The Healthier Home Studio Podcast

Uncle Sam just saved studios. Everything changes THIS year because of this...

• Chris Graham • Season 2 • Episode 1

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Speaker:

Well, hello there. Welcome back to the Healthy Home Studio. It's me, your host, Chris Graham. I'm on a walk at the farm right now. I've got my little portable recording rig and I'm making this episode because I have, I think, what could be the best. Business news in the history of the recording industry, something has happened. I have not heard anyone talk about this and so I wanna share what I see. And this is great'cause I've got some expertise when it comes to the recording industry, but I also know a thing or two about government. And so while this is not a political show in any way, shape, or form.'cause I'm not political. I'm not part of a party. I don't wanna be part of a party. I see a change coming in our industry this year. It's actually already in effect that is going to have the largest impact on the bottom lines of a great, many recording studio owners of this is like the number one thing. To help recording studios ever, and it's especially true if your recording studio happens to be in a nice place, A vacation area, say Napa Valley, San Francisco, Hawaii. All Puerto Rico as well. And so here's what's going on. The US government just passed a new law. It's part of the big beautiful bill, and in this bill there was something called the HITS Act. The HITS Act allows people, hobbyists, or business owners, and that's the important part, to deduct up to$150,000 per year in the year that you spend the money. On anything related or damn near anything related to recording. Recording studios just became tax shelters here in the great US of a, and for those of you that work in and around the recording studio, this is just about the best news ever. This is one of the reasons that I'm bringing the, the podcast back that I'm launching season two because I, I literally just discovered this about a week ago, and my brain has been. spinning, taking all of this in Actually, let me break this down. Lemme make it more simple. So the super, super wealthy, what they want from the government are opportunities to spend money tax free. They're called tax shelters, things that they spend money on that the US government says, yeah, sure. You, you can deduct that from your taxes. We want, we want tax you on your full income another perfect example here in the United States. There was another, uh, tax loophole that was added in big, beautiful bill, was the ability to deduct what you spend buying an airplane. That's right, folks. The very, very rich one. Airplanes. Right? Why wouldn't you? I'd love an airplane if I could afford one, but I'll tell you what. Before, that wasn't something where I could go out and buy an airplane and deduct my expense or even that much of my expense in buying that airplane in the same year that I bought it. Does that make sense? made. Airplanes tax shelters, and they've also done that for recording studios. Now that being said, I'm not a lawyer. I'm not a CPA though. I was born on April 15th and my mom is a CPA, So this is something that I've got an awful lot of interest and excitement about, and I just wanted to take you guys on a walk. I'm, I'm literally walking behind my farm here. There's this awesome bike path out here in Grandville, Ohio, and I'm just, uh, I'm recording on a nice mic plugged into my iPhone. Apogee hype, Mike, for any those that might be wondering. I'm obsessed with it. I've probably talked about it too many times in the podcast before. Not sponsored. Just obsessed with this mic. So anyways, bringing this back to people that are running businesses in and around recording studios. Let's talk about the real world impact. Let's say hypothetically there's a. Gentleman I spoke to not too long ago who is from Napa, California, napa's, like wine country, right? It's ritzy. People go out there and they sip all these Napa Valley wines and they go to these, you know, lavish restaurants, et cetera, and there's a number of recording studios out there and for some people they'll go out to Napa and they'll kind of double dip, right? They're in Napa, they're on vacation. And maybe they go pop in and record for a little bit while they're out there. It's an incredible experience for someone that can afford it. What the Hits Act does, as far as I can tell as a business coach, not a CPA or a lawyer or anything, is it seems to me that for a lot of people to be able to say to the right type of customer, a very wealthy customer, probably a hobbyist type customer that, Hey, guess what? If you spend up to$150,000 hiring me to be your record producer this year, and that could be instruments, that could be the Airbnb that we got. That could be the, the plane tickets, I assume, like this is all brand new, so I'm, I'm, you gotta check with your accountant. Don't take my word for it here, but all of the expense in hiring you to produce my record. Whether or not I'm a professional musician is a tax deduction this year. So for someone that says, let's say, makes a million dollars a year, maybe they made$1 million, but they spent$500,000 to make that$1 million. So at the end of the day, they're gonna make$500,000 and they're gonna get taxed on that$500,000. Unless they spend$150,000 recording a record that year, then they'll only get tax on$350,000. Does that make sense? Can you see the incentive? That this new law is gonna create for certain types of customers, to have these tip top amazing, double dipped recording experiences where they're going out and they're having the time of their life. Like they're yucking it up, and now all of a sudden. This turns into a tax deduction for them. There's gonna be a number of people that this year are going to go out and buy an airplane and record their first record and deduct all of it. And they'll probably use the airplane to fly to the exotic recording studio. It's pretty exciting. So for those of you that have heard about this Hits act, I hope that I have explained in a way that makes sense to you. how the incentive that this creates the tax shelter that a recording studio just became. It is gonna reshape our industry in many, many different ways. It's not like all of us are gonna feel this, but some of us are gonna feel it a lot, especially those of us who are willing to market themselves to the types of people who are looking for$150,000 fantasy tax shelter. Right. one of my friends Grant, a guy I've coached for years, he lives in muscle trolls. So this is like really important to Muscle Shoals, right? You could now, as a business owner in Muscle Shoals, you could start a recording studio and have this whole experience Hey, bring your friends and you can stay in this Airbnb and we're gonna record in this classic studio. And, you know, we're gonna take you on tours and we're gonna give you history lessons, and we're gonna let you sit down and play with some of the old session musicians that are here. And guess what? Every single penny that you spend while you're here is a tax deduction up to$150,000. There are customers in the marketplace who would've said no to that before, who would say yes to that now, and maybe they're spending$150,000 and maybe they're only spending 10. But guys, check this out. It's this absolutely incredible incentive to get people into the recording studio. And so what does that mean for us? That means we need to figure out how to serve this new portion of the market and maybe just close in one or two of these huge, crazy projects each year from the tippity top of, of, uh, big spenders out there. Maybe that's what you need to keep your business. Like shit together. Maybe that's what you need to create stability, is to have a portion of the time that you are spending working, going after clients who can afford to pay you top dollar. I think that's pretty exciting And I'll, I'll, I'll end on a story. You know, I, I've been mastering records for. Over a decade, um, at this point, decade and a half, and it's something I do a lot less now. I still love it. I feel so lucky when I get a chance to sit down and master someone's album, but it's not my main focus. My main focus is you guys. My main focus is business coaching. So for me, over the years, I've worked with many, many, many independent musicians. This was kind of my niche back in the day when I was working, on 35 songs a day. Most of them were coming from independent musicians, and a lot of them, like I was the first mastering engineer they'd ever hired. And I had found a way to market myself to these folks, in a way that was effective. they would come to me and then record, record after record. But a lot of them were like really wealthy. A lot of them were really, really well off. A lot of my very favorite customers were actually rich folks, and they would just spend their time recording records instead of like buying golf clubs and stuff like that. That was their passion, and I'd get on the phone with these folks. That was kinda my favorite thing, still is my favorite thing. If I'm gonna work with somebody, I wanna talk on the phone. I don't wanna just go over email or text I'd get these guys on the phone and they would say almost the same thing every time. They would say, you know, man, I know I'm not your coolest client. And I would, I'd stop'em right there.'cause what they were trying to say was, I'm just a single dad trying to make a record. And there's, an inherent lameness baked into that. And I just want you to know that I'm aware of it, they would share this with me and I would say this, I, I told this story hundreds of times over the years, and I think it was really important in winning a lot of these guys as customers, right? guys and girls, but like mostly men from what I can remember, it was like 99% men. Okay. I'm embarrassed about that. I wish it wasn't that way. Like I, I, honestly, I'd work only with women if I could. That would be phenomenal. No offense boys. Anyways. I'd get these guys on the phone and they would say, I know I'm not your coolest customer, but you know, I just, and I'd stop'em and I'd say, look dude, you are taking your time and your energy and your emotion and money, and you are pouring that into making an opus to making a record of your music, something that's distinctly you. And dude, you know, I'm, I'm kind of a fan of this idea that we live in the multiverse and that as many variations of this planet earth, that, that there could be, that's how many there are. And so each planet Earth is a little bit different. Right. Is there a version of the multiverse where every single person is recording a record? the weirdest person that you would ever meet on that planet has never recorded their own record, like. I wanna live on that planet, that's where I want to be. And I think that's probably where you'd wanna live too. And so that's what makes the HITS act so fucking exciting, is it says to these folks that can afford to record a record and who have an an incentive to pay less taxes. Hey man, if you go out there and you actually do the thing that you want to do, you can save a lot of money in your taxes. You should go find a producer and a mix engineer and a mastering engineer. And, uh, a session drummer that can come in remotely and, uh, someone to design your band, merch, and someone to do promotion on Spotify. You should hire all these people and all and all, you know what? You should also buy that new guitar from that little tiny, uh, boutique manufacturer that you've had your eye on. If you do that, you get this amazing tax deduction, and that is the coolest thing in the entire world. And so, if you are thinking about, boy, I, I feel like AI is coming in and there. They're destroying it. It's destroying the industry maybe so, but this isn't a new thing. This changes things a lot. And so as you are having conversations. With people that you are trying to work with, you're trying to close projects, you need to talk about the tax implication. You need to ask these questions. Your potential clients, when you're on the phone and you're face to face with them, you need to ask them and say, Hey. Talk to me about your taxes in the past when you've like bought an instrument or when you've recorded a record. Have you deducted that on your taxes? Oh, you haven't? Oh, well, I don't know if you heard about this, but the new Hits act means that every penny that you spend making a record can be a tax deduction. I can help at least guide you through that, perhaps even connect you with a CPA. This becomes an amazing opportunity that when you're having that conversation with a potential customer, that you can bring this up and you can say, well, maybe my price seems a little bit high, but I don't know if you know, but you'll actually pay less on your taxes by making this record. you should spend more on this record than you had planned because you're gonna get a tax deduction. Right. Like this is an unbelievable talking point for you to have with your potential customers. And so, man, I'm so excited about this episode. In a lot of ways this kind of reminds me of back in the day six figure home studio, the type of episodes I'd loved making back then. So, gosh, if this is helpful, if you enjoy this, if you're excited about it, please subscribe to the podcast, share this episode with another friend that works in the recording industry.'cause this could really change a lot of our lives. And by the way. If you are in a situation. Where you've got so much work on your plate that you are struggling to keep up. You are overwhelmed. You are in a situation potentially where you are, at least in some way, shape, or form thriving to death. If that's you and you're interested in working with me, go ahead and check out Chris Graham coaching.com. There's an opportunity there to apply to work with me one-on-one for free. I'll hang out with you, we'll talk about your business. I'll ask a million different questions and I'll. Go through each of the pieces of your business and get an idea of like, where are the healthy bits, where are the less healthy bits? and when you are working on your business instead of for it. what parts of your business should you be focusing on in order to maximize long-term growth? So if that sounds interesting, if you wanna work with me, go to chris graham coaching.com. There's a form on there you can apply for a free coaching call with me. It's not ai, there's no digital mumbo jumbo here. It's not, you're not meeting with an assistant. It's me and you. And so if that sounds interesting to you and you're in a situation where you feel like. There's an opportunity to level up. There's an opportunity to define a one of a kind niche that you are the the champ of, and you're trying to figure out how to do the most that you can with what you have, with your talent, with your resources. I'd love to help you navigate that. So check out Chris Graham coaching.com. We're also running some coaching events as well on August 1st, we're doing a four week training called The Stupid Studio Systems Challenge. We're gonna hang out on Zoom for an hour a week, and we're gonna talk through all the different systems that you have in your business and what you can do to become more efficient. And build a business that doesn't keep you up at night. And sort of the shtick I've got there, I don't know if you guys might have seen some of the ads I've been running, uh, for this is if you are in a situation where you are staying late at the studio to keep your clients happy and you're missing out on family time for that, then the stupid Studio Systems challenge is the place to be. it's always a blast to help. You guys figure out this thing, you know, it's wild. It's like I'm, I'm hanging out with, with me from 15 years ago, trying to give him advice and help him navigate what you can do to create a small business that can make a big impact. I hope this episode was helpful. I hope that it recorded. Okay. I don't actually know. I'm not monitoring while I'm recording. I'm just walking on the bike path back here, holding the microphone, looking like a weirdo if there's anyone that you think would benefit from this episode, it's relatively short one, just kind of planting the seed, getting people to think about there are new incentives in our industry for the very wealthy to use us as a tax shelter. Yes, please use me as a tax shelter, spend money on me and get a tax deduction. I hope to, uh, talk to you soon. Have a great day. Bye.