may madness !

[rick]

any of you guys get a email from 301 today..?

[aside]

yep, it sounds a little desparate don't you think?

[Linear]

i saw it briefly, but i didn't get it (complicated).

what are they offering?

[rick]

i think this might be the start of the point of no return :(

[jkhuri44]

what email are you guys talking about? care to share?? i dont subscribe to a 301 mailing list.

this sounds like something i wanna laugh at, so cough up, hehehe

[musikwerks]

If 301 is in trouble I wouldn't be laughing. Even though I'm not a fan of Mr. Misner, it's an ominous sign for the industry in general. No laughs here.

[HA_DA_JA]

Having a very small insight to our beloved 301 owner - nothing is ever as it seems -

[rick]

the issue is this now cheaper then it was 15 years ago !
and with a national cpi increase of 2-4 % every year for the last 15 years
well you guys do the maths ... :(
we will survive this - but this a sign of the studio economy at large for sure :(


this Part of email i got minus contact phone numbers etc ...

May Mastering Madness!!

For the entire month of May, we are happy to offer the Studios 301 mastering rates at $150 per hour (+GST). This applies to both Steve and Oscar's rates, which are normally $200 per hour (+GST), and is for everything we work on in May. As well as this, Andrew Edgson's rate has dropped to $120 per hour (+GST) for the entire month!!

If you've already booked with us, don't worry, you'll get these rates too, And if you haven't booked, then you can contact us via:

+++++++

Feel free to get in touch with any questions.....

[Kurt]

It's not limited to high-end studios... Dunno about the big boys, but I'm getting less now for PA work than the guy I started out working for almost 15 years ago (on an equivalent system), I can only charge what the market will pay.

With the rise and rise of home recording over the last 10 years or so it is a hard ask to get muso's to pay anything, let alone $100's per hour. I wanted to get my bands album mastered by you guys. When I outlined the cost the rest of the band said "you did a great job recording it, you do it!" (I still have the raw mix files so when we "make it big" I'll get it done properly!)

[Chinagraf]

Is this really a surprise? Maybe this is new in the upper end mastering game but it's been going on in the studio side of things for a fair while, and I'm not talking about small backroom setups. What do you do when people will no longer pay what you charge? It sad, but the market dictates prices now regardless of quality or experience. And the market sucks... apparently 'near enough' is good enough nowdays.

[beatmad]

A bit to the side of the topic in question but my biggest concern is that the global economic changes haven't really hit Australia yet. I heard a story the other day about a guy in Japan who has his own engineering company. There is absolutely"no" work so he's sleeping in at home but his loyalty to his employees means he hasn't sacked anybody.

[David W]

There was a AT article/Intervieswwith Tom Misner a couple of years back which if many can remember you may have seen this coming.

Something about lowering rates to almost nothing just to get rid of the compitition (came accross in the interview as half joking but...). Why cos he can.
If you cannot remember which article it was the same article that highlighted his fude with the council over security cameras on the SAE property in Byron Bay and his status as a property developer.

I also remember being staggared when a frind of mine hired 301 Sydney for a day at a rate lower than many local studio's.

[musikwerks]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but 301 is technically an educational facility, not a commercial studio as it's the SAE flagship studio (alongside Byron Bay). If that's the case then it will be impossible for any other facility to compete in the long term because of all the tax breaks and grant funding educational establishments are able to receive. It's not even a remotely level playing field. Combine that with SAE worldwide's buying power and it's ability to buy in bulk and save and you have a formidable adversary.

But I could be wrong, hope so.

[Linear]

I'm not so sure it's due to the financial crisis really, music is still being locally released (and hence mastered). The financial crisis is affecting businesses, but I think more those in raw materials and manufacturing and the like. Businesses with huge fixed costs and large inventories are suffering because they are so slow to adjust when things go south.

So I think it's mass market stuff. Small, lean independent business don't tend to suffer so much, they can adapt quickly and aren't sitting on millions of dollars with of stock with million dollar plus debts. And don't forget, even if unemployment rises to 9%, there's still 91% working, earning and spending money. And I can guarantee that no matter how badly the economy turns, people will still be making music (and films), going to theatre and seeing live music. Cultural fulfillment is low on the list of things that you cut from your budget - eating out, buying a new car, upgrading the sofa, taking a holiday are all things that you'd cut back on first. (ie eat at home instead, hold on to the car a little longer, go down the coast instead of paris).

I wonder if local mastering is losing out to overseas mastering - it's so easy now to send files to sterling or abbey rd and you get it back next day. In fact alot of bands I see are doing exactly that.

That said however, it'd be interesting to know what percentage of their mastering work comes from majors - those guys would be hurting at the moment. They're being simultaneously killed by pirate bay, the financial crisis and an increasingly fragmented music market. I guess I'm putting this positive spin on the situation from an independent, self funded band release perspective (which is mainly what I deal with).

So for $150/hour rates, maybe it's that, together with the mate who has a computer and some plug-ins doing mastering for free. I see alot of that too, and between the two I reckon it'd be scooping out a fair bit of local mastering business.

(just my 2c worth)

Chris

[rick]

We had a tough month last month the month before was good this month is fine but April was tough... I haven't really figured out why..
I figured maybe everybody was holding off untill their govt stimulas turned up
Word has it 301 has cultural internal changes going on but if it gets down to it
I cannot run at those 301 rates , and actually either can they nor can the other couple of businessesat that level

I think we will all adapt or perish, nothing new I've gotten pretty good at it after all these years:)
I would not want to be a $150 hr studio suddenly finding out they are now competing against 301 dollar for dollar... Ouch

[ChrisW]

I imagine the downturn has hit.
A couple of (usually busy) musos I know have been twiddling thumbs since Christmas.

[Thirteen]

I was told by a very successful businessman once that when times are tough, to never drop your prices, because it is too hard to raise them again. He said that the thing to do is to add bonuses instead to entice people in, for example, keep your hourly rate, but give and extra hour free with every 10, or some other kind of value adding to keep customers coming in at your normal pricing.

[rick]

Now that sounds like a sane approach !

[Thirteen]

The guy managed international hotels, he said that his hotels were giving away extra days, meals, room upgrades and the like, anything other than dropping his rack rates, because he said that once they went down it was a real problem putting them back up later. Things like room upgrades made punters happy, but cost the hotel nothing, basically it was a way of staying competitive without a price drop.

[TimS]

He sounded ike a very smart and astute man Steve - simple ideas can go a long way..

[heathen]

Australias in a better position weather this than most other countries. But yeah with 301 going so low I wonder if the price will stay there.

Anyway my parents grog shop is doing very well, the worse the news gets the more people seem to drink, yeah not good but........ better than Woolworths getting the money.

I'm still going ahead with my studio, if no-one hires it then I'll have a superb home theatre, but yeah I don't have several thousand a week in overheads, that would make me a little nervy. My only overheads will be coffee and dunny paper (yes I'll get the good stuff too, dunny paper that is).

The downturn is'nt all bad though, interest rates are low, everythings going cheap for those with some cash, ummmm yeah that's what this topic was about. Everything was over inflated, petrol, houses, food, clothes, neves. Especially neves!

[Ryan Collings]

Anyway my parents grog shop is doing very well, the worse the news gets the more people seem to drink

Haha!

I'm still going ahead with my studio, if no-one hires it then I'll have a superb home theatre

Double Haha!

Thanks Heathen, u made my day :D

[heathen]

Anyway my parents grog shop is doing very well, the worse the news gets the more people seem to drink

Haha!

I'm still going ahead with my studio, if no-one hires it then I'll have a superb home theatre

Double Haha!

Thanks Heathen, u made my day :D

That's good mate cause I had a shocker, our big boy dog ate a piece of plastic and........... yeah well the vet did very nicely today from my parents. So yeah all that grog money from today probably helped the vet pay for something too. :) Boy dog is much better too, silly f#$%er. I think I screwed my back helping to lift 110kg's of sick Great Dane. :)

Ahhh the economy at work.

[Kurt]

I want a Dane :)

Anyway my parents grog shop is doing very well, the worse the news gets the more people seem to drink

Haha!

I'm still going ahead with my studio, if no-one hires it then I'll have a superb home theatre

Double Haha!

Thanks Heathen, u made my day :D

That's good mate cause I had a shocker, our big boy dog ate a piece of plastic and........... yeah well the vet did very nicely today from my parents. So yeah all that grog money from today probably helped the vet pay for something too. :) Boy dog is much better too, silly f#$%er. I think I screwed my back helping to lift 110kg's of sick Great Dane. :)

Ahhh the economy at work.

[Ryan Collings]

all that grog money from today probably helped the vet pay for something too
Ahhh the economy at work.

Everything evens out. Just like the wiseman Jerry Seinfeld once said :P

[Ryan Collings]

I want a Dane :)

Ahhhh! Now i miss my dog!

My ex has it, A little mini dachshund. So damn cute.

Meanwhile, she just bought an apartment and here I am getting kicked out of my share house coz the landlord has decided to renovate, but thats a long story :/ How is that even?

Oh well, all i can say is Meh

I work at turtlerock and she is a highschool teacher at Parra High... :D

Ironically, where I went to High School. It wasn't a great highschool when i went but now its unbelievable.

[heathen]

No you don't heh, they slobber really really badly, they sh%# really really big, they die young usually. Apart from that they are good dogs.

:)

[heathen]

I want a Dane :)

Ahhhh! Now i miss my dog!

My ex has it, A little mini dachshund. So damn cute.

Meanwhile, she just bought an apartment and here I am getting kicked out of my share house coz the landlord has decided to renovate, but thats a long story :/

Bummer! Maybe re-acquaint yourself with the ex or............ nah not good.

Karate Ninja girl?

[Ryan Collings]

Karate Ninja girl?

U mean Kickboxing girl? Haha, nah, this is the one before that one. Kickboxing girl isn't qualified to teach at a highschool :P

How did i get so off topic :P

[Thirteen]

"the landlord has decided to renovate" is real estate code for: Kick out the existing tenants because there are limits to how much I can jack the rent, have the carpets cleaned and put it onto the rental market again 10 days later for 40 percent higher rent, knowing that someone will be desperate enough to pay it.