I have recently bumped into an alarming number of acquaintances who are leaving the audio industry after decades of hard graft. A couple are returning to college to study unrelated subjects, journalism and computer studies, one is driving a truck, two are moving sideways into video and one plans to be a plumber. The others haven’t a clue what they’ll do next.
These are not tape-ops, wannabes or bluffers. They are top professional who have produced or engineered chart albums.
I hope the grass is greener in their chosen pastures. At least they see some grass upon which to graze. Sadly, the modern recording industry resembles the Kalahari Desert, a vast expanse of nothingness stretching out beyond the horizon, broken only by an occasional mirage of deceit in the form of record companies offering promises, promises, promises. Payment will be rendered if the record sells. But when and if and maybe don’t put bread on the table or pay the rent.
Talent is unique, experience hard-earned. It takes years of slog to hone skills that can be consigned to the scrap-heap in the flicker of an eyelid. And when that happens, our industry is impoverished.
On the other side of the balance sheet, there are tens of thousands of young hopefuls studying for Music Technology degrees. For what? Twenty-seven grand of long term debt? Where is the work? Are these dreamers told that prospects don’t exist? Those few who do find gainful employment usually teach. We therefore have the ludicrous situation where students rely on lecturers, whose only experience is having studied the same course, perpetuating myths, magnifying bookish misconceptions, substituting theory for common sense
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t believe that you can learn how to make records in a classroom, any more than you can read up on how to fly a jumbo jet. Unless you get airborne and have flown sufficient miles, no airline in their right mind would let you near a cockpit and neither would Ryan Air. Even a qualified pilot will often spend a decade assisting before being allowed to twiddle his joystick unaided. Why, then, should anyone assume that a couple of years spent messing with Logic and a Soundcraft Spirit desk can qualify the Mu-Tech graduate to teach, let alone produce a professional session?
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for education. There are some first rate courses on offer, such as Tonmeister at Surrey University. What rankles is the implication that a recording degree qualifies the holder for a job. It doesn’t. Recording isn’t like plumbing or bricklaying. It’s an art, a combination of talent and experience.
Making records is alchemy, not cookery.
So the question that I ask my retiring friends is not why they are leaving the record industry, but rather, why did the industry leave them?
Eccentric
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6 Responses to “Eccentric: Ask not what you can do for the recording industry, but rather…what the hell?”
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Never has there been a more relevant string of sentences strung together to describe the decline of the buisness we all love.
Human greed – people want cheap/free music…. Record companies want loads of profit….. Colleges/Universities want loads of profit….
Education is a business like any other, for which there is a huge demand for these music tech courses. I know the people in charge of these such businesses don’t care much for art – just cash
Helen, I agree it may well be true that some are only in it for the money but I meet many really cool and ‘in to it’ people running courses out there. The only problem is possibly where people finish a course and expect to be regarded as the next big thing, like anything, it takes time to learn this craft and network your way up.
I’ve also seen that many colleges attract kids back in to education by running some of these courses, many that dropped out early on at school, and some have gone on to do some amazing things. It is in many cases a stepping stone and very few will end up in studios but then there’s a lot of kids studying geology who end up as computer programmers etc etc…
Eccentric does put forward a very good perspective but others will see things very differently so let’s have your blogs people
I agree with Eccentric, and understand your comments. I have just recently undergone ‘disillusionment’ with regard to the education system after having been a tutor and manager of a music tech course for 9 years. I am guilty of being exactly the person that Eccentric talks of, as back in 2002 I became a tutor after completing the course as a student. My motivation to study came off the back of being a DJ and wanting to learn programming and production skills. I learned a lot as a tutor, and I have been blessed with having 9 years experience of working closely with many very cool and talented young people with pure passion and drive for music of all genres. Many of them are a credit to UK youth and music movement.
I guess it the whole education ‘funding’ game gets right up my nose.
I would also like to add the fact that I am fortunate to have a few close friends who are extremely talented top industry professionals who have grafted for decades and produced and engineered chart albums and other wonderful music projects. They still keep the faith and stick to their calling in life, but it breaks my heart to see them struggle on a daily basis to put bread on the table. I have learned more from working with them than all the years study/teaching, and still have so much distance to travel.
Music is a wonderful thing, worth the risk, worth the sacrifices……..
PEACE x
Eccentric’s question to his retiring friends was at least half rhetorical. It’s clear that studios have closed and producers and engineers are abandoning their careers mainly due to the radical change brought on by technology.
It’s not all bad. The current tech advances are revolutionary and while they close down options they open up a world of new ones. I’ve made a living from producing music recordings for over thirty years. During that time I’ve had to bend and shift and consistently come up with new ways to stay afloat. I’m still doing that and yes it has seldom been less than a struggle. But who said that working in the arts would ever be free of struggle? There are plenty of other vocations where the ride is easier.
Studio work in all its forms is an art and the arts are nothing if they are not about creativity. Be creative. Be imaginative. Find new ways. If you do that to the best of your ability and your ability is true the technology will help you make a mark. Remember that the recording industry was built by technologists inventing things that others were able to run with. Today’s pioneers will be tomorrow’s success stories.
I really don’t think it’s all so bad…perhaps smaller budgets for the bigger names, but the industry is open to anyone who wants to have a go now and people can easily get a track recorded and get it out on the internet. Yes, there is a lot more poor quality content out there…but there is a lot more content overall. There are still plenty of people making a good living out of music, and plenty of people making good music. The industry has and is changing massively and there are bound to be some casualties along the way, but where there are casualties there are also new doors being opened all over the place…it’s not all doom and gloom IMHO!