All in one specialists. Q. rates?

Ugh, some of these posts... I feel for you guys. If there's one thing I absolutely can't fucking stand, it's lowballers.

From an artist's perspective, when I'm hiring a vetted pro, I not only expect to pay good money, I WANT to pay good money. I learned really early on that you get what you pay for.

If I've determined you're the best person to produce/record/mix/master my song, I will pay what you charge (unless, of course, I simply can't afford it — in which case, I would still never try to lowball or haggle). When people are paid fairly, everyone's happier and the work comes out better. The difference in terms of stress level and how it impacts quality of work is astounding.

Last time I hired a bigger name, he charged $1500 to record & mix, which I happily paid (and even that felt a bit low). He asked 50% upfront, 50% at the end — I basically just gave him the last 50% a few days into working. It was the one of the most stress-free jobs I've ever been a part of, and the results speak for themselves. Mastering was $175 or so.

Local music artists, in many cases, can be a real drag to work with. As a music videographer, I get local musicians trying to haggle/lowball all the time, and it simply doesn't work with me. It's not worth the stress. The lowest bidders always have the highest expectations and, ironically, a complete lack of artistic vision. The. Worst.

I agree with you, that these types of work are so different as to almost be worlds apart.  When the clock is ticking, when there's money on the line, it's a whole different vibe.

$1k producer fee, plus any attendant costs (session players, piano tuning, studio time, mix fee, etc).  I shy away from a flat rate, because some songwriters come in wanting a sparser arrangement, and others come in wanting the kitchen sink.  The difference in cost between a piano ballad and a rhythm section-plus-strings production is vast.  So a production usually ranges from around $1500 up to like $5k.

ETA: Forgot to mention that this is very specifically for a one-off; if the songwriter has a big batch of songs we can tackle at once, that can bring costs down considerably.

Except for working with professionals, I agree with the previous posts where most of the outside enquires, and eventual bookings (or not) are based around $, and nothing more.

I cannot tell you how many times I've heard,
"Why would I pay you $$$, when my friend "Tony" has a studio in his basement and would only charge me $15 per hour?"

My usual answer is, WOW, can you give me Tony's number, I'll book all my sessions over there, it's cheaper then working here!
Haha


As an aside, quite a few years ago, I got a call from Ric Ocasek, he asked if he could come over and see the studio..
(we both lived in Millbrook NY. and my studio was just a few miles from him)

I said sure, and we scheduled a time and date for him to come by.
If any of you knew Ric, you might know he was a bit "flakey".
Needless to say he came by during a massive snow storm, (called me Tom) while I was just finishing up with another band, completely out of the blue.

Long story short, I showed him around, we talked production, sounds, guitars, amps, scheduling, etc, etc.

Then he asked about pricing at my place.
Looking for a few weeks.
My studio was a residential place, and we could house up to 8 people.
(Not that Ric would need to stay, as he lived 6 miles away!)

I gave him a price of $1250 per day, all inclusive.

He looked at me and said,
Hey (TOM) why would I pay you that rate, I also have a house in Manhattan, 1 block from Electric Lady, and I've done many sessions there.
The Selby's (owners of Electric Lady at the time) would do a day rate of $850 a day for me.

I said, well then go there, BUT they're not me.

A week later I got the call to book the studio!


PS, I had a blast with him, and the band, and truly miss seeing him & Paulina almost everyday in our little Village!

I dont run a commercial studio, so I’m not used to fielding requests from random people, but all of my business comes from personal relationships. The reason why people choose me over someone else is primarily, ime, because they are more comfortable working with me than someone else. There’s some trust and rapport. It’s also the reason that all my clients keep coming back.

So with that in mind I’ve found that in most cases the client was able and willing to pay more than I asked for. And also, the low ballers weren’t really worth working with at all.

I’ve also found hourly rates to be a huge turn off for people. I offer day rates and per song rates depending on what’s needed. Sometimes that works against me, sometimes it’s in my favor.

But basically what I’m saying is that I am my own worst enemy when it comes to earning money at this career. It’s me, not the low ballers, that are to blame. Now that I have a day job and can/do say “no” more than I say “yes”, my per project revenue has greatly increased. The other side of that coin is that I do less total projects, but the ones I do are very satisfying and usually with people who are a joy to work with.

The thing is we all have different levels of skill, different skill sets, different preferences, different goals. We live in different markets etc. so YMMV

Everybody wants a deal, but if you give them a deal they think that’s their regular rate. One way to deal with this BS is the fake out, ie the MSRP approach, a price nobody really pays.

But wait people still pay for us to do this?🥸

Weirdly, our Ampex MM1200 with 16 track head stack attracted a lot of bottom feeders looking for a deal. The kind of clients who are surprised that they don't actually sound that great and blame the engineer.

Because somebody told them they will sound better on tape, of course the smart as response to this is “ yeah leader tape!”

The day rate can get messy, I charged this way for more than 2 decades.
Quite a few bands milking me to extend the day.
Pulling out lines of coke after 10 hrs.
Getting twitchy / pissed off when I wanted to stop to eat.
Not letting me make a coffee or tea - getting someone else to make it, to keep me working....
One band milked me so hard, they kept recording for 8 hrs non stop. I had to piss in a bottle in the control room

Thankfully I now leave those "day rates" out of discussions.
I prefer to talk about quickly getting results < and the cost to get there.

Well crap... there go my weekend plans I guess.

Sorry to hear that....  In my world that I work in, the "pro's" have moved on from tape a decade ago - unless it's a big name and experienced artist that has a producer that really WANTS that tape sound.  All the working stiffs are now in Pro Tools or some other DAW.  I don't know anyone who is still rolling tape.  Even visiting Capitol Studio's or the like, the tape machines are dust covered and out in the hallway.  Sad, but true.

There are not enough "thumbs up" or "like" emoticons left in the year for this post Benny.....