How much do programmers make?

[MichaelT]

I'm starting to get more work programming songs...not necessarily "beats" as much as pads, orchestral type stuff (using really high quality samples), keyboard parts, and yes, loops. I pretty much listen to the song and augment it with whatever I feel is lacking. Some stuff takes me a full day to accomplish, or even more, especially if I'm asked to orchestrate a song. Sometimes it takes only a couple hours. Maybe the orchestrating thing is a whole other issue, I don't know.

Some of the opportunities approaching on the horizon are bigger projects, and I have no idea what to charge? Is it a per song thing? Hourly? What do you programmers usually charge? Or what do programmers charge when you guys come across them? Thanks for the info!

-Mike

[natpub]

Charge by the contract, as it is usually a contract job. To cost it out, add up what you think you are worth per hour, estimate the hours it will take you, based on how much they want done, then submit a bid. Be careful not to lowball yourself and end up loosing money. The charge should vary, depending on if you are doing something that someone gives you a specific, written out arrangement for, versus if you actually end up doing arrangement, which you should charge a significantly higher hourly charge for (in which case I would no longer call it "programming :-).

For more specifics, you might email Bruce Richardson at ProRec, since he does a lot of this kind of thing, and often reviews products such as Garritan Strings and various samples for GIGA and such:

brucer@prorec.com



Cheers,

KT

[Boby Stoica]

I always wondered how do you negociate on this "arraning" issue : Do arrangers get points - part of copyright? And, how many points can you ask for that, assuming you're doing creative stuff, not only programing the writer's/producer's ideeas?

[Gregg Sartiano]

Orlando...are you doing work for Trans Con?

How's the business down there?

[doug_hti]

a lot of programmers i know charge from $500-$2000 a song, in this climate.

It's hard to know your particular situation.

Also, for programmers, i don't work with contracts often at all...it's just like hiring a player, just a little more money and more involved a bit.

[MichaelT]

"Orlando...are you doing work for Trans Con?

How's the business down there?"


Actually my friend owns a studio called The Delivery Room. He's a gospel producer and usually uses me for projects he brings in. The "bigger" projects I'm talking about are either future stuff of his, or future stuff because of my work with him.

The studio though is usually booked full time because of his stuff and stuff I do, so it is never really advertised a lot to the public.

I'm actually not too famaliar with the broader studio scene down here. What I've been doing lately keeps me busy at The Delivery Room, so not really much travel elsewhere.

I always chuckle a bit when programming some of the gospel music because though I enjoy it, I didn't grow up in that style (think Kirk Franklin, Karen Clarkson, etc., if you know that genre), so I don't "feel it" as my friend, William, does. As William found out, though, I seem to have a knack for hearing music and filling in the missing spaces effectively...thus he puts me to work often.

My first love will always be more on the rock/pop side of things, along with filmscorish type stuff (more of a hobby at the moment, but maybe someday...).

[ShellTones]

Originally posted by Boby Stoica
I always wondered how do you negociate on this "arraning" issue : Do arrangers get points - part of copyright? And, how many points can you ask for that, assuming you're doing creative stuff, not only programing the writer's/producer's ideeas?

You "arrange" a piece of music that is already written. I write and then arrange my own songs. If I ever decide I need an arranger, I will pay him or her for arranging. But I'll never give an arranger any "points" or percentage of my copyrighted material. That would imply they had a hand in the original creation, which they didn't. A "collaboration" on any copyrightable piece would be different, on the other hand. But there is a big difference between collaboration and arranging.

[MichaelT]

Anyone else with thoughts about how much programmers make? Thanks to all who replied thus far...it's been a big help!