I think I might need a reality check.
I spent the last 6 years learning and honing the skill of audio engineering and working in the music industry. Get my work played frequently on the radio. Barely have made any money from it even though many people have testified that I am very skilled.
How badly did I fuck up in my career choice Veeky Forums? To be fair, audio engineering and music production was a fairly esoteric field up until about a year or two ago.
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the more glamorous the job , the tougher the competition , the more nepotism, higher barrier of entry etc.
music dosen't even really have value.
just get a new job and keep doing it as a hobby.
your too deep and you are apparently really skilled. You could make your own label if you are creative, just find a nice niche and create your own universe (PC Music, Sadboys, SufjanStevens idk) Go to local gigs and find attractive people with something unique aout them . Find people who understand what you are trying to create and take charge of all the audio and visuals (youtube, instagram, soundcloud). If you don't have the cojones for that, just sell out and try to One up Dr. Luke and make better pop songs than him or whatever you are good at now. Yeah you have radio time, but if the royalties are shit you must be producing obscure shit.
if you are still here consider this:
iv met about dozens of people that i didn't even know they were doing sound. the amount of people doing sound for pennies is crazy, even bigger the number of people doing sound for nothing.
the only thing you get from this is connection, and popularity. both more valuable financially.
this is a grim reality, i know this because im a 3D designer and i interacted with sound guys before and they are knee deep in shit
Kanye asked himself the same thing.
Yeah I was thinking just that. Getting into another trade and just doing audio engineering on the side.
Yeah ive been doing pretty much exactly what you suggested I do. In my case it would just take time for anything profitable to come of starting a whole new movement thing. Which I guess I sort of have. And yeah a lot of my radio time is usually on more obscure, less mainstream radio stations.
Thats the problem I noticed. My field has become wayyy to saturated with people who just simply have a higher leg up on the ladder than me. I have loads of connections and ties to the heart of the industry which is crazy that im having such trouble getting momentum with this.
best thing to know when to cut your losses .
your still young.
plus you still have your passion and work ethic, health and freedom.
its not like ur lazy or got injured, you just picked a bum feild.
lotta people have way tougher breaks.
apply to anything sound related
if you can make sound from scratch id bet you know alot about equipment too.
>Make a personal brand/image whatever
>release beets under brand
>sell music/mercandise for brand
>play shows
Why are u not playing shows man. If you got tunes, people will pay $20 to see that guy who does X song.
Also OP i wanna make future base bangers, should i cop a analong ayth or just go full digital and cop a new computer with ableton and vts. Please respond
>I spent the last 6 years learning and honing the skill of audio engineering and working in the music industry.
Dude, there's plenty of jobs out there for you:
-Post Production for TV commercials, Short Films, features
-Production sound for same things
-FOH
-Whore yourself out as a producer to bands, especially young ones who need some mentoring in audio engineering
-Find a producer or sueprstar engineer to "mentor" you which really means you and the other proteges who are all top shit do all the engineering but he gets the credit. You'll never be out of work.
-Write jingles and compose for radio and tv advertising
-Video Game sound and music
-Specialist engineering: I'm pretty sure the likes of Katy Perry or Lady Gaga have their own "vocal engineers" who they don't lay a track without. I'm sure Eddie Van Halen has a studio engineer who knows his amps like the back of his hand... find your the next primadonna superstar.
Sounds like you need to market yourself better. I can't understand why with connections you'd have trouble making money from it. Start researching "personal branding". Maybe start a Youtube channel where you do tutorials on audio engineering, but try and find a twist. Maybe you do it in costume. Maybe you, I don't know, are a plain talking viking. So like it becomes funny and entertaining as well as informative.
Start putting together a warchest to spend on advertising.
Events and Merch. People don't go to see bands/DJs because they like the songs. They go there to be popular. Even if you do genuinely love a band's music, it sucks to see them alone. You just need a small critical mass of fans.
Not sure what the fuck yur doing OP. I worked in film, and good sound guys could make $70k - $100k a year.
just fucking look around and network. sounds like u just have not been working for the right people.
>Even if you do genuinely love a band's music, it sucks to see them alone.
I dont really have an real evidence but i really disagree.
I go to bands/djs that i like just to chill, sometimes the venue fucking kills it because it like a fucking club whefe your mean to dance and party. There was a dude who would play at a local cafe, really nice to chill out and surf the internet with someone playing in the background. Eventually there were full on shows at the cafe but i dunno. Venue is important too
Fair enough. I was making a sweeping generalization I'll admit. But did you pay to see those gigs?
Capitalism guarantees that anyone with artistic pursuits ends up suicidal and forced to sell out in order to survive.
go niche and work in an expanding specialist field. or MAKE your specialization. focus on environment audio for VR and augmented reality games
Ha, I'm a CAD designer too and do audio engineering on the side mostly for my own stuff.
My friends went to MMI in Wisconsin for it. All are broke or jobless 5 years later. So glad I was too cheap to go at the time.
Funny thing is I have better gear than all of them and am better at it now.
I think your problem is trying to be one of those music producers and making money in the music industry. VERY few people make dosh from that because all.your money is going to come from making someone else (who is probably up and coming) famous. Being a successful artist was always difficult.
But you have skills of an audio engineer and most likely experience working with the equipment. You can step outside the music industry to find related work like doing A/V for film companies/theater/schools/etc. There are A/V firms out there who hire people with your skill set to deploy out to various institutions that need audio systems.
Think public paging systems/stadium sound systems hell even the mall has an audio system.
Music industry isn't gonna make you shit, step outside of it and apply your skills.
this. you are doing something wrong op. your skills have value, what is missing??? if i can make a comfy living in a first world country drawing hentai and playing vidya all day, surely you can make it with audio engineering?
make a neat website, upload some of your work, and start reaching out to people. apply to audio jobs on reddits forhire board.
i think you're just lazy af or massively overestimating your abilities.
[spoiler]link ? [/spoiler]
well shit, didnt know spoiler wont work here
Im not sure how you could fix this
But do it for the love man
Help me mix my shit
m.soundcloud.com
I pay a guy but I'm broke as shit right now
>Im not sure how you could fix this
He needs to decide if he wants to make his money with a day job, turning his skills into a day job, or if he wants to go-for-broke on building a following.
It's simple as that.
I've already listed a bunch of career paths he could go into that directly monetize audio engineering.
Also, and this is advice for everyone, network with PRODUCTIVE people. You have to network with people who have too much work, then they'll pass on the scraps to you, that's how you make money out of connections. Or better yet you partner with them on their jobs.
If you're starting out in a technical role, find someone to shadow on all their gigs: like I said you'll never be out of work, because you team up with an established audio engineer who works for big bands he'll pay you to do the grunt work. And there will ALWAYS be work, also guess what happens when a band who can't afford him come by asking for an engineer? He will say no, the price is too low but he won't mind if you take the job because you're not cannibalizing his clients.
Post hentie
>i think you're just lazy af or massively overestimating your abilities.
i agree with this opinion.
depending on the type of audio engineering you should be able to find a job if you are good. music production is subjective and trend based, so if you aren't making house/edm, you aren't making a living (and then you'll make the living from djing). if you want to make money making music you need to change genres.
so-called artists rarely look at themselves when trying to figure out why they don't succeed.