So, we are running a promotional deal at our studio for June. Basically, it's a "buy 2, get one free" kinda thing just to keep busy during what is usually a slow season.
(I have screencaps for the entirety of the conversion and thread talk mentioned here-forth.)
A guy inquires about the price-per-song for a full production (tracking, editing and mixing with 3 mix revisions per song), and I reply with this:
"Tracking, editing and mixing costs are generally around $800 a song, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less, depending on the music style and a few other factors."
And his reply: "seems kinda steep… website where I could see the studio & hear some finished products?"
Fair enough, so I send him a link to some of my work. He seems to dig it, and I ask what price he has in mind. If it's not too much of a low-ball, I might be willing to work with him. He replies:
"well the mixes do sound very good, but i've gotten similar quality offers (In point of fact, I did not make him an offer, nor would I at such an early stage in the convo. I merely told him our average rates) for around 300$ per song, but at this point I am just shopping around for late summer."
"Sure, no problem," I think. $300 a song is very low, and I'm still busy enough that $300 honestly isn't worth the running costs for 3 songs, two of which are being paid for with our current deal. But that's okay, and I wish him luck in his search for a studio for the summer.
And then he proceeds to talk shit about me, my product and the studio in the Chango forum on Facebook.
I told him I could see what was happening there, and still offered to set him up with a studio that fit his budget, and he assured me that he wasn't saying anything negative, but he continued to fuel the fire.
This has me riled up for a number of reasons...And I let my temper get the best of me and called him out on what he was saying. If he would like to go to someone who has downloaded POD and SD2.0 presets and get a record done for the price of a good bottle of Scotch and a nice dinner, then that's fine, he has that right. Just as I have the right to say "no thanks" to what I consider a low-ball offer to work for what is basically minimum wage. I didn't even have to respond to him, but I think it's discourteous to ignore anyone who asks about your business.
Now, this isn't really a big deal, but it sparked a big thread/convo between myself and a few hardworking engineer/producer friends (all of whom have amazing credits behind them but are still scraping work off the ground like nearly all of us in rock/metal production). It's wonderful to watch a bunch of children playing laptop metal with cracked plugs tell someone how they should run an actual studio. Yea, $150-200 a song would work just fine...until you have to pay rent and repair/replace anything. I told this kid to call up a few of the bigger places around Chicago and ask for their day rates. It would put him on his ass if he actually knew. I also put out a challenge: call up any of his little "MacBook-and-MBox Producer" friends, come to a studio with me, and see how they mic up a drum kit. I'd put $500 on me being able to place one or two mics around the kit and get a record-ready sound...They'd just reach for Trigger. GAH!
Where do you all stand? I'm personally at the point where I'd rather place production in the "hobbyist" category, charge a fair rate, and work with serious musicians a few times a year instead of working with assholes who want to pay a penny for the world. This incident just reinforced it.
End of frustrated rant. There's too much swirling around my head to place into text coherently at the moment.
(I have screencaps for the entirety of the conversion and thread talk mentioned here-forth.)
A guy inquires about the price-per-song for a full production (tracking, editing and mixing with 3 mix revisions per song), and I reply with this:
"Tracking, editing and mixing costs are generally around $800 a song, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less, depending on the music style and a few other factors."
And his reply: "seems kinda steep… website where I could see the studio & hear some finished products?"
Fair enough, so I send him a link to some of my work. He seems to dig it, and I ask what price he has in mind. If it's not too much of a low-ball, I might be willing to work with him. He replies:
"well the mixes do sound very good, but i've gotten similar quality offers (In point of fact, I did not make him an offer, nor would I at such an early stage in the convo. I merely told him our average rates) for around 300$ per song, but at this point I am just shopping around for late summer."
"Sure, no problem," I think. $300 a song is very low, and I'm still busy enough that $300 honestly isn't worth the running costs for 3 songs, two of which are being paid for with our current deal. But that's okay, and I wish him luck in his search for a studio for the summer.
And then he proceeds to talk shit about me, my product and the studio in the Chango forum on Facebook.
I told him I could see what was happening there, and still offered to set him up with a studio that fit his budget, and he assured me that he wasn't saying anything negative, but he continued to fuel the fire.
This has me riled up for a number of reasons...And I let my temper get the best of me and called him out on what he was saying. If he would like to go to someone who has downloaded POD and SD2.0 presets and get a record done for the price of a good bottle of Scotch and a nice dinner, then that's fine, he has that right. Just as I have the right to say "no thanks" to what I consider a low-ball offer to work for what is basically minimum wage. I didn't even have to respond to him, but I think it's discourteous to ignore anyone who asks about your business.
Now, this isn't really a big deal, but it sparked a big thread/convo between myself and a few hardworking engineer/producer friends (all of whom have amazing credits behind them but are still scraping work off the ground like nearly all of us in rock/metal production). It's wonderful to watch a bunch of children playing laptop metal with cracked plugs tell someone how they should run an actual studio. Yea, $150-200 a song would work just fine...until you have to pay rent and repair/replace anything. I told this kid to call up a few of the bigger places around Chicago and ask for their day rates. It would put him on his ass if he actually knew. I also put out a challenge: call up any of his little "MacBook-and-MBox Producer" friends, come to a studio with me, and see how they mic up a drum kit. I'd put $500 on me being able to place one or two mics around the kit and get a record-ready sound...They'd just reach for Trigger. GAH!
Where do you all stand? I'm personally at the point where I'd rather place production in the "hobbyist" category, charge a fair rate, and work with serious musicians a few times a year instead of working with assholes who want to pay a penny for the world. This incident just reinforced it.
End of frustrated rant. There's too much swirling around my head to place into text coherently at the moment.
