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The Studio Business Book

“The Studio Business Book, Third Edition” teaches business managers and entrepreneurs the business skills they need to successfully operate a recording studio. Readers learn every aspect of putting together and managing a recording studio, including budgets and taxation, employment issues, capitalization, and equipment planning requirements. Written by industry experts, no other book provides such in-depth, comprehensive, and industry-specific coverage of the business side of running a for-hire recording studio.

All studios, both large and small, spend a lot of money every year in an unending quest to attract clients? whether they are upgrading equipment, tweaking acoustics, or adding that big leather couch for the back of the control room. But merely throwing money at a studio may not be enough to keep it competitive. As with any other business, a recording studio must be properly managed in order to be profi table, or merely to break even. This all-new and expanded edition of The Studio Business Book is the bestselling step-by-step guide to operating and managing a professional recording facility. Used by studio owners, managers, and as a text for university courses, it begins with the basics: formulating a business plan, estimating studio startup costs (from small project studios to world-class rooms), finding a location, getting funded, and making equipment purchases. From there, the book takes you through the necessary details of business operation: accounting, phone, network and utility services, insurance plans, promoting your venture, and increasing revenues. Other chapters cover the fi ne art of studio management: scheduling sessions, dealing with clients, hiring and fi ring employees, maintaining and upgrading equipment, and how to cope with all kinds of disasters. The authors combine decades of insider experience and knowledge of the subject in this solid, well-written and carefully organized text. As an added bonus, numerous interviews with leading experts in every facet of the business are interspersed throughout the chapters, providing rare insights and fi rst-hand advice from successful industry veterans who deal with studio operations every day. This is truly a must-have book for anyone interested in starting a recording business.

Table of Contents

Looking Out from the Inside
Writing a Business Plan
How Much Does it Cost? How Much Have You Got?
Making It Happen
The Project Studio
Expense Planning
Putting a Price on Value
Income Sources: Getting Creative
Developing Contracts
Advertising and PR
The Art of Schooling
Keeping Track of Things
Politics and Psychology
Equipment, Money, and Strategy
On Being the Boss
Hiring and Firing
The Employee Manual
Coping with Disaster
Betting on the Future
Appendix: The Manager’s Quick Reference Guide

Book features:

Written for business managers and entrepreneurs who operate for-hire recording studios.
Teaches important basic business skills and how to apply them to running a recording studio.
Get in-depth, specific information on all aspects of putting together and managing a recording studio.
The only comprehensive book that features studio-specific training information.

User Level: Intermediate
Author: Mitch Gallagher
Paperback: 376 pages
Publisher: Course Technology

About the author:
Mitch Gallagher, the Editor of EQ magazine, began working in music professionally 25 years ago. His background includes a degree in music, as well as extensive graduate studies in electronic music composition and classical guitar. An author, teacher, touring and studio musician, recording engineer, project studio/multimedia production company owner, studio consultant/technology expert, and award-winning composer, he hosted hundreds of studio recording, live sound, and MIDI seminars and classes prior to being named Senior Technical Editor of Keyboard magazine in 1998. In January 2000, Mitch assumed the Editor’s chair at EQ magazine. Currently Editorial Director of Sweetwater Sound in Ft. Wayne, IN.

Jim Mandell authored the previous editions of The Studio Business Book and has been involved in the recording studio business and the music industry for more than 25 years.