One of the hardest parts of starting a career as a recording engineer is standing out from the crowd.

Everybody with a laptop can produce a decent song these days, which can make it extremely difficult to persuade artists to hire you, especially when you offer every audio service under the sun. 

A jack of all trades is a master of none. But by focusing on a niche, you can establish yourself as an expert. A niche is a service that appeals to a small, specialized group of people. While servicing a smaller market does limit your potential client base, it’s better to be a big fish in a small pond than to have to take a day job at the fish market.

In part one of our three-part series on how to make money as a freelance audio engineer, we’ll help you figure out which niche is right for you.