How much should I rent my rig for?

[Barnabas]

Be careful when asking others in the same business what you should charge. The federal courts call this "price fixing" and take a dim view of it.

Conducting a survey to find out what people actually charge for a specific service should be OK.

When you undercut the competition you hurt the entire industry by forcing the rates below actual costs. I assume you are saving money by not having liability insurance or something else that the "real' studios spend money on. Also, if your prices are much lower than the competition, your clients won't expect much from you. The percieved value based on price is not as high.

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Chris Droessler
www.barnabas.com Barnabas MultiMedia

[uno1234]

You need to relax.

I work with this guy on a regular basis. He's not going to go to a rental house. I am not price fixing or trying to undercut the industry and put people out of business.

Currently, I feel like I'm charging too little. I want to know what is appropriate to charge. I am asking what the "industry" rate is so that I don't undercut the industry, for god's sake, and make a good buck or two. Keep in mind that I usually run the rig at the same time-- which is likely why he rents from me in the first place.

Thanks for the advice above though.

[Shawn B]

UNO1234, Barnabas is completely right about under-valuing you rig. That having been said.. I often rent my system to "friends" and regular clients for 250.00 a day. But, these are completely no hassle rentals . No phone calls at 2am trying to figure things out and complete trust with the engineers who are running the rig. For "standard" clients 350-400 a day is pretty much all I can get for my rig without me attached to it. I charge 600.00 if I'm included. That's for a 10 hour day. I also charge for transportation if I have to travel more than a hour. If neccesary I charge a cartage fee if it must be shipped and insured. Every market is different. I've got friends in LA who have protools III rigs that get 500.00 for a daily rate. I know at least 3 different engineers who charge 1000.00+ a day to edit that get gigs on a regular basis! Remember that at some point your charging for your talents as much or more than the protools rig. Good Luck!

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[roberts]

That rig from us would rent for 400/day
Rent to a regular client IE a no hassle renter
300 per day

[uno1234]

Thanks guys.... that's the kind of advice I'm looking for.

[uno1234]

Hey everyone,
I work with a producer who has been renting out my rig at a low rate. We are soon going to be renegotiating the rental price, and I thought I'd ask what everyone thought was a fair price. I know that their has been alot of undercutting going on, but Dreamhire NYC rents a 24 channel 888 rig for $600/day, and most studios will do an inhouse rental for $300-400 a day (which I of course need to undercut). For the most part, I will be working the rig, which is an additional hourly charge on top of the day rate for the system.

Here's my setup. Keep in mind that what I have is exactly what the producer needs-- I just am wondering how to price it. (And I want to keep it as one package). I want to give him a very good price because we work together a lot. But I don't want to be ripped off or taken advantage of.

Thanks.

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-Mixplus ProTools system
-1 Extra Mix Farm
-1 Extra DSP Farm (Expansion chassis)
-1 888/24
-2 ADAT Bridges
-1 USD
-Glyph Trip with 2 36 GB Hot Swaps, 1 DDS4, 1 12x CDR
-Rackmounted G4/400/512 MB RAM
-Aardvark Aardsync II
-17" monitor
-HUI (soon to be ProControl).

[This message has been edited by uno1234 (edited March 22, 2001).]