Will home recording kill commercial studios?

On Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 1:32:37 PM UTC-6, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> In article >,
> James Price wrote:
> >On Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 8:18:36 PM UTC-6, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> >> James Price wrote:
> >> >Do you think the rise of home studios will eventually offset
> >> >demand for professional recording services to the point that
> >> >running a commercial studio won't be a viable career path?
> >>
> >> That happened some time in the mid-nineties. Did you miss it?
> >
> >If it were no longer a viable career path, recording studios would
> >occupy a niche market on par with typewriter repair.
>
> No, I can actually find a typewriter repair shop.

And I can find a recording studio. However, the percentage of people that
still use a typewriter is trifling compared to audio equipment.

> All the full-service studios in the country are gone. The big Hit Factory
> auction was basically the sign that everything changed. All the big label
> studios are gone... Columbia's 30th st. studio... all the RCA studios gone.
>
> The only studio left in the country large enough for an orchestra or a big
> band is Skywalker Sound, and that's an audio-for-film shop.

Okay, but there are plenty of recording studios in North America.

On Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 1:29:25 PM UTC-6, geoff wrote:
> On 10/12/2020 2:27 am, James Price wrote:
> > On Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 1:21:15 AM UTC-6 geoff wrote:
> >> Typewriter-repair really not a good analogy.
> >
> > The similarity isn't with respect to the relationship between typewriter repair
> > and recording studios, but rather the demand for said services respectively.
> >
> Still not a good analogy. Over a dozen working studios in my small
> city, and AFAIK, zero typewriter repairers (or demand for).
>
> geoff

That was the point.

Demand for typewriter repair is completely negligible to the point of being a
niche market that's occupationally inviable for all but an inconsequential few
and are thus not on par with recording studios.

On Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 1:29:25 PM UTC-6, geoff wrote:
> On 10/12/2020 2:27 am, James Price wrote:
> > On Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 1:21:15 AM UTC-6 geoff wrote:
> >> Typewriter-repair really not a good analogy.
> >
> > The similarity isn't with respect to the relationship between typewriter repair
> > and recording studios, but rather the demand for said services respectively.
> >
> Still not a good analogy. Over a dozen working studios in my small
> city, and AFAIK, zero typewriter repairers (or demand for).
>
> geoff

That was the point.

Demand for typewriter repair is completely negligible to the point of being a
niche market that's occupationally inviable for all but an inconsequential few
and is thus not on par with recording studios.

On Wed, 9 Dec 2020 12:33:14 -0800 (PST), James Price
> wrote:

>On Wednesday, December 9, 2020 at 1:32:37 PM UTC-6, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> In article >,
>> James Price wrote:
>> >On Tuesday, December 8, 2020 at 8:18:36 PM UTC-6, Scott Dorsey wrote:
>> >> James Price wrote:
>> >> >Do you think the rise of home studios will eventually offset
>> >> >demand for professional recording services to the point that
>> >> >running a commercial studio won't be a viable career path?
>> >>
>> >> That happened some time in the mid-nineties. Did you miss it?
>> >
>> >If it were no longer a viable career path, recording studios would
>> >occupy a niche market on par with typewriter repair.
>>
>> No, I can actually find a typewriter repair shop.
>
>And I can find a recording studio. However, the percentage of people that
>still use a typewriter is trifling compared to audio equipment.
>
>> All the full-service studios in the country are gone. The big Hit Factory
>> auction was basically the sign that everything changed. All the big label
>> studios are gone... Columbia's 30th st. studio... all the RCA studios gone.
>>
>> The only studio left in the country large enough for an orchestra or a big
>> band is Skywalker Sound, and that's an audio-for-film shop.
>
>Okay, but there are plenty of recording studios in North America.

The big problem here is that when you say studios, what you are really
talking about is computers. You need IT specialists, who are ten a
penny. And they don't fix stuff. If your Focusrite interface has died,
you have to buy a new one. The call for people who can strip and clean
a Penny and Giles fader is almost zero, and those who can will be on
permanent retainer to the studios that still use them.

d

> All the full-service studios in the country are gone. The big Hit Factory
> auction was basically the sign that everything changed. All the big label
> studios are gone... Columbia's 30th st. studio... all the RCA studios gone.
>
> The only studio left in the country large enough for an orchestra or a big
> band is Skywalker Sound, and that's an audio-for-film shop.
> --scott
> --
> "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Lest you forget, Scott, right up 95 in Baltimore is Sheffield. I've done big band there, and small orchestra.

On 12/8/2020 11:43 PM, James Price wrote:
> If it were no longer a viable career path, recording studios would
> occupy a niche market on par with typewriter repair.

That's exactly what they do. Most of us here think of a recording studio
as a place where music, and nothing but music, all the time, is
recorded. That's what's shrinking. Since there's still a whole lot of
music being recorded, so it must be a product of home studios of one
form or another.

There are still studios making good money recording music, but they
specialize (and have the facilities for) in recording large groups like
orchestras, bands with a lot of gear ("we use a different drum kit on
every song, sometimes two or three") and there are also mid size
professional studios that have re-purposed themselves. Instead of bands
coming in to record demos or and album, or to use the piano or drum room
or a terrific vocal mic collection, they're working with spoken word
artists for podcasts, and doing production work in that field like
editing and producing music, usually electronically.

So, sure, if you have a lot of money to start with, you can make a
little money with a professional recording studio today by providing a
quality of service and sound that most bedroom studios can't - and
therefore only do work for their owners rather than take outside, paying
clients.



--
For a good time, call http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com

On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 4:21:44 PM UTC-6, Mike Rivers wrote:
> On 12/8/2020 11:43 PM, James Price wrote:
> > If it were no longer a viable career path, recording studios would
> > occupy a niche market on par with typewriter repair.
> That's exactly what they do. Most of us here think of a recording studio
> as a place where music, and nothing but music, all the time, is
> recorded. That's what's shrinking. Since there's still a whole lot of
> music being recorded, so it must be a product of home studios of one
> form or another.
>
> There are still studios making good money recording music, but they
> specialize (and have the facilities for) in recording large groups like
> orchestras, bands with a lot of gear ("we use a different drum kit on
> every song, sometimes two or three") and there are also mid size
> professional studios that have re-purposed themselves. Instead of bands
> coming in to record demos or and album, or to use the piano or drum room
> or a terrific vocal mic collection, they're working with spoken word
> artists for podcasts, and doing production work in that field like
> editing and producing music, usually electronically.
>
> So, sure, if you have a lot of money to start with, you can make a
> little money with a professional recording studio today by providing a
> quality of service and sound that most bedroom studios can't - and
> therefore only do work for their owners rather than take outside, paying
> clients.

How much of the shift in demand would you attribute to the popularity of
home recording?

Seems to me the typewriter repair comment derailed things (although it probably shouldn't have)...

When I studied recording in the early '90s, there were a dozen studios around downtown Chicago that allowed us in for classes. There were probably two dozen more in the same area that didn't. Of all those, the only one still standing is Chicago Recording Company. Places like Zenith dB, Paragon, Streeterville and a bunch more I don't remember the names of are just gone, and not much has taken their place. Some in-house studios at the ad agencies and maybe a couple of commercial ventures, but nothing like "the olde days."

Out in the burbs, there were a half dozen small (8-16 track, as we called them back then) studios within about a 15 minute drive from where I live. Now there are zero. Based on a Google search I just did, the closest commercial studio is about 30 minutes from me.

The Mackie 8-bus and Alesis ADAT lit the fire and DAWs collapsed the roof. The good news is the cost of entry is way cheaper than it used to be. You don't need a $100K console with Flying Faders and a 24-track machine with Dolby SR and a half dozen Neumanns anymore. The bad news is that few people are interested in paying you a living sum to operate a recording studio when they can buy their own DAW for 60 bucks and some Chinese LDCs for 75 bucks each.

Record stores may be a better analogy.

Pete

On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 4:56:06 PM UTC-6, wrote:

> How much of the shift in demand would you attribute to the popularity of
> home recording?

In my opinion, 90 percent. It's more the tech than "home recording" per se. I know a few commercial places that set up small studios with some microphones and a DAW and some foam on the walls for VO work. They would have sent that stuff out of house back in the day, but there's little point in doing so now. One session would have cost what it took to set up the room. Another place I used to work with fired the staff, sold all the gear and the building with the good studio, and moved production to a small town in Michigan, where it's overseen by a nice enough guy who has about 60 other things on his plate that have little to do with recording.

10 percent is due to the replacement of loudspeakers with earbuds. Lower standards on the listening side puts less pressure on maintaining a high standard on the recording side. That's just my take.

I'll go back to lurking now.

Pete

On Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 5:16:25 PM UTC-6, knadles wrote:
>
> Record stores may be a better analogy.

Vinyl record sales have been steadily increasing year after year starting
around 2010. It rebounded from $36 million in 2006 to $700 million in
2019, and in the US, 2020 unit sales are up over 17% from 2019. A large
share of vinyl purchases still happen in stores, though the virus that
shall not be named has undoubtedly slowed growth this year. So, for
the moment, the vinyl industry is viable.