How to market your work, when you're not a full-time engineer?

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alexdingley
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How to market your work, when you're not a full-time engineer?

Post by alexdingley » Sun Apr 08, 2018 5:45 pm

Hey all — Looking for some advice, if anyone has some... not really expecting there to be a simple-solve one-and-done answer to this, but I'm trying to see if there's anyone else out there who's in the same (or similar) boat as I am, and if they've found a particular marketing strategy that makes them happiest. Essentially, I'm trying to figure out the best way to "keep my name out there" & draw in just a little bit of work without trying to fill every possible free-hour with recording projects.

Quick disclaimer: I am not complaining about my situation — I am just really happy with some recent good fortune in the work I've been thrown, and am not sure how to hang on to this momentum.

A little context
I'm pretty confident that I'll never be a 100% full-time recording engineer ever again. It was my first career, and it had its moments... but in the end, I didn't move to a major recording Mecca and didn't commit to the lifestyle that was gonna make me a really busy & very successful engineer. I've come to terms with that reality — I've spent the last 12yrs outside of the recording/music business... and for the last 6yrs I've been incredibly happy with my "day job" which is turning into something of a very successful career with real "have the good life" opportunities... but it's not anywhere near the recording / music industries. That said... I have a very flexible schedule, working with people I really enjoy, and I'm finally making a serious living without having to work insane hours at a soulless corporate desk-job.

What my work-life looks like right now
I work 40hrs/wk at my day job (which is actually done from home, part of the week), and from time to time... a small recording gig comes my way. I have a pretty damn nice home studio + a small live-recording rig that I can take out to capture 16-ins live. I've done roughly 1 Live stand-up comedy album recording each year for the last several years... but this year, I ended up with two back-to-back comedy album projects in a matter of a couple of months. I'm also picking up little audio-restoration jobs for some corporate marketing folks (iZotoping badly recording dialog on videos), and I'm just wrapping up the mixing on a small chamber orchestra project for a local private school's musical theater dept. All of this has been word-of-mouth, and it's great... but I'm never sure if there's another gig coming down the pike. So, I'm doing between 1-10 audio jobs per year, making a tiny bit of extra money on the side... just enough to offset the cost of some (but not all) of the gear I tend to buy.

What's the ideal situation?
I'm not gonna leave my day job — I love it, and I can't presently envision making this good of a living in the recording business... But I'm never gonna stop recording a) my own band and b) other people. So what are some methods that I can use to keep my name out there for other prospective clients? I have a mediocre website that I'm trying to update soon... I have a little social media presence... but beyond that & the word-of-mouth, I'm not sure how I can draw in a steady-trickle of work each year.

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Re: How to market your work, when you're not a full-time engineer?

Post by kslight » Sun Apr 08, 2018 6:52 pm

Similar situation, I don’t really advertise just word of mouth and I stay pretty busy in the available time I have...I basically just end up doing things I personally enjoy, or will provide a gateway to other things, or pay well. I have been focusing more on writing music for film than engineering, though I still do some engineering work for existing clients it’s not something I pursue. I don’t know about you, where I am it seems like everyone already knows a guy that’ll do it for free or has someone in the band with Logic and I’m not gonna waste my time to try to compete with free...so as far as band audio gigs, it just doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere. I have a friend/previous client that had me quote an album project for his new band and even after stressing about it and ended up cutting a real cheap rate, got an unheard of good block rate at a studio ...then they turned around and decided their drummer had some deal to get recording at his practice space for free... Like geez, why are you having me quote this? I realize we are friends but you know at minimum have to pay for gas, the studio, time off work to work with you guys, and it’s nice to get a little beer money after that’s done...did you think I was gonna be cheaper than free?

I’m afraid the minute I would start actively pursuing that work I would be inundated with quote requests as people try to just find the cheapest person to do it,

I’m just rambling, I dunno. Seems tough to really find a snowball of good paying table scraps. I’m either doing nothing or like right now got a dozen things all firing at once.

Magnetic Services
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Re: How to market your work, when you're not a full-time engineer?

Post by Magnetic Services » Sun Apr 08, 2018 9:28 pm

I think these days it's all about marketing yourself, your skills, and your personal tastes. Since everyone can record themselves or "knows a guy" who will do it cheap or free, you really have to sell the fact that you have experience doing this and doing it well, and that it will be an easy & fun experience for them. Everyone is forced to be a bit of a "producer," basically.

Word of mouth has always been the biggest thing for us, but having a static website with your rates, info, and audio samples is pretty important. Also, since I started using Instagram I've felt way more connected. Post a pic or vid here and there while setting up for that comedy show, tracking your band, or mixing a tune and people will take notice!

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Re: How to market your work, when you're not a full-time engineer?

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Mon Apr 09, 2018 6:24 am

There has to be a better way but I've never found anything to be more effective than word of mouth. Jobs lead to jobs lead to more jobs. Having a web page with basic info and some examples of your work is very helpful once people know about you. Having a demo reel ready to go is also a plus.
It also helps to diversify the kind of work you do. I did indie band records for years (still do) but at a certain point I realized that indie bands are active between the ages of 20-27. That means a life cycle of 2-3 records before members move on to other interests and real jobs. That means I need to find a new crop of 20 year olds every 4 or 5 years.
Now that I've branched out to doing live comedy records, podcasts, soundtrack work and a bunch of other things my work is a little more steady.

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Re: How to market your work, when you're not a full-time engineer?

Post by TapeOpLarry » Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:32 am

Obviously word of mouth, but go to shows and talk to artists that have music you like. Offer up attractive deals but make sure you are happy too. Playing out for 12 years before I opened Jackpot! was key. So many of the cool artists that dropped by my home (Laundry Rules) studio (Malkmus, Cat Power, Maroons, Spinanes, Versus) were closely related to relationships I forged while on tour, on Teen Beat Records, and such.

There's plenty of hacks that bought some gear and wanna experiment on people to build up chops. Fuck that. Be the person that loves the music instead, is part of the community, and helps great art get made. In other words, focus on the rewarding work and not JUST the work.
Larry Crane, Editor/Founder Tape Op Magazine
please visit www.tapeop.com for contact information
(do not send private messages via this board!)
www.larry-crane.com

Magnetic Services
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Re: How to market your work, when you're not a full-time engineer?

Post by Magnetic Services » Tue Apr 10, 2018 5:40 pm

TapeOpLarry wrote:
Tue Apr 10, 2018 9:32 am
go to shows and talk to artists that have music you like.
Definitely this too! Showing that you dig what they do and want to be involved is very effective. You're also supporting them by going to their shows so they might be more inclined to support you by working with you. This definitely won't work every time, but when it does you'll forge some happy awesome friendship/work connections that will probably spawn future gigs.

Also, the OP is in the counterintuitively awesome position of not trying making a living from recording. This means you can do that cool "be ready to walk away at any time" thing they tell you to do when you buy a car. If your time is worth more than the potential client thinks it is, then it doesn't hurt you at all to say no thanks.
Last edited by Magnetic Services on Tue Apr 10, 2018 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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alexdingley
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Re: How to market your work, when you're not a full-time engineer?

Post by alexdingley » Tue Apr 17, 2018 7:22 pm

Thanks everyone! This is all great insight on the situation!! And yes— I'm in a counterintuitively awesome situation. I'm feeling really good about this, and now I just have to figure out how to distill my goals / offerings into something easily understandable on a website.

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