This is probably the most dangerous thing you can do. People do not achieve overnight success. Unless of course you are a celebrity spawn who already has access to the best resources. Real success involves work. Hard work. You cannot give up at the first sign of failure. Even if it is for the 50th time, you still cannot give up. Believe in yourself and stay on track. Do not lose sight of the end goal. For any aspiring musician, the one thing that can be really stressful is getting their music professionally recorded. There are so many things to think about after all. For one, there are different options out there today including equipment you could buy and setup at home. Which while useful, is not ideal for the purpose. Think about it: you will be recording your music for people to hear, captured forever. Do you really want it to sound horrible? Probably not. Most up and coming musicians are not entirely sure of what to look for professionally though. Which is why this should help.
Pay A Personal Visit
Just like you would check out a house or a car before buying it, you should do the same when scouting out a recording studio. This will help you gain a personal look into things. The setup, the building itself, the quality of the equipment; all things that will allow you to gauge whether it is worth the money you spend. You can also find out whether it might too fancy for you, in that it has more than what you want. If you are on a tight budget and cannot afford a lot, this too is useful.
Cost
As mentioned above, you will have to lay out the costs clearly. You would be better off researching a few places and then shortlisting them first. Do bear in mind though that low costs do not always mean a poor job, and high prices do not guarantee the best results. This is where you have to make an informed decision. Additionally, it would be in your best interests to add an extra 10% or so to the planned budget to prepare for unexpected expenses. They crop up suddenly and you do not want to be caught off-guard.
Reputation
Once again, this is something you look at before investing in a great service. Unless by some stroke of luck you get signed up with Jay-Z’s music production studio, you need to look at reputation. What sort of image do they have in society? Are they popular with musicians in general? Are the legit and good at what they do? Proper studios will have plenty of information for you to look into. If you have never heard of the name of the studio before in your life, then best you stay away.
Meet The People
You will have to be working with the people in the studio for hopefully a long time, so you should get along with them. How do you know whether you will gel together? By meeting them of course. Spend some time with them and pay attention to your chemistry. If you do not seem to align very much, then keep looking. Nobody likes to feel uncomfortable at the end of the day. Besides, music is a beautiful thing and you should be in a positive environment not a negative one.