It Takes More Than Music To Make A Living

It Takes More Than Music
To Make A Living
Recording Studios, Like Bands,
Make Their Livings In Many Different Ways

By John Hope

So the assignment coming from the Business Editor seems pretty straightforward—talk to people at some area recording studios and find out if they can make a living recording bands and, if not, what they do to make ends meet. What you find out is that most recording studio people know from the get–go that they’re not going to put much food on the table recording bands. And so they start with other ideas in mind and try to record music in the off hours.

Dusty Rees of Fredrick, Lee, Lloyd, Inc “If I had to depend on band income I’d starve,” says Dusty Rees, founder of Frederick Lee & Lloyd Inc., Landisville. A former radio production manager, Rees thought he could make some extra income by buying some multi–track recording equipment to use in a converted garage studio. “Part–time extra income turned into a full–time job,” he says with a smile. He opened his studio in 1976, making it the oldest continuously owned and operated recording studio in central Pennsylvania. Frederick Lee & Lloyd also stands out with its staff of four. Other studios we talked with have one person who does everything or else use contract help as needed.

In 1985, in another happy collision of events, Rees was at the post office mailing a tape and saw that a former Bell Telephone equipment building next door was for sale. He purchased it and developed it over the years as the home for Frederick Lee & Lloyd.

The niche the company originally filled was audio production, competing with radio stations that do production for free if you buy commercial time with them. Rees says the value his studio can add is broader access to talent for voiceovers and narration, greater music and sound effects libraries, and copywriting from his staff who started in radio and know how to write 15 different commercials in a day.

Brian Williams, one of Rees’ associates in the studio, says they are now building a business in video production, made possible by the advent of low–cost, PC–based editing equipment. In the past, Frederick Lee & Lloyd would work on the audio portion of a campaign and then send the client elsewhere for video production. Now, however, the studio can do the entire campaign, maintaining greater creative control and also increasing studio income.

Rees said that because the studio has been known as a commercial production house, it’s been hard to get band business. They do try to bring bands in to work with independent engineers who use their facilities evenings and weekends, when they can lower the hourly rate. “We still can’t begin to compete with all the ‘garage studios’ that are out there,” he candidly admits. “They’ll do a recording for $200 and I can’t even turn on the air conditioning for that kind of money.”

One thing they are doing to try to increase band business is to offer at least one free music video with recording of a band CD.

Joe Trojack of Progressive Enterprises When Joe Trojcak was a senior at West Chester University, one of his class projects was to design a recording studio and develop its business plan. After graduation, Trojcak figured he had a good idea and ran with it, opening Progressive Enterprises in Elizabethtown.

Like Rees, Trojcak realized he would not be able to make a living recording bands and looked for other market niches to occupy. He edited two investment cassette magazines and now produces a cassette magazine for real estate agents who are learning to make better use of the Internet in their business. He also writes original music for use on radio and television.

Industrial clients have been a significant part of his business, often in association with local video production houses. In 1997 he worked on two separate United Way campaigns in association with a video house.

Trojcak is in the process of improving his studio facilities and building a new control room and hopes to be able to increase his work with bands in the fall when the construction is completed.

He believes this area is changing in its support for studio band recording and that it is “about to blossom” for Progressive Enterprises. “There’s a lot going on now,” he says. “We’ve been getting referrals and able to get business through word–of–mouth without much advertising.”

Trojcak said all the studio professionals in the area know and help each other. “There’s competition, but it’s not cutthroat. We’ll refer business to someone else if we’re too busy to handle it.”

A studio that’s more musically oriented but still does not look to bands for most of its income is Wray’s Skyline Recording Studio in Mechanicsburg.

Keith Mohr of Wray's Skyline Recording Studio Keith Mohr, the studio’s full–time producer/engineer, says they have found a niche in the local Christian music market and have been able to attract and retain clients through his emphasis on building relationships with people and being personally involved in their projects.

The studio was started by local music store owner Bill Wray as a hobby. Mohr was working for Wray in his store, became aware of the studio, and persuaded Wray that it could be put to better use. It has grown to the point that Mohr now works full–time in the studio.

He tries to do commercial jingles and original music for corporate clients but finds it hard to sell the concept of original music in this area because so much “needle drop” (libraries of music that can be purchased for a specific use) music is available.

His entrée into the local Christian music market came in 1996 when he was hired to record a Christian festival at Hershey. He met many of the performers, they liked the work he did in recording the festival, and he was able to start attracting them to the studio, even though he still describes business as “mainly scratch and claw” to get and keep clients.

Mohr, who says he is “called to be an encourager,” tries to keep the price affordable for bands and to work with them as a producer to help them improve their product and not waste recording time so they can keep costs down. That kind of service works to build repeat and referral business, he says. They also now have a Web site (www.brokenrecords.com) so people can learn about the services they offer and buy recordings from the Internet.

Mohr says most of the studio’s income comes from him working with individual songwriters to develop their songs. Much of the music is provided from a computer rather than from studio musicians. He does, however, call on one guitar player regularly fort a lot of the music that is recorded.

Another way in which Skyline Studio works with its Christian artists is through sales of recordings through its Broken Records outlet.

Mohr is in the process of upgrading the studio’s facilities. They’ve just added a nine–foot Baldwin concert grand piano that had been on tour with Baldwin and is signed by many of the artists who played it.

He also hopes to build a market in recording school bands and choruses and producing CDs they can use as fund–raisers.

So, as you can see, all is not late-night jam sessions and screaming guitars in the recording studio business. It’s doing what’s necessary to keep the doors open and branching out into other areas, just like any other business. Of course, there IS the occasional CD recording for a local band and the chance to hear the very newest and the very best. Every business has to have its perks, right?