How much should I charge for a single composition?

A

Aesthete18

New member
Basically, I compose soundtrack type music on FL Studio as a hobby mostly. Mid of last year, a friend of mine asked me to compose a score for his short film which I did for free as he said he didn't really have a budget and I figured since it was my first time anyway for a professional job and he is a friend, that I wouldn't mind doing it for free. He clearly was happy with it because he just hit me up again to write another composition for a commercial he is doing.

He only needs one song, maybe 2 - 3 minutes long. I wanted to know how much to charge for it? Keep in mind that I'm not a professional musician and it's all self taught. How much would be reasonable?

Thank you.
 
Get the details of the commercial first. If it's low budget/small market/homespun, get a little cash or do it for free; you will be "building resume." But if he landed an account in a major market, you might be entitled to residuals...

GJ
 
Cyko said:
How much do you feel comfortable charging? What do you think is reasonable?
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Honestly I have no idea. I thought I'd find out what would be reasonable and then give a 30% maybe 40% discount of that amount.

rhythmgj said:
Get the details of the commercial first. If it's low budget/small market/homespun, get a little cash or do it for free; you will be "building resume." But if he landed an account in a major market, you might be entitled to residuals...

GJ
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It is low budget. He is doing a commercial for a competition so it's independent I guess. The last time I worked with him I did it for free. It was suppose to be about 7 or 8 tracks but I ended having to compose maybe closer to 20. It was a lot of working for free, so that's not going to happen again. Even with this track I'm sure he won't be satisfied with the first one and I'll have to redo or modify it and I'll be fine with that if I'm getting paid for it. The only problem here is I really have no clue of what to charge for a 2:30 minute piece.
 
Aesthete18 said:
Basically, I compose soundtrack type music on FL Studio as a hobby mostly. Mid of last year, a friend of mine asked me to compose a score for his short film which I did for free as he said he didn't really have a budget and I figured since it was my first time anyway for a professional job and he is a friend, that I wouldn't mind doing it for free. He clearly was happy with it because he just hit me up again to write another composition for a commercial he is doing.

He only needs one song, maybe 2 - 3 minutes long. I wanted to know how much to charge for it? Keep in mind that I'm not a professional musician and it's all self taught. How much would be reasonable?

Thank you.
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Instead of charging whats affordable, base your prices on industry standards for beats of the same quality. I'm sure you've already searched the internet to see what producers charge for beats online and, if you haven't, you should. Or, you can experiment with prices by creating a beat store and sending people to it. Your beat store visitors will leave feedback about your prices and more.
 
ProducerJC said:
Instead of charging whats affordable, base your prices on industry standards for beats of the same quality. I'm sure you've already searched the internet to see what producers charge for beats online and, if you haven't, you should. Or, you can experiment with prices by creating a beat store and sending people to it. Your beat store visitors will leave feedback about your prices and more.
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The reason I wanted to charge what's affordable is because he is my friend and also they are doing it out of their own money and at the same time, I didn't want to sell myself too short. It's not beats, it's a score but will definitely check out the link. Looks like a good place to start. Thank you for suggesting it.
 
Take a look at what you make at your current job, think about how many hours it's going to take working on the project and make decision on price from there.

$50
$100
$300
$500

Pick one that sounds fair. You'll friend will tell you if they can or cannot afford what you're offering
 
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You can also charge hourly, or with a flat fee plus hourly. You can also stipulate how many revisions, if any, you will provide. And lastly, most composers (as opposed to beat-makers), when charging a "smaller" fee (rather than a large, commissioned work or something like a major film score that is properly budgeted) will charge by the measure. Are you actually scoring parts? that might be a better way to go.

Also, you have mentioned a "commercial." Now you said that it is for a contest. What are the details here? I'm trying to wrap my mind around a commercial that needs a full score and is actually two minutes and thirty seconds long. I've done a number of jingles in my time; radio and TV commercials are in :10, :15, :30, and :60-second spots. Even on the much more open-format Internet, I have never seen a commercial that ran for 2:30; nobody would stick around for that. So yeah, figure-out what you're going to charge and get some cash up-front; I'd be a bit concerned about getting ripped on this if I were you...

GJ
 
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