Working with a bigger band for a discount

smy1 said:
I think the OPs reaction is much smarter business-wise than yours. Mentioning another guy is just a standard negotiation-tactic or even just a naive way of telling you that there is competition for this job. If you react like you do, you lose potential future customers (plus negative word of mouth: "that shitty Ermin never even got back to me, he's totally unreliable and stole my guitar. He also killed my cat!").
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My studios name is Word of Mouth Recordings hahah

But he emailed me back asking whats the lowest I can go and I said $10 an hour. Its my same rate, just said differently. I think the most insulting part is how he is talking about how his band is going to do a full length next year at studio that charges 4 times what I charge
 
topsoul182 said:
thanks guys this was my response

"What studio is it? I'm sorry I'm not going to be able to go that low, thats only $4 an hour. Would you ever work for $4 an hour?

I'd really love to work with you guys, I know it will turn out great and help both of us out but right now I can't work for that low. If your budget increases let me know and well set something up"
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tell that band to piss off.

with that being said, i guarantee that band makes less than $4\hour each when they tour. Been there.
 
I know back when I was in my first band, we chose a studio based off it costing MORE because we assumed we would get the best result because the guy charged what he charged. This was also before ITB took over. We wanted it to sound good so we spent the money we thought we could afford ($65/hr at the time). We went and spent an extra $300 on 2" tape as well and ended up with a good result (at the time it was the best sounding local band album). I think I could run circles around that engineer now for what we were looking for. I earn about $27 an hour at my regular job and I didn't have to spend thousands on equipment or an education to get there. I would never charge less than what I am making there simply for the capital that I continue to invest into equipment and such. If I am not confident in my work, I don't put myself out there for that particular project. I have been told by every band they got a result above their expectations but I have also been really selective on what I have been involved with. I guess it would be different if I didn't have another job and I would get involved with projects I am either not excited about or have no "professional insight" for and turn results that may potentially be less than expected at least the first time with something new.

It sucks that the "you get what you pay for" saying applies less and less because there are people using hacked plugin's and software, use other peoples work (impulses and samples), and get a semi professional to professional results with little or no capital invested to make back the investment and turning a profit. They can charge less and it's just the reality. It's great though that the application of the right tools can still outperform a less knowledgeable engineer with hundreds of plugins they don't really know how to use but it's just getting the opportunity to get in front of the client and prove it. I'm just stead fast on not budging. I have turned away several jobs on here for reamps because I wouldn't meet their budget which was insulting. Sure I could use the money now but it's pretty degrading after years of practice with mic placement and tweaking amps to fit within a particular mix to basically give it away.
 
ARE YOU FUKKIN SERIOUS???

If they are remotely famous, and professional they shouldn't even give such a disgraceful offer. You should charge more if they are famous/labeled. So fuck that!!!
Don't whore around, that is like you degrading yourself
 
Genius Gone Insane said:
Good exposure is priceless. I would have done it for $4 an hour and worked extra time to make a kick ass demo that would be heard by many others: "Wow, this demo sounds great! Who recorded it?"
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"Topsoul182 did it, and he charged four bucks and hour!"
"AWESOME! HEY TOPSOUL182, WE WANT YOU TO DO OUR DEMO, IT'S FOUR BUCKS AN HOUR RIGHT?"

Been there, done that, had to pay for my own t-shirts.
 
If it was about mixing a full lenght i could do an exception of doing a test mix (which i don't do normally) if i thought the band was really really good, and could lead to a ton of work. But as people has pointed out, just the approach of the band is worth giving them the finger.
 
Sounds like these are just pre prod demos too the band are doing, as they're going somewhere else to properly record the release so it's not like you are going to get tons of exposure out of it to make it worth your time.
 
if6was9 said:
Sounds like these are just pre prod demos too the band are doing, as they're going somewhere else to properly record the release so it's not like you are going to get tons of exposure out of it to make it worth your time.
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They have been posting the stuff from the other guy on their Facebook and they also made a YouTube video of just the song and I have been seeing people repost that video. But I haven't seen any studio name on that, so I have a feeling they're not even going to promote my name.

Lasse Lammert said:
Wow. 75$ per Song is already WAY too cheap
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Yup I've actually been thinking about raising my prices but I'm afraid that I'm going to start losing bands. I'm the cheapest "basement studio" around but I also don't want to fall into the category of the cheap studio
 
Dude quite frankly $75 a song is way, way to cheap to be taken seriously. If you want to start seeing better clients, raise your rates. I wouldn't be working for any less than $20 an hour, you'd get around that working a casual job somewhere. Don't price yourself any cheaper than that.
 
I do around $100/song.
The last band I recorded said they WANTED to pay me more because they thought I was undercharging.

Being cheap is good for business and will get people in.

That being said, I wouldn't work for $4 an hour.
I'm doing like $10 hour IN the studio/recording.
I don't even want to know what it works out to be once I've done editting and mixing.
 
If I approach an engineer and he tells me that it's $75 for 8 hours of work my first reaction is "Why?" then "This guy must be really shit if that's all his time is worth".

If you really need to add this band to you resume then IMO your better off to record one song for free. At least then you haven't put a value on your time. You can explain this to any other potential customer that mentions it. If your product is worth something then people with pay for it.

P.S. I have no concept of what wages are like in the US so I'm speculating a little on the $75 for a days work. Seems bloody low to me.
 
topsoul182 said:
Yup I've actually been thinking about raising my prices but I'm afraid that I'm going to start losing bands. I'm the cheapest "basement studio" around but I also don't want to fall into the category of the cheap studio
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You have already fallen into that category. Fix it. Play a part in saving the industry by valuing your own work.

I'm definitely not making much (actually, I'm damn near struggling to support myself) even though I have decent amount of work, and I wouldn't lift a finger for $75 a song. I recently did an EP super cheap because the guys are very good friends of mine, they're repeat clients, it will bring me more business without a question and I have a strong gut feeling the session leads to them getting signed. Even that super cheap session was about $250 a song.

Gentlemen. Pay your taxes. Pay for your software. Value your own work. Stop fucking around, and stop fucking up the audio engineering industry. Thanks.
 
How do you guys manage to charge per song for an entire project? Surely you must experience a lot of variance in the time you spend, which doesn't make that an accurate pricing structure for the time that you invest into the project? In my experience the length of time taken when tracking and editing is heavily contingent on the music and how well the performers are able to play it. Don't you feel that charging per hour or day would provide fairer results for everybody?
 
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