How much would YOU pay to get your album mixed and mastered?

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

There's been a LOT of discussion about rates in the "middleweight" AE league, but I'm not sure if I've ever heard the artists' point of view in this. Now, this is aimed only for those people who are in the buying end of the business, i.e. bands and/or artists who need a professional mix and master for their album but can't quite consider Sneap, CLA or such truly great names.

How much do you guys think is a reasonable total amount for a post-production package including mixing, mastering and (if needed) related services such as reamping? And AE's, please don't vote, I'd prefer if only the artists would answer this one to keep the poll realistic! Discussion is naturally welcome, though!

As a disclaimer, this naturally won't affect my pricing in any way. I've just been surprised at people's expectations when I send out quotes for their enquiries and their reactions vary from "wow, that's cheap!" to "uh, ok, we have a budget of $100 tops for this, sorry."

EDIT:
I might have been a bit unclear. Let me clarify a couple of points:
- I'm not talking about paying ME or for MY work. I'm talking about mid-level professional engineers in general. You know, not the kid next door with a cracked copy of Cubase, not Lord-Alge, but the guys in between - which I think is a lot of the people who offer their services here.
- I definitely don't mind if the voter is an AE as well as an artist as long as he or she can realistically see himself paying for someone else for the services.
- I'm asking for the total price your band would be willing to pay, not how much each member is ready to spend on their part!

 

[Morgan C]

Not sure how well a poll will work here, given the differences in currency, and I'm sure there'll be difference in prices around the world. Are we assuming the poll is in USD?

 

[Skinny Viking]

also, are you ONLY asking how much they would pay YOU for these services or?

I mean, how much you would be willing to pay can be greatly adjusted depending on who it is that would actually be doing the mixing/mastering/etc ...

 

[26]

... how much you would be willing to pay can be greatly adjusted depending on who it is that would actually be doing the mixing/mastering/etc ...

that was exactly my first thought while reading too.

 

[LeSedna]

You might get a big range since it depends on the projects themselves, I voted considering the EP/album i'm currently doing all by myself so I'm therefore quite biased, but it's not representative of a full length normal album (like you only need to mix the core of one song since it's a supersong of 28mn, mixing is therefore a bit simplyfied, as well as mastering which basically is about mastering one song, and cutting the album in different track numbers).

For a normal full length I would vote at least the double, considering it's most likely to concern bands of 4 individuals sharing their investment, etc.

I voted though cause I consider myself quite from the "artist" side of things since I'm doing a project I have made from scratch, and I consider hiring people to work on my album (reamp, mastering, and a few other parts)

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Not sure how well a poll will work here, given the differences in currency, and I'm sure there'll be difference in prices around the world. Are we assuming the poll is in USD?

Yup, USD. I thought the dollar sign was enough, but I didn't consider it could be interpreted as AUD as well. CAD is pretty much 1:1 with USD, right?

Most of my clients are from around the world. This year I've had bands and artists from Finland, the US, England, France, Spain and so on and so on, and I'd imagine it's pretty much the same for most us. It's a global market.

also, are you ONLY asking how much they would pay YOU for these services or?

I mean, how much you would be willing to pay can be greatly adjusted depending on who it is that would actually be doing the mixing/mastering/etc ...

No, in general. Perhaps my original post should have been more specific. As I said, my rates are what they are. I'm interested in average figures bands are ready and willing to pay for professional work without going to the top dogs of the industry, in which case it pretty much never is the artists themselves who pay for it.

Quite honestly, I thought this would be a rather interesting statistic rather than a horribly difficult question that has the potential to be understood in a dozen different ways

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

You might get a big range since it depends on the projects themselves, I voted considering the EP/album i'm currently doing all by myself so I'm therefore quite biased, but it's not representative of a full length normal album (like you only need to mix the core of one song since it's a supersong of 28mn, mixing is therefore a bit simplyfied, as well as mastering which basically is about mastering one song, and cutting the album in different track numbers).

For a normal full length I would vote at least the double, considering it's most likely to concern bands of 4 individuals sharing their investment, etc.

I voted though cause I consider myself quite from the "artist" side of things since I'm doing a project I have made from scratch, and I consider hiring people to work on my album (reamp, mastering, and a few other parts)

Cool, that's exactly what I'm looking for, thanks! Even if the range of answers would be huge, given enough of them there should be a pattern emerging sooner or later.

 

[Ermz]

Well, the results thus far are somewhat underwhelming.

I think it'd depend where you ask. In a largely prosumer market like this, you'll get many folks who have that entitlement factor of thinking they can do it all themselves, hence the expectation of price will generally be low across the board. If you're talking about bands signed to larger labels, or with big aspirations in the scene, then you might start getting different patterns.

 

[Skinny Viking]

^ he also said he didn't want AE guys voting

 

[Skinny Viking]

but since I fall into the most unimpressive sense of the word "artist", I'll vote

assuming a full album, 10-12 songs with dense amounts of tracks per song and possible reamping ....

I'd say $3000 - $4000

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

^ he also said he didn't want AE guys voting

True, but that's just because I figure most of us have a pretty clear picture of how things look on our side.

I do agree with Ermz about the answers so far, though. I'm currently running a special Christmas campaign, and the largely discounted package deal barely fits there. It'll be interesting to see where things go, though!

EDIT:
And to clarify, I definitely don't mind if the voter is an AE as well as an artist as long as he or she can realistically see himself paying for someone else for the services.

 

[AEL89]

Good idea scoping this out. I'm not gonna vote as I'm in the same boat as you. My band has contacted Jens Bogren to mix our album (not happening for a while though) which obviously puts me in the $5000+ bracket. Anything less than $1500 just doesn't seem credible or fair. That's just my opinion.

EDIT: Just seen your edit... voted $5000+

 

[Skinny Viking]

ok then cause I was about to edit my post as well ...

I payed $4500 to track, mix & master my band's 1st cd like 10 years ago. The engineer wasn't anybody especially well known unless you float in the Ween circle and I knew nothing except the most basic principles of recording so essentially, he gave me a rate, I thought it was fair, that is what I payed and I have nothing negative to say about the entire experience

on top of getting what I payed for, I also learned pro tools from him ... so it was like taking classes at the same time and having the cost absorbed by my recording budget .... fair deal

 

[nwright]

I voted 2-3K as that's what my past bands has spent for recording. We do it all ouselves now, but if we ever felt we could get a better product locally than what we get now, we'd pay that amount...

From my own viewpoint, I'd rather pay someone to track our band than pay someone to mix and master, so that could lower the cost a bit.

 

[AdamG94]

I'd pay between £1500-2000, so $2500-3000.

 

[Ermz]

^ he also said he didn't want AE guys voting

Didn't vote, if that's what you're saying.

 

[Skinny Viking]

no, not what I was saying ... more that the initial less than stellar results might have been due to only a couple people having voted at that time

I think the results are starting to take form in a more realistic way now

 

[Skinny Viking]

one less vote in the $1000 - $1500 range moved up one spot and you could plot a fairly decent normal curve on that histogram

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

one less vote in the $1000 - $1500 range moved up one spot and you could plot a fairly decent normal curve on that histogram

Yup! I'm actually quite happy to see how this is turning out, the majority of votes landing in the $1000-3000 and $5000+ ranges. Yeah, there's quite a bit of dispersion, but if nothing else, it goes to show the majority of bands expectations are pretty realistic.

 

[professorlamp]

I put 0-500 as it's off my own back, If I were in a band it'd be around 500-100 and then there'd be other members contributing too so we'd have a nice budget