R/E/P Community

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: To anyone that owns a studio  (Read 2865 times)

Benmrx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 105
To anyone that owns a studio
« on: July 05, 2005, 07:59:36 PM »

Warning:  this is a long rant.

After getting screwed by a corporate client....I had to vent here to the other small studio owners.

Our months are usually scattered with bookings from honest, hard working bands.....most of the weekends get booked pretty quick with some other single day bookings here and there.

Last Friday I get a call from a local producer that wants to book the studio for 2 weeks straight, and he has to start on Tuesday.  So we bumped a single day session further down the month, and gave that band 1/2 off.  This would give him a 4 day block, have the weekend off (cause the studio is booked that weekend with another band), then return for a 10 day block.

It turns out the producer had been hired by an artist, that had been hired by an ad agency to write some songs for commercials for one fairly large fast food chain.  

So the session was scheduled to start today, and my studio partner was going to engineer it, while this other guy was playing producer role, and the "artist" was going to write and play all the music.......They were supposed to start at noon.

So my partner shows up around 10:00 to set the place up.....some time goes by, and he eventually calls me to get the producers phone number when 2:00 rolled around.

The producer says something like "the session is off"  ....He (producer) just found out this morning (apparently) that he isn't doing the session anymore, which obviously means neither is our studio.  No one even bothered to call the studio, or the engineer.  How F*CKED is that.  Zero respect.  Maybe it's cause we don't have a Neve console?

So the end result, is that we actually lost money because we bumped a session.  And when ever that happens, I think it's only fair to either offer some free time, or cut the rate.  And everyone involved (studio, engineer, producer) gets the shaft.  Because this whole thing happened so fast (and a holiday weekend), and they "had to get it done ASAP" there was never a contract signed between the studio and the client.  This would have happened today, when everyone showed up.  

I guess you live and you learn.  I'm sure this has happened to every studio.  However, it still makes me bitter.  

Anyone else have a lovely studio story they would like to share?
Logged

j.hall

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3787
Re: To anyone that owns a studio
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2005, 08:53:32 PM »

i worked in commercial audio for a couple of years.  we had 5 staff engineers and 5 studios that ranged in size from big room for jingles to small VO room for simple radio spots.

this kind of thing happened all the time.  the difference was, we were so busy running around like chickens that a last minute cancelation wasn't our problem in the least....the front office crew would get pissed but it was only matter of minutes before more people called in and wanted to book that same time and we were back up to max capacity again.

we had slow times, but for the most part, we ran full tilt, and hardly had time to fill out our invoices......

i hated the work, felt like a button pushing monkey, and collecting the money always seemed to be the bane of our book keepers existance.

can't say i miss commercial work.
Logged

Fibes

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4306
Re: To anyone that owns a studio
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2005, 09:27:48 PM »

50% up front retainer to block out time.

No more headaches.

Logged
Fibes
-------------------------------------------------
"You can like it, or not like it."
The Studio

  http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist ?id=155759887
http://cdbaby.com/cd/superhorse
http://cdbaby.com/cd/superhorse2

henchman

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 549
Re: To anyone that owns a studio
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2005, 09:29:18 PM »

Before EVR cancelling a gig for another gig, make sure you ahve an advance 50% non-refundable booking fee upfront.

Even thgough it was a last minute thing. If the guy was really serious, he would havemade time to come down and hand over the deposit. And when the gig was canclled, you could ahve kept whatever you bwere loosing becaus eof the cancellation.

Benmrx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 105
Re: To anyone that owns a studio
« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2005, 11:17:34 PM »

Live and learn.  In the past we've been pretty good about getting a 1/3 deposit upfront (mainly for anything longer then 2 days).  I just got blind sided, and didn't think things through.

I really don't have much interest in having a studio that pumps out jingles.  I'm more interested in music then money.  I never want to own a studio with an SSL, or Pro Tools HD rig for that matter.  I "did time" in L.A., and hated it.  Not because I didn't get time behind the board (cause I really lucked my way into engineering a big budget record), but I hated the music.  Not that it was bad, only not my taste at all.

I'm just glad this happened to me now, and not later.  The band that got bumped were friends, and theyr'e all for the studio making a buck.  They know it means the next time they come in, there will be a cool new toy to play with.

I just had to vent.  Thanks for lending your ears.  

To me, the key lesson learned here is:

"If the guy was really serious, he would have made time to come down and hand over the deposit".......very well said.

I just hope that Lex. 224 stays in the used bin



Logged

Fibes

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4306
Re: To anyone that owns a studio
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2005, 07:45:32 AM »

When you deal with musicians there is a certain flakiness you are going to have to deal with and with commercials you have the 30-90 days net... Either way at some point you have to protect yourself or there will be no place to ditch out on.

Peas.
Logged
Fibes
-------------------------------------------------
"You can like it, or not like it."
The Studio

  http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist ?id=155759887
http://cdbaby.com/cd/superhorse
http://cdbaby.com/cd/superhorse2

Benmrx

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 105
Re: To anyone that owns a studio
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2005, 10:55:18 PM »

Fibes - Ah yes, the 30 - 90 day net.....I remember when I first found out about that.  I was working as a prodcution assistant getting $175/day (highest pay ever at that point) for 3 days at a music festival.

On the last day I found out that I wouldn't be getting paid for 30 days.  I think they just assumed I knew this.....but it was a definite surprise to me.  Once again......You live and you learn.

Logged

Tim Halligan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1302
Re: To anyone that owns a studio
« Reply #7 on: July 29, 2005, 09:21:07 PM »

30 - 90 days...

Strangely enough - or not - it's the big agencies that are the slowest payers.

Bastards. Evil or Very Mad

Only in my town it seems to be more like 60 - 120 days.

Thankfully we don't deal with them all that often...



Cheers,
Tim
Logged
"Don't forget, we are all engaged in a battle to the death against mediocrity." - J. Whynot

"You can tune a room only with a bulldozer." - Andy Peters

Buzz

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 717
Re: To anyone that owns a studio
« Reply #8 on: August 01, 2005, 12:27:42 PM »

Anything over 30 days ( if you have an invoice you sent ) can be billed at 1.25% interest for late fee's ALWAYS use an invoice then you can collect you due money with interest.

Later
Buzz

Plus if they don't pay you can send it to collection and screw thier credit , this works for CORP'S they need good credit.

dino g

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 24
Re: To anyone that owns a studio
« Reply #9 on: August 06, 2005, 06:30:04 AM »

Sometimes, I just don
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up
 

Site Hosted By Ashdown Technologies, Inc.

Page created in 0.1 seconds with 17 queries.