UPDATE: check out the Landr Mastering plugin review.
Mastering engineers beware, there’s someone else trying to steal your job. Ok, we’re not really serious here, but following the success of subscription-based mastering services such as Landr and eMastered, Swiss-based global music distributor iMusician have launched an online pay-as-you-go instant mastering service. Let’s see what they have to say about it…
Powered by advanced AI technology, the service lets musicians professionally master their tracks for a competitive sound within minutes. After uploading a mixed track on the iMusician app, musicians choose their preferred parameters from genre presets and adjust the EQ settings to personal taste via a professional and user-friendly interface. Users can then preview and compare different mastering results as well as listen to the fully mastered track and make unlimited changes before purchasing.
Unlike other online mastering services, iMusician don’t charge annual subscription fees, storage fees or download fees, with purchased mastered tracks being stored in iMusician’s track library for free, forever.
iMusician’s instant mastering operates as a standalone service with artists receiving their file as a high-quality WAV file to distribute through a service provider of their choice or through iMusician directly.
The service is launching with an introductory price of €7.99/$5.59 per track, changing to €9.99/$6.99 from January 1st.
A Few Thoughts
Audio technologies are constantly getting better and more accessible. Among others, products like iZotope Ozone (see our Ozone review) or IK Multimedia Lurssen Mastering Console (see our Lurssen Mastering Console review) make it easy and quick to achieve good sounding mastered tracks.
Personally, while I love such technologies for quick reference tasks or zero-budget projects, I prefer hiring a pro mastering engineer anytime I can. I guess these online services, both subscription-based and pay as you go can be helpful for those musicians who are just starting out and who are not able to afford or use the above-mentioned software apps. Worth the money? Yes and no. If you need your track mastered within the next 5 minutes and have no clue how to do it yourself (also because you likely have an untreated room!), then give these online services a try. If you would like to learn more about the new service by iMusician and use it for your next track, visit the official website.
Otherwise, save some money, buy less crap (do you really need a new phone?) and pass your track to a pro mastering engineer – if you’re serious about your music, that is! Last but not least, if you decide to go this way, you don’t necessarily have to hire a Grammy-winner mastering engineer – the studio market is full of people with great ears, nice gear and solid references, who might be less expensive than you think. Start checking out the credits of recent records you love, then write down a few names and Google them out.
Good luck with your next mastering adventure!
