Guru, I don't have a problem with bedroom warriors charging $15/hr to record. But you are correct they should not be calling themselves professional. But honestly how dumb do musicians have to be to think they are going to get a "professional" product for $15/hr? Honestly are you sure you even want to work with musicians who are that clueless?
We live in a world where a YouTube video with millions of hits, or being a Kardashian equates to fame/success and your debating the term "professional"? The terms we once thought had meaning no longer do - even reputation can be bought (if one considers Facebook friends and Twitter/Blog followers important or a judgement of popularity/talent).
I get the point and understand why those who feel they deserve something from their hard work and investment would cry foul at the world they find themselves in; one where they worry about the cheap alternative - but work is work and working with "clueless musicians" may just pay the bills if enough of them come calling.
Is it the fact that many consider any job with music to have an "artistic" value that they disregard the hard cold facts of it being a business with all the same problems other business owners encounter daily?
Competition exists at all levels - in all types of businesses, but what competition is relative to your realistic situation is really the bottom line. If you own a restaurant but worry about the guy selling hot dogs from a cart down the street, the problem is not with the quality of his product, it's really with your expectations and vision of your place in that line of work. Possibly your choice of location, or the surrounding demographics, the ones you misjudged in venturing into a business requiring a clientele both willing and capable of paying the price desired and needed to support it.
We all hope to be in a position where we can be selective, where the customers we get will not only pay the bills but also be the pinnacle of professionalism. Unfortunately running a business and running a successful business are different realities; more than a quality product gets factored in.
I guess ultimately it's all just venting about the smack of reality many presumably entrepreneurial types experience when things impacting desires and goals get in the way. I'll admit it's a bit interesting coming to a forum full of people seeking out the exact same goal to complain about what many are seeking to do at the exact same moment they read your complaint.
Think about it for a second - if one searches back through these forums they will find a time when "re-amping" was simply a topic of conversation and then suddenly it became a potential "business opportunity" where anyone with several amps (in some cases maybe just one or two), a re-amping box, some microphones, a preamp and skills with a DAW started offering it as a service - unsure of what to charge, what the community would support.
Did people complain as the reality of this income stream was worked out? Did members running so-called "professional" studios cry afoul as these potential "bedroom warriors" stole business from them? Perhaps they did, but my memories of the time I first started noticing more and more offering it as a service was a general embrace for the idea because it allowed those without the environment/gear a chance at tone they could not get themselves - perhaps the same criteria for someone seeking out the !5$ / per hour engineer. Did musicians who invested in amps/gear suddenly cry afoul because other musicians who did not invest in amps/gear worry that tones once only achievable from expensive solutions were suddenly available to all willing to pay a nominal fee? As business models change - so does the mechanisms by which a successful owner must adapt, seek out differing revenue streams, different pricing structures, possibly a different business - one where the high level of investment might not have to be offset by high rates and a reliable customer base willing to pay them.
It's just the way of the world - no different from practically every other business venture. Some succeed, some fail - sometimes it might be someone else's fault, but many more times one needs to look inward for the reasons.
As always, individual mileage may vary.
