Will this get my studio exposure?

stonepiano

stonepiano

Member
Hey everybody,

I'm mastering the art of writing alluring thread subject lines to get views. This was my first one. Did it work?

Now for the real question.

Things to assume:
I'm looking to start a small scale revenue (not profit, revenue:D) generating commercial recording studio in the next year.
I have been recording for free for two years. (Not long by any stretch and I'm a much better musician than engineer.)
I have worked in sales since I got out of college and am comfortable pitching on the spot.

Now, I wouldn't say my home studio is ready to bring in clients yet but I had this idea. Would it be worth the investment to run or maybe sponsor a local open mic in hopes of securing some artists wanting to cut their first demo? My recordings are not top notch but certainly good demo quality. I figure, go to where your market is. The inexperienced artists are (will be) my target demographic so what does everyone think? Has anyone scoured open mics for possible clients? Is this the sleaziest thing I've ever thought up?:( :confused:

Look forward to some opinions.

stone
 
stonepiano said:
Hey everybody,

I'm mastering the art of writing alluring thread subject lines to get views. This was my first one. Did it work?

Now for the real question.

Things to assume:
I'm looking to start a small scale revenue (not profit, revenue:D) generating commercial recording studio in the next year.
I have been recording for free for two years. (Not long by any stretch and I'm a much better musician than engineer.)
I have worked in sales since I got out of college and am comfortable pitching on the spot.

Now, I wouldn't say my home studio is ready to bring in clients yet but I had this idea. Would it be worth the investment to run or maybe sponsor a local open mic in hopes of securing some artists wanting to cut their first demo? My recordings are not top notch but certainly good demo quality. I figure, go to where your market is. The inexperienced artists are (will be) my target demographic so what does everyone think? Has anyone scoured open mics for possible clients? Is this the sleaziest thing I've ever thought up?:( :confused:

Look forward to some opinions.

stone
Click to expand...
Give it a try and see what happens.

________________
Post indie electronic
Meriphew
www.meriphew.com
 
I'm setting it up with a new local bar this week. We're getting a banner made w/ our studio logo for that professional look.

But the question still remains, do you think this will work or are we wasting our time?
 
Try it out on a trial basis. I don't see where you have much to lose if you test it out for a short period. If you do a good job for the newbies, word of mouth travels quickly.

________________
Post indie electronic
Meriphew
www.meriphew.com
 
I think it can be a good idea indeed.

I gig with some bands that host open mic jams (just to bring in people on off nights).

Sometimes a decent singer will show up and I may approach them to use some studio time to record a demo for themself. Often, they need to be sold on it (many don't think they are good enough or they feel intimidated by the thought of a "recording studio") - but I have gotten clients thru open mic nights. Natrually, I sometime have to offer lower rates, but it can fill up some dead studio time on week nights, etc.

I have sometimes used someone that was at an open mic on a jingle (sometimes for free sometime for a few bucks) - with the understanding that the jingle work provides them with experiance and exposure (and provides me with a low cost jingle singer).

Candidly, I suspect I could "con" many of the open mic singers ("oh man, you really sound great. if you had a demo to shop you could get a contract"), but I am not that type of person and most are not good enough that I would want to listen to them thru a set of phones for any extended period of time :o
 
heh..


Great input, mikeh. And don't worry, I'm not the type to fleece unsuspecting fools who think they're worthy of a recording.

But, the next step after hosting an open mic would be to run a contest at the open mic where you could give away studio time prizes. That way, you get people that are interested in recording, want to win. If you're starting as a studio as I am, it wouldn't be too huge a waste of time to bring in people who impressed you at the open mic.

Like, maybe 1st prize could be three songs free, 2nd prize could be first four hours free, etc...

whaddayathink?
 
Taking that a step further, you could also work with some of the local kareoke (I suspect I spelled that wrong - don't care enough about it to learn how to spell it) clubs - and perhaps offer the same type of prizes.

While open mics may draw more singer/songwriters - the Kareoke clubs pull in some good singers (at least that's what I'm told - I've never been to a Kareoke club - personal protest).

You may be able to interest some Kareoke singers to record to some prerecorded tracks. However, that may require that you purchase or down load some MIDI songs (assuming you do MIDI).
 
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