What to Charge? mixing and mastering.

[DJMano34]

I got offered to do a mixing & mastering job by a local group the thing is I dont know how much should I charge. They want me to mix and master.

What would be a good price to charge.
per song?
for a mixtape?
and how about the mastering?

any ideas or input would be greatly appreciated.
I searched on FP for similar post but did not find any.

Thanks in advance for any help FP.

PS: When I compare my work to commercial recordings my work holds its own.

 

[moses]

Very easy:

( your costs + your expected profit ) / working time

Now, there's also demand and supply, which makes this ridiculously difficult. Honestly, look around what people are willing to pay for YOUR work. That's also automatically the "value" of your services, the market will automatically dictate it. All you can do is try to keep the expenses very low by using a web interface for your customers and not buying any nonsense gear.

Further on keep the customer psychology in mind. It's actually beneficial to ask for high prices on paper, but tell anyone: "My customers usually pay much more, but since it's you, I'll give you a nice discount.". Most people will be very happy to hear such things and they'll go posing with your high quality services. Perfect ads.

All three points are important, you need to find your balance. It makes no sense to ask other people how much they charge their customers.

 

[fbthpg]

I'm currently charging $20-35/hr to mix/master, usually depending on: project size, whether or not I did the recording, and whether or not they're a-holes [good people deserve good rates])

I will give them a quote for about how long it should take me to do each project. They pay 60% in advance, and the other 40% before they can get their mixes back (So, if they flake out, I'm still getting paid something). But, if someone wants something small changed, I'll go ahead and do that for nothing. I'll also never master before they sign off on the mix.

I hope this helps