How Much Do Live Sound Engineers Make?

So, how much money do live sound engineers make?

As you can imagine, there is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Instead, I’d like to show you a few profiles that represent a cross-section of the industry. Keep in mind that the numbers included below are very specific to one location and person.

Before we get started, please take 30 seconds to fill out an anonymous salary survey and I’ll share all the results with you at the end.

PROFILE 1: San Francisco Bay Area

Nathan Lively – Sound Engineer/Designer (That’s me!)

Presently I split my time like this: 90% education through Sound Design Live (that’s this site!), 10% corporate events. I have lived in 8 different cities across 3 different countries over the last 20 years, though, so these numbers have evolved over time. For most jobs, I’m paid as follows:

$550/day working on corporate events. These are mostly subcontracting situations where I receive a percentage of the total labor charges.
$180/day working on concerts. I was usually hired directly by the venue.
$80,000/year touring with the Ringling Bros. Circus. This is the most I ever made.

I have also worked as a theatrical sound designer and contracts ranged from $500 to $2,500. It was fun and could potentially have resulted in more money, but it was hard to put together a workable schedule. Rehearsals and meetings would conflict and I would have months of down time. On my first theatrical tour mixing FOH I earned $550/week ($2,200/month).

In Slovakia I made €75/day ($93) subcontracting. In Portugal I earned €150/day ($186) working for the band O’QueStrada. The first sound engineering job I ever had in Portugal paid €35/day ($44), and I was just happy to be able to stay in the country. After that first show I went to the bar down the street that was so small that you could only squeeze in, order your drink, and walk back into the street. I spent half my money on two caipirinhas and felt great.

Here’s an overview of my business income and expenses in 2015:

2015 Income

2015 Deductions

Here’s an overview of my business income and expenses in 2013:

PROFILE 2: Prague (Czech Republic)

Steve Smith – Sound Engineer & Musician

Prague rates look like this:

50€ to do live sound for one concert in a small club using their gear.
75€ to be soundman for one night at a club with two stages, two bands, and one DJ crew.
250€ to do sound for a show where you bring mics and an FX rack.
200-400€ for a wedding gig where you bring the sound system and DJ.
50€ per musician for a band.

For a more in-depth look at Steve’s work experience, check out Making A Living As A Sound Engineer, Part One: How To Get Paid and Make A Living As A Sound Engineer, Part Two: How To Get Played.

PROFILE 3: Bratislava (Slovakia)

Michal – Sound Engineer & Musician

60€ as a helper for local gigs, but €100 for a corporate party.
700€/month as a broadcast sound engineer (rate has held steady for the past 15 years).
100€ for composing and recording 72 different sounds for an iPad app.
I also do technical support for the most famous band in our country. For one gig I get 180€, but it takes three days of my life: one day to pick up all of the equipment, one day for the gig, and one day to return it all.

Bonus: Download this article as a PDF.

PROFILE 4: Athens (Greece)

Dimitris Sotiropoulos – Sound Engineer/Designer

The live work I take offers anywhere from 100€ το 400€ depending on how large the “pie” is to cut. For the past three summers I have been doing monitors for a well known Greek duo, which pays 300€/event at the moment. Most live gigs during the winter take place in bars or small cafes, which involves more work setting up, running cables, and doing both FOH and Monitors for 3-4 people. Negotiated fees can range anywhere from 100-250€/event.

I try to take any audio related project at present, since we’ve been in free fall — the economy that is — these past years. Here are some examples of summer projects and their negotiated fees:

1,500€ for renting out some of my studio equipment to set up a remote recording location in a country house for an album’s pre-production sessions.
150€/day to rewire a studio, which reminded me how challenging it can be to get the normaling right on the patchbays, keeping cable lengths to a minimum, and satisfying my OCD with regard to having everything as neat as possible. It took me ten days to get it up and running to minimum prerequisites; then again, it was only me and a soldering iron. Need a week or so to wrap it up with no more downtime.
600€ for a sound design project for a cosmetics company’s social media video campaign.
350€/day (negotiated) as a backup recording engineer at a three-day festival in Athens (suntan lotion was not provided).
300€ plus expenses for the following: organizing and assembling a complex stage plot and rider for a concert on an island in the Ionian Sea, with limited resources other than those packed and shipped on time by the rental company; programming four shows for both Avid Venue Consoles (FOH-Monitors) for the two acts that night on the boat trip there and the night before into the early morning; and recording the first act via direct outs from the monitors console to my HD Rig (32ch). A nightmare of timing and organization.
1,500€ for booking a lockout recording session next month for a week.

Read more about Dimitris’ work experience at The State Of Sound Engineering In Greece.

PROFILE 5: Stockholm (Sweden)

Unne Liljeblad – Music Producer & Mix Engineer

My income comes from a lot of different activities.

3,200-10,000 SEK ($390-1,200)/song for mixing: That includes everything from start to finish: revisions, adjustments, instrumental/a-cappella/TV-Mix versions, and so on, as well as basic mastering. The client gets both the 16-bit “mastered” mix and the 24-bit mix without limiting on the stereo bus so that they have the option of mastering elsewhere.
4,000 SEK ($500) for vocal recording with a professional coach: I do this together with my business partner who is a song coach. We spend about four hours recording vocals (that’s how long a singer lasts when performing at the top of their capabilities) as well as the many hours it takes us to comp all the best pieces, use melodyne to manually tweak timing and pitch as well all the FX processing needed. Usually this takes another five or six hours. Since it’s split between two people it’s not very profitable, but we have had many great singers as clients and have been working to build up our vocalist casting service, so we’re hoping for some return on that investment in the future.
25,000-200,000 SEK ($3,000-25,000) for music production for commercials: The cost can vary quite a lot. We’re two people working on these projects and we often have to pay musicians and singers out of that same budget. Most of the songs are between half a minute and one minute ten seconds long. We write and produce everything from scratch. Since we license our work and don’t sell it outright, we have the potential to make more money from the same music in the future. We’re currently in the process of getting our music included in many licensing companies’ catalogs.
6,000-7,000 SEK per month ($900-1,000) for vocal classes: We run a small vocalist program out of our studio. For this we hire two additional vocal coaches and someone who helps us administrate everything. After all the expenses and with with our employees, this basically covers our expenses for the studio.
Finally, we also run a small record label with three signed acts, one of which we are both a part of. This currently only costs us money, but we have high hopes for the future.

PROFILE 6: London (England)

Darryn de la Soul – Found of Soul Sound

Having last done a live mix in 2010, these are the wages I received. To my knowledge, nothing has changed since then! Wages have been pretty much static for the 15 years I’ve been involved in audio.

£150-200 ($232-309) for a nightClub.
£180 ($278) as the house engineer for live bands.
Anywhere between 2 beers and £200 ($309) as a the band engineer for a live band depending on how much I liked the band and their financial means.
£150-250 ($232-386) for up to 12 hours for Corporate events.
£160-230 ($247-355) on festivals for whatever length day.

Learn more about Darryn’s work in my interview with her: Learn from the Sound Engineers for Tori Amos, Prodigy, and The White Stripes Online.

As musicians and audio professionals, there can never be enough sources of income.

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Silence: The secret ingredient to sound design in advertising

By Nathan Lively

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Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of the Sound Design Live podcast I talk with Munzie Thind, post-production sound designer at GCRS in London. Thind received the Creative Circle Silver Award in Sound Design for the project National Autistic Society: Sensory Overload. We discuss the career path of a London sound designer in the advertising industry, and the production process of TV commercials.

If I can get silence into a piece of work, that’s half of my job done.

Show notes:

All music in this episode by Steve Knots except for Heer Di Kali by Kuldeep Manak.

One Critical Skill You Need to Get Stage Theatre Jobs: How Surrey University Is Training Audio Engineers

By Nathan Lively

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Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

In this episode of Sound Design Live, I speak with Paul McConkey, the sound module coordinator at the University of Surrey, about the most important skill you need to get stage theatre jobs in the West End of London. We talk about his career path, from earning a record contract to building a recording studio, touring with rock bands, and finally teaching the professional production skills course at the University of Surrey. We also discuss training for the stamina to succeed and how work placements serve the performing arts.

There’s a lot to deal with in the entertainment business, and most of it requires people skills.

Details from the podcast:

All music in this episode by iso999
Guildford School of Acting
Depping = Acting as a deputy.
Quotes
1. You work for free for us for a while, but eventually you get a reputation and that reputation is gold dust. (11:17)
2. Getting a job is a lot of fitting in, half the time, because it’s a family. (11:51)
3. There is a wealth of work within audio. There is a possibility to diversify.
4. If you are good with your people skills, you can train yourself up to be good at [a particular] area. (14:24)

Get Ready! Slow August Is Right Around The Corner

By Nathan Lively

This article was originally published in Pro Sound News Europe. You can read it here.

It happens to me every year. Come August, work slows almost to a crawl. Suddenly, I’m in survival mode.

I hate it, but it’s not always a thing born of sloth. This year, for example, I’ve been so busy focusing on future projects that short-term cash flow went way down on the list of priorities. Unfortunately, money is something that can’t be ignored for long. Unless you are ready to take on a major lifestyle shift, there are bills you have to pay.

Here are seven great tips for dealing with short term cash flow problems.

#1 – Plan for next year, today.

If you look back at your calendar from the last few years, chances are good that you’ll find cycles of feast and famine. Don’t ignore the lesson! Build a healthy relationship with money by using those cycles to make a plan, then review it regularly.

Here’s a basic example that I’ve used:

$2,800/month = My baseline survival income.
$255/month = How much I need to save each month for the next 11 months to prepare for slow August.
$3,055/month = My new baseline survival income.
Create a new August Fund account and set up automatic monthly transfers of $255 from my checking account so that the money is saved before I can spend it. Or setup a savings goal using YNAB.

#2 – Collect on outstanding invoices.

No need to explain this. Go through your past invoices and confirm that they are all accounted for. While you’re at it, check for any unbilled work.

The last time I did this, I found $560 in outstanding invoices (whoops!). One required me to go around the client directly to their bookkeeper, with whom I have communicated in the past. Another required some tough love.

I’ve only ever had to chase one client around the block, and that was because they sincerely thought they had already paid me and that I was crazy. The venue I was working with put a hold on her account and she eventually paid up. Turns out she had PayPalled the wrong person. Ah, technology.

#3 – Phone a friend.

Only in this case make sure the friend is a colleague or client. This isn’t begging, it’s a great opportunity to reconnect with existing clients and colleagues who you like working with. Give them your availability over the next month in case they have any last minute gigs they can refer you for.

HOWEVER: Do not slide backwards into working with dud clients. When times get tough and you’re nervous about paying the rent, you might be tempted to reconnect with past clients you hated working with or who were in no way ideal. It’s not worth it. Instead of falling back out of fear, use your time to make new connections and ask for referrals from current clients. Doing work you hate will only demotivate you and lead to more of the same crap.

#4 – Sell some equipment.

This is low on the list because selling used gear might not be worth the time you put into it, but if you’ve been meaning to get rid of some stuff anyway, now is a great time to get on that.

For example, I have an amazing Seventh Circle mic preamp that I built with my own two hands, but I hardly ever use it anymore. I would be much happier for it to find a better home.

#5 – Brainstorm and take action.

There’s nothing like a specific goal to make you focus. Follow these steps:

Write your intended outcome at the top of a piece of paper or Workflowy list. For example: Earn at least $2,800 by Aug 31.
Quickly brainstorm as many possible projects or actions as you can. To get your creative muscle moving, set a big goal like fifty ideas. Having trouble? Ask a friend. They are often more objective and will suggest solutions you were afraid to consider.
Review your list and choose the 20% (20% of 50 is 10) of your actions that are most likely to be successful. How do you choose? Use your best judgement from past experience and all of your current knowledge of the market.
For each of those top projects, list all of the actions needed to complete it. Defining at least the first action will force clarity.
Prioritize your list based on the projects that are most likely to deliver the fastest returns. Get to work. Avoid skipping the difficult and uncomfortable tasks; instead, use the motivation from your intended outcome to be bold.

#6 – Tap into your emergency account.

They call it savings for a reason. Avoid tapping your emergency fund until all other options have been exhausted.

What’s that, you don’t have an emergency account? You don’t even know what one is? Don’t worry, I didn’t either until a year ago. Basically, an emergency account is a savings account where you have accrued funds to support yourself without income for 2-12 months. This is different from the “August Fund” account I mentioned in item 1 — you should contribute to your emergency fund every month in addition to your lean-month accounts. Start saving today with whatever you can afford (really, even $5 a month is better than $0 a month!), but set a goal to start making enough so that you can fill that emergency account within the next 2 years.

#7 – Communicate with your debtors.

Landlords hate to be stiffed, largely because in many cases it is extremely difficult to force you to pay. If you ask them for leniency they will probably just say no. Instead, state your situation and your intended date to square up. Keeping them in the loop will avoid aggressive behavior.

Once I received an aggressive Pay up or we’ll kick you out letter from my landlord in NYC, even though I’d paid. I called him up and it turned out that his secretary had accidentally attributed my payment to someone else and their system had automatically sent me the letter. Automated legal action. Scary.

Conclusions

I hope this helps to relieve the pressure of your short-term cash flow issues. Remember, don’t panic! If you keep your head, you will often find a better solution than selling your soul. If you need help brainstorming ideas, email me.

Learn from the Sound Engineers for Tori Amos, Prodigy, and The White Stripes Online

By Nathan Lively

Subscribe on iTunes or SoundCloud.

Support Sound Design Live on Patreon.

There’s one obvious way to fix live audio education, and Darryn De La Soul figured it out.

In this episode of the Sound Design Live Podcast I talk to the owner of SoulSound, Darryn De La Soul, about her life’s mission to help sound engineers improve employability and find work. We also discuss emotional intelligence for audio engineers, the difference between a career ladder and a career web, why universities don’t provide work experience for their students, how labor buying and subcontracting work, and how Darryn built one of the biggest contact lists in the pro audio industry.

What we’re offering is the opportunity to improve employability. I want my people to be working, otherwise, what’s the point?

Details from the podcast:

All music in this episode by The Blackfires
Looking for the SoulSound membership discount? Make sure to sign up for my mailing list; I’ll send it out on April 30th.
SoulSound on Twitter
SoulSound will launch on April 30, 2014 at PLASA Focus.
The Getting A Foot In The Door eBook.
Sound Engineers: Paul Epworth (Adele), Marcel van Limbeek (Tori Amos), Justin Grealy (The White Stripes), Jon Burton (Prodigy), Tony Andrews, Bob Heil
Ears = IEM
The Power Of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Alchemea private college for audio, SSR
How to protect yourself at a gig:
1. Grow a thick skin.
2. Be aware of what’s your fault and what’s not (i.e. take responsibility). Never feel bad about something that is outside your control.
3. There are times when you are allowed to stand up for yourself and say, “Look, this isn’t helping.”
Quotes:
1. “Nothing is ever advertised. Most of it word of mouth.”
2. “The only way to make money is in the live industry.”
3. “It’s a people business. A band has to trust you before they will take you on tour.”
4. “If you take that chance, make sure you are sober.”
5. “It’s a very lonely job. You’re on your own.”
6. “People management is a massive part of this job. If you struggle with that, you will struggle with the job.”
7. “I made it my mission to never walk past a venue without demanding work experience for my students.”
8. “Over 80% of our students were working [after finishing the course].”
9. “In this business, no one [hires you] off of a CV. You need someone to say, this guy’s OK.”
10. “Most of the degrees out there don’t really mean much because they haven’t taught you how to push the boxes and load the truck and be awake for 15 hours and still have a smile on your face.”