Silver Bullet For The Recording Studio Business

[Robin Ball]

Hey Slutz,

I don't have the Silver Bullet but am looking for advice on the business. I am based in Dublin, Ireland and am having trouble getting people in to the studio. I do good solid work that will stand on it's own. (Check out KOPEK: THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE) for some work recently done.

My real question is: How do you get the bands into the studio?

I don't know that many people in the industry here, maybe that is the real answer, I don't know. If you have any experiences in getting clients I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks, Robin

P.S. I didn't mix that record, Tom Lord Alge did..... I recorded it.

[sniperschool]

i think a link to your studio (and it's name!) rather than just linking to a band that worked there would be a good start

wouldn't hurt to be a little less subtle

[Robin Ball]

Hey Sniper,

I did put a link into my sig but it isn't working..... What do you mean by less subtle? In what way?

Many thanks,

Robin

[Freq AudioWorks]

I believe what he meant was that you need to MARKET your skills and your studio.. Not just say "well, I do good enough work".

You are running a business. You need to think about it as business. Marketing is key. Start talking in big words start SELLING yourself, and not waiting for clients to come in.

For example, I offer my corporate clients "corporate image development" which is a very fancy word for "I listen to what you like, and create the theme of your campaign around that". Which one would you go for? I'm not saying you need to start coming up with strange names for tracking and mixing, I'm saying that you need to make your studio and you as an engineer seem like something over others, even if it in reality is not so. I'm probably gonna get shittons of flames for this, but unfortunately running a studio is business just like any other. You won't get far anyway if you market yourself as the new CLA and sound crap. :P

[The Byre]

Like the man said, you are supposed to be running a business, not a recording studio!

The studio is a part of that business, but it is not the business. It is one of the tools that you use for your business, but it is no more 'The Business' than a spade is the business of a gardener. You need to develop a whole range of products (of which the studio is just one). CD layouts, mastering, website creation, location recording, CD replication, you name it and the customer has to be able to come to you for that service.

At the moment, you are a roofer who just just sells boxes of slates - but there's more to building a roof, than just selling slates!

I looked at your website and you are making several fundamental mistakes.

1. Rock and pop is less than 10% of our business. The last major thing we did was relaxation CDs for giving birth! The last commercial CD was fiddles, pipes and squeeze-boxes. The last international release we did, was some Bach piano music. Yesterday, we put together a whole package of recording and multimedia presentation for a funeral!

By highlighting heavy metal, you are frightening off 90% of your customers!

2. Nowhere on your site is there the slightest clue where you might possibly be hiding! You could be in Scun thorpe or Timbuktu, for all I know!

3. So I typed in the words 'recording studio ireland' into Google and got zip, nanti, nothing, nichts, rien! You are not even on the first five pages - gave up looking after that!

4. There are no pictures of the studio, so I don't know if you are a real studio, or just a hole-in-the-wall. Remember, your REAL customers are not going to know the difference between ProTools HD and a plate of cod-and-chips, so listing the kit ain't that important. A few nice pictures of good rooms are!

5. Mobile phone number only? Having a land-line that is manned during working hours is a must for almost EVERY business, except perhaps working girls.

6. If you put videos and soundtracks on a website, make sure that they are only of the very highest professional standard. That means perfect mixes, dollies, jibs, lighting, etc. And once again, I must stress, make sure that they are not just head-banging rock.

[narcoman]

Byre is right on as usual.

If you wanna make recordings then, bizarrely, running a studio is not the way to do it. If you want to make money out of studio the "business" ethic comes first. In fact it's the ONLY thing that matters until you are a world recognised and in demand name.

[Robin Ball]

Hey Guys, thanks very much for you advice. I appreciate you taking the time.

[Robin Ball]

Originally Posted by The Byre

Like the man said, you are supposed to be running a business, not a recording studio!

The studio is a part of that business, but it is not the business. It is one of the tools that you use for your business, but it is no more 'The Business' than a spade is the business of a gardener. You need to develop a whole range of products (of which the studio is just one). CD layouts, mastering, website creation, location recording, CD replication, you name it and the customer has to be able to come to you for that service.

At the moment, you are a roofer who just just sells boxes of slates - but there's more to building a roof, than just selling slates!

I looked at your website and you are making several fundamental mistakes.

1. Rock and pop is less than 10% of our business. The last major thing we did was relaxation CDs for giving birth! The last commercial CD was fiddles, pipes and squeeze-boxes. The last international release we did, was some Bach piano music. Yesterday, we put together a whole package of recording and multimedia presentation for a funeral!

By highlighting heavy metal, you are frightening off 90% of your customers!

2. Nowhere on your site is there the slightest clue where you might possibly be hiding! You could be in Scun thorpe or Timbuktu, for all I know!

3. So I typed in the words 'recording studio ireland' into Google and got zip, nanti, nothing, nichts, rien! You are not even on the first five pages - gave up looking after that!

4. There are no pictures of the studio, so I don't know if you are a real studio, or just a hole-in-the-wall. Remember, your REAL customers are not going to know the difference between ProTools HD and a plate of cod-and-chips, so listing the kit ain't that important. A few nice pictures of good rooms are!

5. Mobile phone number only? Having a land-line that is manned during working hours is a must for almost EVERY business, except perhaps working girls.

6. If you put videos and soundtracks on a website, make sure that they are only of the very highest professional standard. That means perfect mixes, dollies, jibs, lighting, etc. And once again, I must stress, make sure that they are not just head-banging rock.

Byre, some great comments here, I'll get to them straight away. Although most of my work is rock I'll get some other stuff up there. On the phone side of things I don't actually have a landline, not many here in Ireland do these days but again I think that you might be right. I'll get on to it.

I'm not sure how to get up the google rankings, I'll look into that again..

It seems that fixing the site is a good place to start.

[The Byre]

I am at the moment writing a book about business mistakes and how to avoid them - so I find your predicament interesting. And thanks for not taking umbrage at my rather blunt style!

Originally Posted by Robin Ball

Byre, some great comments here, I'll get to them straight away. Although most of my work is rock I'll get some other stuff up there..

That's because you've put all the other people off the idea of coming to you! Hairy rockers have little or no money. You future customers will be pipe bands, hospitals, funeral parlours, school ceilidh bands, larger companies - that is, if your studio is to succeed as a business.

Originally Posted by Robin Ball

On the phone side of things I don't actually have a landline, not many here in Ireland do these days but again I think that you might be right.

I looked at the top five studios in Dublin and they all had landlines and no mention of a mobile! Does the local Ford dealership have just a mobile? Of course not! Why expect the customer to shell out 8 Cents a minute for the privilege of calling you, when he or she can call any of the top five studios on a land line and for free?

Originally Posted by Robin Ball

I'm not sure how to get up the google rankings, I'll look into that again..It seems that fixing the site is a good place to start.

Simples!

Key words within the home page of your website, multiplied by links on other sites, multiplied by eyeballs. Google does not read metatags or Flash, but looks at the actual text at the top of your home page. It finds your site via popular links on other sites and ranks them by the number of page views where those links are to be found.

Tip - a link on Gearslutz is very good for your rankings! A link on a site that just gets 10 hits a day ain't worth squat! Put the words 'recording studio dublin ireland' (and anything else that you might think people will search for) in tiny letters black-on-black or white-on-white right at the top of your home page. Change something on your website as often as possible - Google looks for changes!

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On a far broader point, the Dublin studio scene is HOPELESSLY overcrowded - and they are all pretty damn good and well equipped!!! You need a USP a unique selling point and you need it now!

My suggestion would be to scrap the entire studio, put it in a trailer and set up a mobile. As far as I know, there is no proper mobile in Ireland, just people lugging boxes into back rooms. Well, it's a thought, anyway - but you need something!

[Robin Ball]

Originally Posted by The Byre

My suggestion would be to scrap the entire studio, put it in a trailer and set up a mobile. As far as I know, there is no proper mobile in Ireland, just people lugging boxes into back rooms. Well, it's a thought, anyway - but you need something!

Might have something there.... going to think about that....

[The Byre]

You could get together with a video company and offer live concert DVDs. That is one side of the business that is expanding and has a long way to go still!

But be careful who you work with! Live recording and live video recording is a totally different skill set to the live switching required of a conventional TV programme.

[Robin Ball]

I actually did a live show in an Opera House 2 weeks ago, it's a very different animal, good fun though. Byre, it might be a good Idea to just bring my stuff and setup at home and use others studio, as you have pointed out there is a serious over supply of them here. I would just have to market myself rather than the studio.