Will My Studio Make It If I Move?

[KennyS]

Hey all I'm in a bit conundrum. I live over on the East Coast with my medium size studio. The clients are slowing down in the area I'm in and I want to move back over to the West for family reasons. I'm in Orlando by the way. Anyway is it worth the move to Portland or LA?I haven't worked these areas and am curious how the work is. Obviously LA is populated but are there enough artist for all those studios? The three areas I'm look into are San Francisco, LA and back up north, Portland. All thoughts and opinions are welcomed.

I do have several friends in the industry in LA but there working in post houses.

Thanks,
Kenny
www.surfstreetstudios.com

[scottyjneilson]

You may want to look into seattle

Sent from my LS670 using Gearslutz.com

[KennyS]

Originally Posted by scottyjneilson

You may want to look into seattle

Sent from my LS670 using Gearslutz.com

Hey funny you mentioned that, I was looking into Seattle but was told it is growing to be more post oriented than local music. This may be completely wrong but...

Anything in particular that makes you mention Seattle?

Thanks,
Kenny

[KennyS]

If any one else has any opinions let me know. I'm not basing my move off of Gearslutz but... Still a bunch of good information and stuff I probably haven't thought of.

[Bill@WelcomeHome]

Just on a personal note, the Pacific Northwest was the most depressing place I've ever lived. I'll never go north of San Francisco in the US again if I have a choice. Would I move from Florida to the Pacific northwest? There probably isn't enough money to make it worth -my- while. Not only is the weather just plain stupid (you don't tan, you rust...) and depressing (50 degree 24 hour drizzle for most of the winter...) but big beards, work boots, and flannel shirts are the required uniform... and that is on the ladies.... (well, not really on the ladies, but gee, 1970 was so long ago, surely that fashion should have passed on by now....). Looks great on postcards though.

Studios rise and fall on the abilities of the sales staff to keep the room booked. It is that simple. In our line of work you -can- be the best engineer in the world and no one may know your name. You -can- be pretty mediocre but luck out and get famous. But on a day-to-day business level, there is money in them dar' hills, you just have to be adroit in pulling some of it in your direction.

I've recently moved to Venice Fla, and I don't know anyone here. I'm not trying to run a business, but if I were it would be hard for me to set up the contacts that I had before.... it takes a lot of time hanging out and getting people to know who you are, and I'm not making those scenes anymore and have little interest in doing so. If I were to try to open a studio here, I suspect that i would fail. And when I talk to people about recording around here, all anyone knows about are garage-dwellers with mediocre quality gear. The business is really suppressed in this location even though the area is filled with big name performers. I would absolutely have to hire a local savy sales manager and go on a large publicity campaign to keep the doors open. If you move to a new location you will face the same problems.

So let's think about it for a moment... LA, studios everywhere but at the same time, potential clients everywhere and potential new clients moving in all the time. Getting known there is a short step to getting known nationally. Might be a harder road, but the rewards could be substantially greater, the scene much more interesting and the weather... did I mention the weather???? Much nicer in LA, much closer to what you are used to experiencing.

Some will tell you that you can't make it in the studio business at all, but that is what i was told when I started out... in the 1970s. The work is there if you know how to find it, or can find an unserviced niche in your area. It is not a business I would choose to start today, but passion and drive is a funny thing.

[Yerba]

Originally Posted by Bill@WelcomeHome

Not only is the weather just plain stupid (you don't tan, you rust...) and depressing (50 degree 24 hour drizzle for most of the winter...) but big beards, work boots, and flannel shirts are the required uniform... and that is on the ladies...

love it

[toneguru]

Oddly enough I know of some successful and very well connected studio owners that are leaving LA and heading east.

The grass is always greener...

Me, I never had the balls to open my own studio. Much respect to those of you willing to do it. It is still a fine craft even if a little less profitable.

Best of luck to you.

PS. If you should move to San Fran, hit me up.

[scottyjneilson]

I moved to seattle from sacramento Ca and did quite well for a little over 3 years before I headed to SLC for a change of career. There are a lot of local acts in the pacific northwest not to mention a decent amount of well funded indy labels... Get in touch with the right people youll never have down time ! If you can afford it i recomend the north western half of the city by UW lots of young people. But they are right you do rust and the sun is few and far between... It really did get to me. San fran/bay area is great too I grew up in that neck of the woods... A lot of well connected entertaiment people there (managers, marketers and designers) but I do not know many studios that arent doing rap there, honestly if you want to stay busy there you may need to step out of the rock box and do the occassional hip hop project...like bill said the quickest way would be LA... Not to say you could not do well in the other places mentioned... But you need to remember if your goal is indy and local stuff california is the epicenter for financial struggle durring these economic times and a lot of locals there are working with shoe string budgets... Otherwise if commercial is your.goal LA is the spot!

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[oldeanalogueguy]

Originally Posted by KennyS

Hey all I'm in a bit conundrum. I live over on the East Coast with my medium size studio. The clients are slowing down in the area I'm in and I want to move back over to the West for family reasons. I'm in Orlando by the way. Anyway is it worth the move to Portland or LA?I haven't worked these areas and am curious how the work is. Obviously LA is populated but are there enough artist for all those studios? The three areas I'm look into are San Francisco, LA and back up north, Portland. All thoughts and opinions are welcomed.

I do have several friends in the industry in LA but there working in post houses.

Thanks,
Kenny
www.surfstreetstudios.com

its bad everywhere you will fail faster if you move from some clients to place with no clients trying to compete with established biz there already i would cut to the chase move in with your parents now and save every penny you can from any work you can get this is not the time to spend money or start moving which also costs a bunch of money

[KennyS]

Wow lots of good input. I actually grew up in South Seattle, so I know what you mean there although it doesn't bother me as much. Weather wise. The gear I have and the experience I have I'm not at commercial quality..... Maybe the gear... Haha anyway, I feel your either doing nothing in LA and getting payed about 12 an hour or your completely set and doing fine with big names. Doesn't sound like a good studio destination that's not commercial sized. I recently talked to several studio owners in Seattle who were very near shutting down and there my size.

Oye.

Maybe I should focus on the areas in between...

Thanks,
Kenny

[patheticus]

There are a lot of mid-level studio's in the Portland area, but it's great place to live!