Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Speaking from my own experience:

Is it possible? Absolutely. Is it a lot of very hard work? Yes.

There's the struggle of actually getting the work. Most engineers I know are freelancers, and as such, there's a lot of self-regulation involved. I work long hours with 14-day work weeks. I've worked through holidays and have had to miss all sorts of social events due to the nature of the beast. It can take a lot out of you physically and emotionally. There are absolutely moments I've had where the thought of changing careers has come to mind. There are certainly people in the business that are out there to exploit you and under-value you.

Then there's the other side. I'm doing something I really love and am passionate about. Being self employed, if a gig is failing me I can simply not pursue the gig, or even "fire" it if need be. I get to work with people that are a similar breed of crazy as myself and enjoy the camaraderie. I get to experience and be an important part of many wonderful performances. I finally have a reason for my mother not be able to harass me for wearing so much black all the time...

I won't paint a rosy picture of this, but I will say that it's a business that takes a certain brand of crazy to do. It might not be best for everyone full time and there's nothing wrong with that. If you really really love it though, it could be a fun choice. Lord knows, I'm still young in the game and have a lot to learn.
 
Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Brian Henson said:
How easy is it to actually make a living in live sound?


I've thought for a long time about pursuing a career in live audio but I haven't yet because I'm not sure I'd be able to do it and also pay the bills.


I've done sound in a house of worship environment for a few years now, but I've never had any formal training, so I imagine I'd have to start at the bottom, wherever I wound up at. I don't have a problem with starting at the bottom, I'm just not sure I can afford to.


Sorry if this should have been posted in the basement, wasn't sure.
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When I got off the road with a rock band, I went back to school and got an Associate of Science degree. I was trying to decide whether to go to University of Miami and study music and audio production under the direction of digital audio whiz Ken Pohlmann, or go into a more traditional engineering field. I chose the safer non-audio path and it has been very rewarding. But I also kept playing in bands and collecting sound gear, and people kept calling me to hire out my system when I wasn't gigging myself. I am handing most of the work to my youngest son these days, and it's a nice sideline for an 18 year old. He is also trying to figure out where this will lead him. On the face of it, you'll be doing a lot of running if you are a tech or an operator, or even in the install biz. Very few people in this business have a nice 9 to 5 type of job with benefits, unless your a gear salesman at Sweetwater or something. I have often commented to my friends that I've often found it's harder to land a $500 bar gig than a $500k contract in my regular field. Easy choice for me, because I have multiple interests and enjoy them all. The few people I know who are full time and successful are obsessed and would never accept doing anything else for a living. The music industry, including live audio, is one where there are so many willing to settle for so few table scraps, just to be a part of it.
 
Rafi Singer said:
Speaking from my own experience:

......

I won't paint a rosy picture of this, but I will say that it's a business that takes a certain brand of crazy to do. It might not be best for everyone full time and there's nothing wrong with that. If you really really love it though, it could be a fun choice. Lord knows, I'm still young in the game and have a lot to learn.
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Ya, but you are fun to work with :-)


Sent from my iPad HD
 
Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Hey Brian,

This comes up every once in a while, and there's a lot of good advice here. I would say how easy it is to make a living depends strongly on what you consider a living. If you really love this and are willing to hustle club gigs every night for $150 and pick up the occasional $250 on weekends, I would say you will have no trouble finding work. Eventually you will almost certainly get offered a base level touring position, and if you don't fuck that up you may be able to find some more dough. The barrier for entry in this business is very low, there are a trillion guys and gals out there willing to work for very little - maybe they even have day jobs doing something else, so the money isn't as important to them. It takes years of reliable work before you may prove yourself worth taking on the bigger gigs, and then if you don't fight for extra pay you won't get it. I know many folks in this business who are self limiting - they haven't figured out not to disappear for truck load at the end of the night, or they think their $200 gig is white glove, or they are seemingly unable to gain additional knowledge. Don't be those guys. Reliable, hard working techs are the ones that are hard to find and once you establish yourself as such you will be a lot of people's best kept secret. Honestly your ability to mix beautifully almost doesn't matter - it's much more important to mix quickly and reliably, as well as to be able to patch and do other more mundane tasks.

I have been extraordinarily lucky in this business, especially to know a group of exceptional people who have been kind enough to teach me a great number of things and offer me some incredible opportunities, but I worked for a looong time just getting by. Keep your expenses low, take every opportunity, work every weekend and most week days, and you may find a job that pays as well as one you could get with a bachelor's degree in business a few years out of college. I hope you're that lucky, the vast majority of audio folks aren't.
 
Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Ivan Beaver said:
If you are looking for girls-you need to get on stage and perform
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I've been on both sides, as have some others here. I'll preface this by saying I have never and would never take advantage of such scenarios, but frankly I have been amazed at how many girls/women seem to be interested in anybody connected to the band, regardless of whether they are an official band member or not. This may just be coincidence, but in my experience, the country music shows are always the worst for this - particularly in terms of inappropriate stuff from drunks hanging around after the show. Pretty sad when you really think about it, and usually very annoying too. I rarely do these types of shows anymore, good riddance.

A word of advice to the OP. Regardless of what side of the stage you are on, if you are looking for a girl, do not look for one at your gig. Soooo many reasons why this is a bad idea that you could write a whole book about it.

Sorry for the topic swerve.

Back on topic, think long and hard about what Justice wrote. Regardless of whether you choose to do audio or not, have an education that gives you a viable back-up plan.
 
Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Jeff Babcock said:
A word of advice to the OP. Regardless of what side of the stage you are on, if you are looking for a girl, do not look for one at your gig. Soooo many reasons why this is a bad idea that you could write a whole book about it.
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Not that I was looking for her at the time, but I wouldn't be married 19 yrs. if I'd followed that rule. A better thought would be, don't "assume" a girl will be compatible with you just cause she comes in contact with you b/c of your gig.
 
Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Honestly the hardest part for me has been convincing family and love ones. My family is a VERY 9-5 STEADY kind of job. They see that one week I do this, next Im off, 1 month of non stop work, one slow month....They dont understand that YES I am making money, but NO I do not get XXXXX Pay check every other week.
 
Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Evan F. Hunter said:
Honestly the hardest part for me has been convincing family and love ones. My family is a VERY 9-5 STEADY kind of job. They see that one week I do this, next Im off, 1 month of non stop work, one slow month....They dont understand that YES I am making money, but NO I do not get XXXXX Pay check every other week.
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The Banks don't like it much either (applying for a mortgage etc)

Jason
 
Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

I don't do sound commercially anymore for several reasons. One is that I don't like being lumped together with "sound guys", I find that most soundguys work for under minimum wage when all things are considered. That is not a life that I want, I am not happy being someone who can merely operate, configure and carry equipment. No matter how "techy" doing sound may appear, its really just a bunch of blue collar work that does not require any education at all. My plan is to have a real career making in excess of 1M per year and just buy myself a 32 box vertec system so that I can do events when I am bored.

You will never make any real money in sound unless you started out as a millionaire and "do sound" as a hobby.

You will never look back on your life and be satisfied that you turned x number of knobs and carried x tons of speakers for someone else.


My advise is: Get out now prior to turning 40. After 40, the statistical likelyhood of making any real wages in the sound industry drops dramatically year after year.
 
Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Tim Duffin said:
You will never look back on your life and be satisfied that you turned x number of knobs and carried x tons of speakers for someone else.
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True. I look back on my career thus far and think of the friends I've met, the fun fun I've had, and marvel at the current and near-future technology implementations. And I've heard some really good music and worked with/for some great folks. I never thought about the knobs and thinking about tons of gear is usually a concern only when doing it for assholes.

My advise is: Get out now prior to turning 40. After 40, the statistical likelyhood of making any real wages in the sound industry drops dramatically year after year.
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Well, everyone's experience can and will be different. I left 40 in a previous century and my income continues to improve. Perhaps I've found ways to bring additional value to my employer...
 
Re: Career in audio a worthwhile endeavor?

Tim Duffin said:
My advise is: Get out now prior to turning 40. After 40, the statistical likelyhood of making any real wages in the sound industry drops dramatically year after year.
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I got out of the live sound end of the business around age 40. Moving to install and manufacturing.

I am making many many times more than I did doing live sound (which was nothing because I kept investing it back into gear).

However the experience I learned during all those "live" years have been VERY helpful in my recent career-and I could not do those jobs without that previous experience (at least as well).

I always thought that if I won the lottery it would be great to have a nice system and only do the gigs I wanted (with bands I wanted to work with) and hire plenty of help so I did not have to do all the "heavy lifting"-even though I would anyway-it is just the way I am. I can't stand around and watch other work-I have to be helping or I feel "weird".
 
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