How do you do business/work remotely (online)?

What is your process, and perhaps a few tips, of working remotely in your business?
Examples: contracts/agreements, sharing audio files, DAW project files, mixing stems.

Working remotely has become more and more common in the last decade, but of course become even more evident with the current pandemic in the world.

I was hoping you could share some tips and practical insights into various aspects of doing business with clients, business partners, publishers etc. over the Internet. :slight_smile:

Iā€™m tagging our new member Paul Baggot @Paul, as he wrote in his introduction that he does most of his work with artists remotely.

Before I worked for a while with another composer once/week. It was pretty cool the way we had set up our dawā€™s.
We used vst connect ( cubase). I use cubase and my partner used ableton and he could connect through vst connect in somehow. We used teamwiever which made it possible for him to move my mouse and we talked through skype at the same time.
I could record him in real time without latency. It seems like the net made a buffer zone but we didnā€™t have any issues. Worked pretty good.

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Wow, that sounds amazing, almost unreal. How do you deal with all ā€œpaperworkā€, I mean contracts, partnership agreements etc.? I have no idea how to do that, but I guess you need to use some kind of digital document signing service? Real signed papers seems to go away, and I am glad they do haha.

No paperā€™s, we trust each other and thereā€™s not much money involved either and we have the PRO info registered split 50/50.
We both have access to the libraries profile/portfolio we put the tracks in.
I donā€™t think one has to make it more difficult than it has to be :slight_smile:

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Good point, at least if you know each other very well, and can ā€˜shake handsā€™ on it even if it is online. Integrity and honor should really be all that is needed. :slight_smile:

Btw, when you work like this, have you ever split the work so one is composing and the other is producing (mixing, mastering, etc)?

When we did it we composed together and I and he mix/mastered every second track. Sent the tracks for feedback etc. Those kind of questions is good to sort out in the beginning of a collaboration, I guess.

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I only work remotely. Itā€™s the way I prefer it.

It is on a ā€˜work for hireā€™ basis. Nothing complicated. I donā€™t expect any share of any profit the track might make. Once Iā€™ve been paid, I donā€™t want paying again.

The owner gets 100% of all rights to the song, the recordings and its instrumental. I ask for recommendations only. This means thereā€™s no need for legal agreements.

I donā€™t ask for upfront payments, only when the track is finished. You may feel this is risky but Iā€™ve only ever had one person cut and run and I wonā€™t work with her ever again.

I sometimes work with just a lyric and reference tracks. Other times Iā€™ll work with the ownerā€™s recordings and include them in the finished track.

I send as many demos/revisions as is necessary until the owner is completely satisfied. There is no limit to the amount of instruments and vocals included on the track unlike some music production organisations.

I charge a ridiculously small amount and am planning to put that right over the next couple of years.

I use email and file transfer sites. I donā€™t see how Zoom meetings, face to faces etc. add anything to the process.

I absolutely love everything about it.

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Thanks for the breakdown Paul, this business/process stuff is so important but very rarely discussed as it might not be the most exciting topic.

I like that you keep it efficient by sticking to email and file transfers. I am personally allergic to ā€˜meetingsā€™ as based on my life experience so far, they are simply wasting a lot of time.

Yes, I deduced from your article that you are charging way too little (based on your calculations of paying of the new Mac Pro). You deserve to be paid fairly for your work.

PS. We have one of those ā€˜studio pictureā€™ threads here in the forum, and if you want to I would love to see how your final studio setup looks like now that I trust all is in place. :slight_smile:

Iā€™ll link to the thread here:

I sing mostly original songs on Fiverr. Itā€™s all work for hire so no ongoing royalty payments.

I have only had to sign one formal agreement so far which was a session release contract for a film, pretty much stating no ongoing royalties etc but it wasnā€™t necessary since itā€™s part of Fiverrā€™s standard terms. Just printed it out, signed it and sent it online as a PDF. You canā€™t post physical copies since you arenā€™t allowed to contact clients outside of Fiverr. Iā€™ve also sang one cover. I donā€™t normally offer covers but the client bought a licence from Harry Fox and sent me proof.

I start by asking them what they want the song to be about and where they want the vocal to go to gauge their requirements and work out how many minutes it will be. If they have a melody idea I like them to send me their song with and without their vocals.

I normally only send a 24 bit, 44.1kWz sample rate (48 kWz if asked) WAV that I have already compā€™ed from lots of takes. I donā€™t send project files or all my takes (donā€™t know if takes are the same as stems) since my prices per minute etc are so low. I send it dry but flex pitched unless asked for without. Also now add some silence to make sure the vocal is pasted into their project in sync! If Iā€™m asked to make a melody line and I have had to resort to using the keyboard (rather than just humming an idea) or Iā€™m asked to do harmonies as well I normally send a scratch midi instrument (but mp3) indication of my melody and or harmony idea before I record and so they know Iā€™m working on it and I can make sure they like it before I record. Lyrics are easy, I can just post them as a Fiverr message but itā€™s a bit annoying formatting them once In paste them into the message from my email.

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