What should I be charging per hour?

[killersoundz]

Listen to some of my stuff at The Compound Recording Studio on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos

Everything on that page so far is stuff I'd like to leave behind in my past recording life, you know what I mean? I've purchased a lot of new quality gear that I didn't have when doing any of that stuff and more importantly I have gained a lot of experienced and my ears are starting to get pretty good.

With that said what do you think I should be charging per hour? I've really only been recording friends bands and I just do something like $50 a song now. I was doing it for like 35 bucks a tune on a lot of that stuff, getting pretty raped there but I gained a lot of experience.

Also no none of this stuff has been "mastered". It is straight out of my computer.

[penthouse]

What's your setup like?
I believe that to be a factor in what you'd be able to get away with charging.

Post some specs!

[killersoundz]

Originally Posted by penthouse

What's your setup like?
I believe that to be a factor in what you'd be able to get away with charging.

Post some specs!

Nothing fancy. Down and dirty. PC based, Cubase, 16 ins (m-audio delta 1010's), cheap preamps, audix drum mics, shure sm7b, waves mercury plugin pack. thats about it!

[Chaellus]

id say about $10-15 an hr

[killersoundz]

Originally Posted by Chaellus

id say about $10-15 an hr

Ah come on!

Haha just kidding. Nah thats probably about right. The thing that matters too is here in Ohio it is slim pickings for studios that are any good at putting out metal records. There is one other guy in Akron, he kicks my ass but he charges $20,000 to lay down a record so I get everyone else that can't afford him.

[killersoundz]

Originally Posted by Fortman

20k for an album? an indie album? This is hard for me to believe. Highest I know around here is roughly 650 a track.

Were talking non pro studios.

Yeah man no joke, Curran Murphy. Check him out Smiley Sounds Studio on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Videos

All he told me was recently a record label came to him with a check for 20 grand for a CD. I know other wise you're looking at maybe 5 grand for a record with him...He played guitar in nevermore and anihilator. He definitely knows his stuff. Great guy but like I said one day soon I'll be up there with him. ;)

[MaTr1x2051]

Pricing really depends on the area you're in and the competition... not necessarily how good you are -- from a strictly business perspective.

I know a lot of people love looking at long gear lists, but really that's not what's important. I want my engineer to know what he's doing: if he can do a better job with cheap gear than someone who owns hundreds of thousands of dollars of stuff but doesn't know how to use it, I'll always go with the guy that can make better sounding stuff.

What do you think your material is worth? Charge that much. Since it sounds like there are only 2 of you in the area, if it were just a business decision, I'd charge something decent, but still a good deal less than the other guy. Make sure you know exact what his rates are... I know quite a few people who like to brag about how much they make... or even lie about how much they make. Have a friend call the studio interested in booking it to find out exactly what a quote would be. Then pick a number below that that sounds good to you. By having a lower price, you can still attract a lot of people to you, but by increasing your price to a similiar range, you might even attract some of the otehr guy's potential clients to you.

There are quite a few threads on here about pricing, try a search for them.

[drBill]

$25-35 per hour if you are decent at what you do.

[MaTr1x2051]

From my experience in Phoenix, the guys who charge $25 an hour don't have any experience or know what they are doing. The best guys in town charge $100/hr. Everyone else falls in the middle. There's not as much competition here as say.. LA... but its still a pretty big city.

And can $25/hr even pay the bills??

[drBill]

Originally Posted by MaTr1x2051

By having a lower price, you can still attract a lot of people to you, but by increasing your price to a similiar range, you might even attract some of the otehr guy's potential clients to you.

There are MANY tales of people who were trying to work LESS who doubled their rates only to get more work - then raised them again, only to keep getting even more work.

Undercutting is a loosing proposition for everyone involved - even the clients (although most probably wouldn't know it.) Think careful and choose a rate that will allow you to do great work, keep upgrading and grow. That's not a bargain basement rate.

Set it too low, and you'll have a very difficult time ever digging yourself out of the basement.

[MaTr1x2051]

Originally Posted by drBill

Set it too low, and you'll have a very difficult time ever digging yourself out of the basement.

+1 to that

[drBill]

Originally Posted by MaTr1x2051

And can $25/hr even pay the bills??

Nope. But I still that that's about the range the OP is in based on equipment and my PRECEIVED (could be wrong though) perception of his experience level. Glad to hear things in AZ are holding up. (I still have dreams of moving to Prescott or Carefree/Scottsdale......sigh) LA is a wasteland wage wise. Tough for even experienced guys to get $25 these days. I'm still holding at around $65-80 depending, but now throw my studio in for free. That way I'm making my wage whether or not I'm at my place or at someone elses.

[drBill]

Originally Posted by Fortman

If you work 40 hours a week and don't pay taxes :)

And don't have insurance, or a car, or a family, or take vacations, or have gear break down, or ever want to retire.....

[killersoundz]

Thanks guys. I COMPLETELY agree that just because someone has great gear does not automatically mean you will get a good sounding recording. In my case quite the opposite is true, I am working with a lot less then many studios I know of and not to sound full of myself but I do pretty damn well especially in my niche.

Theres a local studio Kopperhead Home have a look at it, great gear and the guy is very cool but he couldn't record and mix a modern sounding metal CD if his life depended on it. He is certainly great at what he does otherwise though, definitely not metal!

I'm thinking about throwing up $30 an hour on the site. Screw it! If someone wants to bargain I'll be open to cut some deals.

[UniqueRecordings]

Pricing Per Hour is dependent amongst many variables... but here are a few ideas to get you going in the right direction

1. Check local studios in your area and see what they charge on an average.

2. Think of the quality of your gear and how many artist you have recorded in the past and the cost to keep your gear maintained.

3. Think from an artists point of view... artist will pay for quality... don't short yourself... I have seen studios charge $70.00 for an 8 hour block... this hurts all of us when we cut our prices to low and it cripples the recording studios... No Low Balling

based on the gear I run, my local competition and studio upkeep, I charge around $40.00 per hour booked.

Research Is Key-
Hope This Helps

[MaTr1x2051]

Originally Posted by drBill

Nope. But I still that that's about the range the OP is in based on equipment and my PRECEIVED (could be wrong though) perception of his experience level. Glad to hear things in AZ are holding up. (I still have dreams of moving to Prescott or Carefree/Scottsdale......sigh) LA is a wasteland wage wise. Tough for even experienced guys to get $25 these days. I'm still holding at around $65-80 depending, but now throw my studio in for free. That way I'm making my wage whether or not I'm at my place or at someone elses.

Interesting... and I was thinking about moving to LA to get into the film industry and do more high profile audio work. The people around here don't expect quality for less than $50/hr. If the desparately need a recording and are on a time constraint, they may go with someone lower, but they know ahead of time they will be disappointed.

For some reason, I expected wages to be higher in a city like LA, despite the huge amounts of competition.

Scottsdale is doing great these days... you can't even tell we are in a recession up there. Its almost like being in another country.

[drBill]

Originally Posted by MaTr1x2051

Interesting... and I was thinking about moving to LA to get into the film industry and do more high profile audio work. The people around here don't expect quality for less than $50/hr. If the desparately need a recording and are on a time constraint, they may go with someone lower, but they know ahead of time they will be disappointed.

For some reason, I expected wages to be higher in a city like LA, despite the huge amounts of competition.

Scottsdale is doing great these days... you can't even tell we are in a recession up there. Its almost like being in another country.

Congrats. Glad to hear Scottsdale is doing well. In CA we're around 12-14% unemployment right now. Pretty rough times. AZ sounds like a great market. I'm convinced secondary markets are the only place to go these days for decent wages - albeit at the loss of higher profile clients. The big markets like LA are 2 decades PAST oversaturation - and the people holding the budget strings know it. Most project budgets are around 30-40% of what they were in 1980!!!! (Speaking of film/TV) And of course the cost of living here is up several hundred percent. I can easily find gold/platinum engineers out looking for work any day I choose. Sad really. And the pro-pirate advocates say that pirating hasn't hurt anyone but the big greedy record companies. Insane.

Seriously though, if you're booking $50+ consistently, I would say LA would be a disaster for you unless you have clients already in place that will pay more than you're making now. Make the trip over for a week or two when you need to. But working permanently out of here is very, very difficult right now.....

[swaff]

Originally Posted by Fortman

20k for an album? an indie album? This is hard for me to believe. Highest I know around here is roughly 650 a track.

Were talking non pro studios.

I checked out the gear list for the guy getting supposedly $20 grand for a record and it's nothing major high end that I can see. If he does really get that much, I'm leaning on the doubting side with Fortman, then I wonder how he markets it all? I do not know the guy, nor have I worked with him. Just keep in mind that your competition might not always be shooting straight with you!

As far as what you're charging, I can't recommend a specific number, but I did listen to your recordings. To me, personally, drums are always the thing that give away an amateur recording. The drum sounds you are getting are not bad, but could definitely be better. Doing metal records, if you want to have those drums everyone in the consumer market has come to expect as the "awesome sounding" ones, I would suggest looking into doing some sample replacement stuffs like Drumagog, Steven Slate Drums, Andy Sneap samples, etc. I think it could help you take your work to a new level, and therefore you could charge more than you are now.

Your guitar sounds seem to be in a good place for this type of music, just get those drums polished up, and up the price! This will weed out some customers you might have on the lower budgets, but with higher prices usually follow better musicians. My personal experience has been that the low-budget musicians can never see how bad they are, and the higher budget ones are the first to take criticism better and want your help on actually making better recordings and being helped. Better musicians = better songs = better recordings = more buzz about your place = possibly making a living and starting a Roth IRA to hopefully help you out in the future!

Just my 2 cents!

Swaff

[killersoundz]

Originally Posted by swaff

I checked out the gear list for the guy getting supposedly $20 grand for a record and it's nothing major high end that I can see. If he does really get that much, I'm leaning on the doubting side with Fortman, then I wonder how he markets it all? I do not know the guy, nor have I worked with him. Just keep in mind that your competition might not always be shooting straight with you!

As far as what you're charging, I can't recommend a specific number, but I did listen to your recordings. To me, personally, drums are always the thing that give away an amateur recording. The drum sounds you are getting are not bad, but could definitely be better. Doing metal records, if you want to have those drums everyone in the consumer market has come to expect as the "awesome sounding" ones, I would suggest looking into doing some sample replacement stuffs like Drumagog, Steven Slate Drums, Andy Sneap samples, etc. I think it could help you take your work to a new level, and therefore you could charge more than you are now.

Your guitar sounds seem to be in a good place for this type of music, just get those drums polished up, and up the price! This will weed out some customers you might have on the lower budgets, but with higher prices usually follow better musicians. My personal experience has been that the low-budget musicians can never see how bad they are, and the higher budget ones are the first to take criticism better and want your help on actually making better recordings and being helped. Better musicians = better songs = better recordings = more buzz about your place = possibly making a living and starting a Roth IRA to hopefully help you out in the future!

Just my 2 cents!

Swaff

Thanks good info. Yeah Curran Murphy doesn't have high end gear himself but he's another guy that knows how to use what he has. Sure he may have been exaggerating the 20 grand deal but I know for a fact he has quoted my friends at around $5,000 for a 8 song EP.

I'm definitely thinking about investing into the Steven Slate drum pack. I've got Drumagog that I throw on a kick here and there but that hardly gets it done.

[pristineb]

You talking about being hired as an engineer, musician, producer, all three? It's all about the music you've made before and if people dig you and have any budget at all. There's no magic answer.

How bad do you wanna work on the project?
How much do they wanna work with you?

What gear do you have... who cares. I don't know many artists who care about gear past maybe what mic you have for vocals.

Do what it takes to work with GREAT people. If that means free then do it for free. If you do your best work for the really talented people out there your portfolio gets better and better. Your rates will start to fall in line and you'll begin to feel out what people are willing to charge.

Right now, my advice is to forget the money and try to work REALLY HARD with some great artists who are worth the investment.

[Rednose]

Originally Posted by killersoundz

Thanks guys. I COMPLETELY agree that just because someone has great gear does not automatically mean you will get a good sounding recording. In my case quite the opposite is true, I am working with a lot less then many studios I know of and not to sound full of myself but I do pretty damn well especially in my niche.

Theres a local studio Kopperhead Home have a look at it, great gear and the guy is very cool but he couldn't record and mix a modern sounding metal CD if his life depended on it. He is certainly great at what he does otherwise though, definitely not metal!

I'm thinking about throwing up $30 an hour on the site. Screw it! If someone wants to bargain I'll be open to cut some deals.

I think $30.00 per hour is a good start for your gear/experience.
I've found block rates work great. Give options like 4 Hour Blocks
and 8 Hour Blocks at a discounted rate.
Good luck, its a beast out there!

[rishi]

another option is to have a day rate. I feel like these days, a lot of musicians feel more comfortable with this b/c they are less skeptical of being ripped off. I also think that it allows both parties to do their best work without looking at the clock every 2 secs. i am thinking of adopting this model.

what are peoples thoughts on this?

[glissando]

Originally Posted by MaTr1x2051

From my experience in Phoenix, the guys who charge $25 an hour don't have any experience or know what they are doing. The best guys in town charge $100/hr. Everyone else falls in the middle. There's not as much competition here as say.. LA... but its still a pretty big city.

And can $25/hr even pay the bills??

You know what? I charge either per song or per project...if I ever decided to count the actual hours I spend on some projects I'm sure I would find that sometimes I don't make $25/hour....it all depends on what you are working on and why...to answer the OP I would say $100 per day right now is about what you are worth.

[Makinithappen]

Originally Posted by Fortman

Sounds like me to the T


I charge $50-$60 an hour depending on the project. With a minimum of 16 hours booked.

I still feel like I am cutting myself short. And the only other real competition around here is that guy I mentioned that is 6k for 8 tracks.

He also does something that rubs me wrong. Maybe the idea is ok, but he charges $300 per mix, stating that he does the mixes himself. And I'm friends with the guy he sends them to to be mixed for $120 a track.

I have stayed professional and kept my mouth out of it, but it really pisses me off.

Ha... There was a local hip hop "studio" doing the same thing with me here in town.

I kept my mouth shut (work is work) until they started targeting some of my clients on MySpace (not that I'm afraid of losing any business to those jokers) and also posting pictures of our studio on their website as if it was theirs.

[LimeMusic]

Are you recording the drum kits live? Because all of your songs on MySpace sound like completely sampled drums. Maybe I'm just hearing things... I'm only asking because that might have an effect on pricing. As in, if you don't have the space or gear to record live drums, you shouldn't charge as much as a studio with a big live room that gets decent drum sounds without having to use samples. I'm not talking about triggering a kick or snare, I'm talking about completely creating a drum track ITB. It's something to consider... If I'm not hearing correctly, please let me know...

As far as the pricing goes... I've seen it go both ways. You can price yourself so low that you just get bottom feeders, but you can also price yourself so high that you create an expectation from your price that you are better than you really are.