Charging/Record Label

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guitarguy101

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Hey all,
My friend and I are trying to start a small record label to represent our band and 2 others. We have a pretty small studio in my living room, but we have achieved pretty good recordings, (my dad and I are hardcore audiophiles. The room is built to max acoustic specs, so ambient noise is no issue.)
I live in Orange County, where studios charge an average of $600-700 a day. My friend paid 1200 to record an 8 song album.
So, how much should I charge for outside bands, and how much should I ask for from bands that sign? I'd post a link, but I'm a little too green. I'd compare it to early Beatles recordings, not audiophile, but still commercially useable.
 
You're the guy with 2 sm57's, right? Do you have anything else? Like are you even capable of recording a drum kit right now?
 
Don't charge anything. Do it for free and use it to build your skills until you're good enough to charge people. Or even better, put down a "charge how much you think it was worth" box. That way, once you're done recording, they can choose how much they really think they should give you for the work. Ask for feedback on what you could do to make it better.
 
I can record a drum kit decently. Like I said, my room is built to audiophile specs, so reflected noise isn't an issue. Thanks somegeezer, I'll probably do that until I build up my arsenal a bit, so to speak.
 
And were all in high school, so no one is expecting studio quality.
 
Face it - no one is going to pay high school kids to record them! Except other high school kids!
(Not to disparage your abilities, but as mentioned, offer 'free' recording for others until you are established.)
 
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guitarguy101 said:
no one is expecting studio quality.
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This says it all. If you don't expect studio quality, don't expect people to pay studio rates.
What you have now is an expensive hobby (not that there's anything wrong with that).
 
It was only meant for other high schoolers. And no, I wasn't planning on charging anywhere near studio rates...
 
At that level I just worked per job. I didn't have an hourly rate. Someone would phone with a project and I'd have asked what their budget was.

Probably not the most professional way to do it, but like you said, it's a high school thing.

Take what they're offering, unless it's taking the piss.
 
At that level of recording, I'd ask for a case of beer or something.
 
somegeezer said:
Don't charge anything. Do it for free and use it to build your skills until you're good enough to charge people. Or even better, put down a "charge how much you think it was worth" box. That way, once you're done recording, they can choose how much they really think they should give you for the work. Ask for feedback on what you could do to make it better.
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This is a fantastic suggestion. At this point, building up the skillset is the most important thing, though having said that, electricity still has to be paid for. So it makes sense to get the 'client' to pay what they think it's worth. But it's more important at this stage to get the feedback. I'm not so sure that other high schoolers will necesarilly tell you how it could've been better {if they could do that, they'd possibly be recording themselves} but their feedback will be really important.


TetraFish said:
This says it all. If you don't expect studio quality, don't expect people to pay studio rates.
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This possibly seemed a bit harsh, but there's an underlying point he's making that you'd be wise to heed ~ work hard to make fantastic recordings. You'll be glad you did one day.

guitarguy101 said:
It was only meant for other high schoolers. And no, I wasn't planning on charging anywhere near studio rates...
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You're either going to be the most super popular hip cat in school.........or public enemy No.1.
"Be a hip cat, be a ship's cat, somewhere, anywhere.......".

Steenamaroo said:
Take what they're offering, unless it's taking the piss.
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When the bands come to ask you to record them, do you bring up money or do they ? So far, how has it worked ?
 
You are asking about running a RECORDING STUDIO, not a RECORD LABEL. (I'm a bit surprised no one else picked up on that, yet, but whatever.)

A recording studio has some amount of gear and facilities, and musicians gather there, play their stuff, and the "engineer" and/or producer work to capture whatever the musicians are laying down. The studio may reproduce the recording on some number of copies, generally for distribution by the musicians who played the music.

A RECORD LABEL generally does all the grunt work to promote an artist or band, like finding radio stations to play the music on the air (in this case, "radio station" might include websites and more.) They "shop" the artist around, trying to find people who will promote the artist to a wider audience, so that it will hopefully sell lots of copies. There are myriad facets to what a Label does, but that's the bare bones of it.
 
The music industry is full of people working for free, that is why nobody on the music industry can make a living.

Studio Phone call to me: Call "how much do you charge" Answer: "$70 hr or $500 / 10 hr day," Call" Gee that's a lot, we have been recording with a mate that only charges $10/hr," Answer "Then why don't you record with him?" Call, "He does not know what he's doing and the recordings sound like S#it," Answer, "that's why I charge what I charge". Call" Can't you do it for $10/hr if you have nothing else on?" Answer "Goodbye".

Band Booking Phone call: Me "Hi I am looking for a gig at your venue for my band," venue "how much do you charge?" Me "$600 for up to 4 hours," Venue "You are kidding, we get 4 bands a night playing 45 mins each and they pay us $200 between them to hire the PA".

Working for nothing has killed the music industry and lowered our credibility through the floor.

Alan.
 
I know Alan ..... it's a sad state of affairs that we have going on.
 
witzendoz said:
The music industry is full of people working for free, that is why nobody on the music industry can make a living.

Studio Phone call to me: Call "how much do you charge" Answer: "$70 hr or $500 / 10 hr day," Call" Gee that's a lot, we have been recording with a mate that only charges $10/hr," Answer "Then why don't you record with him?" Call, "He does not know what he's doing and the recordings sound like S#it," Answer, "that's why I charge what I charge". Call" Can't you do it for $10/hr if you have nothing else on?" Answer "Goodbye".

Band Booking Phone call: Me "Hi I am looking for a gig at your venue for my band," venue "how much do you charge?" Me "$600 for up to 4 hours," Venue "You are kidding, we get 4 bands a night playing 45 mins each and they pay us $200 between them to hire the PA".

Working for nothing has killed the music industry and lowered our credibility through the floor.

Alan.
Click to expand...

It's a mad world.
 
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