Technically you don’t actually need any qualifications. For me personally as someone that is an employer in the music industry I’ve always found that hands on experience is far more valuable than a qualification. For instance you could have a degree in sound engineering but when put in front of an analogue console you are like a deer in headlights. Obviously a degree in music of any sort will help you get a foot in the door and give you an upper hand over someone who hasn’t. But the most valuable thing any employer is looking for is someone who is experience in the job you are offering them.
What I Look For When Employing Someone In The Music Industry….
Experience over anything else. I want to work with someone who knows what they are doing. Ideally knows more than I do. If I don’t have to teach the person I’m employing how to do the job, it saves me days if not months worth of work. The most important thing I look for when assigning a job to someone is their ability to perform the job to a high standard. If they have already worked in the field I’m employing them in before then this goes a long way. I know they are capable of performing the job and very little tuition is required.
But How Do I Gain The Experience I Need If No One Will Employ Me?
If no one will employ you because you have no experience how do you gain that experience needed to get employed. It’s a catch 22. But it’s really not. Just because you haven’t been employed in that field doesn’t mean you can’t gain experience in it. For instance lets use vocal tuning as a job example. If you haven’t got any experience in vocal tuning you only have yourself to blame. There are plenty of bad vocals online you can get hold of and practice with. A great place to get a bad un-tuned vocal from is search on youtube vocal acapella. There are thousands of dry acapellas to download and practice with. Then you can spend as long as you need to perfect your craft and learn everything there is to know about vocal tuning. Next time there is a job opening for vocal tuning put your name forward as an experienced vocal tuning engineer working 2 hours a day in this field. OK you may be thinking but this is lying, but you aren’t. Just because it’s unpaid work and is to benefit yourself, doesn’t mean it isn’t work gaining experience and exactly the same kind of work others applying for this job are doing. There really is no difference. Just yours is unpaid and theirs may be paid.
Here’s A Story I’d Like To Share From When I Was 16 And No Body Wanted To Employ Me….
So I was 16 at the time and about to leave school. I sent out a CV to various companies, that which as you can imagine at the age of 16 was only a paragraph long. It was not impressive in any way shape or form and quite rightly so, not one company took me on. So instead of taking that to heart, I understood the reason no one was taking me on was because I had nothing to offer. I wasn’t skilled in any area really. Instead of looking at college courses which would have taught me everything I needed to know about everything I didn’t need for the jobs I wanted, I looked at teaching myself. I got online (which was a very different place to what it is now) and bought hundreds of songs broken down into stems by various independent bands. I then set about mixing these songs from scratch using the equipment and tools I had. Took me hours to do them all but by then end of it I had gained a good 200 hours experience mixing a wide range of different bands and genres which I then added to my CV. I posted all the mixes on Myspace (now were going back) and contacted the bands I had mixed the music for to showcase what I can do with their music. One of the bands got in touch with me offering me my first paid job mixing one of the bands I had previously mixed. I then suddenly found myself not needing an employer and realising I could do everything as a freelance engineer.
In todays modern music industry you have hundreds of platforms to list your freelance services such as Fiverr, facebook, twitter, youtube, linkedin etc. All of these social media outlets allow you to offer your services to followers. It may start slow but it’ll one day pick up and result in a full time paid job.
Here’s Another Story This Time When I was 22….
I saved £10,000 to do a course at Point Blank in London when I was 22. I was ready to book the course and put my first official certificate to my name. I decided against it and instead decided to upgrade my studio. I built a vocal booth and added a Digidesign command 8 controller, Synergy music PC, acoustic treatment and new mic. Now I was able to add vocal recording to my list of things I could offer clients. I was gradually building my name and studio. Now I know quite a few people who did this exact same course as I was going to do and be in the same class as. Not one of them now works in the music industry. Their certificate meant very little when it came to actually getting a job. I spoke with them all for a good few years after the course, mainly because they were asking me if I knew anyone who had a job going. I guess what I’m trying to say here is £10k is a lot of money to spend on a course that will not guarantee you a job. In that year or 2 you could be spending it building your brand, your name, your studio and ultimately building on your experience.
My Conclusion….
My conclusion is simply. Any certificate or grade you can get in music is brilliant and will only benefit you. It is by no means required. The majority of employers would prefer to work with someone who has the skills and knowledge to do the job rather than have to train them up. You can reach your goal at any stage with any level of certification.
