how to become a commercial studio owner?

[antispatula]

I've never gotten how they do it.....It seems like you'd need to have plenty of cold hard cash to do it, but where did the money come from in the first place? Is it more about having lots of money or working really hard? It doesn't seem like something you could do very easily, and I doubt you can just say "I'm going to own a studio when I grow up." Any idea's or speculation would be great, I find this topic very interesting.

 

[Thunder33]

I've never gotten how they do it.....It seems like you'd need to have plenty of cold hard cash to do it, but where did the money come from in the first place? Is it more about having lots of money or working really hard? It doesn't seem like something you could do very easily, and I doubt you can just say "I'm going to own a studio when I grow up." Any idea's or speculation would be great, I find this topic very interesting.

that is a pretty broad question. I mean, how does anyone start a business? Inherit it, get a loan, sell everything, or just plain scrape until you can do it. There are thousands of studios and thousands of stories.

 

[thajeremy]

people dont become millionaires by owning a recording studio.....

 

[Thunder33]

people dont become millionaires by owning a recording studio.....

Well thank you for bursting my bubble!


hell, I would be happy becoming a hundredaire from it.

 

[frederic]

Since studios bill based on time... hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, you're essentially limited as to the dollar you bring in.

If you bill $50 an hour... figure 2000 hours a year... that's 100,000 income before buying gear, paying rent, electricity, employees, benefits, insurance, water, sewer, maintanence, and so on.

This is why I got into the "practice room" thing with my last pro studio many years ago.

I had a "studio A" which rented out for $50 an hour, and a "studio B" which also rented for $50 an hour. And four or five practice rooms which rented for $20 an hour each.

The idea behind the practice rooms were this...

A garage band, with four or five band members who couldn't play in their parent's house, could rent a room for $20 and play as loud as they wanted. Four bandmembers means the $20 per hour room cost each band member $5 an hour each - cheap - and we provided most of the equipment. Each room had a basic drum kit, a bass amp, a guitar amp, and a mic jack to an overhead PA built into the ceiling.

All they needed was guitars, bass, drumsticks, and so on. These practice rooms is where we put all the extra "junk" and "spare amps" we didn't use very much because of age and them being somewhat beat up.

 

[timboZ]

. And four or five practice rooms which rented for $20 an hour each.

The idea behind the practice rooms were this...

A garage band, with four or five band members who couldn't play in their parent's house, could rent a room for $20 and play as loud as they wanted. Four bandmembers means the $20 per hour room cost each band member $5 an hour each - cheap - and we provided most of the equipment. Each room had a basic drum kit, a bass amp, a guitar amp, and a mic jack to an overhead PA built into the ceiling.

All they needed was guitars, bass, drumsticks, and so on. These practice rooms is where we put all the extra "junk" and "spare amps" we didn't use very much because of age and them being somewhat beat up.

Great Idea.

 

[frederic]

Thanks.

It is, because the practice rooms do more than provide income. They are an EXCELLENT lead in for potential customers to use the studio facilities, as well.

We had many of the $20/hr practice room bands block time in the studio down the road, for one or two days, to record a few songs onto a demo tape. So there's that "upsell" at all.

Practice room rental is a good source to sell "trinkets" into. We sold quite a bit of picks, drumsticks, guitar straps, and so on to the typically younger crowd using the practice rooms. BTW, all those accessories are high margin

Since the equipment in the practice rooms were a bit beat up, I had the philosophy that it's all for sale, and everything in a practice room was marked that way. I sold two of the drumkits that way. Both of them needed new heads (I thought so anyway), but the shells and stands were fine, though scraped and dinged and so on. But for a bunch of high school students who rent a room to practice in, whereelse can you get a complete drumkit, stands, cymbals and so on, for $250?

That's how you get rid of the old stuff when you start accumulating too much of it.

 

[xstatic]

A lot fo the big studios are actually built by people that already had some success in the industry. Like an engineer who had a small place, but managed to work well with a band who broke it big. Royalties start rolling in and the engineer reinvests in teh studio and also gets bigger better contracts. Next thing you know you have a few gold and platinum albums under your belt, excellent clientelle, and a big studio

 

[frederic]

That's usually how it works XStatic.

Rarely do people say "I want to build a huge studio" and hope clients come in. I tried that a few times... it's financial torture

But it is fun, even if it's not the most profitable venture in the world.

I think the best way to run a studio, is in the same facility, off to the side, is start a pizza delivery business.

Live on the pizza sales and enjoy the studio

 

[RICK FITZPATRICK]

Some of the oldest and best worldclass studios have closed recently due to the competition from smaller pro studios that are proliferating all over. Mostly due to the computer/cheap digital gear, Back in the 80's when I became interested, even a Semi-pro Tascam 16trk was $8,000. Add all the other required qear AND the facility, it took a BIG hunk oif change to start a small studio, and that was Semi Pro. If you had the inclination to dream about equiping a PRO studio, ONE Studer 24trk ran upwards of $80k-$100k... same with a mixer. Its a no brainer why only those who were endowed with megabucks could venture into this industry on a pro level. Especially when rooms like Ocean View, Capitol records and many famous rooms were your competition. Many of these had evolved from early in the recording industry infancy, and had their own lables. That gave an even bigger advantage to them, as they could record their own artists.
The AVERAGE person couldn't compete on ANY level back then. Hell, when RECORDS were the media of the day, a cutting lath could cost $100k alone.

But along comes digital And Microsoft. And all the new cheap digital recording paraphenelia. VOILA! Everybody thinks they are an engineer and wants a studio. Hence HR. The fact of the matter is, EVEN if you have the gear, to build a decent COMMERCIAL studio in a COMMERCIAL building with great acoustics, you are looking at some serious MOOLA. To operate such a business till you have a clientel takes some serious moola too. Just like any other serious business. Start with just a claimstake and it could take YEARS of financial and emotional toil. Remember, the BIG guys already have the reputation and financial underpinnings, which even then, if current pro studio closings indicate, may not be enough to keep the doors open. This business is CUTTHROAT!! Hell, I read all the time on Pro Sound Web( http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/113192/0#msg_113192 ) about long term studio owners barely making the rent. Steve Albini even lays out his payroll and expense story and it ain't good. How bout $100 day for a pro engineer? Fuck. Anyway, I think you get my drift. Unless you can afford to do it just because you love it, don't even expect to make a decent wage, let alone buy a new car. And if you are in an area that has very little clientel or lots of competition from other pro and home studios....well, do you like Top
Ramon
Well, so much for my viewpoint. Thats why I admitted to myself a LONG time ago, I'll NEVER afford to build a commercal recording studio. Thats also why its taken me over 20 years just to get my personal studio gear and own a home to put it in. MOOLA DOESN"T GROW ON TREES! And I'll be damned if I'll EVER go in debt to a bank for this avocation. Hence...its a hobby and always will be.

BTW, there is a fabulous website documenting one of Nashvilles leading studio, RCA studio B, from the 40's up to the 80's. Here is the link if you are interested. Lots of acoustical information too. Great history stuff with lots of links to other interesting recording history.
http://images.google.com/imgres?img...%22+%22Chet+Atkins%22&svnum=10&hl=en&lr=&sa=G

 

[TexRoadkill]

but where did the money come from in the first place?

The most common sources are inheritance and sales of realestate or drugs.

 

[Willybomb]

people dont become millionaires by owning a recording studio.....

Q. How do you make a million bucks running a recording studio

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A. Start with five million, and when you get to one, stop.

 

[Beatles]

Thanks.

It is, because the practice rooms do more than provide income. They are an EXCELLENT lead in for potential customers to use the studio facilities, as well.

We had many of the $20/hr practice room bands block time in the studio down the road, for one or two days, to record a few songs onto a demo tape. So there's that "upsell" at all.

Practice room rental is a good source to sell "trinkets" into. We sold quite a bit of picks, drumsticks, guitar straps, and so on to the typically younger crowd using the practice rooms. BTW, all those accessories are high margin

Since the equipment in the practice rooms were a bit beat up, I had the philosophy that it's all for sale, and everything in a practice room was marked that way. I sold two of the drumkits that way. Both of them needed new heads (I thought so anyway), but the shells and stands were fine, though scraped and dinged and so on. But for a bunch of high school students who rent a room to practice in, whereelse can you get a complete drumkit, stands, cymbals and so on, for $250?

That's how you get rid of the old stuff when you start accumulating too much of it.

Frederic.....
Why made you decide to give this up? Sounds like you had a good thing going. I was contemplating doing the same thing. The area where I live does not have any rehearsal rooms, although there are a few "recording" studios around.

 

[frederic]

Why made you decide to give this up? Sounds like you had a good thing going.

I've done this several times, and essentially I've chosen partners rather poorly. One robbed the business of it's cashflow and increased it's debt beyond what could be supported, so it tanked quickly (he did this across a month, so I didn't see it right away). Another time was just infighting among partners as we had different visions as to how a studio should be run, particularly when it came to collections. See, I was of the mind that if 10 hours are used, you bill 10 hours. If it's 10 hours and 10 minutes, billing for 10 hours was close enough. One of the partners liked to give many hours away, because things as you know generally run over what is expected for a variety of reasons, and he was very uncomfortable pointing that out to customers. He was easily pressured. The other time the location was a bit more off the beaten path and sustaining business from locals was rather tough while we tried to get some larger, more serious clients.

Just circumstances mostly, and poor choices on my part as far as who to go into business with. A mistake I've made twice, and never will again.

Of course I'm this close (pinches fingers) to possibly doing this again, without partners.

 

[Beatles]

I can certainly appreciate where you're comming from Frederic. I would consider having a partner only to minimize the risk. But this idea keeps resurfacing and doesn't want to go away. I know that there would be a market in my area. The only rehearsal studios are downtown, and I live in suburbia just north of the city. The demographics here are good and I am always finding bands in the area are looking for rehearsal space. I've looked at potential buildings etc., and the rent is realtively cheap. Were you always on site when bands were using the space?

 

[frederic]

I can certainly appreciate where you're comming from Frederic. I would consider having a partner only to minimize the risk. But this idea keeps resurfacing and doesn't want to go away. I know that there would be a market in my area. The only rehearsal studios are downtown, and I live in suburbia just north of the city. The demographics here are good and I am always finding bands in the area are looking for rehearsal space.

And rehersal space is easy to build too... you don't need the same sound treatments as you would in a live room. The practice rooms we built were part of the structure when we bought the property... painted concrete block like the rest of the structure... so we repainted it, taped up some carpeting on the walls, and installed steel doors with a double safety window, and gaskets in the door frames. This way the bleeding from room to room was minimal. Plus once they start playing, they can't hear other rooms anyway. For whatever reason, no one seemed concerned about cranking marshalls to "11". Was an opportunity to play as loud as they wanted I guess.

Were you always on site when bands were using the space?

Usually in the evening hours... yes. I worked full time as well, and typically got off the train around 5:54-6pm depending how late it was, go home and take a quick shower, and I'd be at the facility by around 7pm or so. If I was actually the engineer for the evening, I'd be there until the sessions were done, same for mastering, if I wasn't "on duty" I'd run the counter and the practice rooms, print invoices, catch up on sweeping, vacuuming and all the usual stuff no one else could be bothered doing.

When I wasn't there, generally my parter was, but if not, we gave keys to one of the engineers who worked there part time because he was trustworthy. Unfortunately, while he was trustworthy, some of the other kids working there didn't seem to be to the same degree - so while he was in one of the two console rooms, funky stuff would happen outside of his visibility, causing us some annoyance. Some of our employees, while not malicious, were young so their girlfriends and friends would "hang out" in the lobby at night... and if I and my partner weren't there, we'd find a huge mess the next time either of us were there. I could fill this BBS with stories from all three studio experiences... though most of it would be boring as hell. Par for the course I imagine.

A fair amount of my time was spent soldering... repairing amps, aligning tape heads, making patch cords, ordering stuff to sell out of the counter (strings, picks, sticks, straps, etc).

Part of our problems (as partners) in that particular studio (where we didn't get along at all) was I worked full time days, my partner worked full time nights, AND we were trying to run a professional studio. He was married with a young kid, I was single but I also had too many other irons in the fire.

But at 25 I had a ton of energy, and could survive with 8 hours of sleep a day, four of which was 2 hrs each way on the train communting to/from NYC.

Obviously, there were a lot of problems. Should I embark on this again, It would be my primary focus, rather than being distracted by 200 other things.