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Chenjerai

guest
Everybody and their mama know very well that in the music business there is a practice of singers and rappers using ghostwriters and also record producers who go about utilizing the services offered by some ghost producers.

My question is how prevalent is ghost audio mixing or mastering and can it be a legit business like ghost producing?
 
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I know exactly what you are talmbout it's somewhat kinda like drop shipping sound engineering, as it were. There are many SoundBetter and FIVERR freelance audio mastering guys who are into that gig. Even some self-hosted online audio mastering engineers have been doing it for decades now.

However, this works pretty well if you are dealing with unknown recording artists, record producers, and DJs who wanna be artists. Especially those who do nothing but scream on a track.

It's still bad business though. I don't think both SoundBetter and FIVERR allow this. It's probably against their terms of service. At the end of the day, scammers are gonna scam since they don't care about being the scum of the earth. They will but continue to do...

Queen

grand master
In reality, there is a possibility of that being a legit business model as long as it doesn't lead to legal issues.

For the most part, there aren't music publishing royalties involved in sound engineering, so that's that.

P.S. the sound engineer has to be made aware of what's going on in a written and signed agreement otherwise they'll be mad for being short-changed if they later found out they got swindled in broad daylight by some random bloke.
 

Sadzandiuraye

initiate
I know exactly what you are talmbout it's somewhat kinda like drop shipping sound engineering, as it were. There are many SoundBetter and FIVERR freelance audio mastering guys who are into that gig. Even some self-hosted online audio mastering engineers have been doing it for decades now.

However, this works pretty well if you are dealing with unknown recording artists, record producers, and DJs who wanna be artists. Especially those who do nothing but scream on a track.

It's still bad business though. I don't think both SoundBetter and FIVERR allow this. It's probably against their terms of service. At the end of the day, scammers are gonna scam since they don't care about being the scum of the earth. They will but continue to do anything for money.
 
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Sadzandiuraye

initiate
@Sadzandiuraye expagorate how does that work and how it's different from LANDR's Affiliate program?

What they do is build an online presence with some good reviews and testimonials.

So when you place an order to get a song mixed or mastered e.g. $100, 150 USD per song, etc... whatever the price is. They will then ask another audio mastering engineer behind the scenes by pretending to be an artist and repertoire guy who works for an indie record label.

Eventually, they will send your song to that particular human mastering engineer who charges less than them so that they can make a profit from the pricing difference. The rest is self-explanatory. Rinse and repeat until infinity.

If you ask for an audio mastering revision they do the same damn thing too.
 

Sadzandiuraye

initiate
@Sadzandiuraye in other words, these lads will be playing a middleman?

Obviously, but without the person doing the actual audio mastering knowing exactly what's going on. Hence, this is ghost-engineering.

One of the problems with the music industry especially audio engineering is that it isn't strictly regulated like Law, Healthcare, Food, Banking, Real Estate, Insurance, etc. Anyone can set up shop and call themselves a "professional" mixing and mastering engineer without any serious repercussions at all.

Compare that to banking, you definitely need a license and you need to be regularly regulated by a central bank in your country. I'd suggest that there should be some form of regulation including perhaps unionization of songwriters, record producers, and sound engineers.
 

Queen

grand master
@Sadzandiuraye unionization of the music industry will get thwarted by all major record labels and music publishing companies. How will they get to own numerous music catalogs which constantly generate money for them?

It's definitely one of their worst nightmares just like how several U.S. multinational corporations have fought tooth and nail to stop their workers from getting unionized but would rather resolve any issues with their employees directly in ways that benefit them the most.
 

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