Remote Recording: The Secret Gig Opportunity

It seems that my posts on recording and studio tips have been of some use to a few of you, so I figured I'd expand on that info by touching a little on how you can put that wonderful studio to use to make some money! My current favorite method is to be a remote studio musician.

I first realized this was an untapped potential gig income stream during the pandemic. My musician friends, being the brilliant resilient folks they are, persisted in their desire to make music even as shutdowns began. This resulted in many situations where we needed to figure out how to get our music to one another without being in person. The solution created was to record our parts in our individual homes and then send it to each other to be mixed together. There were initial technical issues, and we braced for the quality of the music to be sacrificed as a result of the distance. However, we were surprised to find this was not the case!

(This was one of my favorite COVID projects!) The cello you hear on this was recorded remotely in a basement while battling with a particularly outspoken water heater.

The result was a much higher quality than anticipated, especially for how cobbled together my setup was. I was even able to spend more time on the track without having to worry about studio time or a commute of any kind. It was an incredibly low stress and easy process. As soon as I finished, my brain lit up with the possibilities. Not only could I now work for any current clients remotely, but I could begin working with people around the world, and write and record my own music too!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sean L Penzo (@seanlorenzopenzo)

This is a recording I did for a composer from Hong Kong, Hon Ning Cheung in the same basement during the height of the pandemic.

Sean Lorenzo Penzo · World In A Raindrop

A track I remotely co-wrote and recorded on with JeongJeong (Brett Mooney), a close friend and fellow bedroom producer.

Okay, okay, enough with the examples... How do you do it? Well, once you have a microphone and a place to record (explored in my previous blogs), this is actually the part that is more simple:

Tell People You Can

When you're starting out, it may be difficult to get a hold of clients, I'm right there with you. Your best bet is to get in touch with other artists like you. Find potential clients for your services as a musician and send them an email or a message, build up a portfolio of recordings and previous work examples that you can reference potential clients towards, and set up a central hub where you can house all this, it could be a website (which I recommend) but it could also be a social media page of some kind. It's simply important to be visible and to be able to prove your value to a potential customer.

For example, if you're a vocalist, I would get in touch with composers, people who appear to not have access to vocal talent, and let them know you're there. Wind players can do the same, or even find work on songs of more popular genres. As a cellist, I tend to get in touch with singer songwriters, and other independent artists who might not have the flexibility to work with musicians in person but still would love to bring their music to the next level with live instruments. I've also had a lot of experience working with composers to premiere and record their works virtually. As a composer, I try and get in touch with ensembles and orchestras. There is demand, but a lot of people won't think of you as a solution until you present yourself as one.

It's unlikely that people will stumble across you randomly, so you'll need to be proactive about getting in communication with artists and simply letting them know that you're an option if they're looking for access to professionals with your skill set. This often involves tons of cold emails/messages and tons of non responses. However, the responses you will get will surprise you! Reach out to those people whose music you love, what do you have to lose? The worst thing that can happen is you get no response, the best thing is that you could work with some really incredible people, and make some money while you're at it. By offering remote services, you're showing them an easily accessible avenue to the skills you can provide. Even if they don't end up responding or being interested, they are at least now aware of you.

I may go into detail about how to go about these cold emails and messages in a future post, but for now, if this kind of work piques your interest at all, I highly recommend exploring it! I'm always available to answer any questions too, so never hesitate to reach out. Until next time, thank you for reading, and happy jamming!