Rate Per Song (Im starting a recording business)

[jerberson12]

Hi,

I will start doing my recording business soon and I wanted some ideas on price rate so it will reasonable for the other party.

Just to start here are my up coming projects but I dont have any idea on price rate.

Project 1
-Max 5 mins long.
-One lead vocal only
-background music is pre-made minus one.
-2 tracks
-plus mixing, editing and mastering by me overnight or up to 3 days

Project 2
-Max 5 mins long.
-One lead vocal only
-background music is acoustic guitar or piano played by me
-2 tracks
-plus mixing, editing and mastering by me overnight or up to 3 days

Project 3
-Same as Project 2 but with 2-3 more tracks for Bass, light drums and additional rythm
-4-5 tracks
-plus mixing, editing and mastering by me overnight or up to 3 days

Project 4
-Max 5 mins long.
-Entire Band
-1 Lead Vocal
-1 Backup Vocal
-1 Keyboard
-1 Lead/Rythm Guitar
-1 Bass Guitar
-1 Drumkit (will record midi data, not audio)
-plus mixing, editing and mastering by me overnight or up to 3 days

I am planning in charging them per song not per hour. What would be a reasonble and fair price for each project? I know you guys will write comments instead of giving me some numbers, but hopefully if you guys can give me a quick price for each project , it would be nice. TY

Here are the quality of music I can offer to them.
Chaîne de jerbersonmusicgroup - YouTube

 

[TheComposer]

Not sure about it, but if you already know your business and not an amateur, you could easily charge over 100-200 per song, mixing rates would be dif. probably 100 per track?

If you need a studio guitar player, let me know, i have some samples, take care!

 

[jerberson12]

Ive been doing recording for more than 7 years now but this is going to be my first time charging people and I have no idea what will be my price rate. I hope anyone can just give me a rough rate on those a projects I mentioned above. TY

 

[Bobbsy]

For a "get your foot in the door" offer you can perhaps charge "per song" but eventually you're going to have to move to an hourly rate.

There's just too many variables in what you have to do.

I can think of a couple of projects I've done a bit like your Project 1. On one of them, a really skilled and talented vocalist came in and nailed it first try. We did a second track "just to be sure" but it wasn't really needed. Mixing was nothing more than a bit of light compression (since we we working with an already compressed backing track) and some level tweaking. The recording was done about 4PM and I was in the pub telling everyone how great the singer was at about 7:30.

A second virtually identical project had a nervous, inexperienced singer. Recording took many hours of redoing tracks, punch ins galore and a tone of hand holding, tea making and general confidence building. The mix took a couple of weeks of stitching together, pitch correction, level tweaking, etc. etc. Frankly, I could have spent longer but there was a deadline--the singer was very happy but I thought I could have done better with more time.

So, basically unless I'm doing a favour for a friend, it has to be by the hour. I can (and do) give an estimate of how long it "should take" but I stress it's only an estimate. However, the other thing I do is have two rates: one for having the client present and calling the shots and a second, lower one for them leaving the mix with me to work at my own pace. Frankly, people taking the latter option probably get a better deal--but the ability to take a break when I choose and work when I choose means a lot.

As for the original question of "how much?", really that comes down to "what the market will bear where you are". If you're the only one offering the service for a hundred miles or your only competition is a fully featured studio at $200 per hour, then you can charge a fair bit. However, if there's lots of competition, you'll have to cut your cost accordingly.