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How Do I Approach A Mastering Engineer?

Looking to get connected in any industry does take quite some time.

The cold approach of simply walking up to somebody is not something that everyone is capable of doing….part of this can be blamed on social media which has pretty much made meeting new people a virtual thing rather than a physical thing.

In this post I’m going to discuss how you can approach a mastering engineer because this is a question I frequently get from most people looking for mastering services.

I hope you can use this post as a guide to getting the best mastering engineer to work with you.

With that said,

How do I approach a mastering engineer?

1. Find them

Before you even start contemplating your approach you need to first figure out where to find a mastering engineer.

Most of them can be found in some recording studios. Finding them this way can be an easy approach because you could simply go to the studio.

If you however don’t know any recording studios in your area, then you have to get connected with people In the music world.

Reach out to some people in the music world and see if they could connect you to some good engineers.

If they can, all well and good. if they can’t, leverage the Internet.

You can pretty much find a lot of engineers on most social media platforms.

Run a search of “mastering engineer” on Facebook, Instagram or other social platforms.

You should find a couple of names.

Narrow it down to about 10 people.

2. Decide on approach

After you find some good mastering engineer candidates you can then decide what the actual approach will be.

You can choose to use the cold approach which simply means walking up to a mastering engineer, introducing yourself and telling them what you need.

DMs are another approach, DM is simply direct message which is a feature on most social platforms. You can come with a way to reach out to various people.

Phone calls are another way you can reach out to mastering engineers, the only catch here is that you need to have their phone numbers.

Email is another great way of reaching out to mastering engineers. Unlike phone calls, emails are pretty easy to find without the need of using black hat techniques.

3. Be professional

In the event that you do manage to get a one-on-one with a mastering engineer remember to stay professional.

Don’t waste their time and don’t waste yours.

Furthermore, remember to be human and don’t be too stiff in your professionalism.

This is a good way to build a relationship.

4. Reach out to more than one

More importantly you need to reach out to more than one mastering engineer so you give yourself some options.

These options will allow you to choose the best.

So don’t settle too quickly, do your recon and find the best engineers.

Compare their work, their prices and services. After that choose the mastering engineer you can afford that has the best work.

Approach

There are a number of ways you can reach out to mastering engineers.

I’ll discuss some of these below. Use the approach that you’re comfortable with.

Email

Email is best for reaching out to people you don’t know. DM might also serve a similar function but Email is a lot more formal.

Once you get the mastering engineers email address, what’s next is crafting a good cold email.

Your subject line can be  “Your mastering services are required” or any other catchy heading. The goal is to get the engineer to open the email.

After you nail the subject line, you can then go ahead and craft the body of the email.

Here’s an example:

” hey my name is x,

I’m a musician looking to get a song mastered,

If you’re free this week we can set up a meeting and discuss this,

regards

(your name)”

You can of course spice up the email to your own preference.

The goal is to be direct and to get yourself on a call or a meeting with the engineer.

DM

DM is the more informal way of connecting with mastering engineers.

In a DM you can drop the formal pleasantries and just go with a “hey man, I need  mastering services, can we talk?”

Social platforms are meant for friendly interactions. Being a formal person can work but it’s best to keep it simple and straight to the point.

.

Phone call

The cold phone call takes some practice to master but its quiet effective.

All you have to do is just call the mastering engineer and and talk as clearly as possible.

E.g.

“Hey how are you doing?

*My name is X and I’m a musician from X and I was looking to discuss mastering a record for me”.

You can then go on to discuss the rest.

Tips

Ask for a sample

Make sure to get a sample of the mastering engineers work, if you’re in contact with a number of them, better.

You can pick and choose the sound you’re going for and get your record mastered.

Be professional

Be professional but approachable. You don’t want to seem too stiff.

Music is entertainment business.

You build relationships by being yourself and being social.

Be clear

Be clear with what you want and communicate it to the engineer.

If you have reference tracks of how you want your record to sound, pass on these records to the engineer and discuss your preference.

Negotiate

Price is always a tricky subject. Negotiate as best as you can.

Try to meet half way.

Mastering is not easy, pay the man.

Be transparent

Be transparent in sharing details and files of the record.

Make sure you submit your record in the manner prescribed by the engineer.

This may some times mean providing stems or a simple WAVE file of the final mix.

Keep Network Active

Make sure that you connect with the mastering engineer because this will get you connected to their network.

How Do I Approach A Mastering Engineer?

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