Charging by the Session

PaulBrewer

How do guys charge out their studios these days .

In my day job I interact with quite a few studios and am quite surprised that a lot of studios charge per track - so the onus is on the studio if anything takes more time.

In a time when most bands are amateur (and a lot with limited experience) doesn't the idea of a per session or per hour make more sense .

As a rule if, like me, you've a few miles on the clock you're unlikely to be the one 'holding up' a session.

What do lads think ?

Here's my setup -

www.facebook.com/geniusmovestudio

Dravokivich

Well. I'm not in the business but I would have thought the rates were based on time. And maybe if there was a big enough project/production going on a rate negotiated on the overall job itself. last time I checked out what studios were doing, it tended to be on session length, but also suggesting how much can be done within that session.

Seems odd to me doing it per song. As a Novice in booking a studio session may not be aware of the time involved in tracking and mixing.

Unless the idea is to do the tracking so someone can bring the stem files from that home and mix themselves. With the way DAW software is going with fairly substantial features even on entry level versions.

DamagedTrax

we usually run a price per project in a given timeframe (includes 1/2 days pre-production, tracking & mixing).

price per song would be crazy, i'd either end up screwing myself or the client.

price per hour just isnt feasible at the lower end of the market IMO. too many variables with musicians. 1 song could cost 200 and the next 2000!

with an all in package (we offer release PR blasts and favourable pricing thru a number of MEs) it takes the money worry off the client and it makes me keep focused and keep things running on time but also to the time i qouted for. if we run too short or too long, i have to make up the time/shortfall out of my pocket i guess.. it hasnt happened yet luckily, our time management has been fairly good so far.

peter05

I charge by how many cups of tea are drank and how many biscuits are eaten.

There is a lot of situations to consider from my end pricing things.
I try to stick to strict time limit.
If things tend to go over this limit I tend to lose focus and its a quick way to know that something is wrong.

I operate a two tier system a basic track system and if it goes over the first tier system the second kicks in. It tends to keep everyone focused.

What you have not touch on is revised work. Do you charge or is it free? This can eat up a lot of your time

I tend to allow two free revision sessions. Things are charged @ 25% after that, as they are only 99.9% of the time very small changes.
Again this tends to keep the messing around to a minimum.

Anyways this is me.

www.chrmastering.eu

unclebill98

Normally its per day.

I seen some studio charging per song with no limits in the fine print. Advance payment was a condition. Seems like madness.

PaulBrewer

Peter ,

I pre empt revisions a bit by offering a 'work in progress' mix with the offer to critique freely and mention the 'obvious' that's incorrect from a clients view.
'Hey Brewer, you left out the Kick Drum !'

Can you make the drums bigger /smaller /wetter /drier
Oh we decided to not use those backing vocals .... Etc etc

This will generally bring up what might otherwise be left til it's much later.

Making those changes as early as possible in a mix is a lot easier than at the end .

I generally stick up an undownloadable soundcloud link up which is removed shortly after .

This does require a certain amount of trust though I.e. I wouldn't do that for a first time client .

Any tweaks after that I might do for myself !