Engineer Andrew Scheps On The Value Of Your Work

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Andrew Scheps has a long list of great mixing credits, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Adele to Metallica to Justin Timberlake and many more. He’s also one of uber-producer Rick Rubin’s go-to mixers. His excellent advice on the value of your work comes from The Music Business Advice Book, which excerpt from his interview on my Inner Circle Podcast #39.


Andrew Scheps: “I think the best thing I’ve done is to be terrified of not having enough money to live and eat and that kind of stuff (laughs), so I’ve been frugal. I do have a ton of gear, but 99% of it is old stuff that doesn’t go down in value because I feel that if I don’t ever work again I can at least sell it. 

I guess another thing is the realization that there isn’t free money out there, especially in the music business. There are so many bands that talk about the realities of dealing with a label, no matter if it’s a major or tiny label, and have a lot of stories that are negative. They’ll say, “I don’t want to give up 88% of my income for what I’m going to get back, but as soon as somebody from any label larger than the one they have shows up courting them, they’re falling all over themselves trying to get signed by them. 

You have to be realistic about commerce while you’re doing the art, while setting yourself goals that are reachable. 

Getting signed is still this magic thing. I think it’s important to stay realistic as much as you can, because the music business is basically worse odds than the lottery at this point. But it’s still the lottery and you can still have some massive success. You have to be realistic about commerce while you’re doing the art, while setting yourself goals that are reachable. Try to assess things properly and don’t get carried away by the concept of it.

For engineers, you need to give your work value, and it’s really hard to give it away then go back and say, “Yeah, but I’m worth a bunch of money.” So many people say, “Oh, but you love your job.” 

Yeah, but it’s still really hard work and even if it were easy, I still need to eat. So either nobody in the business should get paid because it’s all for the art, or it’s okay for us to want to get paid? There’s a real disconnect about that.”

You can read an excellent interview with Andrew Scheps here.


You can read more from The Music Business Advice Book and my other books on the excerpt section of bobbyowsinski.com.

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