Question about charging

[AmirH]

So I'm thinking I might get some flac for this one... A friend who I've been recording rap/hip hop demos for just called me and said he has some friends who've been looking around for a studio- they heard some of his stuff and were impressed. I told him he could go ahead and give them my number. Ethical issue of taking business away from professional establishments aside, what would you consider a reasonable price? I've been charging 40 a song for my friend and putting in 6-8 hours per song easy. Should I just give them the same price? Little more? little less? by the hour? I'd definitely rather under charge than over charge but I also think I'm getting decent at this rap/hip hop production thing.

Sample of one of one of the more recent mixtape tracks-
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=download&ufid=78B947E0359F250C

Not really "pro" work I don't think, but not bad sounding either. Note- we left the de-esser off on that to give it a bit more of a raw feeling. *shrugs* But yeah, what do you guys think would be fair?

 

[Ermz]

In an upcoming project I asked for $500AUD to mix a 4-track demo. So that's $125AUD a day.

It depends on the project though. If I were doing a full-length, I would ask for substantially more, since I would invest much more time and of course the quality bar would be raised.

Bands need to get used to paying for quality, so make sure to make the fee worth your while. If you can flip burgers at McDonald's for more cash at the end of the day, than a mixing job, then there's something wrong.

 

[AmirH]

Haha there were a few annoying ones with my friend where it must've been like 3 dollars an hour in the end but I figured it didn't matter since he was my bud anyway. Depending on how long one day is for you- that's a little more than twice what I was charging once I started knowing how to solve previous problems, not including the relatively unmixed "b-sides" I'd let him do afterward. Seems like I should charge more relative to time spent eh? At least that way I'm not undercutting real establishments so drastically.

 

[Ermz]

Yeah, exactly. A lot of the smaller local studios down here are going under simply because most bands have one or two odd friends with 'home studios' who are willing to produce for peanuts (for whatever reason).

That means the overall quality of productions goes down as well as the average rate studios have to charge to compete.

That's cool if it's your friend, I get it. I've done a ton of free recordings/mixes/masters for friends as I was learning because the payment I was getting from it was the ability to sharpen my skills as well as get my work put out there. After a while though, you need to make them understand that you are doing 6-8 hours of real work per song. You should also be compensated accordingly.

 

[006]

We recently switched our pricing tier to albums only, $2,500USD to start. That $2.5k books an entire week, with 16 hours per day available to work on the project, and anything after the first week is priced accordingly. But we've been doing this for years, recording that is. And we have quite a nice chunk of change invested in equipment and a proper building so I think we're pretty justified in our price. Plus my boss and I both have papers, i.e. my boss has a degree in audio engineering and I have a certificate...doesn't mean much to us, but it allows us to charge more and seem like we're allowed to.

~006

 

[006]

On a side note, before we switched it was first $20/hour flat rate and we did sessions in increments of 8 hours, so a day at 8 hours would get you a 4 song demo, basically live tracked, out the door, maybe some editing and creative corner cutting mixing, if you were lucky. 16 hours meant two days, and you could get a decent 8 song demo done in that amount of time, nothing spectacular, but better than most demos around here. Then we had the 4 day special, which basically ended up with them paying for three days, getting the fourth free, which was cool because we got more time to work on their shit. Then we added a whole week of booking availability, which was super cool becuase then shit started really sounding good, lots of time to get it right. Then we went to $40/hour once that started. Then after we started seeing more and more bands doing a whole week, we said "why not just do albums only a week at a time and charge a basic fee flat out up front?"...so we did.

Now, when a band calls and wants just like 16 hours or something, I do their session on my days off with my home studio...or I record their show for them (multi-tracked) and end up reamping and using Drumagog a lot and shit like that...making into a studio sounding album, but live (with audience mics n shit, really cool). I make a lot of cash on the side that way. :-D

~006

 

[Ermz]

006 knows what's happenin

Does that 2.5k flat fee include engineer as well as studio time? Say a band wanted a freelancer in, how would that flat fee change?

 

[Gnash]

I think your reputation should determine your rates. It sounds like you got a client with your rep! I mean, if your shit sounds good, you won't have a bad conscience about your rates. I've heard albums produced by well equipped engineers that sounded like ass, compared to my old 4 track shit! Fuck that lame, Dokken, bon Jovi, snare sound. If you've got the ears, and the heart, your in business! Start out at $100 a song! It'll pay the light bill at least!:Smokin:

 

[AmirH]

Thanks for the advice guys! I just quoted him for 40 a song plus 10 dollars per hour for mixing- extra if he needed me to help him program a beat. I explained that the longer I have to mix the more polished I could make it sound and that I could make an "okay" sounding mix in 2-3 hours but a "more finished" sound if I had time to let my ears rest and revisit for another 3 hours or so. I figure this way the cost is directly proportional to time spent with it but at 70 or so per song he'd still get a good product. Fair enough eh?

I think I'll move all the stuff I need over to my slave drive and format my harddisk though. I'm gonna need the computer running better if he needs beats programmed.

 

[Seizure.]

I get 50 euro's for a live gig right know (mixing 1 band, that i know that is) what should/could i be asking? i'm 18 at the mo'

 

[006]

Well, we've only ever had three freelancers come in with a band. And one of them was myself before I started working here full-time (in other words, running the place ). The other two came in before we started the $2,500 album sessions. Back then we were at $40/hour, and if they brought their own engineer then it dropped to $20/hour. The $2,500 includes everything. Engineer, sodas, beer, pizza/chinese delivery, mixing, mastering, editing, sound replacing, reamping, drums, bass, vocals, guitars, anything else- for 7 days with 16hours available per day.

When I say available per day, I mean that as in, if we finish the day off early, we call it a day, I hate trying to get something done in an inadequate amount of time. If we have two hours left, I don't care how well you know the songs, we'll wait until tomorrow to start tracking guitars, etc. Or if like, something happens and we have to start late, either by my fault or the client's, then that's another case. A band has actually complained before because they paid the $2,500, and then they couldn't show up until the last 6 hours of one of the sessions, and they actually wanted us to refund the amount for those lost hours...gimme a break, you were late fucktard.

It all comes down to how comfortable you are with the price you are charging. If you have to ask yourself, "would I pay that much for this?", then you're probably charging too much, haha. That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

~006

 

[smy1]

It all depends on what I do.

Currently a remix of a song is a flat 500 Euro fee plus points (which is minimal due to the low sales figures of most electronic artists).

The fee for mixing other peoples demos or records is dependant on many factors, but I usually go by 250-500 Euro per song or a flat fee for a whole album. Album fee is usually 3500-4000 Euro. I am in the lucky position to have a lot of hype going on in the EBM/Electro/Industrial scene at the moment, so those are figures people can easily deal with and are ready to pay. Of course studio rental is on top of that.

If you don't have a track record, I'd check what other people in your area are charging for the same quality (just call them) and then quote the same. Recently I got swamped with remix requests and so I actually started quoting more than people were willing to pay to get all the not-so-serious ones off my back and concentrate on the cool ones.

 

[AmirH]

Thought I'd give you guys an update. He came in today to have a look at my setup and upon realizing it wasn't a studio- just a home setup, he decided to look elsewhere. He wasn't actually gonna be the one recorded apparently- he was scouting around for a friend, and I guess this guy's looking for something really professional not just a standard demo. He was a super cool guy though, and we jammed around on guitar for a little too. Blues player- made my emg loaded sg sound like a jazz box. Haha, it was actually hella funny cuz I couldn't play anything he was playing and vice versa. Cool down to earth guy though, not what I was expecting to be honest. And it's sort of a compliment that he assumed this was a professional establishment too. He might cut a track with my friend sometime next month, if he does I'll post it here. I'm both relieved and dissapointed that I won't be doing that demo though- ah well, maybe next time.

 

[daveotero]

Well he won't find a pro studio for $70 a song. His loss.

I charge $350 per day (~8hrs) and $50/hr beyond that and I'm using a couple fucking Firepods. I turnout killer sounding productions and that's all that really matter in the end.

He will probably end up wasting money at some big studio with a house engineer that doesnt give a shit because he's not invested in the project. It's just a day job to him, probably doesnt even know who hes working with until he shows up in the morning. You go with a smaller studio, owned and operated by one or two people, you're going to get someone who will do his absolute best because its his reputation on the line as well.

If you're really interested in recording metal then find the best band in town with good gear and record them for free. With all the killer information on this forum you're bound to do a good job. One that spreads around a little you just sit back and let them come to you.

 

[A Toolish Circle]

^ bam i'm on $200 AU a day atm

i found one of the upcoming metal bands and recorded them for $50 a day and after their release came out good ( with all the tips from this forum of course )that they got signed to a management company and a local label and they returned the favour by actively promoting my name around

 

[Skyweaver]

200AU a day ? tell me you mix in Nuendo and are based in Melbourne

 

[Ermz]

Haha, I meet the last 2 criteria there. My daily tends to be $150, but that's just from the live sound. I look forward to getting invested in some bigger mixing projects and change things around!