How much should I charge?

[Melodeath]

I recorded a band's demo last summer in my home studio. I only charged them $20 per song (recording, mixing, mastering) b/c all three members of the band were friends. We had to record guitar and bass scratch tracks, final guitar and bass, drums, and solos.

However, an acquaintance of mine wants me to record drums for his band's album. We would just be recording drums, but it may involve recording scratch guitar tracks.

They want to record about 50 minutes worth of material (7 songs).

How much do you think I should charge? $20 per song is a very low rate, and it was for friends, so I'm not sure how much to charge for this project. Again, I will be recording only drums and maybe some scratch guitars.

Advice?

 

[Element_man]

Interesting. Most studios are charging between 30 and 50 dollars PER HOUR, and my band recently recorded our EP with David Parks of Dark Forest who is a mobile studio and charges 20 dollars per hour. 20 per song is definately too little, if what you are producing is of good quality. After all, you bought this gear so you may as well try and make your money back.

Are you using equipment that could be considered profressional, and what kind of training and credentials do you yourself have as a recording engineer? You could very well charge 20 dollars an hour for your services which is still a low price, or you could do 50 dollars per song, or something like that. I'm just going by what I've seen with studios in my area, so hopefully this will give you an idea.

Let's put it this way though, charging 350 dollars to record 50 minutes of material is a steal for a band, and that's at over double your original price.

 

[waif]

Yeah, $20 is nothing...unless you're using shitty equipment.

 

[Taurus]

Since the final will be just drums I would go $50 per song....If you can do a Pro job that is.

 

[stitches2990]

I would not charge per song. Especially if you don't how well this drummer can record. You may find yourself obligated to spend 2 hours a song for a band that cant get their shit together.

 

[Element_man]

I would not charge per song. Especially if you don't how well this drummer can record. You may find yourself obligated to spend 2 hours a song for a band that cant get their shit together.

I would agree with this. I'd only charge a per-song price if you're doing the recording for good friends or something like that. Per hour is best.

 

[Nayz]

If you give us a list of some of the equipment you use (such as microphones, software, mixing desk, focusrite etc...) it would certainly help us in giving you a estimate of a fair price