studio rates/project rates

KyleHale · Post by **KyleHale** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 11:17 am

Im curious to know how much everyone here is charging bands/artists whether it be on a per project basis or an hourly rate. Feel free to state details of your studio such as whether it is a nicely budgeted studio or just a few SM57s and a crappy tascam 4 tracker.

Cheers
Kyle

markmeat · Post by **markmeat** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:33 pm

Details on my MySpace page:
www.myspace.com/secretundergroundlab

The $15/hr is a recent price increase because $10 just wasn't cutting it for what I'm putting up with... maybe the tiny increase will keep out some of the "less desirable" types (ie:shitty punk bands who think they can hammer out a 8-song demo in 2 hours... "Of course it sounds like shit, you guys only had $20 to your name!"... buy less hair gel, come back when you can afford the proper time")

Feh.

MEAT

djimbe · Post by **djimbe** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:33 pm

by the day. A day is generally accepted as 10-12 hours. The day rate decreases a bit when days start to pile up. We agree on terms before starting...

Kilroy · Post by **Kilroy** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 4:43 pm

i charge hourly cause i mostly do rap. They try to do as many songs in an hour or two that they can. My set up is decent. Few pieces of outboard gear, nothing fancy. Record to computer. Main mics are mxl2001 and oktava mk319's. I charge $15 an hour. Prolly will be up to 20 when i get the new mixer hooked up and get new monitors.

AnalogElectric · Post by **AnalogElectric** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 9:49 pm

It depends... when I had my own studio with over $200,000 invested in gear, I charged $300 a day (10 - 12 hour days, sometimes longer if we were in-the-groove).

I did weekend packages that consisted of Friday thru Sunday @ $900. Weekday/weeknights ( Monday thru Thursday) I'd charge $30 an hour.

But there are times where I'll talk to a band that wants to have more time to finish a full-length other than a weekend package depends on how many songs they have, how many overdubs, what their due date is, and so on.

Then I'll do an album package deal. On the average, over the last few years, I charged roughly $2000 to $2500 to take the time to get it done.

Most that take the album-package deal is a way of keeping it open without much pressure. Cuz if I were to add up all the hours at $30 an hour, they've gone over but within reason.

Since I've been doing more freelance recording, it's up to the studio we go to. The studios I go to these days don't offer hourly rates, they offer daily rates. I adjust what the studio quotes me (usually at a discount cuz they're not paying a house engineer) and I'll charge my cost based around what that studio charges.

An example... if a studio charges me $150 a day as opposed to their normal $350 a day, I'll charge the band $350 a day and pocket $200 per day for my services. It's less than the $30 an hour I'd like to get but most of the groups I work with are broke but still, $200 a day for me is still better than nothing.

When I'm at a personal discount $1000 a day studio, I'll ask for a little more or ask for a flat payment.

-- Adam Lazlo

8th_note · Post by **8th_note** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 3:54 pm

I record local unsigned bands and I charge $50 per song. The per song rate has worked well because the bands know exactly what the project will cost and so far nobody has tried to take advantage of the fixed rate. The other reason I go with a fixed rate is because it gives me the discretion to put more time into a project that I'm excited about.

AnalogElectric · Post by **AnalogElectric** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 4:58 pm

8th_note wrote:I record local unsigned bands and I charge $50 per song. The per song rate has worked well because the bands know exactly what the project will cost and so far nobody has tried to take advantage of the fixed rate. The other reason I go with a fixed rate is because it gives me the discretion to put more time into a project that I'm excited about.

Wow... you should AT LEAST charge $100 per song... even on a demo/indie level... unless you're being set-up in other ways :)

-- Adam Lazlo

thethingwiththestuff · Post by **thethingwiththestuff** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 5:53 pm

i charge $30 an hour. that's the cost for me, my time engineering sound since my overhead is pretty damn low.... i'd much prefer to charge for a 10-12 hour day rate, but i'm just not getting that kind of work right now.

i live in a large victorian house with 5 other guys. we have a rehearsal/tracking room in the basement that i've acoustically treated, so i can offer a well-tuned drumset, a solid state ampeg, a vox ac-30, a fender bass amp, a farfisa, a tuned upright piano, upright bass, ukelele, lots of pedals and toys... my control room is in my bedroom on the third floor. i've treated that acoustically, and i have a talkback running down to the basement. i've got sytek preamps, and i can borrow akg 414's and a royer to augment my 2 sm81's, oktava 319, d112, ev 635a, and some 57's. i can record 8 (edit: 10) tracks at a time. i've got an outboard compressor, but frankly, i just end up using nice plug ins.

i'm not living off this or anything, but i'm planning to lean more heavily on it soon. my "day" job is professional theater, so i feel perfectly comfortable charging for my knowledge even though i'm not running a multi-thousand dollar facility.

oh, and i'll always work out some kind of barter deal when it makes sense. if i know i'm going to drop 100 bucks or so on a bag of grass at the end of the week, i may as well cut out a step and just take the reefer.

dirk_v · Post by **dirk_v** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 11:23 am

This is good stuff to hear. I've been quoting/charging $35/hr / $250/day for film/television and a few people have commented on how reasonable that is. Last musician who contacted me about recording an EP, I told him he'd get me and my gear (not high-end, but pro tools, akg, art, audix, oktava, dbx, fmr) on-site for $200/day, and I haven't heard a peep back.

No wonder my wife keeps telling me to go for the film & television gigs.

-dv

bgc · Post by **bgc** » Sat Dec 09, 2006 7:52 pm

I almost always charge by the day or by the project. Most of what I do includes production so it varies depending on whether I'm a studio with an engineer or doing it all myself. I will usually charge $300/day. I have a pretty good setup with Neumann, Peluso, Daking, Empirical Labs, etc but it's far from a high end studio. I'm lucky in that I tend to work with people who want to make records. I think that the day rate helps to promote this behavior and minimize the random overdubs!

On larger projects that I'm producing I will usually come up with a project rate that is a substantial discount over the day rate.

Eric

Kasey · Post by **Kasey** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 4:29 pm

$15 to $25 a song, depending on what is being recorded. My setup is terrible, so its okay if i charge that cheap. my nicest mic is an AT4040 (and pro37's, sm57, etc), i'm using a yamaha MG board, a presonus tubepre, and an ADAT.

i do manage to get things sounding relatively nice considering my crappy equipment, so i like to think. people who come in are usually impressed.

Kasey · Post by **Kasey** » Mon Dec 18, 2006 5:18 pm

after typing that i realized i probably charge too much.

RefD · Post by **RefD** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 2:33 am

Kasey wrote:after typing that i realized i probably charge too much.

they're getting you, not just your gear.

philbo · Post by **philbo** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 10:31 am

Kasey wrote:after typing that i realized i probably charge too much.

If you get customers, but not too many, you are charging about the right amount.

I charge $10/hr. I have 7 guitars/basses, a piano, a couple of smallish rooms (22x12 balanced room & 15 x 8 live room) with excellent acoustics, about 15 mics, Tannoy monitors, a fairly small pile of outboard gear, can track 8 at a time digitally (24/44.1K), and 4 tracks at a time on reel-to-reel. But I live in the boondocks, in Iowa - - demand drives pricing.
________
VAPIR OXYGEN VAPORIZER

DupleMeter · Post by **DupleMeter** » Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:27 pm

I charge $45/hr. I would say about 80% of my work is location recording of classical & traditional jazz performances (orchestras, choirs, small chamber groups, et al) in the CT/NYC area, and the rest is primarily acoustic based artists...everything from indie acoustic-rock groups to singer/songwriters (I'm currently recording a children's performer). Though, I've done my share of electric bands over the years...just not a lot of that going on for me now.

I base my pricing on the quality of the work and I always demo similar work to prospective clients so they can hear what I've done for others. I've been recording for 19 years and (not to brag) really know what I'm doing. I don't have a ton of equipment, but what I do have is very nice gear.

The funny thing about this is that i am currently considering moving from the hourly billing to a project based billing system...currently looking at my options for day rates, per song rates & "recital" rates (since it's such a big part of my business). I find the general idea of hourly rates is becoming less palatable to my clients and they want to know what something will cost "soup to nuts" so to speak.

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studio rates/project rates

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