How Much Should I Charge As a Composer?
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- For today's topic, we are going to cover something that comes up all the time. How much should I charge as a Composer or Sound Engineer.
I am going to share a few tips and strategies that you can use to better understand and pitch your value as a Composer, Sound Designer, or Audio Engineer to a potential client. In this video, I share some lessons I have learned the hard way and give you some techniques to use during your next pitch conversation.
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#composer #musicbusiness #getpaid #filmscore #film #score #orchestration #music #howto #postproduction #post #recording #studio
Great video!!!
Thank you 🤘🏻
Nice video. Many people won't go into rate talk, it's taboo in the states... but the more we talk about it, the stronger we all are. Your point about undercutting @3:02 is so crucial for newcomers. Once you've positioned yourself as the cheapest option, you'll struggle to get out of that pigeonhole... Whatever clients you do have won't want to pay you more and if they later have bigger budgets, they'll 'upgrade' to a more expensive person (because the perception of higher cost=higher quality is 100% real). Much of my work comes from my colleagues referrals... If someone becomes known as a low-baller, who would send clients their way? I think it's easy for creatives to undervalue themselves and they often inherently lack business sense. Lowball clients are always the most high maintenance and the projects are often amateur garbage. Often a lose/lose... (low rate, pain in the ass, and still came out amateur - regardless of the value you brought). People need to ask others in their community/industry what the going rates are for professional work and then really stick together on it. I personally don't ask clients what they'd like to pay me. Too passive in my opinion. I think you get more respect stating your rates which (if you've done the research) you know to be competitive. This also quickly weeds out the riff rafts ;)
Excellent points! If we all hold our values and keep adequate rates, it is better for everyone in the end. Truly allows for better finished products often as well.
I'm really waiting for this channel to light up.
and yeah, that was a great piece of information.
Thanks so much for the kind words. Happy to help!
Great advice!
Thank you!
Thank you for these! Quick follow-up (based on a current situation):
I asked a client how much they are looking to pay, and the number they mentioned, is not enough if I consider what my hourly rate would be, let alone consider how much time and money I have spent on learning my craft. That said, it is some money and is better than nothing. What is your strategy for these situations? The amount they are willing to pay is not great, but it's work in a time where I can't do much else and bills rack up :)
Great question! In these situations I look at a few variables. Is there other better paying work I have right now? If another project pops up tomorrow at full rate, can I still deliver both? By doing the lower rate project, is there an opportunity for a longer term relationship with the client to where better rates would come?...usually I just weigh out those variables to make the decision. You definitely don’t want to undervalue your work and if you do take it, I would be expressively clear that you are not getting paid rate for it.
@@CinematicSoundDesign Thank you!!! Good tips! Yeah I think I'll take this one and mention that it's a one-time COVID deal :)
I'm worth $20/hour, so that's about $1 for a three minute tune. LOL.
😂