If there’s one discipline that’s an outlier, it’s recording, because the comparison factor falls a bit flat. The above tactics work for various disciplines, including mixing, mastering, post production, podcast production, and sound design. If you’re living in a new area, and haven’t made friends quite yet, you can also email all pertinent links/examples to a few trusted confidants. And definitely tell them your intentions beforehand: you don't want to be that jerk who keeps inviting people over for selfish reasons. Just be sure you're not taking advantage of your friends here always offer to spring for dinner or pay for drinks.
Even if nobody can identify whose work sounds better, that's a valuable answer, as it means you're in the ballpark. It's good to have an engineer friend check out the differences, but also ask a civilian to attend. Invite a few people over for the comparison session, and make sure they hail from various backgrounds. Others, however, can provide a smattering of differing perspectives. You're far too close to yourself, and your opinion will change with your mood. No offense, but you're probably not the best judge of how you sound. You should invite your friends to help you in this. If you have tracks in your portfolio of roughly the same genre, you can use your ears and metering equipment to see if you're in the ballpark of your peers. You’ll never find a perfect comparison, because conditions are not reproduced exactly from recording to recording. Now comes the clear-eyed look in the mirror: it's time for you to see you stack up. People tend not to mind the question.ĭuring this enterprise, keep your eyes open for more than pricing structures-also pay attention to the inevitable examples of your peers’ work. Instead, frequent contracting platforms like Craigslist or Upwork, or ask around on a forum. Not everyone freely disseminates their rates, but enough people do for you to glean an overall estimate.ĭo try not to be sneaky don’t call a studio and ask them their rates unless you have no other option. Luckily, many engineers do display their pricing structure online. Research your peers' ratesįirst off, go online and research what other people charge in your area. Now, let's focus on a clear-eyed, gimlet approach to figure out what you’re worth, and how much you should be charging. Sure, plenty of factors have contributed to the decline of freelance wages, but don't be part of the problem! Now people try to offer a quarter of that. No joke: I used to take a couple thousand for an independent short film. When you agree to take on a project for free, you're not only devaluing your work with that client (it’s hard to go from zero to $200 a track), you’re devaluing the market for the rest of us. But that’s different from freely offering your services. Sure, it's fine to practice on a friend's track to keep your chops up if you have no work at the moment.
Maybe you’re even tempted to-egads!-offer your services for free while you establish yourself.įirst of all, don't do that. Conversely, perhaps you just feel sheepish asking people for money (I know I did, when I was starting out). But it’s also hard for personal reasons: If you're new to the game, or just out of school, you probably harbor some doubts about your overall skillset.
Figuring out what to charge your clients, especially in this economy, is a challenge.