How much to charge?

[Joel4662]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13836295/back flops.mp3
yeah this is for my first clients, and i charged them like nothing.

so they posted this on FB and like 6 local bands contacted me about booking, how much should i charge like Ballpark

i know it depends on the local market but i really just need a ballpark cause i don't know any other local studios' rates :\

or any insight would help period haha thanks.

 

[OneDaySky]

I charge basically nothing. If i covert my currency to dollars, im charging $140 per song, no time limit! Im probably getting ripped, but i atleast have a constant income of clients.

 

[DullElysium]

I charge basically nothing. If i covert my currency to dollars, im charging $140 per song, no time limit! Im probably getting ripped, but i atleast have a constant income of clients.

Have you ever counted the hours spent on the whole process? This way you could see how much you get in an hour.

140$ might look like a big number on it's own but when you count the time spent on the project that might be even a really small number.

And to the original post I can really say just that the mix sounds amazing! I don't really know about how much you should charge but giving the outcome you shouldn't charge too little. You know your shit and you can give the clients top notch products.

I remember one of my friends saying their whole process was like a little over 1000€. 6 songs with one beig an unmixed outro+burning the cd:s and covers i think. wich is like 166,7€ (a little under 250 dollars) per song. Ofcourse if the Ep covers and cds were included in that price it's a little lower price. And I don't know how many were printed, where they were printed and how much that cost. And the band I'm talking about is One Morning Left (Our old guitarist used to play for these guys too).

 

[jimwilbourne]

I usually charge 150 USD for each song. And then an additional 150 USD for post production.

If my writing/arranging skills are needed, I tend to tack on additiinal fees.

 

[ahjteam]

I charge per day.

 

[Fandus]

you don't want to be working for $2 an hour right?

the general idea is the studios with all the legit gear charge more, but really, prices should be determined by the end result (right?).

here in australia studio prices tend to vary from 400-700 a day and there is not much difference in the end result, just some of those guys have bigger bank repayments on all that gear haha.

i personally run out of a home studio and charge $300 for a song (which allows up to 2 days of tracking everything and a third day of mixing) so i'm making $100 a day at least, and that's something i can live off.

charge what you need to make it worth your while basically.

 

[OneDaySky]

I take about 5 days per song for recording.

 

[Fandus]

I take about 5 days per song for recording.

that's rediculous, you must hate a every song by the end of it.

 

[Seth Munson]

I do 8 songs a day and charge about $4 an hour

 

[jimwilbourne]

I take about 5 days per song for recording.

ouch.
I can't imagine what you do that takes that long for each song.
it must take you weeks to track an EP.
I calculate roughly 2-days per-song for tracking & editing.

I also forgot to mention that I tend to do preproduction work with my bands these days. which is good because it makes the actual process go MUCH faster. and I pretty much already know the working mix when everything is done.

 

[timislegend]

all in.

 

[Joel4662]

Thanks for the replies guys! Yeah I was thinking by the song or by the day (by the hour is too much counting ) and i usually invest about 10 hours in a song once all tracking programming editing and mixing is done. So hey ~150 a song is twice the rate I get at my regular crappy job!

But thanks for ballparkin this for me guys good info here ^.^

 

[OneDaySky]

that's rediculous, you must hate a every song by the end of it.

I do, its a combination of being a perfectionist and not the best muso's at my disposal.

 

[OneDaySky]

I do 8 songs a day and charge about $4 an hour

Seth, you animal you :wink:

 

[OneDaySky]

ouch.
I can't imagine what you do that takes that long for each song.
it must take you weeks to track an EP.
I calculate roughly 2-days per-song for tracking & editing.

I also forgot to mention that I tend to do preproduction work with my bands these days. which is good because it makes the actual process go MUCH faster. and I pretty much already know the working mix when everything is done.

Studio is my 2nd Job, Im a full time Live Sound Engineer for the biggest Theatre in Africa, so that keeps me rather busy, so considering, 5 days isnt half bad. Quality is what im after at this stage of my studio career, so if i have time then i use it fully with no rush. Try using 5 days on a song and be anal about everything, i bet your productions will sound WAY BETTER!

 

[AllanD]

I do 100$ a song, going to go to 150$ next year, but I have a rule to where if a single song takes over 8 hours (recording, editing, mixing), I charge them more.

 

[Anthropocide]

Joel4662,
I don't know where are you from, but here in Russia mixing&masterig work with quality like your example usually costs about 50-100$.
My rates depend on stuff length. For one 4-minutes track I charge 800$, but for 40-minutes album I charge only 2000$. There are many reasons to slightly "overprice" very small projects.

 

[Joel4662]

Joel4662,
I don't know where are you from, but here in Russia mixing&masterig work with quality like your example usually costs about 50-100$.
My rates depend on stuff length. For one 4-minutes track I charge 800$, but for 40-minutes album I charge only 2000$. There are many reasons to slightly "overprice" very small projects.

Yeah that makes sense cause it's alot harder to do the first track than the rest

I was thinking something like that where the more songs you do the price per song goes down.

 

[Seth Munson]

IMO, always overprice. You can always work your way down to where you think you should be but if the band is willing to pay it, why stop them?
And to be honest, Josh Wickman convinced me to raise my rates, once I finally did I was getting even more business than before.
People think because you are more money than "insert competitive studio here" that you're are WAY better quality even if thats not the case.

 

[OneDaySky]

People think because you are more money than "insert competitive studio here" that you're are WAY better quality even if thats not the case.

HAHA! Thats pretty clever Seth!