2002 wasn’t a great year for tours, yet the number of people working in live sound certainly increased—this magazine, which launched last year, is evidence of that. And most of the mixers in the world are freelancers, who pay their own insurance, retirement funds and taxes. It’s not easy. But there are solutions.

Brad Madix, FOH mixer on tours for Rush, Def Lepard and Marilyn Manson, says incorporating himself, which he did ten years ago, was a good move. “Up until around 1990, everyone was pretty easygoing about business,” he says. “But around that time, [SR companies] and artists began asking me to be an employee for the term of the tour. That limited the amount of money I could put away for retirement, and the amount of deductions I could take on taxes.” For instance, employees can have only slightly more than $2,000 a year protected in an IRA account; independent contractors can have SEP accounts that shelter as much as 15 percent of their pre-tax earnings. Freelancers can deduct only a portion of their medical insurance costs; employers can deduct all of it. By incorporating, Madix essentially became an employee of his own company, which could then take the full deduction. “The industry I was in was becoming more businesslike, so I had to do the same,” he says.

Incorporation isn’t an economic panacea. It involves more paperwork and generally higher accounting fees, as well as regulatory issues that vary by state. Brad Divens, a freelance FOH mixer since 1997 who mixes for Cyndi Lauper, Linkin Park and Machine Head, has heard as many arguments against incorporation as for it. “I’ve listened to the guys in Cyndi’s band debate it,” he says. “They’re all freelancers, and some have incorporated and some haven’t. I’m still thinking about it.”

Divens and Madix have other strategies when it comes to promoting their careers. Both say that word of mouth is still the best way to get your name around, especially within the circle of artist management. “It seems that most of my gigs have come through band management,” Divens says. “The manager comes to the show and stands right next to you during it. He’ll be the first person to say how it sounds. Cultivating that relationship is a good thing to do.” Divens also maintains good relationships with SR company owners and managers, who can help fill voids during slow periods.

Madix points out one of the most annoying stumbling blocks in the way of career movement—scheduling. “The hardest thing to go through is building up a stable of three or four good bands and then finding out that two of them are going out at the same time,” he explains. “Everyone runs into that sooner or later.”

The solution is to build relationships with other mixers who can cover for you. However, it is important to make sure whoever you recommend in your place is not only good, but compatible with the artist. It is even more important to make sure your substitute understands implicitly that he is in a temporary situation. “You don’t want a situation in which he does too well,” Madix laughs. “I start those conversations with the sentence, ‘Can you sub for me?’ and the word ‘sub’ is a critical verb.” Humor aside, this kind of collegial reciprocity can be a win-win situation for engineers and clients alike, broadening the range of contacts for mixers. Madix notes that he filled in for leading FOH mixer Robert Scovill on several occasions.

Artists also need to understand the economics of freelance engineering, even if they occasionally need to be reminded that they once were freelancers too, before Clive Davis signed them. “There’s times when you’ve lined up a tour that starts just as another one is ending, then the first band adds a few more dates at the end,” Madix says. “The artists need to be accommodating to a degree in situations like that.”

Ever wonder how some engineers set their rates? By listening to other engineers, says Brad Divens. “I listen a lot when I’m talking with other engineers,” he observes. “People tend to talk about what they make. You can find out what the monitor mixer is making, and you know that the FOH mixer is making at least that much and probably more. In setting your rates, you have to be flexible, but you can’t sell yourself short. Know what the market is paying.”

While record producers and mixers have an increasingly wide range of career management options, there are very few professional managers who take on live sound engineers. “That’s a shame,” says M.L. Procise, senior vice president of sales at Showco, a subsidiary of Clair Brothers, who has mentored many freelance live sound mixers over the years. “I can think of only one FOH mixer that I know of who has management, despite the fact that FOH mixers are not far removed professionally from top producers and record mixers. Even lighting directors have agents.” However, Procise agrees that business acumen is critical to long-term career success. “There is a definite correlation between creative talent and business awareness,” he says.