Was going to bump an older thread but the question here is a bit different although still obviously related...
I am finally making the push to get out there and start recording other bands on a regular basis and am having a hard time deciding on how to charge or whether to post rates at all.
Reasons for not posting rates:
-Every project is different, songs are different lengths, different number of instruments in different bands, etc.
-Charging by the song means you get screwed when a band can't play their instruments and takes way longer than expected to get the tracking done
-Charging per hour means you get bands who book 6 hours of studio time expecting to get a 5 song EP completely tracked, so after their time is up and it's not done, they have to try and book more time (which you can't fit into your schedule at this point because it's too late) or you have to push a shitty sounding product out the door with your name on it
-Public rates means you can't charge differently depending on the quality of the performances you are expecting to get and the professionalism of the musicians
All that being said, when you are brand new and trying to get your name out there, it is REALLY hard to expect bands to contact you when your name hasn't spread around yet and they can't just go to your website and get an idea of pricing.
I know if I was looking between 5-6 different studios to do a demo, the only ones I would bother contacting with serious intentions to record would be guys who I know have a great reputation from other bands in the scene. If I went to a brand new dudes webpage and he had 3-4 pretty good sounding clips but no pricing to give me any idea of what I'm expecting to pay, I would rather negotiate with the dude who has the reputation. People are lazy and want information hand fed to them, that's just how it is.
So in the mean time, until I build a solid client list and a good reputation in the area, I feel like I need to post some sort of pricing purely as an incentive to get bands to bother contacting me at all vs. the more established guys, as I feel like having posted prices (even though it works to my disadvantage economically) gives me an advantage over guys who don't post prices as far as attracting clients to begin with.
What I ended up deciding on was a price of $100/ 8-10 hour day rate for tracking, $15/hr for any time booked in smaller segments (like 3-4 hours on a weeknight to track some vocals) and $40/song on top of that for mixing/"mastering"(ie. throw some plugins on there and try to bring it up to commercial levels as transparently as possible, I am no mastering engineer, I just need to get the mixes louder while keeping them sounding as close to the original mix as possible).
On top of this, I included a quick note on the page that the pricing is a guideline designed to give you an idea of what budget to expect for recording with me and to contact me with specifics about your project if you would like to work out a project price/schedule for your particular situation.
I think my rates are super cheap but I need to charge around there to get bands in at first. The shitty thing about the posted rates is that once I build the clientelle and can raise the rates, everyone in the area already knows the rates I was charging before and I don't want to be looked down upon as that greedy asshole jacking his prices. This obviously isn't a problem when you negotiate prices per project.
Part of me still wants to just charge "per song" as that makes it super easy for bands and means I'll get more work, but bands paying $100/song are obviously broke, and rarely are broke, young, lazy musicians also super tight talented musicians, which makes the tracking process a bit of a nightmare as far as timeframe goes. Like I said before though, charging a day/hourly rate also means you end up with bands with totally unrealistic expectations of what can be accomplished in one day, at least when aiming for the quality that I want to put out in order to build a good reputation.
Bah!!! What do you guys do to get around this problem? An hourly/daily rate with some sort of breakdown about how much time is required per song? I know Joey does that but I just think charging anything "per song" leaves you open to get fucked regardless...
I am finally making the push to get out there and start recording other bands on a regular basis and am having a hard time deciding on how to charge or whether to post rates at all.
Reasons for not posting rates:
-Every project is different, songs are different lengths, different number of instruments in different bands, etc.
-Charging by the song means you get screwed when a band can't play their instruments and takes way longer than expected to get the tracking done
-Charging per hour means you get bands who book 6 hours of studio time expecting to get a 5 song EP completely tracked, so after their time is up and it's not done, they have to try and book more time (which you can't fit into your schedule at this point because it's too late) or you have to push a shitty sounding product out the door with your name on it
-Public rates means you can't charge differently depending on the quality of the performances you are expecting to get and the professionalism of the musicians
All that being said, when you are brand new and trying to get your name out there, it is REALLY hard to expect bands to contact you when your name hasn't spread around yet and they can't just go to your website and get an idea of pricing.
I know if I was looking between 5-6 different studios to do a demo, the only ones I would bother contacting with serious intentions to record would be guys who I know have a great reputation from other bands in the scene. If I went to a brand new dudes webpage and he had 3-4 pretty good sounding clips but no pricing to give me any idea of what I'm expecting to pay, I would rather negotiate with the dude who has the reputation. People are lazy and want information hand fed to them, that's just how it is.
So in the mean time, until I build a solid client list and a good reputation in the area, I feel like I need to post some sort of pricing purely as an incentive to get bands to bother contacting me at all vs. the more established guys, as I feel like having posted prices (even though it works to my disadvantage economically) gives me an advantage over guys who don't post prices as far as attracting clients to begin with.
What I ended up deciding on was a price of $100/ 8-10 hour day rate for tracking, $15/hr for any time booked in smaller segments (like 3-4 hours on a weeknight to track some vocals) and $40/song on top of that for mixing/"mastering"(ie. throw some plugins on there and try to bring it up to commercial levels as transparently as possible, I am no mastering engineer, I just need to get the mixes louder while keeping them sounding as close to the original mix as possible).
On top of this, I included a quick note on the page that the pricing is a guideline designed to give you an idea of what budget to expect for recording with me and to contact me with specifics about your project if you would like to work out a project price/schedule for your particular situation.
I think my rates are super cheap but I need to charge around there to get bands in at first. The shitty thing about the posted rates is that once I build the clientelle and can raise the rates, everyone in the area already knows the rates I was charging before and I don't want to be looked down upon as that greedy asshole jacking his prices. This obviously isn't a problem when you negotiate prices per project.
Part of me still wants to just charge "per song" as that makes it super easy for bands and means I'll get more work, but bands paying $100/song are obviously broke, and rarely are broke, young, lazy musicians also super tight talented musicians, which makes the tracking process a bit of a nightmare as far as timeframe goes. Like I said before though, charging a day/hourly rate also means you end up with bands with totally unrealistic expectations of what can be accomplished in one day, at least when aiming for the quality that I want to put out in order to build a good reputation.
Bah!!! What do you guys do to get around this problem? An hourly/daily rate with some sort of breakdown about how much time is required per song? I know Joey does that but I just think charging anything "per song" leaves you open to get fucked regardless...
and the songs on the player aren't final mixes either, just placeholder material again more or less, but check it out...
