Mixing session done - band refuses to pay

Unfortunatelly this is the world.
I did a 6 songs EP for a band in october, I made hundreds of changes every day because one guy found microscopic "mistakes" here and there (the mistakes you can find in every album, if you wanna find them), we negotiated 1500€ for the whole work this summer and it was ok.
Some weeks ago I finished the work (or better, I said "now stop. It's finished! No more changes!") and I send them the mastered songs but, with 2-3 silences here and there in every song. After 2-3 days the "1000 mistakes guy" said me "hey, we'll put 1 song on myspace to promote the Metalcamp competition, can you send me this song? It would be awesome".
(Take note that he asked me 2 changes in the mix (I was already in the master session) the morning before and it was Sunday.)

"When you will pay, I'll send you what you want"
"But it's only a song..."
"It was a single song this summer as well, but you paid me at the end of THIS session (before the ep we recorded a single song in July) so :) ..."
"But of course we will pay you, we have to distribute an ep so we'll pay"
"Ok...I'll be in your city this weekend, so for 3 days you can wait. If you will pay, you'll have your cd"
"But we'll play a gig friday...we can't"
"Ok. You knew the rule - The product is delivered when you pay - so there are no problems."
"Ok...amen"

After 3 weeks they still haven't paid, so where is now the hurry they have? Disappear
Nowadays I ask them when we can complete the transaction, but nobody knows nothing "ask him" "ask him"....I hate them
At the end of the story, the 90% of the people is friend untill they can earn something, but when money comes out....
 
greyskull said:
oh dear.
i NEVER do rough mixes.
no money=no product
Click to expand...

I always ask for all money up front or with labels I trust 50/50. But with mixing it's usually very hard to make an estimate, and when it's the artists paying for it themselves I sometimes tend to be a bit "nicer". It's of course a risk I'm taking but I think this has gained in giving me a good reputation in the long run instead of being regarded as a cold economical robot.
This mix was also something that I put in lower priority as a "do it when I have some time to spare" kind of thing, so I didn't feel comfortable asking for a prepayment when I didn't know exactly when I'd be done.

I would NEVER work in this way with labels though, I want to make that very clear. So the problem I get in those cases are stalled payments and endless excuses but I always get paid in the end. It never involves this kind of blatant ignorance.
 
most people do not understand the process of mixing. They think its all in the DAW. Just a plug here and there and the song is finished. What the hell are these guys think of a serious producer?
Its very hard to tell someone the exact amount before the mixing process and I think its more harder to tell it when the guys tracked the instruments by themselves...
 
I see that you are portuguese. Sim é realmente muito mau estar a trabalhar para o boneco. Pelo que li parece que será dificil veres a cor ao dinheiro. No teu caso eu tentaria difundir esta historia no maior numero de foruns de musica e produção possiveis. Porque se a banda não paga de uma maneira ou menos que pague de outra. Claro que não é isto que poem o comer na mesa ao fim do mês. Mas ainda assim demonstras o caracter deles e prevines que alguem caia no mesmo erro novamente. Alias se tens uma pagina de myspace sobre o estudio, até lá eu punha em letras grandes os caloteiros que eles são.

Edit: Ok I saw better and you are not portuguese!lol But are you living in Portugal? Btw I dont know if you speak portuguese. But I hope that you understand what I said.
 
This kind of shit makes me furious. It's like anything else , would you tell a contractor to build you a house and then be like , oh , I didn't know it would be that much , I don't want the house now. The contractor would fucking disembowel you.
 
Nuno Filipe said:
I see that you are portuguese. Sim é realmente muito mau estar a trabalhar para o boneco. Pelo que li parece que será dificil veres a cor ao dinheiro. No teu caso eu tentaria difundir esta historia no maior numero de foruns de musica e produção possiveis. Porque se a banda não paga de uma maneira ou menos que pague de outra. Claro que não é isto que poem o comer na mesa ao fim do mês. Mas ainda assim demonstras o caracter deles e prevines que alguem caia no mesmo erro novamente. Alias se tens uma pagina de myspace sobre o estudio, até lá eu punha em letras grandes os caloteiros que eles são.

Edit: Ok I saw better and you are not portuguese!lol But are you living in Portugal? Btw I dont know if you speak portuguese. But I hope that you understand what I said.
Click to expand...

No worries, my wife translated it for me, hehe. I live in Portugal since 4 years but I haven't managed to learn the language. Waaaaaay different from Swedish, and I haven't really had time to engage in it. Kind of sad...

Edit: I've put it out on some forums, I guess that's enough.
 
JayB said:
This kind of shit makes me furious. It's like anything else , would you tell a contractor to build you a house and then be like , oh , I didn't know it would be that much , I don't want the house now. The contractor would fucking disembowel you.
Click to expand...

That is EXACTLY the point, couldn't have worded it better. Actually the same thing happened to a friend of mine who built a freaking boat (a boat!) and in the end the guy had changed his mind and didn't want it anymore. Can't remember how he solved it in the end though, but he didn't get the money.
 
You charged a $1000 to mix one song? Holy shit!!

I can def see from the point of the band. A $1000 in Portugal goes a long way.

And can see why both parties would have an issue with this problem.
 
Jarkko Mattheiszen said:
If the first Google search results of the band's name show discussions about how they refused to pay you, they'll probably realize they're better off just paying the sum without further arguing... ;)
Click to expand...

He should have put their name (Angstridden) in the subject and in his post (Angstridden) so that Google's (Angstridden) bots would pick it (Angstridden) up better.
Angstridden suck!
 
Dandelium said:
If I was the band I wouldn't pay either. 600€ for a single track without previous warning? That's just insane, sorry.
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I mean can't TGS realize that a band with less than 2000 friends in their myspace, won't be able to afford a pro producer?
 
tgs said:
That there makes no sense at all

1) the band is greek
2) Portugal is not Thailand. It's a european country, not a low-cost paradise.
3) I charge for the time I spend on it, not by the song. This was a 9 minute track and it needed a lot of work. Claiming that I overcharge is absolutely ridiculous.
Click to expand...

I'm not saying you overcharge. $500 a day is probably close to what most pro producers take home when they are lucky enough to have work in this climate.

I'm saying you lacked judgment when Cletus walked into the car lot, and you try and sell him a sports car.
 
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