What to charge for a song...

[Zerochance]

Hey Everyone:

So, I have a quick question regarding charging for your work.

I have a recently created YouTube channel where I post my original material. I'm not an aspiring producer or engineer or anything; I'm just a songwriter and guitarist dude who no longer plays in bands but still really enjoys the creative process.

A good friend of mine is in the process of starting a pop culture/current event podcast and he wants to either have me write him a theme song, or use a new song I just posted he really liked. He was cool enough to offer to pay me for my work, I just don't know what to charge him. Link to the song here.

In addition, an old-co worker of mine who I'm doing brand identity work for (I'm a professional graphic designer) is also in need of music, funnily enough also for a podcast, so at this point it looks like it would be a good idea to come up with a pay scale.

So, I'm asking you experienced producer dudes, what's a reasonable rate to charge for podcast music?

 

[bryan_kilco]

Think this probably not the correct sub-forum for this type of post.

Aside from that, how much do you feel the track is worth to you? How many hours did you spend on it?

 

[Zerochance]

OK, I'll be happy to post this elsewhere. I'm more of a casual poster.

I definitely spent a lot of time on it; several hours in between tracking and mixing, but obviously I was not expecting it would have any sort of commercial use. It was just a personal project.

 

[bryan_kilco]

It's a tough call, it's really up to you. The way I see it, I wouldn't work on audio for much less than my "real" job pays me. But in my case, I've never gotten paid with any of the audio work I've done, so I'm willing to work cheaper but at the same time I don't want to charge $50 a song and end up spending 10 hours on it.

 

[nezvers]

It's the same as your graphic design pricing. Everything work the same way - how you figured out how much charge for designs, do it for music too.

 

[brianhood]

This is a great article every single freelancer needs to read.

http://jake-jorgovan.com/blog/unconventional-pricing

I'm in the process of adapting the content of this article for my blog geared towards audio engineers, but it should still make sense for anyone who does this on the side.

 

[Jordon]

This is a great article every single freelancer needs to read.

http://jake-jorgovan.com/blog/unconventional-pricing

I'm in the process of adapting the content of this article for my blog geared towards audio engineers, but it should still make sense for anyone who does this on the side.

That's an excellent article, and it's how I've gone about pricing over the last few years.