Pre-production, session playing and other services, how do charge?

[DanLights]

So I´ve been contacted to do drum programming/composing and to play session bass on three songs, and out of impulse to strike a deal quickly I sold myself way too low. It´s too late to fix this one, but now I want to know what estimates do you charge for these "extra" services, both if you are including mixing afterwards or not, and how many of you actually do this. In my case, I will most likely be mixing the material in September but it hasn´t been set so it´s not sure yet.

Do you charge by the hour when programming drums or other pre-production tasks? Do you charge by song when doing session playing? Do you rate it depending on difficulty/complexity of the songs? I gave my guy an hourly rate but that would only apply if he is in the room with me and I program while he´s listening and giving ideas, but this guy´s at the other side of the country so it´s impossible, in the end I estimated it and gave him a fixed rate for both things, after hanging up I now feel ashamed of how low I went (too ashamed to tell as well hahaha), but it´s still a pretty easy job and it´ll be fun (two pretty straightforward trad heavy metal songs and a Maiden cover), plus it would be my first paid sessions bassist job and I would love to build a little reputation in that field as well. Plus, I won´t be so cheap when he contacts me to mix the songs later on, I´ll charge him my standard rate

Share your thoughts and opinions!

 

[Mago]

Yop per hour I'd say

Or you calculate how long it should take and make an offer for everything beforehand, if you allready know your workflow, recordingflow ect

 

[TomCase]

Hi,

I would charge my hourly rate for the drum programing.

I would gladly play bass for free on 99% of the projects I do. Would make my life MUCH easier :Spin:

Enjoy

Tom

 

[Revson]

If you're going to program or play an instrument for someone else then charge what a session musician makes in your area or maybe slightly less to give the guy a package deal. Really only you can know how long it will take to program/play everything so in a situation like you're in you will have to become quite good at estimating.

Pre-production should be a part of your standard hourly rate, unless you want to give a discount to entice new business.