[jon]

I disagree about cost-based pricing. It's important to know your costs in order to properly run your business and manage your cash flow. However, your pricing should be based on the maximum the market and your client base and reputation allow you to charge, not on costs-plus-a-margin.

Many studios practice variable project pricing, or project-specific pricing. You take into account the client's budget, the time period (demand-wise), your level of current bookings, your rep, the specific needs of the client's project, your ability to meet those needs (in-house vs rental, strengths, experience, etc), the desirability of the client and project, etc, etc. -- in putting together a price proposal.

With some clients it may be desirable to have a high-quality, high-price image. With others it may be better to show the most bang for the buck i.e. the best room with certain standards they can get for under $xxxx per day.

I do believe, rightly or wrongly, that the higher up the food chain and the more experience you manage to get, the better it is. In a major recording market like LA, New York or Paris, it's probably better to be the 10-year old studio with a certain prestige and some lease payments behind it now upgrading to a K or a bigger J than to be the new guy starting a ProControl room or even a mid-level 4k room.

This is generally a tough business for starting a new studio. Speaking personally, it has been a year filled with learning since we opened the doors of Capitol Paris last April. The first 6 months is the most critical period, as Chris Stone would often write. Eight months on and here we are, providing a full restaurant service and beginning surround music-to-picture and film scoring work. I've been behind the console between ten and thirty days per month, except this fall when the studio was booked for a 51-day run with Pierre Jaconelli (friend of fellow GS member Volodia) and Peter Schwier producing and engineering. January and February 2003 are full. As one of my friendlier competitors said over lunch recently: "If your destiny was to not make it through the start-up period of your new studio, you would know by now. "

Of course, it's never over. The biggest studios continually invest aggressively to maintain the gap between them and all the other places to record and mix...which tends to weed-out the also-rans from those who are successful enough to keep up the pace of investment.