Insuring gear tends to be very expensive in my experience. You have to have liability if you are doing legit business. Even your "best friends" might sue you if something bad happens, or they claim so. If you have enough cash you can "carry your own paper" but if you have enough money for that you would probably not be booking singer/songwriter/self producer types .
I've only lost one item to theft in my whole life.
It was a Nord Electro 2 keyboard I co-bought with a bandmate. He allowed people to freely come and go in his home. For "rehearsal."
The Nord and a few other items freely went out of the house with a person who was also never heard from again.
I was a little burned about it. I felt like it was a lesson that should not have been learned. Some people have good intentions to a fault. I believe the term Pollyanna is referring to that. I later got a Marshall 1960A from the friend so now I feel the debt has been equaled.
It seems that there is a trend where artists are moving in the direction of using their own engineer(s). So your model may be a good one.
My concern would be damage to the gear and the facility. I guess it would be a matter of having a contract along with a returnable deposit in the event that there is damage? Kind of like how car or vacation rentals are done. Of course this might scare people away, I don't know.
This is just me thinking out loud. I don't have a huge studio, its mainly a singer/songwriter setup in my home. For obvious reasons I would not allow people run of my house without being there myself. For a "Pro" facility on the other hand, I can certainly see the value of renting it out. Especially if you are a one man shop, have another job, don't have the budget for an assistant, or don't like the idea of being in the studio 24/7. Please keep us posted.
Trend? It’s called the “commercial studio” model, and it’s existed for as long as there have been freelance engineers. The “new” thing is the model of having private studios good enough to make pro level records, and that’s only existed for as long as daws have enabled it!
The idea of letting someone into a home studio or production room as if it was a commercial space is things coming full circle. Of course, the problem is now that the space is not set up to facilitate this. So - you take a risk, or you hire an assistant (or assist yourself - which is possibly not financially worthwhile).
Trend? It’s called the “commercial studio” model, and it’s existed for as long as there have been freelance engineers. The “new” thing is the model of having private studios good enough to make pro level records, and that’s only existed for as long as daws have enabled it!
The idea of letting someone into a home studio or production room as if it was a commercial space is things coming full circle. Of course, the problem is now that the space is not set up to facilitate this. So - you take a risk, or you hire an assistant (or assist yourself - which is possibly not financially worthwhile).
I was speaking in the context of personal/private studios.
I was speaking in the context of personal/private studios.
Right. Generally a bad idea I’d think - because it’s not set up to work like that, legally you’re possibly not covered (especially a “home” studio) and there’s all manner of personal risk.
I’d only do this with people I knew - and never really with a home setup.