A sound recording career?

When considering any career decision, it's a good idea to review what's going on in your industry. What long term opportunities could it offer you? Is there more opportunity than last year, or is the recording industry declining? Or changing significantly?

Where can I get advice I can trust?

The answer to this question is now critical for you because of the huge changes surging through the music recording sector.

The audio industry has undergone huge changes in recent years…

Back in the early days of music recording, the studio equipment necessary was so costly that few artists and performers could afford their own recording studio facilities. So shared recording studios grew up around the major centers of the music business - in cities like New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, Chicago, and London. With the expansion of radio, and arrival of TV, there was a sustained growth surge in the entertainment business, and the large recording studios thrived along with their corporate parents – familiar names such as Colombia, Capitol, Decca, MGM, and RCA Victor, EMI Records, etc.

The typical steps to becoming a professional recording engineer became:

1. hobbyist/amateur recordist
2. some formal sound engineering education
3. (unpaid) apprenticeship or internship with master mentor
4. assistant engineer position

In this process the quality (skills, reputation, and contacts) of your mentor was critical in launching your career effectively.

But by the late ‘90s, computer hardware and software technologies had advanced in capability and dropped so much in price, that many of the artists who had depended on the large studios and production companies could now operate independently, and with excellent results, from recording studios at home or in much smaller, local studios.

And with Internet access available widely, not only has recording and production technology changed dramatically, but so has distribution, now that internet downloads are so fast and easy. Alongside this, computer animation in the film industry and the growth of video games (which recently overtook the film industry in revenue) provides a whole set of new opportunities for audio engineers that just didn't exist previously. Of course the economics of the industry are undergoing a major shift at the same time.

Today the main industry “drivers” are:

• Music – growing and fragmenting into niche sectors
• Films – declining; some even forecast the death of the “blockbuster” movie
• Broadcasting – becoming more localised through increasing community broadcasting, and at the same time more global via internet podcasting, radio and TV
• Video and online games – rapidly expanding

These all share a common trend in favour of smaller, independent producers, a trend enabled by advances in computer, communications and recording software technologies.

So what does this mean for employment or business opportunities in this sector?

In summary:

• Fewer “jobs” with the major players, who are downsizing
• Widening range of roles – thanks to new technologies in animation and gaming
• Greater need for commercial skills – to market your own recording services to other artists
• Fewer apprenticeships and internships available – more difficult to make the “right” connections and benefit from expert coaching

This means it's now much harder to get into a traditional recording engineer role with a studio. If this is what you've set your heart on, I'd suggest you contact all recording studios in your locality, and make sure they know of your interest and availability.

You may find it easier to get into one of the newer roles in games, video or on-lines, or computer animation.

What ever your goals, in the next section we'll look at the question:

“What Skills must a Audio Recording Engineer have?”

This should lead on naturally to grasp the critical elements of the education and training programs you'll need to consider investing in.

You can read this now: Essential Skills of an Audio Engineer

Tags: Becoming a Recording Engineer, Music Recording