How Do Audio Engineers Make Money?

Being a career audio engineer usually starts out with somebody being an assistant, working their way to the top until they become well rounded audio engineers.

This career can offer you a variety of choices when it comes to monetization. You just have to figure out what you’re good at and what you’re trying to achieve with your skill.

Most audio engineers that started their work in music recording studios, usually look to branch out and try to figure out other avenues in which they can thrive in.

This can be a good way to determine your options and figure out the extent a career in audio.

In exploring the world of sound engineering; money serves a key function because at the end of the day, you need to make a living.

This article will therefore dive into various ways in which an Audio Engineer can make money.

Recording Services

Audio engineers can offer recording engineering services for money, to people that want to make music.

One of the skills that comes with audio engineering is the ability to set up equipment and capture vocals the right way.

An audio engineer can offer these services by inviting people to record from their set up or following up the clients to their preferred work place to record their work.

This is great source of income because the audio engineer can break down recording sessions into hours and charge per hour for recording sessions.

If your area of interest or scope is in recording then you can explore more ways recording engineers can make money.

Audio for Visuals

Audio engineers can also offer up the creation of audio for visuals.

This can be background music for commercials and adverts, it can also be background music for presentations or any other type of audio that has to accompany visuals in order to deliver the intended result.

Audio engineers can find lucrative commercial gigs for this type of work and they can also find small time gigs that can still offer good money.

Commercial gigs may be creating music for ads being run by large corporations or companies. These types of gigs can be high paying.

Voice Over Narration audio

One of the most high paying audio engineer jobs is voiceover narration audio.

The engineer basically works on the voice over, which basically involves organizing various audio clips, arranging them, applying various effects and making sure they are processed to match the intended output.

This work can be for radio shows, media and other agencies that would require narration.

Soundtrack creation

Audio engineers can also be hired for the creation of soundtracks.

A soundtrack is music that is synchronized to either video or imagery. It accompanies visual media in order to give it full meaning.

This can be highly lucrative work depending on who the client is.

In film, soundtracks can pay alot of money because film companies usually have huge budgets for audio.

Furthermore, soundtracks form part of the description of the media that it accompanies, which means it has to be highly detailed to a specific standard which requires skill.

Therefore an audio engineer can charge a good fee for such work since it has to be handled with the precision that is required by the client.

Mixing Services

In audio engineering one of the most called upon job is the audio mixing service.

For musicians it is a highly critical part of their work because everything has to be done right to ensure that it is commercially acceptable.

The audio engineers duty would then be cleaning tracks, arranging them, processing them accordingly, and finally blending them all in order to have a finished song.

This work can be a good way to earn an income, an audio engineer also has the option of starting up their own website that can advertise their services.

Mastering Services

Mastering services are essential in an industry like music because it determines the fate of the final song.

It requires good audio engineers that have a good ear and good experience in the field.

Mastering comes after mixing and it deals with the final mixed version of the song.

The mastering engineer will then apply various processing to improve the already existing mix and have it ready for the masses to listen to.

In this field having a website can help because you can reach a global audience with the internet.

A good website paired with good social media marketing can help you thrive in this industry.

Live Sound services

Live sound performances are very technical and require a delicate touch and high level of professionalism.

Audio engineers can be hired to work on sound equipment by setting it up and making sure that it is working right.

Level adjustment, cable management etc will require a good audio engineer that knows how exactly the equipment is supposed to interact with each other.

This can a great source of income and can offer many work opportunities if you have the right experience the right resume to go with that experience. Because corporate functions that require audio engineering services to work on equipment may call for a qualified professional.

Teaching/Lecturing

Another way you can make money with your audio engineering skills is by teaching or lecturing the knowledge you have acquired over the years.

Private lectures can be highly rewarding in this arena than going the traditional education route.

The good part is you can categorize your knowledge and then price it differently according to your own needs.