You just started your way to becoming a remote session musician but know little on how to actually find remote recording clients? – I have been there to and luckily for you I’ll share some tips I learned along the way on how to find remote recording clients faster.
– Start out by building your remote recording client persona
Who is your remote recording client? Who do you think will hire you? Is it a composer that want to track the instruments for a film score, or is it a hip hop producer that needs some guitar loops?
The main factor dictating this is what type of musicians you are and the instrument you are tracking. Classical musicians have a more “specialized” function nowadays. While more modern musicians like guitarist tend to have a wider spectrum of clients hiring them.
– Learn who hires remote session player?
Independent artists – In today’s recording industry it’s almost impossible to get a record deal that will give you enough money to rent a studio and pro session player. The independent musicians of all genres is and will be your main client.
Producers – The role of the producer has drastically changed from being a musical director to a writer/arranger and mixer. Producers might not typically have large budgets but do offer regular work if you over good value.
Amateurs/music lovers with a day job – Might sound unusual, but the clients who pay the most are usually non-professional musicians that have high paying day jobs or other type of income. Imagine a doctor or business owner that wants to have his college days’ song finished.
Even if the music has quality issues, you usually have more creative freedom and get probably 2x the payment for the same type of work than the other 2 groups.
RELATED: How much does it cost to hire a remote session guitarist
– Build up your online session musician reputation
- Build your YouTube channel
Upload covers, original music, lesson etc. Whatever you feel like uploading that is of professional quality in both recording, mixing, performance and general value – go for it! YouTube is a standard go to place for anything music related. And to demonstrate the importance of it while also making your day I’ll be sharing Tom Bukovac’s channel – Nashville’s top session guitarist. You will thank me even if the only thing you learned from the Article was old Uncle Larry’s channel
- Post consistently on your Instagram
You can post your session work, share the songs you have played, play regularly technical difficult covers and also give insight of your daily life a remote session musician. Your client, especially millennials tend to check you on social media before anything else. If you give a “good vibe” and offer confidence and professionalism in your posts then it’s more likely that you will be hired.
- Content is king!
You don’t have to be a YouTuber – but you need to start putting out videos and making a name for yourself online. I can be in the form of tutorial, covers, original music etc. Start with what you have and improve it.
– Build an awesome profile in online musician marketplaces
- Fiverr
Best for starting. Generally, you won’t earn much in the first months but once you have built regular clients you can start earning a minimum of 500$-600$ per month.
- Airgigs
Here is where the pros are. Prices are higher and projects are generally better – but the competition is higher to. Be very careful to be as professional as possible in building your profile.
- Soundbetter
Similar to Air gigs here you will get higher payments and lots of competition. The main thing that separates boys from men here is your already existing credits. With the right approach however you can succeed in having regular work and 2-3 “big” budget projects per month.
- Upwork
Not usually recommended for musicians, but you do get some nice offers especially for creating business oriented content as in music for videos, ads, podcasts and also quite a lot of audio editing work.
There are other platforms worth checking out, but the idea is generally the same regarding building the profile and finding work.
– Acquire some necessary digital skills
If you don’t have anyone else to do it for you then you should learn to
- Film and edit videos
- Mix you own covers and demos
- Write a great proposal
- Write the content on your profiles, website
- Understand social media in depth and detail
- Have some design skills like designing posts with Canva
- Learn about YouTube SEO
- Dropbox, Google drive and other file sharing platforms
You can find tutorials everywhere on the internet and with time and experimentation you can learn all there is to know.
If you need additional help than I can help out – I am also a creative director at my own digital agency and have helped tons of artist and brand with their digital marketing efforts.
Who’s better than a musician with a marketing degree to help out other musicians with their marketing?
RELATED: How to be a musician with a day job?
– Learn how to type a great proposal on a project
Finding remote recording clients depends a lot on how you make your first approach to them. Learning to write a great proposal is one of the most important skills you need to make it as a remote session player.
In all online workplaces the principle is the same for beginners- It’s very rare for clients to find your at first, you should be the one sending tons of proposal to offers posted by clients.
All proposal should follow almost the same structure, but be personalized for different offers. It’s tiring, but necessary!
RELATED: 6 Reasons to hire remote session musicians
There are tons of places you can learn this skill from but keep in mind the following principles.
- Point out what you would add to the song in your proposal.
- Make bullet points of your strong points and keep it short
- Use references from famous songs and musicians
- Link to your website/channel
- Do not insist on the quality of your gear unless you should
– Build you remote session musician website
You don’t necessarily need to bring organic traffic from google on your site. Use it as a portfolio which you attach to your proposals. There you can show all the details you skipped, plus show off your credits and work.
If you want to learn how to do it and what to include on your website, check out my article one HOW TO Build a Musicians Website for all the basics you need.
The recording industry is shifting online at an accelerated pace, and the time may come where even working musicians will have a mandatory website of the own. Act fast and have some traffic before that time comes.
Final tips on how to get remote recording clients
By average you will only have a response in 1 from 20 applications you make or offers you sent, and from them you might close 1 in 5 deals. So the odds are way against you – but there are odds!
I encourage you to start applying the above tips and also check out MY STORY on how I have became a remote session guitarist.
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