Alternate Income Streams for Audio Engineers and Music Producers

Diversify a little! Read on for ideas on how to keep the money coming in, even when the album work isn’t.

Let’s face it: Making a living as an audio engineer can sometimes be rough. You’ve got to deal with erratic schedules, flaky clients, and the occasional “snake in the grass”.

Sometimes, it can be hard making ends meet. One bad month can be the difference between being in business, and being in unsurmountable debt.

No one ever said studio life would always be easy. But if we wanted “perfectly safe and predictable”, we’d be doing something else.

Thankfully, your hard-won skills as an audio engineer are valuable to people other than just musicians. Here’s a short list of alternative gigs that can help the paychecks keep rolling in, even when the album work isn’t.

Location Sound

A location sound engineer records dialog and other on-set sound sources during a video shoot. They’re responsible for capturing, managing, and monitoring multiple microphones for various scenes each day.

In some cases, each talking head or actor will have their own personal wireless lavalier mic for dialog. In other instances, the sound engineer will have to use a shotgun mic mounted to a boom pole to capture the dialog more unobtrusively, which is harder than it sounds.

Boom operators have to hold a long, heavy boom pole above their head for hours. They have to memorize the script so they know who is saying what, when. They have to juggle between multiple actors without missing a cue, changing their distance or angling, dropping the boom into frame, or making any noise.

Fortunately, location sound requires a lot less gear than tracking a band in a recording studio. Most location sound engineers use mobile recording devices to capture multiple channels of dialog simultaneously, without the need for a laptop or DAW.

One way to break into this field is through student films, which can pay a fair fee for a day that might otherwise go unbooked at your studio. Once you have some experience and some decent contacts, you may be able to find far more lucrative work in productions for commercials, TV, film, web video and more.

Voiceovers & ADR

Voiceovers and ADR are another branch of audio for video and other media. Even though most video shoots have a dedicated location sound engineer to capture audio, a part or even a majority of the dialog is often re-recorded after the video has been edited.

In many cases, the actors from the film are brought into the studio to re-voice their lines in a process known as “Automated Dialog Replacement”, or ADR. Typically, actors re-record their lines in a vocal booth with a large video screen so they can match the cadence of the dialog to that in the video. (Otherwise, it looks like a bad Godzilla movie.)

One of the main benefits of doing voiceover work is that it can be done from anywhere in the world. With ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) interfaces, you can transmit hi-fidelity voice-over recordings to clients all over the internet in real-time.

These sessions can often pay as much or more than music sessions, and for a whole lot less setup. It’s a great niche to work in, and a welcome way to keep the studio buzzing with creative and interesting projects.

Foley & Sound Design

Foley artists and sound designers are responsible for creating and placing sound effects to enhance the emotional effect of a film, video game or other production.

Foley artists manipulate everyday, real-world items in realtime to create analog sound effects that coordinate with what you see on screen. Like other types of sound designers, they use whatever sources create the most believable sound effect not the most realistic effect. For instance, instead of bringing a horse into the studio to capture the sound of it’s trotting hooves, foley artists often use coconut shells.

Foley artists are especially important in filling in small sounds that might not be captured effectively on location, or otherwise need to be replaced or enhanced. From footsteps and clothing sounds to the hits in fight scenes and more, Foley is often a more efficient, effective and realistic method compared to finding and placing samples in a timeline by hand.

Sound designers on the other hand, often take a more digital approach and use software and samples to synthesize sound effects that are unique and larger than life. They’re the ones responsible for creating the sounds that don’t exist in real life, like the roar of a dragon, the *pew pew* of a blaster or the distinct chime of a commercial logo. Typically this is done by capturing existing sounds and morphing them into something entirely unique using synthesis, pitch-bending and other effects.

Game Audio

While producing audio for video games has a lot in common with sound design for video, it also has some distinct points of difference.

Most notably, game audio is interactive, meaning the player is in control of when each sound will be triggered, and at what volume, or if any filters might be applied

In a film, audio is linear, which means music and dialog playback without interruption. You always know exactly what sound will be playing at exactly which frame. But with game audio, the name of the game is programming and organization of audio files.

Because the user triggers samples based on their actions, you have to be able to introduce and remove sounds at a moment’s notice. To help facilitate this, game audio engineers use specialized software like FMOD in order to allow players to trigger the right sounds at the right time and with the right filters applied.

Podcasts and Audio Books

Podcasting is one of the fastest growing forms of media in the world, which means more and more podcasters are looking to outsource their audio needs every day. Depending on how a podcast is produced, a dedicated audio engineer may be required to handle live recording and triggering of special elements, or may piece together pre-recorded elements in post-production.

Live engineering a podcast typically consists of setting levels for multiple microphones, applying processing and sweetening, cueing any necessary music or sound effects, and monitoring the record levels.

Post-production for a podcast usually involves editing and mixing voice, music, and sound effects, as well as producing short feature pieces such as the intros and outros, special segments or commercial breaks.

Audio books are another growing field that require similar considerations, and a small studio can bill many hours recording and editing a full-length book.

Broadcast Production

Radio and TV stations are still in business and are constantly updating their catalogs of transition and promotional material, which makes them an excellent source for audio engineering opportunities. Radio stations need audio engineers to record voice-overs, interviews and music beds for various segments, and create promos and sweepers to identify themselves to the public.

All of these elements combine to create a sonic image that broadcasters use to identify themselves. Station imaging combines recording, editing, sound design, and marketing. Oh, and they bill by the second, so you’d better have excellent time management skills! Though much of this can be done in house, there are often opportunities for outside producers and engineers to lighten the load.

Corporate AV

Live sound isn’t all pyrotechnics and groupies—there’s an entire career path out there for audio engineers who like to wake up early and put on a tie, too! Corporate AV is branch of live sound that typically involves setting up audio and visual equipment for corporate events like product demonstrations, motivational and sales seminars, shareholder meetings and more.

Corporate AV typically involves an early load-in to construct the stage, set up the PA system, sound check a few microphones, and cue up a projector for presentations. Oftentimes, these gigs have a “minimum” hour requirement, meaning even if you get the job done in 45 minutes, you’ll be paid for a predetermined minimum amount (usually around 4 hours).

Scheduling for corporate AV can be somewhat grueling, though. It’s common for low-level techs to get cut during the middle of the production, meaning they’ll get paid to be there for set-up, then cut during the middle of the day, and brought back at the end of the event to tear-down. But corporate AV can also be lucrative, especially for those who can manage teams and sell their services to new clients.

Music for Licensing

TV and web series, movies, video games, commercials and recording artists all need music to do what they do. But you don’t always have to wait for the session to come to you before getting to work. You can get proactive and create new compositions on spec, whether by yourself or working with a composer that you will sell to those who need music.

There are few main approaches here:

Library Music is a term for pre-recorded general-purposes music cues that can be licensed by video producers for their own productions. These are usually sold to a music library, which in turn, resells the work to end-users, royalty free for a lump sum or ongoing subscription fee.

Work for Hire is a composition made to the request of a specific video or game production, for their exclusive use, often at a fairly high rate.

Ghosting or Ghostwriting is a term that describes music that is written to be performed by other artists, for which they will take credit, and may be commissioned, or written on “spec” to be shopped to labels, artists and production teams. Conventional third-party songwriting is similar, with the writer retaining credit

Topline Writing is the act of writing a melody or vocal part over a pre-recorded production track, and is often done on spec for a share of royalties later on.

Artist Development can be done by independent producers and studio owners who help coach and produce new artists for a percentage of their future revenue if they are signed or have a successful independent commercial release in the future.

Any one of these approaches can get your studio humming now, and help you build contacts and a portfolio of material that can help lead to future income.

Summing it Up

I hope this primer gives you some good ideas how to add to the portfolio of projects that your studio can handle. While each of these specialized fields requires some new skills, and perhaps even new tools, they should be ones that are well within the wheelhouse of most good audio engineers.

Working as a freelance audio engineer can be tough. No matter which branch of the industry you work in, you’re going to have a slow month or two, and when that happens it’s good have some additional revenue streams to fall back on.

Brad Pack is an award-winning audio engineer and writer based in Chicago, IL. He currently owns and operates Punchy Kick, a professional mixing and mastering studio that specializes in pop punk, emo, punk, grunge, and alternative music.

He has been helping artists connect with fans through emotionally resonant mixes, cohesive masters, and insightful guidance for over 10 years. Check out his website PunchyKick.com or say hi on Instagram @PunchyKick.
For another type of new income stream that may be more familiar to many audio engineers, you could also learn the art of mastering. For more on that, check out our latest course, Mastering Demystified.

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