Small Audio Commercial Studio

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beya2010

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Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to know people's views on Audio Commercial Studios in Ireland. Obviously im thinking of this from a business point of view. From my research to date, recording studios seems to be very broad in nature. For instance there are some just for mastering.

Im presuming a lot of these recording studios target the high end consumer that know exactly what they want. i.e professional and aspiring artists so obviously studios catering to those type of clients must be significantly expensive to build.

What I was thinking would be a small commercial audio recording studio that catered to the low end consumer. This would mean you would potentially have a large client base. Starting up a professional recording studio im guessing would require some serious capital, you would probably need to have some serious contacts, would have to hire experienced audio engineers and I would imagine the client base would be a lot smaller you would predominantly be dealing with professional and aspiring artists.

So that's why Im only looking into a very small commercial audio recording studio. Then again the problem is know what services to offer that is fun. realistic and would be in demand. Obviously it would be important to be able to offer services that most people can not do at their home.

Any thoughts on this would be great appreciated particularly those that have some insight on the industry.

I am based in Ireland btw
 
Interesting thread... curious to know what the more experienced guys on here have to say...
 
JasonJohnson said:
beya2010,

I tried this 11 years ago in Pittsburgh. I picked up all of the equipment for only 46K. It kinda worked, but we ended up closing and then opening a high-end studio, do to frustration with many of our clients.

Your typical "low-end" musician/artist is nearly broke and usually inexperienced with studio recording. So, they underestimate the time it will take them. Also, they are usually so excited about being in a studio that they don't stay motivated to finish. Basically, artists would book studio time and will come to record. At the end of the session, they were expected to pay for the time they just used. If they did not pay, we would hold on to their recordings. After a couple years we ended up with a lot of peoples unfinished CDs. We used them as coasters.:laughings:

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Hi JasonJohnson,

Thank you very much for your insight. That made me view this discussion from a different perspective. Novice users would not have a clue what their doing. But that was what more I was kinda thinking. I was thinking that offering a small studio could draw in people that want to have fun and learn about the services offered in a studio but I do see what you mean in that getting customers that know what their doing will simply be more profitable.

I just wanted to know in your opinion what the start up costs would be to open a very small commercial audio studio. I would want to open it in a retail outlet. With regards to the services that could be offered..this is where im very inexperienced. I really would want to try and promote a more fun aspect of the service offering rather than the more professional one. Like for instance my thinking was that say for example a group of young adults, say a group of 3 people would come and record some music or maybe have some fun with some instrumentals with their vocals and offer them the flexibility to upload it to YouTube HD or something. Would I be far off trying to offer fun things like that?
 
JasonJohnson said:
beya2010,

I tried this 11 years ago in Pittsburgh. I picked up all of the equipment for only 46K. It kinda worked, but we ended up closing and then opening a high-end studio, do to frustration with many of our clients.

Your typical "low-end" musician/artist is nearly broke and usually inexperienced with studio recording. So, they underestimate the time it will take them. Also, they are usually so excited about being in a studio that they don't stay motivated to finish. Basically, artists would book studio time and will come to record. At the end of the session, they were expected to pay for the time they just used. If they did not pay, we would hold on to their recordings. After a couple years we ended up with a lot of peoples unfinished CDs. We used them as coasters.:laughings:

Anyway, there were several commercial studios in town like ours. We choose to merge with another studio making us the largest studio in town, and thus attracting higher-end clients. All, but one, of the other commercial studios closed. That one had a really interesting design.

Built in an old church, the studio used the sanctuary as a tracking room during the week, and a venue on weekends. Also, the church had several small rooms underneath the sanctuary. They turned those small rooms in to practice rooms and small production suites. So, they were able to accomodate several clients at once, for several different needs. Last I heard, they are still in business today.

FYI: my studio was called Power Pye (when little), then AAM (when big). The church studio was started by a band called Rusted Root (they had a hit in 94 called "send me on my way"). It was called Mr. Smalls Funhouse.
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That's a good post.

Frank
 
Have you thought about opening as a small private training facility instead?

Most home recordists want to do it themselves but (as the newb section of this forum clearly shows) that doesn't stop you providing a service to them when they don't know their arse from their elbow. As I did, when I first came in here. Buying the gear and trying to make your first recording is an unprecedented technical nightmare for some and you could probably make good money by alleviating their frustration.

Further to this, I had been looking into opening a drama/theatre arts facility, on the strength of DWP funding for training facilitators to those claiming Employment & Support Allowance.

Disability benefit is being phased out in the UK and is to be replaced by ESA. With the large amount of 'able bodied' claimants these days, who may be looking for work opportunities in the creative arts and music production, the department is hard pressed to find placements for the growing number of people trying to get back into work and now looks towards private facilitators to supply training and 'job experience'.

Perhaps you might consider this along with your other options? If you can show you are qualified in your field, you could probably pick up a government business grant to get you started and I'm sure that way, there would be much less marketing on your part, as your clients would be sent directly to you, by the independant careers advisors.

Worth a shot?

Dr. V
 
Dr. Varney said:
Have you thought about opening as a small private training facility instead?

Most home recordists want to do it themselves but (as the newb section of this forum clearly shows) that doesn't stop you providing a service to them when they don't know their arse from their elbow. As I did, when I first came in here. Buying the gear and trying to make your first recording is an unprecedented technical nightmare for some and you could probably make good money by alleviating their frustration.

Further to this, I had been looking into opening a drama/theatre arts facility, on the strength of DWP funding for training facilitators to those claiming Employment & Support Allowance.

Disability benefit is being phased out in the UK and is to be replaced by ESA. With the large amount of 'able bodied' claimants these days, who may be looking for work opportunities in the creative arts and music production, the department is hard pressed to find placements for the growing number of people trying to get back into work and now looks towards private facilitators to supply training and 'job experience'.

Perhaps you might consider this along with your other options? If you can show you are qualified in your field, you could probably pick up a government business grant to get you started and I'm sure that way, there would be much less marketing on your part, as your clients would be sent directly to you, by the independant careers advisors.

Worth a shot?

Dr. V
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Hi Dr.Varney,

this is a great post. I was wondering if you could please elaborate on this a bit more particularly to the services that would be offered? To be honest I am hugely inexperienced in this field but as a business person, I am just trying to spot an opportunity.
 
What, do you mean the services you would offer to teach or how the service interacts with independant careers advisors?

Basically, I think you could have one or two strings to your bow here.

The first would of course be a private, fee based 'virgin-breaking' service (um... sounds tempting already!) for newbs who don't know where to start. I guess you'd briefly introduce them to basic analogue theory and how it translates to the digital then go on to show them how to record their first track. How to rig a mixer, how to operate a DAW and some basic know how on MIDI.

You could have varying levels of expertise levels, from 'virgin' to beginner, to improver, whatever. Whether you offer one-one tuition (individuals or bands) or group classes really would depend upon the disposable income of your target market. A bit of market research is called for, I think.

In becoming a training provider for the DWP you would probably have to show expertise in your field. I'm not sure if you'd need a teaching qualification or not but the way to find out is to approach you local council and try to find out how contracts for training facilitators are aquired.

Pathways To Work is the name of the scheme you would be looking to offer your services within. Google that and see what happens.

Remember if you're training people, then you will need public liability insurance and if you're working with youth, you'll need to undergo the CRB check. If you join a performing arts union, such as BECTU, membership alone provides easy access to these things.

It was an idea that was posed to me by a friend who does this with a creative group here in England. He's done very well out of it. I gave it a great deal of thought but did not persue it in the end because of other opportunities which came up.

I wish I could offer more details right now but all I know is that opportunities of this nature do exist.

Dr. V
 
beya2010 said:
Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to know people's views on Audio Commercial Studios in Ireland. Obviously im thinking of this from a business point of view. From my research to date, recording studios seems to be very broad in nature. For instance there are some just for mastering.

Im presuming a lot of these recording studios target the high end consumer that know exactly what they want. i.e professional and aspiring artists so obviously studios catering to those type of clients must be significantly expensive to build.

What I was thinking would be a small commercial audio recording studio that catered to the low end consumer. This would mean you would potentially have a large client base. Starting up a professional recording studio im guessing would require some serious capital, you would probably need to have some serious contacts, would have to hire experienced audio engineers and I would imagine the client base would be a lot smaller you would predominantly be dealing with professional and aspiring artists.

So that's why Im only looking into a very small commercial audio recording studio. Then again the problem is know what services to offer that is fun. realistic and would be in demand. Obviously it would be important to be able to offer services that most people can not do at their home.

Any thoughts on this would be great appreciated particularly those that have some insight on the industry.

I am based in Ireland btw
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My main clientèle in Ayrshire, Scotland are "Star For A Day" singers. I would rather record a full band, but bigger bands go to Glasgow and generally smaller bands are completely skint.
 
Dr. Varney said:
What, do you mean the services you would offer to teach or how the service interacts with independant careers advisors?

Dr. V
Click to expand...

Yes I was referring to the services that would be offered to teach but I would also like to know how it would interact with independent career advisors. Also specifically what kind of jobs would these clients be able to realistically get or be qualified for. I would not be qualified to teach but obviously I would be able to hire a professional that could. This sort of scheme seems very lucrative as government agencies are usually very favourable to businesses that try to ultimately increase employment oportunties and make people more skilled in a specific trade, like you said with grants. Im really going to look into this as I think its a great idea.

I also the privately fee based service where novice users could be trained the basics and like you said provide a service for both novice and more advanced users in all the various elements of music production. I also feek that perhaps there would be opportunities to target schools and third level institutions into bringing in groups of young people to learn the fundamentals of what goes on in a studio.

So realistically, what would be the start up costs for opening up a small commercial studio with say all the equipment needed to be able to train clients and also provide services for recording music. I would not be looking for state of the art equipment as that would be pass my budget but obviously good reliable equipment and obviously I would have to hire a professional audio engineer im presuming that knows how to work all the things in a studio.
 
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