2021 AIR Audio Community Survey
We reached out to the AIR community last summer to learn more about your path into audio; gauge what you were struggling with in your work; and pinpoint how we could best support you with expanded programs and resources. We heard from 300 members of the audio community. We’ve highlighted some key takeaways below.
We wanted to know how many years you have been making radio / audio. Almost 32% of respondents told us they’ve been making radio/audio for 11+ years! Overall, 81% of respondents have 3 or more years of experience creating audio with 19% who are in the first 2 years of getting started.
We asked you to describe your work situation and how you make your income. A third of respondents freelance as their primary income, with slightly less working a salaried job in the audio sector. Another third are currently looking for audio work with the rest indicating that they freelance on the side, work on a passion project, or work in an industry outside of audio.
The majority of our community responded that their main role is Producer at a whopping 54.61%. We also have some reporters, editors, hosts, audio engineers and sound designers. 18% indicated “other” as their role and listed things like: consultant, writer, teacher/instructor, managing producer, business development, project manager, production coordinator, show runner and voice actor among others.
We asked what kind of audio our community produces. Survey participants told us that they work across a few different formats, ranging from podcasts to news spots to experimental sound art. Other things that respondents wrote in were oral history, youth-produced media, commercials, music and audio guides.
Being an AIR member includes many opportunities ranging from professional development, networking, mentorship and training. Plus, AIR members get access to SoundPath, AIR’s digital training platform for the audio community that launched in Spring 2021. Through SoundPath, we offer webinars, small live classes and a library of recorded webinars. Below are the types of professional development opportunities that most interest our community.
The subject areas our community is most interested in taking a class or training included: storytelling and story editing, skill classes in learning DAWs (Pro Tools, Adobe Audition, Reaper, Hindenburg, etc), sound design and music.
Other areas of interest include: mixing, the podcast production process from start to finish, investigative research, reporting and interviewing, marketing and analytics, video production as complementary material, planning podcasts for newsrooms, and making and selling news features.
AIR is a membership association of over 1500 members. The more members we have, the more influence we can make within the larger audio industry. We asked what you think are the biggest challenges facing the audio industry at the moment. Here’s what you said:
How can AIR better support our community and invest in their range of needs? Here’s a sample of your frequently recurring asks:
- Promoting yourself and your work
- Finding work
- Growing industry opportunities through networking
- Honing and perfecting your audio features or podcasts
- Engineering and technical skills
- Accessing contracts, IP and legal resources
- Mentorships
- Grant writing
- Nuts and bolts of managing a small business
- Finding collaborators or pitches for projects
*2021 AIR community survey results based on a poll of 300 members and non-members representing a range of audio projects, demographics and career experiences, conducted between August 12 and September 1, 2021.