Producer Rates

[davidhomusic]

Hi guys! I am a student/aspiring artiste with ambitions to do an album. I have written a number of songs and made rough arrangements with loops. However, due to my not having a musical background, I need someone to help me figure out the chord progressions and help me polish up my arrangements. I have been offered help by my singing tutor for a fee of roughly $500/song produced. This would include mixing work. The other things I need to pay for would be the recording studio rates. So here are my questions.

i) Is $500 per song produced a fair rate? This includes mapping out the chord progressions for me and maybe changing the arrangement, help with vocal arrangement and mixing. I am an international student on a tight budget and he is pretty new at producing.

ii) What are the normal producer rates out there? What services are included?

Thanks to all those who answer. Am a newbie at this so any help would be appreciated!

 

[RolandLim]

Hi David

I'm a producer /sound engineer myself and I've done a couple of jobs like these. $500 is a reasonable amount excluding studio time , but i suggest you check out his work to see if it's something palpable quality wise.


Personally , i charge for my time recording as a sound engineer and put on the "producer's hat " at the same time so that the client doens't not have to fork out additional charges , however i do negotiate on royalties when the album is being sold (e.g i earn xx amount per album sold ) while mixing is a set rate per song.

Most importantly u need to ask yourself how well u want ur album made ? For example i'm currently producing and engineering for a 16 year old songwriter ( vocals + acoustic guitar )with a very tight budget , so we went with stripped down arrangements ( acoustic guitar/vox/djembe )for 3 of the songs on the EP while concentrating on the 2 " hit songs "with full band arrangements( hiring a session drummer ), string segments and hiring a choir.

the intensity and complexity of the arrangements will most likely determine how much u'll be spending per song.

hope this helps

Roland Lim