How do small-scale Mastering Engineers make a living?

iqi616

iqi616

Yet another Mike
This is not a rehash of the Mastering Fees thread. It's a simple question. If all the small-scale Mastering Engineers are only charging $30-or-so per song, how do they make a living? I'd want to be mastering 40+ songs per week x 50 weeks per year if that's all I was charging and I don't see that as sustainable - there ain't that many musicians out there that want to pay for mastering their stuff. So are these guys just hobbyists doing a few projects a week or do they make a significant income from other music work to pay the bills?
 
This is the music industry, welcome to not making a living.

If you want to make a living become a Plumber or a lawyer.

Alan
 
OK my apologies for being a bit flippant.

The truth of the matter is that most people in the music industry struggle to make a living. I would guess that if mastering engineers are charging $30 per song they are not making a full time living from mastering, unless maybe they are mastering 5 x 8 song projects a week = $1200.

The good mastering engineers that are charging $100 plus per song may make a living, i.e 2 x 8 song projects a week = $1600.

What usually happens with the small scale mastering guys is that they have some recording / mastering gear that they have saved up and bought for their own use, they then try to recoup the investment by mastering some other projects. As they love what they do they think that making $30 per song is good. They also supplement their income with some form of day job, full or part time.

Also don't forget that some mastering engineers may also work as recording engineers, producers, musicians, live sound, etc and over the week they string together a living.

Cheers
Alan.
 
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witzendoz said:
OK my apologies for being a bit flippant.

The truth of the matter is that most people in the music industry struggle to make a living. I would guess that if mastering engineers are charging $30 per song they are not making a full time living from mastering, unless maybe they are mastering 5 x 8 song projects a week = $1200.

The good mastering engineers that are charging $100 plus per song may make a living, i.e 2 x 8 song projects a week = $1600.

What usually happens with the small scale mastering guys is that they have some recording / mastering gear that they have saved up and bought for their own use, they then try to recoup the investment by mastering some other projects. As they love what they do they think that making $30 per song is good. They also supplement their income with some form of day job, full or part time.

Also don't forget that some mastering engineers may also work as recording engineers, producers, musicians, live sound, etc and over the week they string together a living.

Cheers
Alan.
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Sorry for being crabby - sometimes it's hard to get sensible answers on this BBS. :)

You make some good points about the guys who already have the gear. If they've got the gear and have a low-cost place for the studio, they could quit their day job and get by I guess.

I've always known how hard it is to make a living in music so I was curious how these guys seemed to have enough money to get the gear yet charge so little. My wife keeps saying I should do music for a living because of my "freaky ears" as she calls them but there's patently no living to be made in Ottawa as a recording studio owner. I'm sure the studios here are hurting - many of them either host music tutors or they do recording training for the home-studio folks. I've been doing some mastering for acquaintances and have gotten a good response so I thought I'd check things out and was a bit shocked by the prices compared to the investment. So I guess it's like most things in music - you do your best and if you get lucky you get to make a living but if you don't at least you have fun trying :)
 
I was curious how these guys seemed to have enough money to get the gear yet charge so little.
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I know dozens of "mastering places" with wonderful gear lists that don't have the gear. I've legally attacked over 20 of them myself for using *my* gear list for that matter.

I'm not saying - I'm just saying... There are plenty of phonies and frauds out there that claim wonderful rigs that don't have anything of the like. I don't want to suggest or imply that "all" or even "most" of them are (phonies & frauds), but there is certainly no shortage... But generally speaking, when you see a place that has a $75,000 investment in gear (not even considering the space itself), charging $30 a track, something probably isn't right. Especially for singles -- Those are "loss leaders" for the most part. $30 wouldn't cover the administrative costs. Keeping in mind of course that $30 = more like $15-17 after Fed and State taxes, FICA, (etc., etc., etc.) are all handled.
 
Yep, I'd figured $30 would be "spare time hobbyist" rates where the mastering would be in the box through a not-bad set of speakers in an okay room. It's what I would charge if someone asked me to do it because that's the value I feel I can provide with my ear and my gear. If I had better gear and accommodation, I'd be looking for more than that.
 
Rates depend on the artist's needs and limits in my opinion. Nowadays people are gonna have to focus more on the end product's profit, rather then an individual's money limits, because alot of people nowadays don't even have money to begin with, especially artists. Cue starving artist.
 
Gnasticious said:
Rates depend on the artist's needs and limits in my opinion. Nowadays people are gonna have to focus more on the end product's profit, rather then an individual's money limits, because alot of people nowadays don't even have money to begin with, especially artists. Cue starving artist.
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To a certain extent but there is a point where it's not worth offering the service for money and you might as well just do it for free for people you like. I would set a bottom-line and if that's above the artist's top-line then there's no deal and if there are no artists that will pay that much, there's no business case.
 
I saw an ad on the company that outs my music up on itunes for 50 dollars a song from Universal Records. I looked into it and it seemed totally 100 percent legit it. They listed their 7 top engineers to choose from and it was a 5 song minimum but 50 dollars a song?!? I don't know how to compete with that shizz.
 
Largely this:

Being exceptional at what they do.
Having lots of prior experience.
Making good decision after good decision.
Being one step ahead of the cometition (the competition is immense).
Putting in very, very hard work.

Then you might just pay your costs and get 2 weeks off a year.

Seriously, if you do not have the constitution of an ox the music industry will shred you.

SafeandSound
online mastering
audio mastering
 
In Germany you can pay by the minute for Mastering. (Length of Song). Online Mastering is available but I prefer attending the Mastering Session. It costs a bit more but I would recommend that to anyone.


So 50 Minutes of Music costs about 380 Euros for Online Mastering. If you attend the Mastering session add about 180 Euros to that.

It costs more because the engineer has to schedule around the Customer. But you get Breakfast and Lunch with that .. Great Atmosphere and you will lear lots too.. Just thought I would add that.
 
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There are pro's and cons to attended mastering and online mastering.

My studio is fairly busy well now and I have a fast growing set of clientelle who come back so largely I am just building on the good work, the last 3 years have been very intense.

SafeandSound Mastering
online mastering
 
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