I'll be dedicating the rest of this week to the home studio musicians and producers that want to work with other musicians and start getting paid for their expertise.

If that's you, read on!

Today we'll be talking about why (if ever) you should work for free, and what that entails.

So, not to sound too much like a Hallmark greeting card but...you’ve finally decided.

You're ready to record other bands.

You’ve been honing your audio engineering skills on your own music for a while now, and you feel like you’ve got the hang of how everything works.

Your friends, family and the fans at your shows tell you they like the sound of your music so you must be good enough to record bands that are at the same point in their career as you right?

But it seems like everyone is an audio engineer these days?

How are you different?

How do you prove yourself to the local bands so that they choose you over the fancy studio in town?

Should you offer your services for free to get your name out there? Or should you be firm that what you’re providing is a valuable service?

Tricky question, isn’t it?

In an industry so saturated with skilled people that all seem to be able to record everything under the sun, how do you position yourself in the industry, and how do you navigate the risk of offering your services for free?

The Struggle of Starting Out

Even if you’ve been recording your music in your home studio, you might still have some startup costs when you decide to take on actual clients. They might need something more than just a two-channel interface, a condenser microphone, and some headphones. Even if you record them in your home studio, you still want to give them a feeling of being in a studio instead of feeling like they’re intruding into your bedroom. That’s no way to make musicians relaxed so that they can give you a good performance.

Even if you invest in a decent enough setup to record bands, you’re already in the hole.

Then you have to invest your time in getting your name out there. Sure, if you’ve already recorded yourself you might have enough music to create a portfolio, but what if you don’t have anything of that nature?

Working for free once you’re already in debt is a sure-fire way to keep you there unless you’re strategic about it.

How do you tackle the catch-22 of not having any clients because you don’t have any work to show while not having any work to show because you don’t have any clients?

The Pros and Cons of Working for Free

There are three main benefits of working for free.

• It’s easier to get a portfolio started because you’ll have an easier time finding clients to work with since they won’t have to pay you.
• You’ll gain experience faster. However, there’s a flipside to this because I would argue that you gain experience in marketing much quicker when you charge for your services, but that’s a story for another day.
• You eliminate some of the barriers to entry into the music community because you’re not bringing up money all the time. You’ll get to know the musicians in your area much faster because you won’t be actively soliciting them. If you tell them upfront that you’ll do your work for free or for....shudder...exposure, it makes the conversation easier.

People hate talking about money, so by eliminating it in the equation, it makes the relationship building much more comfortable.

However, if you don’t assign a monetary value on things, people tend to value them less. Of course, musicians don’t think a recording of their song is worthless. Otherwise, they wouldn’t spend their own time recording them with you. But because you’ve eliminated their need to pay for the service, you might leave yourself at risk of them thinking that the service is open-ended.

That's a BAD place to be in!

If you don’t accurately manage expectations and set boundaries around what your free service entails, you might end up doing much more work than you thought you would at the start.

If you don't have a portfolio yet, you might want to do a couple sessions to get some variety to show your potential clients. That's where a free session might be worth doing, but you have to do it correctly so you don't get into a time suck that never ends and clients that will never be satisfied.

Win-Win situations where everyone comes out on top is the best way to do business. Even if you're technically giving your time away, you want to have a win to work for. 

We'll talk more about the mechanics of offering a free session where both you and the client win in tomorrow's email.

In the meantime, I'm partnering up with my good friend Brian Hood of the Six Figure Home Studio to offer you a special free masterclass on starting up your studio business...and you can take it today!

It's called: How To Make A Living From Your Existing Audio Skills (without the need for a fancy studio or expensive gear).

We have two times available today and you can register through the links below:

• 10 am (10:00 hours)
• 8 pm (20:00 hours)