The Profitable Producer

Rate Sheet Guide

This rate sheet is simply meant to be a guide for those of you who struggle to price yourself.
Before reading this guide, be sure to understand what my definitions of a “beginner, intermediate,
and expert” are.

All rates have low and high ranges. You’ll fall somewhere between those two numbers based on
two factors: 1. Your skills and abilities for that specific service and 2. The scope of work for each
specific project.

Beginner
You are brand new at this, and you’re still trying to figure out what you’re doing while building your
portfolio. DO NOT try to maximize your time, income, or profit as a beginner. Your focus should be
100% on delivering as much value as possible to the few customers you’re getting right now.

The thing to note here is that it’s not a sin to do free work for a talented band if you really think
they’ll be a good addition to your portfolio. Your goal right now is to learn your craft, build your
portfolio, and build relationships with people.

Here are the rules of free work:

1 If you’re going to do free work, keep the projects small. There’s no reason to do more than
1 or 2 songs for free, as that’s all your need to build your portfolio.

2 If you’re going to do free work, make sure it’s only for talented bands who will make
you look good. Mediocre bands will always give you mediocre results, no matter how
hard you try.

3 If you’re going to do free work, give 100% effort. There is no point in doing any sort of work
if you’re going to half-ass it. Half-assed work will only lead to burned bridges, even if that
half-assed work was free.

4 If the artist tries to take advantage of you, don’t be afraid to pull the plug. Just because
you’re working for free doesn’t mean you’re their bitch.

5 Free work = send a discounted invoice

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 The Profitable Producer
Rate Sheet Guide
Intermediate
You’ve been at this for a while now (1 year+), and you’ve got a solid portfolio. At this point, there
should be very few excuses to do free work. If the artist can’t respect your rates, then you can
simply move on.

Your goal at this point should be learning to say no to free work, while constantly improving your
quality of work, reinvesting back into your business, and continuously putting in time to build
relationships in your industry.

This is the “grind phase”, and you’ll likely be here for a while. Be patient, and enjoy the ride.

Expert
At this point you’re extremely talented, experienced, and respected, and you don’t need some
shitty rate sheet telling you what to charge.

Welcome to the majors.

PPP Rate Sheet: Beginner Intermediate Expert

Hourly $5 - $15 $15 - $30 $30 - $150+

Recording $50 - $100 per day $150 - $250 per day $300+ per day

Mixing $50 - $100 per song $150 - $250 per song $300+ per song

Mastering < $25 per song $25 - $50 per song $50 - $100 per song

Reamping < $25 per song $25 - $75 per song $75+ per song

Drum Editing $10 - $45 per song $30 - $90 per song $60 - $150+ per song

Guitar Editing $10 - $50 per song $30 - $90 per song $60 - $400+ per song

Vocal Editing $5 - $30 per song $15 - $60 per song $60 - $300+ per song

Vocal Pitch
$5 - $30 per song $15 - $60 per song $60 - $200+ per song
Correction

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 The Profitable Producer
Rate Sheet Guide
Pain-In-The-Ass Factor
There is no reason you should feel like you have to charge all clients the same. If you expect a
client has the potential to be a pain-in-the-ass, feel free to adjust the price accordingly.

I’ve increase my rates by as much as 50% when I’m sending a quote to an artist is showing signs
that they’re a pain in the ass.

You’ll get better at spotting this over time, but be aware that your mental state is precious. Do not
be afraid to increase the price of your quote if your getting red flags. If they say “yes”, you’ll be
compensated fairly for having to deal with additional BS. If they say “no”, you’ll have escaped a
potentially soul-sucking project.

Bulk Discount
With some projects and services, your time cost doesn’t scale equally with the number of songs. In
this situation, it’s up to you to determine if you’d like to give a “bulk discount” for the project.

In my past, I’ve given as much as a 30% discount for large projects (typically when it’s a talented
band with a low budget). I also started implementing a 3 song minimum on my mixing projects for
this exact reason - there’s very little difference in my time commitment between a single and a 3
song demo.

Below is a general guide for bulk discounts:

Number of songs: 3-5 songs 6-9 songs 10+ songs

Bulk Discount 10% 15% - 20% 15% - 35%

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 The Profitable Producer
Rate Sheet Guide
Your Desire
Sometimes an artist is either so good, popular, or well-connected that you’ll do pretty much
anything to work with them. It’s up to you to decide how much you’re willing to discount in order
to make this happen.

If you’re a beginner, don’t be too proud to work for free (as long as you follow the guidelines at
the beginning of this rate sheet). For intermediates and experts, sometimes you’ll do a pricing
adjustment or a bit of spec work if the band has a high enough ROI.

There is no set rate-of-discount I could give you here, as it’s 100% up to you and your desire to
work with that particular artist.

Your Schedule
This should be a major factor when pricing your projects. If your schedule is bone dry without a
prospect in sight, then you can’t expect to command top dollar. Go hustle your ass off and change
that.

If your schedule is filling up, it’s time to raise your rates. You only have so much time in a day, so
this is where it’s time to maximize your income. If you’re always busy, that’s usually a good sign that
you’re undercharging. It’s time to start testing some pricing increase.

Whenever a quote request comes in and your schedule is booked up, this is where you can try
some huge rate increases. Try bumping up prices as much as 30% to 50% if the dates are 3+
months away. You have very little risk, because if they say “no” you have plenty of time to fill those
dates. If they say “yes”, you may find that this is your new “normal” rate.

If the artist comes to you with a last minute projects, there should be an additional charge for this.
When an artist is rushed, there is almost always a pain-in-the-ass factor to consider. Most of my
biggest nightmare projects have been projects that were last-minute.

Never Negotiate Against Yourself

If you quoted a price and the artist didn’t accept it, DO NOT offer them a lower number. This is
called negotiating against yourself. Instead, get some sort of counter from them - either their
budget, or the price they expected for the service.

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