Going rate for scoring half hour tv show?

[quincyg]

I have done a lot of documentary scores and have my rate for that well figured out, but i am working on a kids show that requires pretty much wall to wall music and am wondering what people are charging for this kind of thing.

I would say this is like a discovery or pbs type show with maybe 30 cues per episode. Half of this would be minimal drum loop layer type stuff and maybe 3 or 4 big productions.

My studio time and session fees will be included in this rate.

Any thoughts on this one? I am keeping writers share of publishing, which at this point in time won't amount to anything really.

Seems like a large quantity of work, but not as high quality as the documentary work I am used to.

Thanks in advance!

[Zarathustra]

I'm a bit of a cheapskate, but having worked with PBS, I couldn't see them paying more than $2500 for one episode. They're probably hoping that you won't hire any session players or spend anything in a recording studio, but rather do all your own production on the cheap (Hey, there's a free tote bag and coffee mug included!)

Z

[RKrizman]

Originally Posted by quincyg

I am keeping writers share of publishing, which at this point in time won't amount to anything really.
!

WHy not?

-R

[chrisso]

In my experience the rates are low. $2500 per episode would be good.
It doesn't matter really how much work is involved. It comes down to how much the show's producers are willing to budget. It's all negotiable.
I've done a couple of things for Discovery. The last time was several years ago, so conditions may have changed. But my publishing royalties far outweighed my initial fee.
Stations like Discovery repeat shows ad nauseum. They also sell to foreign networks and even airlines.
Over ten years after my first work was shown, I'm still receiving money every few months.
Like I said, stations have realised how much it was costing them and how competitive the composer market is, so rates may have changed.

[RedEar]

I agree, in my experience, unless you are working with a prime time show with huge budget you will see very little up front and a lot in royalty checks over the years.

[quincyg]

wow, that's pretty low. the problem with pbs is that they pay a very reduced scale for broadcast royalties, discovery is another matter. i am thinking that the $15k range would make sense. are people really doing stuff that cheap?

what are guys doing a 1 hr doc for? i charge $15-20k, which seems to be the going rate around here.

[chrisso]

It's horses for courses.
In the UK, documentary is seen as the poor cousin of drama. Drama budgets are bigger.
In my experience, a 1hr documentary would have a budget anywhere between £1000 and £5000 (Approx $2k to $10k). Closer to the lower end was the norm, £1k to £2.5k and that includes all fees and recording costs.
Doco is often seen as the way into scoring. Budgets (fees in other words) have been driven down by the sheer number of musicians willing to work for little or no money, just to build up a showreel and get a few credits on the resume.
I made my money from repeat fees and publishing.
In the end I decided it was too much stress for too little reward and went back to playing.
There are flagship programmes of course, the 'Walking With Dinosaurs', 'Blue Planet' kind of thing. Their budgets are much bigger, but you are required to factor in a few full orchestral sessions etc Those orch. sessions are also budgeted very low, so you can end up working with cheaper orchestras, in cheaper studios.
By the way, I'm quoting my experience on single episode programmes.
It sounds like you were asking about a series of episodes.
In that case you can work out a budget for all the shows and hopefully reuse music across the series.