it's true, unlike other jobs the title "producer" is not protected by law.
But I highly doubt that it's possible to charge only 20$ and still be able to afford to buy the plugins and hardware that's needed for the job (unless you've got a dayjob for that and production is just a hobby, see above).
let's just make up a definition...or better, let's pretend "producer" is an actual job title...if you're doing this or any other job you'll need tools. a pro, so someone who does this job and IS a producer, can't work with stolen tools, so he has to charge a certain minimum to afford these tools, if he doesn't have these tools he can't do his job, so he can't be a producer.
simplified: not charging a necessary minimum=not possible to be a producer (legally).
one of the reasons for my highr prices is that I have to cover my investments....(I paid like 25-30000$ alone for software!)...I'm not saying software worth 30.000 is a must, but a certain minimum is (so is hardware)....I HAVE to include this money in my calculations and have to include it in the money I charge for my work....that makes me more expensive than people who don't have these expenses cause they're using stolen stuff.
so before we even start to talk about quality I have to charge 2 times as much ONLY to cover my expenses.....the band may not care whether or not the plugins are cracked, so by going to one of the non-legit studios they save like 40$ an hour just for that (still not talking about quality)....this hurts the business in two ways that affect each other and me: plugins get more expensive cause the software developers have to cover those losses and budgets for productions shrink cause labels (at least the smaller ones) expect these cheap prices the non-legit people are offering nowadays (still not talking about quality....that's often not even the label's main concern).
so I
-lose that potential client
-have to pay more for my tools
-have to work with smaller and smaller budgets
-these smaller budgets drive bands to record with lesser quality non-legit "producers" (cause they HAVE TO)
-the vicious cycle begins again
don't get me wrong, 90% of the forummates are't doing this for a living, but they all (at least the old timers and regulars) try to be as legit as possible, and that IMPLIES a minimum rate for above mentioned reasons.....
So my problem with the low rate is not the low rate itself or the fact that that might take clients away from me, but my problem is the reason behind the fact that low rates are even possible...that reason is part of what hurts the industry and all the legit studios.
we had a similar discussion with line level recs...then he started being all dick about it and got banned (not saying you're being a dick!)..that ban got lifted cause "his roommate posted all the insults" (I don't think that excuse will work twice btw
![Wink ;) ;)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
) and he started being humble and learned a lot from this forum since then.
it's not that we're all assholes (although it might look like that atm
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
), we just really love our jobs and try to protect them.