Reply To: How Much Should I charge?

[Chris SweetParticipant]

Hey Andy.Tough question. If you want to make sure you're comp'd for your time I'd charge by the hour. Now since I mostly just mix for clients at this point I usually get $300-400 a song for mixing, assuming its gonna take 7-10 hours of editing and mixing. Now I'm very affordable but not dirt cheap compared to some of whats out there, but I think I'm worth it and my clients gladly pay it. I also don't do this strictly for a living yet. If you want to give a clean number, I think $800-1000/song would be fair, but of course it depends on how involved the project is. Sorry all these figures are a bit arbitrary, i've paid producers $75/hr that weren't worth it, and $500/song for mixes that were decent. And then guys like Michael Brauer get $5-6k per track just to mix so the scale is all over the place (I've gotten a quote from his management). I'd try and figure out how much your time is worth given your life circumstances. Don't be too cheap because then people won't value you, but don't punch above your weight either. Hope this helps somewhat.