Uh! Money in music!
What a topic!
BACKGROUND
I do music and audio production for a living since 2018.
I spend some time analyzing music industry and especially prices of music and audio production services every month.
I look mainly for worldwide prices.
Because 60 - 70 % of my clients are not from Czech Republic.
Of course, in Czech Republic there are slightly lower prices than in UK or US, but I don't like to ask for different prices.
My services have 1 quality, I work hard for Czech clients as well as for my worldwide clients.
And also, I know that there are world-class producers in Czech Republic as well as world-class artists so there is no reason to make difference.
On top of that, every artist is fighting for listeners with the whole World these days.
I spend a lot of time negotiating prices of my services with my potential clients.
This summer I had over 80 leads of potential clients, negotiated my prices over 80 times last 2 months!
FLAT RATE OR HOURLY RATE?
For years, I am trying to offer flat rates for my services per song.
No hourly rate at all.
And so I am trying to force my Jarek Musil Network members to do the same.
Yes, of course, I count my hours I have spend on every project!
But the amount of hours on same type of projects doesn't vary much over time.
And since I have completed hundreds of projects so far, I can tell how long does it take to finish the project.
TIME
OK, if a Singer-Songwriter comes with nothing, no lyrics, no melodies, no chords, nothing, then the full music and audio production can take up to 60 - 70 hours of work.
If the Singer-Songwriter has lyrics, basic melody, harmony, tempo etc., then it can take 40 - 50 hours of work.
If the Singer-Songwriter has a basic demo already recorded and there are also additional instruments arranged, it can be even less amount of time needed to finish the song.
It also depends on some other factors like genre, expectations etc.
And every project is different in different way.
But still I was always trying to avoid hourly rates and offer flat rates as much as I could.
And so I do these days.
ROYALTIES
When producer writes or co-writes a song for a client, the producer has the right to share the ownership rights and thus also in the royalties.
Some producers require certain percentages of ownership, typically 20-50%.
The percentage depends on many factors and is mainly subject to agreement with the client.
It is ideal to outline these conditions somehow before the start of cooperation.
I never claim any copyright share.
I want to be well paid for my work and I always keep 100% of the rights owned by the client.
That seems fair to me.
The client pays me for my work and then has a chance to evaluate his investment, and if he is smart, he can even make some extra money from it.
REVISIONS
Well, revisions are big topic when it comes to pricing and rules of collaboration on a project.
I have always offered unlimited revisions for all of my services.
It's because I always want to make my clients happy, even it would take 10 or 20 revisions of the mix/master/arrangement/song...
Sometimes 5 revisions are enough, sometimes 10 revisions are not enough.
I am Mr. Version.
I work interactively.
I like to communicate with my clients a lot.
I like to expriment with a lot of things when it comes to music or audio production.
I like to develop something, not just copy+paste something.
Even if I use AI in a project, I always do reconstruction of that basic AI song, combine several things, adding something special, creating...
I like to prepare several versions of the demo or master and let the client to really hear some options and to choose from them and then go ahead.
I like to be connected with my client.
I like to discuss all the things about the song.
I like to involve the client into the process.
I work in iterations.
That's why unlimited revisions are so important for me.
But since I want to help more musicians, I have prepared some pricing bundles with limited revisions to offer my services at lower rates.
NETWORK POWER
Additionally, I have my Jarek Musil Network full of great professionals as well as some semi-pros, available to work on your music.
They are at different level of experience, they are also having different rates.
So every time I am doing offers to my potential clients, I have several options of how could the project be handled and also with different budget.
That's the power of my Jarek Musil Network.
I can help everyone.
And helping musicians is my main mission.
Even I make no money from the actual project.
I want to become true guide for musicians.
PRICING REFERENCES
Here are some worldwide pricing references I have collected over time (and still changing - updating):
2024 - Josh Giunta (Grammy) pricing guide:
Recording
$25-350 / hr :: general
$25-60 / hr :: homeStudios, rehearsals - space that wasnt meant to be a studio
$50-100 / hr :: MidTier, more professional looking studio
$100-350 / hr :: Nicest studios in the MI, HitRecords
Mixing
$100 - 3k+ / sng :: general
$100-300 / sng :: just starting engineers
$300-700 / sng :: more experienced mixers
$700-3k+ / sng :: Bigger name in the MI, HitRecords
Mastering
$25-50 / sng :: Low Tier
$50-150 / sng :: Mid Tier
$100-350 / sng :: High Tier - engineers doing ONLY mastering
Producing
$100-300 / sng :: LowTier
$300-1k / sng :: MidTier
$1k+ / sng :: TopTier
This means that solid MidTier full music and audio production could be around $2k250 per song (1k for producing + 400 for recording + 700 for mixing + 150 for mastering).
2024 - Twine Research, different perspective:
So, on average, how much is it to hire a music producer?
Using the data gathered from our network of freelance music producers, here are the ranges you can expect for a day's work (7-8 hours):
$150-250 / day :: Junior
$250-350 / day :: Mid-Level
$350-500 / day :: Expert
How much does a recording engineer cost?
Using the data from our platform, here are the rates you can expect from a freelance recording engineer for a day's work (7-8 hours):
$150-250 / day :: Junior
$250-350 / day :: Mid-Level
$350-500 / day :: Expert
2024 - Tobi Weiss | Composer (experienced music and audio professional)
SONG / BEAT MUSIC PRODUCTION (songwriting / arranging / instruments programming & recording, unlimited revisions)
600€ per minute of music
FULL AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION (re-amping / re-sampling / editing / mixing / mastering, unlimited revisions)
200€ per minute of music
MIXING only (unlimited revisions)
500€ per song
MASTERING only (unlimited revisions)
100€ per song
RECORDING
from 120€ per session, 1 session is up to 4 hours.
This means that full music and audio production could be around 3k150€ for 4-minute song (2k4 for producing + 120 for recording + 500 for mixing + 100 for mastering).
2024 - Audio Editing services
SoundBetter / AirGigs / Fiverr / UpWork: 10-85$ per track
Experienced engineer:
Vocals tuning: $40 per track
Vocals time alignment / quantizing: $40 per track
Vocals comping: $40 per track
Vocals editing: $40 per track
EXTRA!!!
JORDAN VALERIOTE - HOW MUCH DO PRODUCERS CHARGE IN 2022:
Mastermind producers (working with local bands, no label projects yet) - $700 - 1,400$
Producers working with mid-level artists/bands (touring a lot, 50k-500k listeners monthly, independent or signed with small labels) - $2k+/song ($40k/album)
Producers working with High-Level artists (1M-5M listeners monthly) - $10k/song
Hot mixers in Rock genres are now charging $5k - $7k5 per song only for mixing
I think those are producers who do audio production only, no music production. So these prices are for recording, mixing and mastering.
MY PRICING BUNDLES FOR SINGER-SONGWRITERS:
WOULD YOU LIKE TO CHECK MY PORTFOLIO?
HOW TO START THE COLLABORATION WITH ME?
You can contact me via email or you can fill the contact form on my website.
It's great to send me:
The demo of the song we could work on together (if you have one - if not we can create one from scratch)
Some commercial references (YouTube links of the music you like, feel free to send me a lot of music you like)
Epic Story and lyrics for the song (if you already have them)
DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?
Feel free to contact me and ask me anything!
We can discuss for 1 hour, for free.
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