OT: Need Professional Advise ($ for music)

[Joel Kanning]

Alright guys, I need some "professional" advise. I have an opportunity to work with a new facility in town that does video production (tv commercials, video conferencing, seminars, wedding videos, etc…). They've only been open for about 3 months. I took a tour of their facility about a week ago and got a chance to talk with the owner and one of the "video guys"- or whatever you call them. Their facility is pretty top-notch: A couple of fairly large banquet-type rooms for seminars/video conferences, receptions, etc… with built-in large screen tv's and many smaller tv's, cameras, sound sytem - the works - a couple of smaller rooms (mainly for video conferences), a full-service cafe, and then their video editing room. All-in-all its a pretty impressive setup.

Anyhoo, I noticed that they have absolutely no audio recording/editing capabilities whatsoever - aside from the audio that gets captured on camera. So I filled them in on the types of services I could offer them - audio recording/editiing/mixing/sweetening and custom music for their commercials, presentations, etc…

Well, they seemed exremely interested in working with me and wanted to know about pricing for all these services.

(Ok, I'm getting to the part where I need your advise now...)

I'm going to charge $30/hr for recording/mixing/editing/sweetening services, but I have no idea what to charge for music. We're probably talking about 30-60 second sound beds for tv commercials, and perhaps longer "score" type music for presentations. So there you have it - How much does a guy charge for writing this type of music? Obviously this is all quite subjective - What is the quality of the music? What is the quality of the production? Who owns the copyright? Etc, etc…

I am quite confident in my abilities as an engineer and as a musician (I have been doing this for a long time), so I have no aprehensions there. The issue at hand is the fact that I have never charged for writing music (outside of selling CDs - but that's different), and don't know jack about what to charge.

I would deeply appreciate input from those of you who have exerience in this (and even those of you who don't) as I would like to get them my rates ASAP.

Thanks in advance for your advise.

Joel Kanning

[where02190]

We typically charge between $250-$500 for a 60 second piece, plus studio time.

[johnnyreno]

I'm going to charge $30/hr for recording/mixing/editing/sweetening services

You should charge much closer to $100/hour for this service to a "top notch" facility. I would think in Great Falls you could get somewhere in the neighborhood of $75 to $80 per hour. I would agree with Where on the music rates. Good luck!

[Joel Kanning]

Thanks alot guys, this is really helping me get an idea of what to charge. I really appreciate all your input.

Joel Kanning