How Free Work Fits Into A Healthy Audio Business

This is the six figure home studio podcast episode 141.

[00:00:07] You're listening to the six figure home studio podcast. The number one resource for running a profitable home recording studio. Now your host Brian Hood and Chris brand. Welcome back to another episode of the six figure home studio podcast. I am your host Brian Hood. I am not here with my big bald beautiful cohost Christopher J.

[00:00:29] Graham. He is not with us this week. So I am doing another solo episode. This is going to be a pretty short one and straight to the point. And the goal here is to answer a question that is a pretty common question amongst a lot of our listeners right now, especially through this COVID stuff that we're going through with so many studios struggling.

[00:00:45] So many people struggling to make ends meet. Some of you have your potential clients struggling to make ends meet so many studios. Struggling to make ends meet. And that is on the topic of free work. Should you do it or should you not do it? When does it make sense to do it? When does it not make sense to do it?

[00:00:58] And since you know how I do things here, I'm straight to the point. If I don't have Chris, my cohost here today, there is no free show banter. There is no personality going on. There is no humor with me. I'm straight into the point. I am a machine. I don't do anything. To get off topic to get off point. All I want to do is get shit done, shove information down your throat, whether you like it or not.

[00:01:18] And without Chris here to ease the tension, you're just going to get my super type, a Enneagram eight personality telling you how it is without any of the lovable pun filled side. That is Chris Graham. So without further delay, let's just get into the topic today. Should you do free work? It's pretty easy question to answer, right?

[00:01:37] It's just a yes or no, right wrong. No, there is no straight answer to this. And I see advice all over the place on the internet. I've seen big names, people shitting all over free work. It is a waste of time. You should never do free work. You are too valuable to do this. And I see people that are on the exact opposite perspective.

[00:01:56] People who are also big names, Grammy winners. Household names in the production world saying that they got their start doing free work. You should always be humble and be willing to do free work if it means getting your foot in the door. So what's the right answer. You're actually are our own cohost.

[00:02:10] Christopher J. Graham. Who's not here with us today. I mean, he's here with us on earth. He's just not working with us on the podcast. He's still alive. His lead magnet. His source of work comes from doing free work. And if you listen to this podcast, you know what I'm talking about. If not, I'll explain that in a minute.

[00:02:22] So what's the right answer here. Well, I'm just going to go through my thoughts on free work and you can take this advice buffet episode and apply it to your own businesses. But I feel like with so many studios struggling right now, the topic of free work has come up more and more and more in my own group.

[00:02:38] Would the profitable producer course students. In emails in our Facebook community. And so I want to take it a full episode and just address it here, or at least this little short episode and address it here. So let's talk about that two main types of free work. There's the free work that people like Chris Graham does, where he's doing a free test master for his clients.

[00:02:57] So they can hear what the work would sound like if they hired him for the full, and then there's free projects. That's where you're doing an entire project, either a full single, or more for free as what's called spec work, meaning you are hoping to get paid in the future, or you're hoping that that band will refer people to you, or are you hoping that some other good thing will come after the fact?

[00:03:17] So you're willing to do the work for free now. So I'm going to talk about these two types of work. They both serve different purposes. And I want to talk about those right now. So let's talk about your goal first. What is the goal behind free work? Because depending on what your goal is, It's going to determine which approach is right for you and if either is appropriate for you at all.

[00:03:36] So there are a few main things that people look for when it comes to doing free work. And the thing I'm going to cover first is attracting leads. Getting someone to fill out a form or getting someone to show interest in your work, have a conversation. And so they use it as basically a lead magnet. If anyone listens to this podcast for any amount of time, or if they go to the six figure home studio.com or they've seen any of my Facebook ads, a lead magnet is just the thing that helps your ideal customer give over their name and email address in order to be brought over into your world as a business, while these can be things like PDFs or webinars or eBooks or live workshops, this can be any number of things.

[00:04:10] In our world, it's a little different in the conversation of free work, you can do things like test mixes and test masters to attract people into your world. This is what Chris Graham does. He'll show ads or he'll talk about on the podcast. He'll let people know that he does a free test master for you.

[00:04:24] Any song, the first one's free, like any good drug dealer, the first hits always free. And he's betting on the fact that you're going to be so impressed, blown away with how the song sounds on the after state, after he's mastered it. But you're going to want to hire him for any projects from that point on, I've also seen people in the mixing world to do free test mixes.

[00:04:43] As it means to win a project. This is when people are trying to compare you against someone else, or you might be in the running against four or five other mixing engineers or more, and they want a test mix to see which one, the band or the. Label executives or the whatever team is involved with that project.

[00:05:00] Which one are they going to prefer for that specific bands sound or artists? If it's a solo artist, I have won some big projects in my life doing test mixes. So I know these work, Chris Graham has won a ton of projects. His business is built off of free test masters. The problem we run into with doing the free test mixes and free test masters is the freeloader.

[00:05:20] The freeloader is the person who is out there that just, if it's free, they'll take it. They don't give a shit what it is. Offer free test messages. Sure. I'll I'll send you a song to master. You're gonna do a free test. Make sure you can mix shitty free loops test track that I made in my garage when I was experimenting with a bunch of weird samples and they have no intention of hiring you.

[00:05:40] In the mastering world, someone sends you a song and you test master it and they're a free loader. It doesn't take you that long. It's a relatively short process to do a test master for a track, but on the mixing side, this can be a lot of potential work. You can put a lot of time, effort, energy into a test mix.

[00:05:55] And if a freeloader is the one getting this, you just wasted that time on what is essentially a free litter. So if you're going to do this as a lead generation technique, the test master or the test mix. Or even the test recording. I have a few things that I tell people to do to avoid the freeloaders three things specifically, the first is turn it into an application only process just because you have an ad or you have posted on social media, or just put the word out that you're doing free test mixes or free test masters, just because you advertise that doesn't mean you have to say yes to every single person.

[00:06:29] If you make it an application process, you have the right to accept or deny the person based on their answers on the application. So what I would tell people to do is on this application, have a few qualifying questions, things that will tell you whether or not they are a serious person who is looking to hire someone, you can even ask a question.

[00:06:47] Are you looking to hire someone for mixing? Or when are you looking to hire someone for mixing? What is your budget for this project? Things like this will help you understand whether or not they're just a freeloader looking for a free mixer, free master. And allows you to weed out the ones that are not ever going to hire you.

[00:07:02] Those people who are just looking for a free mix or a free master because you offered it. So that's the first thing is you don't have to say yes to everyone put an X application process in place. The second thing I tell people to do is to only offer a portion of the song, whether you're mixing or mastering.

[00:07:18] I think Chris Graham might do a full song we're mastering. And that's just because he's created such an efficient process that if he does get a free loader, He just counts it as part of his marketing expenses. He's got really good systems down. Most mastering engineers don't ind should not just offer a free, full mastered song as a test.

[00:07:35] And I have a reason for that. The free, full song, meaning you are sending them a full mix or a full master of the entire track means that if they just have a single, I guess they're done, they've got their fully mastered track. They got their fully mixed file and they're going to run off happy in the sunset potentially.

[00:07:49] It's not always the case. And if you worried about that, so if you still want to do full tracks, you can use things like file pass, which is my software company that allows you to put a pay wall where they can stream it. They can approve it or leave it comments for feedback on things they want you to change.

[00:08:02] But if they're happy with it, they can just pay you through file pass. And download the track there, which by the way, we just launched our PayPal integration this past week. So if you have been waiting for that, where your clients get only pay via credit card and you didn't like that, you want to be able to pay via PayPal for the remaining balance that has been launched.

[00:08:18] So there's that, but anyways, don't do a full track unless you're using Valdez, wink, wink, and here's the reason why. Freeloaders are looking for full tracks. So if you are only offering a partial song, meaning maybe the verse chorus and the bridge only no outro, no first half of the song, the section of the song that gives them more than enough to tell whether or not they like your stuff, but they can't just run away with this and put it on their Spotify.

[00:08:41] Why they can just run away and put this on SoundCloud or on their website or whatever they're going to do with it. Because it's only part of the song, this inherently weeds out all of the free loading people that are just looking for the freebies. And it does exactly what you're trying to do for those people who are just trying to see what your work sounds like on their music.

[00:08:59] I'm explaining that if I'm an artist and I'm kind of torn between two or three options for my mixing and or mastering, and I can have a chance to have all three of those people do a test mix or a test master. And I can just hear with my own ears exactly what it's going to sound like. At least the first mixer, the first master, obviously you can revise things.

[00:09:18] If I can hear this with my own ears and then make a more informed decision on which person sounds better for my music, the thing that I've put my heart and soul into the thing I'm about to hand over harder and dollars. I don't necessarily care if it's the full track. I don't need to hear every second of the song.

[00:09:32] I just need to hear a big enough sampling of the song to compare them against the other alternatives. So that I can make a more informed decision. So the test makes them the test. Master is a great tool to get people over the hump, to maybe give you a chance where someone else might be the bigger name, where someone else might be, the more experienced person with someone else.

[00:09:50] It might be the better studio with the better gear and the better photos. May give you a chance to prove yourself. So it basically takes the risk off of their shoulders, the ones that have to pay first at other studios, and then hear the result. It allows them to hear the result first and then pay you in a partial song.

[00:10:07] Does a great job of that while weeding out those people that just want the full track for free and have no intentions of hiring you. So that's the second thing. The first was great application process, because again, you don't have to say yes to everyone. The second thing was only send a partial song.

[00:10:20] That helps weed out those free letters. And the third thing is community. I hate those expectations ahead of time. You're doing a partial song and they are expecting a full song. You might do more damage than good if they're expecting a full song and you only do a partial song and do an effective job of weeding out that freeloader.

[00:10:35] Again, it only does a good job of weeding out the freeloaders who just want the free song. If you communicate ahead of time, that it is not going to be the full track. So make sure your expectations are aligned with them and vice versa so that there are no miscommunications so that you are properly weeding out free loaders, that your ideal client isn't thrown off guard when they get that partial song.

[00:10:55] And it's not a full song. Again, it shouldn't be an issue, but always, always communicate expectations at every step of the way. And this is included in the free test mix or free test master phase. So if you are going to do the free test mix or free test master, this model absolutely works. It's worked for me on big projects.

[00:11:12] It's worked for Chris Graham for his entire career. It's worked for a lot of our listeners. It's worked for a lot of my students inside the PPC. So I know it, I can work for you, but if it's not, it may be because your audio skills aren't quite there yet. Keep working at it. If you're gonna use this to attract your ideal customer to you, make sure you're actually tracking the metrics.

[00:11:29] How many applications do I get for test masters or test mixes? How many of those are what I consider qualified? Meaning I say yes to them. And then how many of those test mixes and masters that I do are actually approved? Meaning they end up hiring me. Those were three important metrics to track. Cause if you have a very low percentage of test mixes to actual clients or test masters to actual clients, it's likely not going to be a thing that you can sustain.

[00:11:54] You can't do a hundred free test mixes or a hundred per test masters for every client you get. That is unsustainable, but if you win 20, 30, 40% of those projects, it's probably going to be a very sustainable way for you to get customers in the door. And also you want to track these numbers over time so that you can see if those numbers are improving or getting worse.

[00:12:11] If they're getting worse, meaning your test mix to customer ratio is falling. It could be that your application process needs some meaning you're not weeding out freeloaders are enough or your not weeding out your non-ideal customers enough. If you track these metrics, it allows you to every step of the way.

[00:12:26] Always be tinkering with things, always be improving things so that this is overall going to be an effective strategy for you to acquire new clients for your studio. So free work in the regards of using it to attract customers. Absolutely works. Thumbs up. Just, those are my few caveats there, but what about.

[00:12:44] The other extreme, where you're doing full projects, maybe you're trying to get your foot in the door with someone, or maybe you're just trying to build your portfolio. Can absolutely make sense in this scenario, but this is something that I've shared multiple times. I'm going to go over it one more time, just cause it's relevant to this episode, but I have five rules for free work.

[00:13:02] If you're doing a full project, hate is not just a test. Beck's is not just a test master. You're doing a full song that you're giving away to the client for free, whether it's full production, whether it's just mixing or even if it's just mastering, I have five rules to follow and I'm gonna go over those here.

[00:13:19] The first rule is if you're going to do free work, keep the project small. I can't think of many reasons. To do more than just one or two songs for free, whether you're building your portfolio or you're just trying to get your foot in the door. One or two projects is enough. You don't have to do a full album to get your foot in the door with a band.

[00:13:36] You don't have to do a full album today. Build your portfolio. You don't ever want to really have more than one or two tracks tops on your portfolio of any single artist. You want to change it up a little bit anyways. So one or two songs max, on any given project that is free. The second role is. If you're going to do free work, make sure it is only for talented bands that you will actually want to work with.

[00:13:56] Who actually makes you look good or sound good in my past free or paid projects, doesn't make a difference. If the band sucks, my work will suck. It doesn't matter how much I try. How many hours I spend doing things, how much I tinker and edit and overproduce or overmix it will sound like shit pair to getting a high quality, incredible band in the door.

[00:14:15] Who is excellent at their instruments who write excellent songs who have actually practiced what they do and are actually prepared. Those people always sound a hundred times better at half the amount of work. And I don't even have to try. I'm always happier without work. So if you're going to do free work, make sure it's a talented band you actually want to work with, and that are going to make you sound good.

[00:14:35] You work with shit bands, you're going to get shit results. 100% of the time role of doing free work is that if you were going to do free work, always do a hundred percent effort. There is no point in doing any project free or paid. If you're going to have assets. I can't tell you how many times someone offered to do something for me for free as a favor.

[00:14:53] And all it did was damage our relationship because they have asked it I'm no longer a priority. If I'm not paying them, they have no reason to put at the top of their list when things get busy, because I'm not paying them, I'm a favor in their eyes. So if you're going to do free work, don't be that person who offers something for free and then half asses it.

[00:15:09] Or it takes forever or as bad at responding or bad at setting expectations or bad at replying to emails or bad at getting new mixes or revisions done. If you're going to do a free project, give a hundred percent effort and make it a priority. Otherwise you're just going to be burning bridges. You're not going to get anything effective out of this.

[00:15:25] And there's no benefit from this. From the client's perspective, you didn't get your foot in the door and you didn't build your portfolio. Cause you only gave half effort. My fourth rule of free work is this. If the artist tries to take advantage of you, don't be afraid to pull the plug. I can't tell you how many times I've seen this.

[00:15:41] It's the opposite side of the problem I experienced where the person giving me free work. Didn't value me. They just put me to the back burner because things got busy and their businesses. Again, it's the opposite thing. It's where you're doing free work and they start to take advantage of you. They keep asking for more and more and more.

[00:15:54] Just because you're doing free work doesn't mean they can treat you like shit. It doesn't mean they can take advantage of you so never, ever, ever let this happen. If this happens, it is a hundred percent. You've got my approval. Brian has approval right here, a hundred percent approval from Brian Hood to drop, kick their asses, cancel the project, get them out of there.

[00:16:10] They do not deserve anything from you. If they're going to try to take advantage of you. So that is rule number four and the fifth and final role of free work is that even if you're working for free, send an invoice. But it sounds really odd if you're going to do free work, send an invoice. Why would you do that?

[00:16:23] It's because of this. If you're trying to get your foot in the door with a client and you want them to maybe hire you one day, you need to make sure you're attaching value to what you just did for them. This works for discount work as well. By the way, if you give a new band, a discount for giving you a chance or whatever, do the same thing, send them an invoice for the total project price based on what your rates are, what you think are fair rates.

[00:16:44] Even if you're new set, some rates. But the full value of the project on the invoice and then added line item for a discount. You can name that discount, whatever you want. Theft discount, best friends, forever discount. You can call it a scholarship. If you want it, you can call it a friends and family discount.

[00:16:59] A favorite client discount, a first client discount, whatever you want to call it. But there as a line item for the discount that you have given them, if it's a free project, give them a hundred percent discount and then put the remaining balance. Whether that's a discount, a project where it's a lower amount, or it's a free project where it's zeros across the board, put that on there.

[00:17:16] And the goal here is for them to see what the value of what they just got from you is. And that way, when they come back to you in the future and they know not to expect the same free rate, they know at the back of their minds, they have some price in the back, in their mind anchored for what you are worth.

[00:17:32] And if you ever want anything chance of actually converting one of these free projects to a paid project down the road, You have to make sure they understand the value of what you provide. And this is a very good and clever way to do it. So that is it for this episode. That is all I have for you today.

[00:17:45] When it comes to free work. If there's anything you think I left off here that I should have added, just go to the six, figure home studio.com/community. Go to our Facebook community. That's a quick link to it, or just search the six figure home studio community on Facebook and check out the pin post from this week.

[00:18:00] That is the official comments thread for this episode. And you can give us your feedback. Hey, Brian, you left out this really important detail. What happens if this happens? Should I do free work? Put the question there. And if you listen to this way later and it's like 20, 21, and by now, the coronavirus has taken over the world.

[00:18:14] There's an apocalypse world. War seven is out, everyone's living underground and somehow you still have access to the internet. And you're listening to this episode, just email us podcast@thesixfigurehomestudio.com. They go straight to my phone. You can ask me questions there and it's not reliant on some pin post that is irrelevant.

[00:18:31] Now that Facebook is extinct in 2021. I don't know if that's the case, I'm just making shit up. I'm going to go back and listen to this episode in the future and laugh about how correct I was at my future predictions. And I'm going to be so sad. You heard me mention it earlier in this episode while I have you here, file pass.

[00:18:45] Just released our PayPal integration. Go check it out. Now, sign up for free trial. It file past.com. For any of you that are doing free test mixes or free test masters file passes. Great for your workflow, you get a client that wants you to do free test mix, right? It takes you forever to do it because your perfectionist okay.

[00:19:00] Now you want to send them that test mix. You want them to stream the, we file quality because you want them to hear all of the work and effort you put into it. Without it being dumbed down to a shitty one 28 MP3 like Dropbox does, but you don't want them to run off with a file to upload to the SoundCloud or Spotify accounts.

[00:19:15] Understandable file pass. Has you covered? You send them a file. They can stream it. They can add timestamp comments that tell you all the shit you need to fix, or to tell you how much they love it. And if they are happy with it, you can actually put it behind a paywall so that they've listened. They've approved.

[00:19:29] They love it. At any point they can pay for that, pay you for your hard work, and that will automatically unlock the download button so they can finally download their full quality way file. And you didn't have to lift a finger. It's all done automatically. So if you want to try this out, our file pass paywall feature.

[00:19:44] With a new and improved PayPal integration. Just go to file, pass.com. Try it out and take me later. So that is it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening until next time. Happy hustling.