a full 30+ hrs/ week BILLED. Of course running the studio involves a lot of unbillable work, and this is where you may have the advantage.


If you , because of your area / contacts/ etc can keep a steady amount of business coming in without having to devote a lot of time to sales calls and negotiations, you win!

There are a lot of home studios out there. because people can offer artificially low rates due to them subsidizing their studios from another job, you have to be able to offer them something the normal weekend warrior cant.

Availability,better facility, faster-more devoted- turn around time.
You can do it! I would suggest you sitting down and put a pencil to it though. No sense in being one of those guys you see selling it all on Craig's list.

If there is a "niche" you can fill it also help. Something more "commercial" like audio edit for Legal or / Forensic. Gaming music, Advertising spots etc. There is more of a "budget" for that sort of thing do to its relatively small cost in most businesses world .

Man, all I can say is God bless your choice. Be sure and go for it. Make sure you count the cost and have at least a simple plan.

If I can ever be of any help give me shout. This whole business is based on NETWORKING. Don't be fooled, the more you can network with others the better off you will be. It is like having a promotional team at your disposal without the cost other than a few favors.

My perspective anyway.

Tom Menikos
tom@tmixstudio.com
www.tmixstudio.com

[dbyboth]

Tom,

Thanks for the reply. I see you are in Mansfield. I tracked the live record I'm working on now in downtown Mansfield at the Farr Best Theater. I do have a business plan I have been working on. Part of that was trying to get real world numbers of what people are charging and making. Your information will be very helpful.

The networking piece I totally agree with. I know at least two producers in the Austin area who would love to use a decent studio in my area who are now going to Austin. My hope is to be able to rent the space for rehearsing, and for producers to bring their engineers in so the building can be making money while I'm not there. I know there are some dangers there as well.

Anyone else have experiences in this area??

Thanks...db
dbyboth@yahoo.com

[dbyboth]

By the way... when I say "my area" I mean Wimberley which is about 50 miles SW of Austin in Central Texas. Not Coppell which is in the Dallas Ft. Worth area. (I have two houses).

.db

[tmix]

Tom,

Thanks for the reply. I see you are in Mansfield. I tracked the live record I'm working on now in downtown Mansfield at the Farr Best Theater. I do have a business plan I have been working on. ?

Thanks...db
dbyboth@yahoo.com

That is cool!
I am glad they started using the theater as a music venue. I am trying to get our band in there as well. I know it will revive music in this area, and maybe I can get some work out of it.

Glad to see your opportunities, I wish you the best!
Keep me informed, it is actually very encouraging.

Tom

[Drumdrumdrumdrum]

Hi,

I have a home studio and am thinking of going pro too. However. I've been a full time muso most of my life and have become accustomed to 'musicians wages'. I still make more then packing shelves at Woolworth's.

It never ceases to surprise me the amount of people that go into a business without doing a business plan. Most people put more time into planning there holidays then planning there business.

I did a Cert. IV in marketing and another in business planning and operation a few years ago. I realized that I was never going to get anywhere as a muso if I couldn't organize and 'sell' myself.

It's a lot of working running a studio. Ive been working in studios all my life as a session muso so I have the advantage of knowing a lot of comercial studio owners. they do a lot of work even when the studio is empty. They just do whatever needs to be done to make the business work. Generally, the guys I know are all doing very well and make more money then your average executive. Like I said they work long hours but they love what they do.

When you love what you do it's not work, its fun, most of the time

God bless

PS. I played on an Australian tour with Edwin Holt last year.
I think he is from the Austin area? He cranked. Great MC too. Big Jack, trumpet player from Stax Records. Do you see them around?

[underspecialization]

I have a house on 25 acres in the Texas Hill Country. My long term goal is to build a stand alone studio with a minimum of a live room, control room and two vocal booths as well as a small kitchen and bathroom facilities. I will most likely put a Control 24 with ProTools HD as the console and I already have plenty of preamps, mics, etc.. I also do a lot of live sound so this studio will have storage space with a roll up door and ramp for all my PA gear.

It will also have a pad with electricity and sewer for parking an RV on.

The plan is to have a hideaway space in the Hill country for artists to come and record. I will most likely focus on Acoustic acts, local bands, etc. I'm pretty connected in the business in the area and feel I could build up clientel relatively quickly. There are several other studios in the area but almost all of them are bedroom studios and small.

Seems like you could make extra dough by adding a small tranquil getaway cabin (or several!) for the artists (and regulars folks too ) to rent while recording, say for the weekend, and/or just as a retreat.. 25 acres in texas hill country sounds great! I'd $urely want to hit it for a weekend getaway if it was set up right..