Laurence Payne wrote:

Is this REALLY a business where we brush aside potential customers,
instead of taking a few minutes to be pleasant and maybe point them
toward someone who does offer the service they want?

You're a contractor. You build houses. Somebody calls up wanting to know
how much a house costs, and they're expecting to hear a number about
one-quarter of the cost of a basic house. Further, they have no house
plans, no lot or land, and no financing. How much time can you invest in
nothing?

You seem to think whoever is an audio pro must take whatever work and
even nonwork that can dial a phone. We might be whores but we have our
druthers.

--
ha

When I get a call of someone asking how much it costs to record a song, I
answer with "How much money do you have?" If they stay on the line after
that one I explain that the money they spend, the better the recording will
be. Since these "customers" aren't really serious its usually fun to just
say that straight out. I figure since they are calling a professional studio
that they want to know what a professional recording costs. I point out that
most major artists spend more than $3k per song.

"hank alrich" wrote in message
.. .
Laurence Payne wrote:

Is this REALLY a business where we brush aside potential customers,
instead of taking a few minutes to be pleasant and maybe point them
toward someone who does offer the service they want?

You're a contractor. You build houses. Somebody calls up wanting to know
how much a house costs, and they're expecting to hear a number about
one-quarter of the cost of a basic house. Further, they have no house
plans, no lot or land, and no financing. How much time can you invest in
nothing?

You seem to think whoever is an audio pro must take whatever work and
even nonwork that can dial a phone. We might be whores but we have our
druthers.

--
ha

(Druhms) wrote in message ...
I know this message will offend some people, but I just have to get some
insight on how studio owners deal with call after call from idiots?!?!?! So,
don't get mad at me for being impatient with ignorant people, I'm trying to
learn how to better deal with it.
Typical call (at least once a day):
Me: Hello, Boogie Tracks.
Them: Hi, how much does it cost to make a demo?

"Do you have a Producer ?"

Me: What are you wanting to do?
Them: I just need a demo, I have a friend that has a brother that rented a car
to a guy that carried the groceries for a guy that works security at Sony
Records, so I need to send him a demo.
Me: Ok, so, what do you need to do.
Them: I've got a couple songs I need to record, to send to... (see above
answer).

"Who is your Producer ?"

Me: Ok, so you are a singer? And you have written 2 songs?
Them: Yeah
Me: Is it just you and a guitar?
Them: No, I just got the words, I need the music.
Me: So, really, you have half a song?
Them: No, I've written 2 songs, I just need the music. Do you got the music
there?

"Hire a Producer !"

Me: No, I don't have the music here. You need the other half of the song
written, or a chord chart, or even just tell me the chords and we'll hire a
guitar player or piano player, whatever you want to play it.
Them: Well, I got it in my head, I don't need anyone screwing up the song I
wrote.
Me: Ok, so what do you want to do?
Them: How much does it cost to make a demo?
etc............


"I charge $xx/hr for studio plus engineer, ...
if you want me to produce it's an extra $xx/hr. plus 3%."

So you see where this is going? I'm sure I'm not the only one getting all of
these calls. What do you guys do? I'm the most expensive guy in town (in
hopes of deterring amatures so they will go to the home studios around here)
but it doesn't work! I know this makes me sound like an ass, but I'm really
starting to lose it.
Thanks for the help.
JJ

good luck,
RD

On Sat, 23 Oct 2004 16:13:24 GMT, (hank alrich)
wrote:

Is this REALLY a business where we brush aside potential customers,
instead of taking a few minutes to be pleasant and maybe point them
toward someone who does offer the service they want?

You're a contractor. You build houses. Somebody calls up wanting to know
how much a house costs, and they're expecting to hear a number about
one-quarter of the cost of a basic house. Further, they have no house
plans, no lot or land, and no financing. How much time can you invest in
nothing?

Long enough to point them towards a builder of shacks. So that when
the shack-builder gets an enquiry for a house, which he can't handle,
it gets sent to you.



You seem to think whoever is an audio pro must take whatever work and
even nonwork that can dial a phone. We might be whores but we have our
druthers.

Nope. I never said that.

CubaseFAQ www.laurencepayne.co.uk/CubaseFAQ.htm
"Possibly the world's least impressive web site": George Perfect

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On 2004-10-20 said:
Actually, Lawrence had the right idea. While skilled professinal
musicians ask (and usually deserve) a skilled profesional rate,
there are lots of pretty good hobbyists who play guitars, keyboards,
and drums, have some MIDI synths and a basic recording setup who
would happily do "the music" for a hundred bucks or so a song.
Then in a couple of years, you'd see a posting from the guy on r.a.
p. that goes something like "A songwriter/singer brought me some
lyrics and a basic tune two years ago and I arranged and recorded
some MIDI backing tracks with live drums and guitars which he then
took to another studio where he recorded his vocal. Now he's
released it and Jennifer Lopez wants to record the song. Am I
entitled to a portion of the royalties for writing the music?"
And so it goes.
which is why when I do these sorts of deals with people I insist on
fifty fifty of the songwriting and take care of copyright issues for
the "talent" if that's what you could call some of these guys. I also
get my $100 a tune or better.

I'm no amateur but a professional musician. THey balk at either the
picture of MR. Franklin or the split on any songwriting credit through
copyrights etc. we tell 'em thanks but no thanks, go elsewhere. DOne
a few of them over the last four or five years that way. sometimes
you can make something good but a lot of these folks have no clue.





Richard Webb,
Electric SPider Productions, New Orleans, La.
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

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On 2004-10-23 (hankalrich) said:
Is this REALLY a business where we brush aside potential
customers, instead of taking a few minutes to be pleasant and
maybe point them toward someone who does offer the service they
want? You're a contractor. You build houses. Somebody calls up
wanting to know how much a house costs, and they're expecting to
hear a number about one-quarter of the cost of a basic house.
Further, they have no house plans, no lot or land, and no financing.
How much time can you invest in nothing?
NOt much. I suggest to these folks when they make contact that I"ll
build the arrangement for them but we might want to replace midi
tracks with actual instruments etc. to really pout their best foot
forwrard on their demo. AS often as not they'll get scared and walk
away.

I had one broad one time whom I met through a friend. sHe wanted to
do some of these meditation tapes, but she didn't want to use any
music which she'd have to license. I started out by telling her I
could do the whole thing, music bed for her one hour meditation
program voice and all for about $2k. sHe started trying to lowball me
on the money. Hence I decided to sic her on two other studios in the
area to compare and price shop. sHE never called back so I figure she
got the same answers from them.
Otoh I had a karaoke dude who'd written some songs and wanted to do
two or three covers plus his five or six originals on a cd. I charged
him $125 a song for the originals and a straight $25 per hour for
midi-ing up the covers and doing his vocals on them as he did harmony
overdubs etc. OVer the course of about a year I think I got about
$1.5k off the kid. HIs originals sucked but we gave him the country
sound for 'em and took his money.
These were one day a week sessions, another half a day or so to whip
up midi tracks to back him up for each song. I even got the kid to
spring for some real musicians (guitar dummer) to make his two best
originals stand out. AT first he thought I was feeding him a line of
BS when I told him not to waste time with the karaoke singer friends
for backup but let me find a couple of people. After spending some
money on the clock and not getting usable tracks he finally decided I
knew something about this stuff and let me bring in a couple of pros
for that too.

even though I got paid I don't think I'd go into such a project again.
Beat me up pretty good on the time I spent.



Richard Webb,
Electric SPider Productions, New Orleans, La.
REplace anything before the @ symbol with elspider for real email

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