5 Audio Niches Ripe For The Taking

Chris (0:29)

I'm standing desk, and I've lost a bunch of weight as a result, so I'm feeling really good.

Brian Hood (0:35)

I don't know the science behind that. I don't know if I believe it, but I want to believe it.

Chris (0:38)

Well, I think it's like, you're just standing. I'm exhausted. If I have a morning where I'm specifically working on systems or specifically answering a lot of emails or something like that, to stand for two hours is really exhausting.

Brian Hood (0:52)

So this is not for studio work, this is not for mastering standing desk. That's interesting, if it was the case. But I don't think I've ever seen a studio with a standing desk before.

Chris (0:59)

I'm very seriously considering switching to a standing setup for mastering, because the desk I have here is actually, it's a really intense industrial workbench. So I could extend the legs, they're metal, slidable, dilly, so.

Brian Hood (1:14)

Yeah, if someone has a standing studio desk, let me know. I'd love to see a photo of it.

Chris (1:18)

That'd be pretty cool.

Brian Hood (1:19)

To me, that'd be annoying. Like, I can only stand for like two hours before I'm over it.

And in the studio, you're working sometimes eight hours or longer straight without a break. That would be miserable to me. All right, so I think we've hit our specific threshold of banter that we did, unless you want to banter some more. You're watching Westworld right now? Okay, nevermind.

Chris (1:36)

I am, oh my gosh, it's so good.

Brian Hood (1:38)

No, no, we're not getting into it. Stop, stop, stop.

I am too, and it's fucking awesome. So today's episode is not about Westworld. Today's episode is not about standing desks. What is today's episode about, Chris?

Chris (1:51)

Well, we've talked about niches a lot on the podcast. And I know for many of you guys that are listening, you're doing audio for a living or you're trying to, and you're one size fits all. You offer every service under the sun that's audio related, and you're struggling to make consistent income each month. So what we've really advised, and this isn't like just specific recording studio industry advice, this is advice that applies across the board.

Any industry you're in, if you have a niche, if you are known as the king of fill in the blank or queen of fill in the blank, business is going to go well if there's demand for that niche that you own. So these are five recording studio niches that are ripe for the taking, that if you're in a town that's remotely large, you're in a St. Louis, you're in a Columbus, Ohio, you're in a Detroit, Michigan, you are in a Madison, Wisconsin.

Brian Hood (2:46)

There's something with at least a couple hundred thousand people in it.

Chris (2:48)

Yeah, a town with a couple hundred thousand people that you can make a recording studio around these ideas, pick one of them, and dominate.

Brian Hood (2:57)

And just to clarify, not all of these require a physically busy city. Some of these could be done on the internet.

Chris (3:02)

Yeah, so these are five ideas that we came up with.

We love when we see someone that specializes and says, man, I'm the guy for fill in the blank, or I'm the girl for this particular business. Emily that we had on the podcast before that she was like, man, I do remote drums. That's freaking rad. And she's doing really well because she has a story to tell.

Remote drums, you know what she does. That's it. If people say, well, what do you do for a living? And you're like, well, I do a little bit of editing for audio, I record books on tape. I also produce rap records, and I also mix bluegrass records. That's just such a terrible story. You can't market yourself when you don't have a good story. These are all niches that you can, in one second at a party, you can say, well, we specialize in fill in the blank.

Brian Hood (3:48)

Easy to understand, easy to understand. These are the things that when you say, this is what I do, they're like, oh, okay, cool.

And if they think of anyone that needs that type of thing, they'll refer them to you. And that's the power of owning one niche and doing one thing and doing it incredibly well, because it's easily understood what you do. It's easily understood who is qualified to work with you or who is in need of your services, and who is unqualified, who is not in need of your services. And it's easy for the average person to put those two things together and understand if they should refer someone to you or not.