I would have to agree that a lot of people are not charging near enough. Charging 50-100 dollars a song, tracked, mixed and mastered... Wow.. Unless you only own like an SM57, that is a waste of ones time. Recording is an Art, you should be paid as if you were an artist making a custom piece of art. Not only does raising your prices bring real talent, it will make you seem like you are better than you really are attracting new more serious clients. Low balling everyone else won't bring you business, it just attracts inexperienced bands that aren't serious most of the time. At that point you usually have to work even harder at editing. I'd really like to see everyone charging higher rates to show some respect to the art of recording music again, and to show the respect it deserves. Thats just my 2 cents.
How much do you charge?
- Thread starter ahjteam
- Start date
brianhood
No Care Ever
I will have to agree and disagree with you here. You are correct to an extent, but until you've been in the shoes of a band, it's hard to determine what a fair price is. I know how hard it is for bands to get together $200 per day to record with me, but i also know it's doable. You only record around once a year, so 5 dudes should be able to come up with that. On the other hand, charging $400 per day for local bands without any kind of label recording budget is quite a rip off for most studios. I see alot of crap studios with a nice setup but a terrible end product that charges that, and it's sad to see bands pay that much for something that isn't worth it
HandsOfDespair
Member
Yeah I see lots of bands going to studios with tons of gear asking 1k a song, and the end result sounds like shit.
Ermz
¯\(°_o)/¯
I sort of agree with Brian, but I think $400 is a fairly reasonable rate, provided you're getting something worth it. Ultimately we can't decide what the operator's worth is. The end product speaks for itself, and if people are willing to pay for it, well there you go. Some of the local indie bands here have been the most keen to pay a lot to get a great product. I had a drum session where the band were paying around $740 per day simply to get a great studio.
Where there's a will, there's a way. Between so many people getting together enough for a decent recording is mostly a matter of restraint, organization and responsibility. I have a hard time buying into the whole 'but we're too poor!' speech. Either don't record, or sit down and work for it!
Where there's a will, there's a way. Between so many people getting together enough for a decent recording is mostly a matter of restraint, organization and responsibility. I have a hard time buying into the whole 'but we're too poor!' speech. Either don't record, or sit down and work for it!
believe me, i'd love to charge more than i am right now
but when you move 2,000 mi. across the country, and have only done 1 project in the last 2 years that was tracked in a dining room and mixed in an untreated bedroom, charging hundreds of dollars per day, to me, is ludicrous
i basically charge what i would pay an engineer in my position if i was a band looking to record. a pile of decent gear in a spare bedroom with an engineer who is educated yet still fairly inexperienced is, to me, worth about $10/hr.
thankfully i have a bunch of shit coming up all of the sudden this spring/summer...and when those projects are done(assuming i land the gigs i think i'm going to land), i'll have developed enough of a local reputation that i can ask for more $$ and not have people laugh in my face. until then, it looks like i'll be doing demos and EP's for $300-500 each.
edit: i also understand the entire mentality that where there's a will there's a way, and that bands can always scrounge up more cash to get a good recording...but the simple truth is that if someone in my position asks for significantly more than what i am, they can go to a dedicated studio with a much more experienced engineer who has much better gear available to them....
long story short...baby steps, motherfuckers!
Winston Wolf
Member
- Mar 2, 2010
- 159
- 1
- 18
May be it is one of the reasons why UK scene is so dead.no one takes it seriously...
i reckon you got quite decent gear,so you just underestimate yourself?
I am newcomer,i got much worse gear than that,however working for free is not an option,tried couple of times - it's all bullshit,there's a thread on this somewhere on the forum,exactly the same story happened to me...
what should i do? charge £30?
Loren Littlejohn
Lover of all boobage.
See though, I could live sort of on 9 buck an hour in the midwest. I can't in NY.
I garantee you that it's impossible to live off 11 bucks an hour in NYC or LA.
1) use pdf
2) change the first line to "The downpayment is $X and it is due Y weeks prior to recording session and it is non-refundable. Unability to pay the downpayment invoice leads to cancellation of the session."
May be it is one of the reasons why UK scene is so dead.no one takes it seriously...
i reckon you got quite decent gear,so you just underestimate yourself?
I am newcomer,i got much worse gear than that,however working for free is not an option,tried couple of times - it's all bullshit,there's a thread on this somewhere on the forum,exactly the same story happened to me...
what should i do? charge £30?
I'm a newcomer also. I'm not wanting to overcharge and then get told what I'm doing sucks. I'm trying hard to do the best I can and I'll put the price up as I get better. I don't think I'm undercutting myself. I'm just trying to get started out and I'm still trying to get good gear.
EDIT: I got into recording by doing demos for my band. We got some gear together and went from there.
professorlamp
I are Joe
+1 to Jeid
everyone has to start somewhere (even if that is in terms of price)
Im pretty much in his shoes charging around £40 per track, If i made a shit thing and they paid me £100 a track the end result would be... they wouldnt pay me, or id feel guilty for doing them a disservice
everyone has to start somewhere (even if that is in terms of price)
Im pretty much in his shoes charging around £40 per track, If i made a shit thing and they paid me £100 a track the end result would be... they wouldnt pay me, or id feel guilty for doing them a disservice
That's my fear. I don't mind doing it. I'm not in it to make money. I'm learning and they're paying me some money to continue learning. £60 a track is a lot cheaper than some of the studios around here (there's 3) and they charge between 15-20 an hour. I'm not dissing them, they have their place, but they are not suited to rock/metal. I'm trying to do good quality demos. The people coming to me know that and they're happy with what they're getting.
I'm picking bits of information up here on how to look after my business stuff and how to prepare bands. I'm learning techniques to use to get my way :zombie:
FWIW, i knew of a guy who graduated from the LARW and got a job at a pro studio in LA as an assistant engineer. his pay was $10/hr. with a $1600/mo. retainer in case the studio didn't have 40 hrs/week worth of work for him. this was after 2 years of working there, during which time he was the credited assistant on 2 multi-platinum albums, one of which earned him a grammy.
now i agree that's a ludicrous amount to pay someone for that type of work, especially in LA, but i think it's a good example of exactly how much the recording industry is reeling at the moment. if i can make the same amount in my bedroom that this guy can in a legit pro facility, then that's cool with me(for now, at least).
also, i thought of this thread earlier when some local kids came by and told me they were going to record with me because i'm charging 1/2 of what another local guy wants, and my shit also sounds better...looks like a price increase will definitely be on my radar here soon.
lolzgreg
Cereal Shipping Sneapster
I charge anywhere from $25 to $35 an hour. I live in the second most expensive town in New York state (AFAIK). You gotta make a living.
Let it burn...
Orgasm Donor
currently, it's 80eur/track, mixing and mastering only. Tracking is another 80/day
I make special prices for bands I know though.
I make special prices for bands I know though.
CatharsisStudios
trcksngsrpbngs
- Jun 25, 2008
- 2,198
- 10
- 38
i just do it for free tbh
lets see how fucking horrible this town is
hospice - free
thrill that kills - free
ctc (FULL LEGNTH FUCKING ALBUM) 750
EX NIHILO FULL LEGNTH ALBUM (350)
abraxis ep 750
hardtop for kennedy 6xx something (ep)
FMS - free kinda.
fml.
lets see how fucking horrible this town is
hospice - free
thrill that kills - free
ctc (FULL LEGNTH FUCKING ALBUM) 750
EX NIHILO FULL LEGNTH ALBUM (350)
abraxis ep 750
hardtop for kennedy 6xx something (ep)
FMS - free kinda.
fml.
Ganks
Member
- Nov 1, 2009
- 518
- 0
- 16
My own band - Free
My friend's band - Free (They fucked me over.)
My other friend's band - Free
Solo shit with friends - Free
----------------------------
Wednesday With Reda - $200 (5 song EP)
I feel like my recordings have reached payable status. So from this point on, I will not do anymore free work. Except for my own band... Have any of you guys ever tried to convince your own band to pay you? Yeah fucking right. Lmfao.
On my page, it says I charge $75/song, but I tend to work with people's budgets. I know how bad it sucks to want your music to be heard, but only have enough to record one song.
Eventually, I will up my prices. But for now, this is working for me.
My friend's band - Free (They fucked me over.)
My other friend's band - Free
Solo shit with friends - Free
----------------------------
Wednesday With Reda - $200 (5 song EP)
I feel like my recordings have reached payable status. So from this point on, I will not do anymore free work. Except for my own band... Have any of you guys ever tried to convince your own band to pay you? Yeah fucking right. Lmfao.
On my page, it says I charge $75/song, but I tend to work with people's budgets. I know how bad it sucks to want your music to be heard, but only have enough to record one song.
Eventually, I will up my prices. But for now, this is working for me.
kaomao
Member
Trevoire520
Member
Have any of you guys ever tried to convince your own band to pay you? Yeah fucking right. Lmfao.
For my bands cd that I'm working on the now I got £100 towards drum triggers. The singer was saying he thinks I should also get whatever cash is left from t-shirt sales and that I shouldn't have to chip in for getting cd's pressed. Not much but it's better than a kick in the cunt.
The studio I work in charges £18 per hour for recording (I get paid £7 p.h.) and I do editing, mixing and "mastering" (making it loud-ish) for £25 per song. I'm planning to put up my rate for bands that need alot of editing though.
::XeS::
Member
You're selling yourself guys.
If you act like this, bands will say "hey, we recorded with that guy! It did an amazing job and FOR FREE!" so every band wants to record for free. Or worse, you record for free many bands and when you decide to charge a decent amount of money, next band will say "hey, why we have to pay and all the other bands got an awesome album for free??".
If you act like this, bands will say "hey, we recorded with that guy! It did an amazing job and FOR FREE!" so every band wants to record for free. Or worse, you record for free many bands and when you decide to charge a decent amount of money, next band will say "hey, why we have to pay and all the other bands got an awesome album for free??".
