How much should I start charging?

[Navigator]

I have a nice studio setup at my place. It's a one room place with a nice sound and quite high ceilings. I have a nice selection of mics, preamps, etc. I don't track whole bands, but do guitars, bass, vocals, everything but drums basically. I pretty much just record my own band, but have started to work on a few acoustic projects with some friends. They want to pay me, but I'm not sure what to charge. I think that part of the challenge for me is that I don't feel as much like a professional as I might since I'm self-taught and don't have the training and experience that other studio operators might have. Nonetheless, I think I have good instincts, am a pro musician, and have a lot of excellent gear. At any rate, does anyone have any guidelines to offer as to how to set a rate, either hourly or by project?

[Kiwiburger]

If you don't want to pay tax and keep it at friendly level - get your friends to bring gifts, like guitar strings, blank CD's, food, drink - trade items, services ...

Once you start charging - relationships change. Often for the better. People often don't respect you if you don't respect yourself by selling yourself short. A good cure for tardiness is asking for a non-refundable booking fee.

Tell them how much it costs you (in heating, power, lost revenue) if you charge nothing. Ask them if they would paint a house for free, or rebuild a car engine for free, or wash a dog for free ... ?

Another way to look at it: if your friends wanted to record in their own home, they would probably have to rent a mic and the gear. Why not get some local prices of what it would cost to rent the basics - and come up with a price that makes you look extremely attractive.

Or look at your local studio prices, and list down item for item how you compare.

[Sid Viscous]

As much as you can get for your time, and once you run out of time, you raise the price until you run out of time again.
Rinse and repeat.

[Navigator]

Thanks guys. You make some good points. As it is, I have plenty of other things to fill my time, and I want to be sure what I get is worth my investment in time. And the fact is, for what I do in my place, I deliver quality results.

[CommunityMart]

I did a search with the following criteria:

• User Name
  Navigator
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and found no results.
Post an mp3! "lol"

I looked at your profile,. No website or sound file at this time 11:59pm july 3rd


edit:

[Tibbon]

A Business should charge

(Overhead costs + amount of profits expected)/number of product units sold in a year

What's your overhead currently?
How much do you expect to profit this year, if at all?
How many days can you book a year? At minimium? At maxiumum? Figure for both of these, and then set your price as the one for the min days booked, so that you'll at least break even.

[goldenlotus]

I started out at 60 a song. Moved up to 100 a song, and now I'm around 150.

It all depends on the project and how much they have to work with.

I don't have any overhead though, so it really just comes down to a comprimise between how much I'm willing to make and how much they're willing to spend.

[Tibbon]

Originally Posted by goldenlotus

I started out at 60 a song. Moved up to 100 a song, and now I'm around 150.

It all depends on the project and how much they have to work with.

I don't have any overhead though, so it really just comes down to a comprimise between how much I'm willing to make and how much they're willing to spend.

You don't have things that have cost you money?
Equipment, rent, electricity, insurance, food, transit, paying yourself?
I'm sure you have costs and overhead.
Start thinking about it that way, and your business will do much better.

[u b k]

Originally Posted by Navigator

And the fact is, for what I do in my place, I deliver quality results.

that's a good start. can you also deliver a memorable experience, one that will guarantee good word of mouth and return business?

is the process going to be smooth, professional, and productive for everyone?

do you know how to coax a killer performance out of a tentative singer?

can you convince the guitarist to tweak his tone, and maybe the rhythm of the part in the 3rd verse, without setting off his defenses or killing the vibe?

can you track down the problem without delay or losing your cool when it's 2am, everyone's overtired and spent, and something inexplicably goes wrong, as it always does?

will the bassist and keyboardist have a way to occupy themselves while your doing the third pass of the high harmony in the second chorus?

what do you do when the bassist wants more bass, the drummer wants more kick, the singer wants more reverb and less vocal, and the guitarist can't seem to hear how painful the 2k is coming off his rig?

this, believe it or not, is a very short list of the kinds of things that come up every ten minutes in the process of recording a band i'm not in any way implying you can't or haven't dealt with them, i'm just calling attention to the fact that hanging your shingle out as a paid professional changes everything and bears only a passing resemblance to recording your own band.

so quality results are the bare minimum; get ready to be guru, magician, psychotherapist, parent, referee, and entertainer to people who will expect all that and more, no matter how much (or how little) you charge. in fact, the amount you charge is often directly proportional to the amount of deference and respect you receive, as well as how 'on it' everyone is motivated to be, so be careful about cutting huge favors with your price.

i say $35 an hour, tally your hours ruthlessly, and cut breaks on the time rather than your rate. the former will be appreciated, the latter will be taken as a sign that you aren't worth what the competition is.

best of luck with it!


gregoire
del
ubk
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