To the young, shiny-eyed aspiring Audio Engineer interested in interning at a recording studio - this guide is for you!
This will be you - the intern - also silently referred to as "the unpaid head of studio janitorial duties" - this is your big shot! Just a few more hours of mopping and cleaning toilets and you'll have your chance to...wrap every single cable in the live room...
If you are reading this - let me just say congrats! You've chosen to take your destiny into your own hands by pursuing a career you are passionate about.
I'd love to help you get started! Here are my suggestions on how to have a chance at getting a recording studio internship.
At this point in my career, I'm working out of my home studio as a mixing and mastering engineer. Before this, I interned, held assistant engineer and in-house engineer positions in three studios across three different states. I've produced, recorded, mixed, and mastered many great up-and-coming artists working out of beautiful commercial studios. There are a few things I have learned about communicating your intent with studio owners...
Here are the things you need to know to prevent blowing your chances.
Prepare to be available. This means you should have an open schedule for availability. If this means you need to save money to afford to work your day job fewer hours or not work your day job at all during your internship, then do it. You'll want to be as fully immersed in the studio's everyday activities as you possibly can to get the full picture of what it takes to succeed in this career.
Make a list of studios you plan to contact - and know why you are choosing them. Making a list of studios you are interested in will keep your momentum up if you strike out a few times. Be emotionally prepared to face rejection and own it. Know the studios’ background - a big responsibility studio interns take on is answering the phone & giving studio tours. To do these things, you should know the studio’s history and why people like to work on their music there. Be sure to do the research and incorporate this into your cover letter; however, you can. Why does this facility inspire you? What makes this studio so unique that you are willing to dedicate yourself to them for a time? You should have a slightly different cover letter for every studio you contact.
When applying for studio internships, send an email with a cover letter stating your intent and what you hope to learn from the experience. It is essential that you wait to do this step until you are 100% mentally and financially ready to start the internship - the studio could ask you to come in that same week! Let them know you are financially prepared to start helping as soon as possible. If you aren't prepared, you just lost your spot in line...
After sending your initial email and cover letter to the studio where you hope to intern, follow up with a call. If you don't hear back, follow up again. I suggest following up multiple times until somebody explicitly states they do not need any help. Once this happens - get over it, and move on. Just continue trying! Keep in mind that most big studios will get many, many emails each month from aspiring engineers looking to get their foot in the door. You'll need to figure out how to make yourself stand out. Hint: your audio degree and 'pro tools certification' will NOT be the qualifying factor here. Your drive to learn and willingness to help will be.
Get the studio owner - studio manager - or a chief engineer - or whoever is in charge of determining your potential internship eligibility - on the phone. (Yes, a LITERAL phone call - not just a text.) Let them know that you sent in a resume and cover letter, then ask when a good day and time is to take a tour of the studio. A tour will allow you to meet them face-to-face and make a great first impression.
Once you get the opportunity to meet the person in charge, stay humble, and be chill. Tour the studio, ask questions - and listen to the persons talking to you. Don't talk about yourself more than you need to - you don't want to come off as self-centered. Many studios would much rather bring on an intern with zero experience who is a cool hang with a good work ethic and a drive to learn than an intern fresh out of their four-year audio degree and who only wants to show up for the minimum amount of time required to get their degree—no shade intended to at those out there with audio degrees. If you have the chance to intern, regardless of your background, you'll be expected to act according to the temporary help position you are in. The piece of paper stating you're qualified - from whatever college you went to - won't do anything for you when you're in the control room...during a tracking session - lost in your phone on Twitter...and the engineer asked you to put a pop filter on the vocal mic 10 minutes ago...did you even brew the coffee the drummer asked for an hour ago?
I know that this won't apply to everyone's situation. I can only speak from my personal experiences and those I have witnessed of the interns who helped me out. Hopefully, this will remove some mystery surrounding studio internships and how to go about landing one. I wish you the best of luck in getting your chance! Remember this, though - even if you get rejected all over town, and it just doesn't happen for you, don't give up. Like college degrees in audio engineering - internships can be mostly considered useless in the grand scheme of things. Don't get me wrong - I'll never tell someone not to try to be an intern - I believe there's tons of value in learning from a master of the craft, being able to sit right behind them, seeing every move they make...Also, a ton of potential to make connections and life-long relationships with engineers!
Yet, the beautiful thing about working in the music business is a direct contradiction of something far too many people believe. There is no gatekeeper stopping you from going out, starting your home studio, and figuring it out on your own.
You don't need an audio engineering degree to find audio engineering work. You don't need an internship to learn how to engineer outstanding sounding records - if you are an autodidact who is able and willing to put in the work every day to understand and improve on their own. If you aren't that kind of person, then you probably wouldn't do well in an internship environment regardless.
If you think you'd rather skip the internship and jump straight into the water on your own, I'd highly suggest you read my blog titled A Musician's Guide To Making Money Online. In that post, I break down some concepts that nearly anyone could incorporate into starting their own business - I am positive it would help someone in your situation!
If you need any help getting started with your home studio setup - be sure to check out all my top picks for The Best Studio Gear.
To help keep The Human Record Producer Blog going, we sometimes use affiliate links. This means that if you buy something using one of the links on this page, we will get a small commission. This absolutely does not affect what you pay for any of the linked items – your price will be the same whether you use our links or not. This trickle of income is what helps us keep the free content flowing!
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Good luck! :)