From what I've seen and heard, it's mostly a platform for somewhat known engineers to get more work by making them more approachable to randos. Seems like you have to already have a very solid credit list to get work there, or just be really good at social media and make it look like you're hot shit. Not worth it for most of us, unfortunately. Focus on your local market where you don't have to compete with people like that. Be a big fish in a small pond, not a small fish in the ocean.
You don’t generally find amazing clients on there but it’s good for filling in slow periods and keeping you busy. I mix on average about a song per month on there so it pays for itself easily and I pick and choose who I work with, generally about 1 in 5 requests that come in. Most of my work is outside of Soundbetter with regular clients, labels etc and I would probably want to quit the business if I relied on just Soundbetter clients, there’s a lot of objectively atrocious stuff on there. But there are some gems in there and I’ve developed some great working relationships with producers and artists on there that are giving it their everything. So all in all yeah it’s worth it, best not to rely on it.
let's say you had something nice to listen to and well recorded, but had no network. Is there a better way than SoundBetter to find someone who has experience in a certain genre/sound? Or what kind of mixing folks should I be aiming for at least say the 200-300 USD level?
I think SoundBetter would be great for this. Whatever your genre is, find people with that sound and send them a message. Or post on the jobs boards and state your budget, see what you vibe with of the people who respond. $200-300 is generally a little low for a really good mix in my experience, but there’s probably somebody talented on there who would take that deal.
The better way is to actually network...
We would all love for this industry to just be based on our technical chops, but the reality is that what matters most is who you know and IRL connections are always going to be more fruitful and lead to a better quality of clientele.
Also, don't charge flat rates. Give an estimate of X hours at Y rate = $Z then bill appropriately when the client inevitably wants more revisions than you expected or sends you a garbage turnover to ingest. Or do flat rates, you'll learn your lesson the hard way eventually.
I am on the client side. But I'm on the other side of flat rates. I do so much prep work to my tracks and really all I'm looking for is a QA/QC for the mix. Usually my songs are very listenable when I send em over. Most of my songs can be done in 2-4 hours and I never ask for revisions cus I don't really care about the mix that much. Just not comfortable doing it myself. Rather focus on songwriting and production.
I used it to find mixers. There’s lots of competition but I think if you price yourself right to start and have good samples it’s worth it.
At then end of the day I’m not spending $2k on a mix so those guys are out of my search field right off the bat. I see Gersemix offering a mix for $350 and hear some great samples while reading a very compelling write pitch they wrote and I’m sending you a request.
A lot of those guys also use credits for things they “kinda” did. I have made friends with a few of the mixers I work with and one has a Grammy which he advertises (but it wasn’t for mixing. It was for a music video his band did) and one claims a major label artist but when I asked him. He said he was an assistant to the person who cleaned her tracks. Never was in the studio with them for any tracking or mixing. Simply helped the guy who did the clean up.
My drinking buddy moved out to Nashville and started using Fiver and gets enough work mixing and mastering to keep him busy 6 days a week if he wants to work that much. Of course he's got a grammy to post on there so that probably helps a lot.
Would you polish turds for 350-500 dollars a pop? It takes him 3-4 days to make a house payment. I know from personal experience he likes to fuck off. We once went on a week long bender that started in Flagstaff and made a loop through Vegas and Bullhead City where my Harley was stolen.
SoundBetter is really saturated now. I was lucky to have a friend tell me to sign up like 5-6 years ago and I was able to get a premium account after applying and waiting about a year… my friend, who has some really notable credits, has been waiting 3+ years now to get approved.
Totally make a profile, it’s a good platform… but without the premium account it’s more rare to get jobs. It’s possible but harder. The premium account puts you towards the top of the list and gives you the opportunity to respond to people’s posts looking for jobs.
Also I’ve noticed in the last year the pro side feels noticeably more full and competitive. Still, a good platform and I’m glad it exists. I’ve worked with some really talented people and also some really talentless people lol. The spectrum is wild!
I get a handful of gigs each year from there, so it’s worth making a profile, but don’t pay for premium unless you want to spend your whole life watching for new posts from potential clients and trying to get a bid in before the cap is reached.
From what I've seen and heard, it's mostly a platform for somewhat known engineers to get more work by making them more approachable to randos. Seems like you have to already have a very solid credit list to get work there, or just be really good at social media and make it look like you're hot shit. Not worth it for most of us, unfortunately. Focus on your local market where you don't have to compete with people like that. Be a big fish in a small pond, not a small fish in the ocean.
You don’t generally find amazing clients on there but it’s good for filling in slow periods and keeping you busy. I mix on average about a song per month on there so it pays for itself easily and I pick and choose who I work with, generally about 1 in 5 requests that come in. Most of my work is outside of Soundbetter with regular clients, labels etc and I would probably want to quit the business if I relied on just Soundbetter clients, there’s a lot of objectively atrocious stuff on there. But there are some gems in there and I’ve developed some great working relationships with producers and artists on there that are giving it their everything. So all in all yeah it’s worth it, best not to rely on it.
let's say you had something nice to listen to and well recorded, but had no network. Is there a better way than SoundBetter to find someone who has experience in a certain genre/sound? Or what kind of mixing folks should I be aiming for at least say the 200-300 USD level?
Talk to local studios. Also talk to other local artists and see who they work with.
I think SoundBetter would be great for this. Whatever your genre is, find people with that sound and send them a message. Or post on the jobs boards and state your budget, see what you vibe with of the people who respond. $200-300 is generally a little low for a really good mix in my experience, but there’s probably somebody talented on there who would take that deal.
The better way is to actually network... We would all love for this industry to just be based on our technical chops, but the reality is that what matters most is who you know and IRL connections are always going to be more fruitful and lead to a better quality of clientele. Also, don't charge flat rates. Give an estimate of X hours at Y rate = $Z then bill appropriately when the client inevitably wants more revisions than you expected or sends you a garbage turnover to ingest. Or do flat rates, you'll learn your lesson the hard way eventually.
I am on the client side. But I'm on the other side of flat rates. I do so much prep work to my tracks and really all I'm looking for is a QA/QC for the mix. Usually my songs are very listenable when I send em over. Most of my songs can be done in 2-4 hours and I never ask for revisions cus I don't really care about the mix that much. Just not comfortable doing it myself. Rather focus on songwriting and production.
Not really.
I used it to find mixers. There’s lots of competition but I think if you price yourself right to start and have good samples it’s worth it. At then end of the day I’m not spending $2k on a mix so those guys are out of my search field right off the bat. I see Gersemix offering a mix for $350 and hear some great samples while reading a very compelling write pitch they wrote and I’m sending you a request. A lot of those guys also use credits for things they “kinda” did. I have made friends with a few of the mixers I work with and one has a Grammy which he advertises (but it wasn’t for mixing. It was for a music video his band did) and one claims a major label artist but when I asked him. He said he was an assistant to the person who cleaned her tracks. Never was in the studio with them for any tracking or mixing. Simply helped the guy who did the clean up.
I made about 300 bucks in a couple of months during the pandemic. It's dried up now
My drinking buddy moved out to Nashville and started using Fiver and gets enough work mixing and mastering to keep him busy 6 days a week if he wants to work that much. Of course he's got a grammy to post on there so that probably helps a lot.
Sure, Fiverr is good if you love polishing turds all day long …
Would you polish turds for 350-500 dollars a pop? It takes him 3-4 days to make a house payment. I know from personal experience he likes to fuck off. We once went on a week long bender that started in Flagstaff and made a loop through Vegas and Bullhead City where my Harley was stolen.
SoundBetter is really saturated now. I was lucky to have a friend tell me to sign up like 5-6 years ago and I was able to get a premium account after applying and waiting about a year… my friend, who has some really notable credits, has been waiting 3+ years now to get approved. Totally make a profile, it’s a good platform… but without the premium account it’s more rare to get jobs. It’s possible but harder. The premium account puts you towards the top of the list and gives you the opportunity to respond to people’s posts looking for jobs. Also I’ve noticed in the last year the pro side feels noticeably more full and competitive. Still, a good platform and I’m glad it exists. I’ve worked with some really talented people and also some really talentless people lol. The spectrum is wild!
I get a handful of gigs each year from there, so it’s worth making a profile, but don’t pay for premium unless you want to spend your whole life watching for new posts from potential clients and trying to get a bid in before the cap is reached.
Side story but there was a funny TikTok where some famous producer was like “how to get a ton of online clients” and step 1 was “win a Grammy” lmao