The author, Brian Speaker, has had his share of ups and downs in the studio world. Learn from both his successes and missteps in this guide to running your own studio.

My name is Brian Speaker. I’ve owned my own recording studio for more than 15 years now in New York City. I started out, like so many others, in a bedroom with a DAW, a few decent mics and pres, and a desire to create my own unique sound.

But this isn’t about me. It’s about what I’ve learned on that path from bedroom to facility, and how you can find your own shortcuts to studio success while avoiding some of the most serious pitfalls.

When you decide to be a “recording studio owner”, you need to consider a vast number of things before you can actually make it happen—not to mention, keep it going in a sustainable way.

The easy part is to answer in the affirmative to three important questions: “Do I have some clients?”, “Do I have some gear?”, and “Have I found a place with cheap enough rent?” But as important as those elements are, they are just part of a much bigger plan.

Here are some important ideas to consider, no matter where you are in your journey. Some of these, I’ve learned the easy way. Some of them, the hard way:

Create a Business Model, and Stick to It

“Every organization has a business model, since a business model is the logic by which an enterprise sustains itself financially.” – Business Model You

Having a clear and viable business model is a key part of how successful business ownership works anywhere and everywhere in the world. This doesn’t change just because you’re in the audio industry. You can’t just rent a building, spend a bunch of money and expect to be in business successfully for any length of time without an effective business model.

Having a business model means more than just having an idea of what kind of service you are going to sell and to whom. (Though that’s an essential part of it.)

You’ve got to plan your expenses, plan your deductions, plan your income taxes, plan out how much you have to earn to make it all work, and just plain plan plan plan. A business model will help you focus on the needs of your business, of your clients, and on your own personal needs.

There are a lot of great books that can help guide you on your path to creating a successful business model. Read one… or read 10!

One very important part of setting up a physical business is to consider location, location, and location. Of course you’ve considered this! It’s important. But here are a few additional tips on that theme to give you a leg up beyond finding the location and setting up shop:

If You Can, Consider Buying the Building

The very best way to own a recording studio is to own the property it is built on. Bonus points if you can buy a building in an up-and-coming area before it has up and come.

When you build a recording studio “properly”, it means acoustically separating yourself from from the neighbors and the neighbors from you. This means you are going to spend a LOT of money. Buying the building ensures that whatever investment you make in isolating your sonic workspace from the outside world will be worth it.

It’s a shame to do all that work, only to lose it all once your lease is up. (Or potentially sooner, if your landlord puts a sneaky clause or two into your lease!)

Fortunately, buying a building doesn’t necessarily mean coming up with oodles upon oodles of cash. Almost any commercial or residential property is going to be purchased with financing. So, while you may need a bit of extra capital for a downpayment, much of the rest of the cost can be spread out from month to moth, just as it is with a lease.

If you buy right, purchasing a property can be much cheaper in the long term than renting one. (This is especially true if you’re looking at a commercial building that can house businesses in addition to your own, thereby offsetting your monthly costs. This can also make it even easier to secure a loan! Although it does come with some additional responsibilities.)

If You Can’t Buy the Building, Find a Good, Long Lease

And by good lease I mean a binding legal one, where you understand and are comfortable with all of the terms.

Landlords spend time and money investigating you, you should do the same thing with them. Vet your landlords and the building you are about to invest time and money in. Remember, the landlord is not your boss. They are a service provider, and you are their customer. Make sure you are dealing with a reputable business.

This comes straight from personal experience. I recently had to close my own recording studio because I didn’t do enough preemptive research into a building that I was investing a lot of money into, all for a promise of a lengthy lease.

Two and a half years into my “long lease”, after dealing with all the bureaucracy and legalities and the Department of Buildings, I found out my lease was in fact a total sham. The landlord had stated in the lease that the building was zoned for commercial business use when in fact it was not. His error became my problem.

I was running my business in a building where it was not legal for me to be running a business! My liability insurance turned out to be little more than an expensive piece of paper in this context, and my landlord turned out to be a complete fraud. Don’t let this happen to you! Which leads us to:

Do Your Homework!

Had I simply researched the property with the Department of Buildings before I signed the lease, I would have been privy to information that the landlord was hiding. This kind of due diligence is essential. Also make sure you understand the implications of every clause in your lease, and consider consulting a business attorney before signing.

Get Insurance

This means both liability and property insurance. Liability insurance can be purchased through a great many companies for a song. A million dollar liability insurance policy is the minimum requirement for a small business, especially in notoriously litigious places like New York or California. A policy like this will set you back in the neighborhood of $475/year, which is a small price to pay for that kind of coverage.

Property insurance is also a good kind of protection to delve into when you consider just how necessary it is to have all of your gear for work. If there was a fire, flood or fiasco that left you unable to work, you should be covered.

Property insurance can be purchased in many forms, and like liability insurance, it can be surprisingly inexpensive for the amount of coverage it offers. You can acquire a blanket insurance that covers the partial or full amount of your equipment, or you can individualize the insurance on a per-item arrangement. For this, you’ll need receipts and serial numbers for all of the items you wish to insure.

Strive for Zero Downtime

Show up early to sessions and make sure everything is working properly. The most unprofessional thing you can do is have an artist there, ready to record, only to find out that your computer system or recording console are not working. Even a bad cable can slow down the process enough to lose the powerful energy created in the readiness of a performer. Be a professional troubleshooter and make sure you are ready at all times to record music.

Keeping all of your equipment in tip-top shape is essential to running a successful studio.

Actively Maintain Your Equipment

There is no shortage of good technicians whose entire life is spent soldering, refurbishing, rebuilding, rewiring and tinkering with modern and vintage recording equipment. Find a good tech who you can trust and keep their contact information close. A good tech can keep your equipment in the best possible condition for a long and lucrative career.

Never Loan Your Microphones to Anyone!

This comes straight from the Bible according to Bruce Swedien. Your microphones should be held as very personal and private belongings. Keeping your microphones in-house and knowing how they are being used is paramount to maintaining the highest quality of sound. Don’t let them out of your care. This same standard can be held to all of your gear.

Advertise!

“If you build it, they will come.” Sadly, this is not true! It’s never a bad idea to put a little money into advertising in the local periodicals about your studio and its offerings. Get yourself a logo, some well-designed business cards, and get the word out about your studio. An easy-to-navigate website is a must have. If you buy advertising in truly effective outlets, it can be a little like printing money. It’s possible to spend too little to have an impact, or to spend so much as to hit the point of diminishing returns. You’ll need to experiment a bit to find the right balance.

Create a Brand

Recording studios are supposed to be cool. The experience your clients have at your studio is of the utmost importance. Make sure your studio has a vibe and a comfort level that makes it worth visiting, investing in, and talking about. Your clients and the music you make with them is your best selling point. Create an atmosphere and set of expectations that are attractive and professional.

Use Social Media and Use it Often

That’s the way it works best. Social media sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, are a great way to get the word out on the net that you’re open for business, working with cool artists and making great sounds. Post openly and often about your favorite gear, your new clients, the sweet vibe of your control room, or simply remind people that you are busy and they should be part of your community.

Know Your Competition

Embrace them. They are not your enemies. The big picture is that there are millions of musicians, bands, artists, DJs, programmers, and the like, all seeking the right person and the right studio to record their next pop hit single, prog metal EP, alt country album, or whatever the case may be. Be that person for them.

The people in the community that you are living and working in are all doing the same thing you are: Working at living their dream and striving to work with talented people and help them follow their visionary path to personal triumph.

Some people will be jerks, but most people are just like you—wanting to be successful, doing what they love. So don’t be a jerk!

Save for a Rainy Day

Be aware that there are highs and lows in this industry. There is no road map as to when artists wish to record. There is no advance schedule or deadline—even after years and years of being in business—for a past client’s second or third release to be recorded. There will be months where you are fitting people into a three-hour window between sessions, and maybe that means you don’t eat a proper dinner. And then there may be months when you have so little work…that you don’t eat a proper dinner. Plan accordingly.

Create a Studio with Multiple Workspaces

I can’t tell you how many studios I’ve walked into that have one control room and one live room, maybe with an attached isolation booth.

In this modern world, especially in big cities like NYC, LA and Chicago, space is expensive! If you have a single work space under your expensive roof, you are missing out on alternate sources of income.

Having multiple workspaces is a great way to increase productivity and revenue. If you have a large live room with an isolation booth, great! But one control room allows only one project to go on at a time. If you have several control rooms and several isolation booths that all attach to one large live room, you are giving your studio the opportunity to be functioning in several workspaces at once. This means more income and more revenue for your studio.

If your building only allows for one control room and one isolation room, it’s not a bad idea to have a small production suite available for mixing or even overdubs inside the live room itself. You don’t record drums everyday, or most people don’t. So your live room will just be sitting there as empty, wasted space, unless you give it a second life with an alternate purpose.

Find a Niche

A great way to have a successful recording studio is to have a strong focus on a particular way of recording. Tape-based studios are becoming more and more rare but when it’s done right, it can still be a very good way to attract clientele that want that kind of sound and workflow. Some studios have a very synth-based work environment, lending themselves to attract clients whose productions are shaped by that factor. Whatever your passion is in the world of recording music, trust that it is also the passion of a great many other artists out there. Use it.

Reduce Your Overhead

One way of reducing overhead is to find less expensive locations or otherwise cut your expenses. But perhaps a better way is to find alternate reoccurring sources of income. Seek out freelance engineers who need a studio like yours to work from. This was a great way for my studio to help with the overhead. Having a few other engineers who rent time and space from you will give you extra income, therefore decreasing your overhead for your own projects. Having other engineers in there will also increase the traffic through your studio and garner more awareness about your space within your community.

When seeking out other engineers, consider finding people who focus on a different musical genre than you do. I work predominantly in rock music, and so the engineers at my studio were working in pop, jazz and ambient noise. In this way, there was little to no crossover in our client lists.

And one last word of advice: Always be on the lookout for that breakthrough artist, album or song. If you are lucky enough to record that breakthrough hit single, your chances of having a busy schedule are much, much higher. So here’s one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your business: Hustle!

Get out to the shows, get into the environment, be at the parties and bring your business cards. Artist love to talk about their music. Listen to them, and let them know about your passion for recording or writing or collaboration. Truthfully telling an artist that you love what they are doing and you want to work with them is always a very attractive opening.

Artists will always need to record their music. And most of them don’t want to have to learn to be engineers or production specialists in addition to artists. Keep on doing good work, getting in the same room with them, and let them know how your studio and your skills can have a huge impact on the quality of their next recording, and your client list can only grow. Here’s to your successful studio!

Brian Speaker is a music producer, engineer and studio owner of SpeakerSonic Studio in Brooklyn, NY. He works with rock, punk, folk and singer/songwriter acts from all around the world.

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