How much money does a sound technician make?

Answer 1

I am a Recording Manager/Engineer for a record company and the best way to explain the answer for this question is to divide it into two examples. If you are lucky enough to be exclusive to a record company and be on salary, then you will be making at least 200K a year. The other way for Engineers is to get a cut of the studio profit from each job. Studio's have set prices for services. Say they charge for one track- 500 for production, 200/hr. for recording, and 1000 for mastering, then the studio made 2100 (3 hrs. for recording). The studio, the producer, and the engineer get a cut. If you got an equal one third of that then for that day you made 700. At five days a week, 52 weeks a year, you make 182000 for that year. The variables are all different and to become a engineer you need to be very talented (being a musician helps a lot) and have gone to school for engineering, 99/100 times. I got lucky knowing someone who started a record company. Remember- the producer and engineer are extremely vital parts to the record making process.

REPLY TO THIS POSTING

This is nonsense. There is no way, and I mean ZERO that a recording engineer makes that much money. I assume this was written by someone working for those "Learn Recording Engineering" Colleges. Here's the truth.

If you are VERY LUCKY, you might be making up to $14 or $15 an hour. Most engineers work for much less (like $5 an hour) and a significant percentage work for free.

Most recording engineers are unemployed. There are no jobs in this profession, and I"ll bet you there isn't ONE job for a recording engineer in all of North America that pays more than $20,000 a year.

Most of the studios that make the albums you listen to have gone broke. Big studios now charge less than $900 for a WHOLE DAY, so figure out the math. How much, after paying the costs, are they going to pay the engineer?. Right! Nothing or next to nothing.

Do not ever consider 'recording engineering' as a career. You will be unemployed, or working for $5 a hour, if you are lucky enough to make that much.

The last post is correct. There are no jobs for recording engineers anymore, so I'd say the normal income for a recording engineer is zero. I feel angered by the false promises coming from the hundreds of 'recording institutes' that promise the world and take tens of thousands in . . umm . .. let's call them 'tuition fees'. These places spit out thousands of so called 'recording engineers' every year, the only problem being there are no jobs out there. They say you are 'placed' if you are working as a salesman at Future Shop.

I have to agree with RealityCheck's answer. If you are considering going into recording engineering as a career - don't. There is nothing out there for a recording engineer, except perhaps recording lousy high school bands in some kid's Mom's garage.

Before you can nail down a salary range for "recording engineer", you must pinpoint the environment of the job. All of the answers thus far are biased, as they all seem to focus only on coporate music industry recording. For example, if a production manager or DJ at a radio station creates a PSA, they've recorded, at the very least, voice-over. If a sound-designer creates a specific sound for Theatre, traffic for example, it's field-recorded. A videographer creating a corporate training video: room, scene and situation audio recording... All of these are examples of recording engineering. To whomever stated that "Big" studios are charging $900 per day - where did you get your information? The last producer I engineered for in a "Big" studio commanded $850 per hour. To the person who is angered over "tuition fees". Umm..how many BA degrees, or psych degrees, or "Liberal Arts" degrees do these institutions "spit out" every year? Should all those people be mad, too? There are plenty of jobs (and money) in recording engineering - you don't have to work in a recording studio to work as a recording engineer. Remember, sitting around in a bedroom mixing loops in Reason or running band sound in a bar on the weekends doesn't make you a qualified engineer, and usually those are the types complaining about no career opportunities. If A-list corporate studio recording is what you're after, then be prepared when the ellusive door opens - do your homework, network, be reliable, hone your skills, and build a reputation through your adaptability, knowledge, and flexibility. As long as there is such a thing as multi-media, QUALIFIED engineers are in demand and very well paid. Personal example - my first "professional" lead engineer studio gig paid me enough to buy a flat in Manhatten. That doesn't happen at $5 an hour...

Your buddy who is making $800 a month as a 'recording engineer' is at the top of his profession. That's what kind of money you make as a recording engineer today at the very top of the pay scale. And he's one of the very few lucky ones that get paid, most have to pay to work or work for free. BTW - the chances of your buddy (the 17 year old child) making $100K as a recording engineer are zero. He's either going to be living with his parents forever, or getting an education and a real job.

I got a job 30 years ago as a recording engineer apprentice. I made 5 dollars an hour. I played in a rock band growing up, so the business interested me. As of today, I own my own studio, I do primarily work in the advertising industry, doing award winning work, and I make from 160,000 to 250,000 a year. While I got a job without a degree, this is much less likely to happen today. There are just too many degreed individuals out there now. My youngest employee earns 35,000 dollars a year, with full medical coverage, and 25% of his salary put into his retirement, totally funded by the company. And he has a degree, and he was competing for the job with 3 dozen other degreed individuals. While this may sound unbelievable to some of the respondents on this thread, I've checked with some of my contemporaries, and the best studios pay in a similar manner. Now, getting a recording degree will NOT guarantee you a job. You need to have a desirable attitude, and a positive, (not arrogant) posture, to succeed at the interview stage. Make no mistake, most people who get recording engineer degrees will never get a job in the business. But that isn't that much different from the rest of the degree programs coming out of college. I've read that only 30% of people with degrees are doing jobs in the fields of their degrees. That includes me. So, here's reality. If you know someone in the business, you have a leg up. That's true in any field. But if you want to be a recording engineer, you have to know two things. One, you won't make much money at first. Second, you may very well have to sacrifice a lot, to succeed. Most of those who have succeeded, have sacrificed much. Hope this helped. If you want an easy road to riches, this is not the field. If you are incredibly talented, you'll probably kick ass. On a side note, if you are so cool that you can produce a hit album out of your basement, you'll get rich. Degree or not. But that ain't easy either.

Answer 2

The salary of an audioengineer depends on the country and the experience level of the audio engineer. A beginner usually makes 0-100$ per day, more advanced makes something between 200-5000$ per day.

Answer 3

they only make about 16,000 per year but it can vary ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It depends how successful you are.

- If you are the in-house engineer at a very expensive studio that you hire out, you can make a lot ($70,000+)

- if you are a freelance worker doing the odd pub gig you wont make much ($20,000)

- if your running a home studio and hoping for lots of work you wont make much ($20,000)

- if your U2's engineer and do all of their mixing all over the world you can make millions.

^these values are estimates only.

^I believe that to be successful you have to work for free for a while

Answer 4

how much do audio engineer make a day or a year

Answer 5

5000 $ an year