Ideas on promoting a studio?

[underdog]

Hi guys,

I'm after a bit of general marketing help really.

My residential studio (in SW France) is pretty dead and I'm looking for ways of getting the punters in.

Has anyone found any good places to advertise - either in print or on the web?

Or is a better idea to approach bands direct (like myspace etc)?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I've got a PT HD3 setup with surround monitors.

You can look at my studio here :

Beneath the Underdog

Cheers,

Dan

[bigos]

I had some success on myspace. I think your target would be musicans who want to get away for a few weeks to compose. Your location is amazing so you should have no problem finding clients whom are willing to travel to your place. You may want to consider a diferent approach where you charge for the apartment and give the studio for less. I noticed that some people have a mental block when it comes to paying for studio time while at the same time they are more than happy to pay for a week or two of lodging at a nice place. I could imagine couples who make music together wanting to come there for a combination of romantic holiday/ songwriting and recording getaway.
Good luck
Bigos

[NorseHorse]

Go to shows. Find up-and-comers and offer them a day or two of free studio time. Finish the music quick, maybe even guide them through CD printing, and they'll soon be walking business cards.

[underdog]

cheers guys,

I'm going to start promoting via the holiday route - and see what comes up.

Dan

[The Byre]

What you have there is a home studio and to be frank, I do not think that it is worth while trying to convert it into a commercial studio, because the UK residential studio market is used to a very high standard, that always includes large rooms, grand pianos, large analogue desks and that sort of thing.

Nearly all my customers have PTHD3 (or similar Logic etc.) and a piano at home anyway. Some even have a Hammond and Rhodes and all that stuff. It's no good offering them guitars, because guitarists always use their own at first, until they have become used to what you have.

One has to offer them something they just can't get at home. For us, that is the combination of everything, from location to grand piano, from space to the 2" machine. It is also the fact that they are not in London or New York or where ever they have come from.

I think the idea of offering the studio as a residential writing composing get-away-from-it-all package is a good one, but you do have to put more info on your website about the apartment and location in that case.

As a general point, I always recommend that businesses use standard equipment, i.e. monitors that the customer will know and has used, bog-standard microphones, standard recording equipment etc. That means you will need other monitors for stereo work. NS10s and something else.

The 5.1 side is good, but unnecessarily for music recording. So just keep the Blue Sky stuff there for the very few that want 5.1.

On a specific point, I would loose the control room pic for the time being, it's a total freezer! The CR does not look inviting and it never will until you have done something to it to make it look like flight control.

At the moment, it looks like a home studio and your potential customers already have one of those. What they want is a pukka studio that looks and feels like a studio. Sexy, groovy and windswept.

Remember the old Army saying "Bullshit beats brains!"

That means moving all the boxes with fans OUT and into a machine room, getting a mixing desk that looks the part - or at the very minimum, putting what you have got into a sexy looking wooden desk construction.

Also get nice lighting. That is very important.

Give yourself a couple of months to totally rebuild that CR and then make a series of GOOD pictures that show it off at its best. You do not need to spend large sums to do this, but the focus of your efforts have to be on the CR and the standard of the accommodation.
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But having written all that, here is what I would do -

1. I would do nothing to the studio and certainly make no effort to try to get UK business. The £ is right down the pan and so you would be just flogging a dead horse. I might just tart up the CR, do some pukka acoustic treatment of the room and get proper monitoring for my own benefit, but that would be all. If there's no spare cash, I'd do F-all!

2. France sends huge amounts, supporting French arts and music. So my first port of call would be the local Culture Ministry, seeing what freebees are available. You'd be amazed at what you'll find!

3. Head hunt local bands that are very young and get them under contract. Use the freebees to get them recorded and promoted.

4. Put on local concerts and get into that side of the business. In other words, find a sweet spot in the market as a local promoter and-or manager.
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I've written too much and need to get on with the mountain of work that I am supposed to be doing!

Cheers!

[Tom H]

Originally Posted by The Byre

Give yourself a couple of months to totally rebuild that CR and then make a series of GOOD pictures that show it off at its best. You do not need to spend large sums to do this, but the focus of your efforts have to be on the CR and the standard of the accommodation.

Good advice! Do the liveroom too, it seems like it could use some acoustic treatment? Doesn't have to be expensive.

Also +1 on the lights, makes a big difference...

Anyway, I think advertising towards european musicians could work. I know for example some people here in crowded Holland would love to travel to France and record out there in peace. But you would have to make the destination look as appealing as possible.

[underdog]

Thanks the Byre,

There is some food for thought there.

[KILLINROCK]

I think you should start out small like you said, MySpace

[lord_bunny]

to promote the tranisition from basement studio to commercial facility i had a bunch of bands play a local show to help pay my heating bills. i did such a nice job and put extra effort that everyone loved the idea. i spent a little money on a radio ad and ticket giveaways and we packed a local club.

everybody knows about the studio now, and i had a fun night with all my clients.

[RCM - Ronan]

Please take anything I might say as constructive help. I do a lot of consulting for people revamping studios and I really enjoy this stuff.

If you are really trying to have a go at doing this commercially, I would would consider rethinking quite a few things about the studio.

1. Some one from outside of France that might book your room would be doing it for the fantasy of it. I checked your web site just because the very thought of a residential studio in the south of France made me salivate. Except for that amazing picture of your town; the web site and the look of the studio does not really sell the fantasy. It certainly looks nice, but not amazing. An investment of a few hundred Euros in decoration and web design could really help that. (one example: that photo of the table outside the studio should have wine and a great meal sitting on it to get people imagine relaxing there after a session)

2. If this was my studio I would flip the rooms and make it into a really comfortable overdub space. You currently have your control room in a 4m x 4m space with the listening position in a corner with mismatched side and no apparent bass trapping. I would bet all the money I have that you have some pretty crazy things going on with the monitoring in that room.

If you put the control room out in the big space and made the current control room the bigger of your two iso booths, you would most likely get much better monitoring and have a big comfortable creative space / control room.

3. Think about marketing your studio for a specialized purpose. I would suggest as a writing or overdub space. The idea of a live in pre-production-writing or overdub space could be really enticing to a lot of people, especially if the prices are good. (that sort of thing certainly appeals to me)

4. If you are trying to attract out of town clients, make sure your web site is full of information about the experience they can have there. Not only your studio and apartment but info about great restaurants, vineyards, castles, etc in the area.

Best of luck.

[underdog]

Thanks Ronan,

I've pm'ed you

Dan

[infopimpster]

Ronan said what I was thinking, only more eloquently / detailed.