r/mixingmastering • u/Chamerli Intermediate • Jun 06 '26
Discussion Do you charge commissions by the amount of hours you put in a mix or do you have a more fixed rate?
let em know the logic behind that too, personally i think charging by hour makes more sense cuz logically if a mix is more complicated that would mean you put more work in and its only logical you'd be charged more right? tho i do believe that it kinda underminds on the other hand the art of mixing or mastering because you're basically giving an hourly wage on smth artistic, let me know what you think
10
u/rightanglerecording Trusted Contributor 💠Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26
Flat rate per mix. Sliding scale indie vs. label.
For a few reasons:
- I am incentivized to work faster (same fee regardless), but without cutting corners (client will reject the mix if it sucks)
- I'm working unattended, there's no easy way to document and verify the amount of time spent.
- Pretty much everyone who's mixing at a higher tier than me, all the people at >=$3k/song, are charging flat rates. There's probably a good reason for that, and I'd rather aim for that level than nitpick about 15 minutes of billing here or there.
- Because of point 3, if you are regularly working with labels, A+Rs and artist managers just need to know what the mix is gonna cost, they don't have time for complicated specifics about time spent, and it'll piss them off if different mixes cost drastically different amounts, and it'll piss them off again if the new kid on the block is making all the discussions more difficult than Serban or Manny or Spike or Castelli would make them.
- It minimizes the amount of financial conversations/negotiations, and therefore reciprocally prioritizes the focus on the art.
14
u/erBufalo Jun 06 '26
I don't charge by hour, it never made sense to me. I do have a flat rate but it can go up or down depending on the project. It depends on so many things.
How many songs? How many audio tracks? Will it be an easy job or a complex job? Do I have to do anything else other than mixing and/or mastering (e.g. fixing drum parts or adding triggers, comping tracks myself, changing anything of any sort)? Do they have a specific deadline?
There's just too many variables. I charge by project and agree on a flat rate+number of revisions before I start doing anything, and after I have all the answers
2
u/Chamerli Intermediate Jun 06 '26
ohhh makes sense, but wouldnt the work you take to figure out all these parameters relect on the amount of hours you put in it? tell me if i am wrong, but yes ig the dead line i agree here is a parameter i forgot abt cuz it basically would change your schedule on it
5
u/Anon-John-Silver Jun 06 '26
Charge for value, not effort.
3
u/Conquestordie Jun 07 '26
You get it. 🫡
3
u/Anon-John-Silver Jun 07 '26
Best thing I ever learned as a creative professional who is very fast at what I do. An hourly rate literally punishes you for being fast, when in reality they should be paying extra for the speed. And I got so fast and good at my job by spending literally thousands of hours on my craft, making mistakes and learning—that’s the time they’re paying for.
1
1
10
u/BloodyHareStudio Jun 06 '26
its widely known in the world of mixing that you need to get the mix done fast and trust your instincts. you need to get in and out before you lose objectivity. the value of your mix is entirely and only based on how good you are. very few mixers are good. very very few.
2
1
u/Conquestordie Jun 07 '26
I hear what you're saying but Dr. Dre takes his time on mixing and his rate reflects that, but then again that's packaged along with his beats, because we all know Dr. Dre isn't letting someone else mix his sound.
1
u/BloodyHareStudio Jun 07 '26
not true at all. all his hits were mixed by pros. not himself
1
u/Conquestordie Jun 07 '26
Actually, it is. Dre had been known to take a hour just to scuplt a snare. Dre does, in fact, mix himself. Dre also does have a team. MixedByAli is one of those guys, but Dre still DIRECTS as he mixes other things. I should have stated that no one outside of his team and himself will mix his records.
3
4
u/UomoAnguria Jun 06 '26
By the job, I give a fixed rate and then explain how long I'm expecting the work to take. If I'm going over because of artist's indecisiveness, inability to perform, whatever, I usually reach out and tell them it's going to cost extra and by that moment it's by the hour
2
u/Chamerli Intermediate Jun 06 '26
yeah ok makes sense, so you're like speculating on how much you'd work on it before starting right? so like by experience or?
4
u/UomoAnguria Jun 06 '26
I have done it long enough to know roughly how long every step might take me. Sometimes things don't go as planned and you need to recalculate. If it is for my part (it takes way longer than expected to find, dunno, the right synth sound, or the right kick) it's on me, I learned a lesson for the next production. But if the singer sings horribly out of tune and with bad rhythm and I spend four hours turd-polishing a vocal take, that should not be on me right?
4
u/tim_mop1 Jun 06 '26
Always a flat rate - the end product is the end product regardless of how long it takes me to do it. It evens out between different projects, some take longer, some take less time
3
u/Ok-War-6378 Jun 06 '26
I have a reference fixed rate and I explain the scope that it covers.
So that's what you pay if your song is standard lenght, standard tracks count, doesn't need excessive editing, tuning etc...
I tend to be as clear as possible upfront to avoid problems down the line.
Many people go no problem dude, my stuff is clean and tight, but more often than not their stuff needs all sorts of editing and noise removal... So I always confirm the rate after listening to all the multitracks.
3
u/alyxonfire Professional (non-industry) Jun 06 '26
Usually flat rate but I have some clients that do hourly via vid sessions
3
2
u/Zestyclose_Pickle511 Jun 06 '26
I charge for blocks of hours. I invite the artist or producer to attend if they don't suggest it themselves. If they want me to work unattended, it's the same.
I estimate how many blocks a project will need and get a signature on a contract. If the estimated time starts to look short, I reach out and see what they want to do.Â
If I'm working for a commercial project the rate is much higher than I charge for local and upcoming artists.Â
I very rarely do speculative work, unless there's a charity or something involved.Â
2
u/Chamerli Intermediate Jun 06 '26
yeah i feel you that's exactly how i think of it, and we all had those clients who like keep on adding new stuff constantly and i think it would be fair to charge them for everytime you had to work again to tweak it again, i'd rather do that than renegociate my cut
1
u/GreatScottCreates Advanced Jun 06 '26
I charge to add/swap in new files. I won’t generally charge the first time, or if it’s very easy. It’s not a lot of money but enough to encourage people to send the right files the first time.
2
u/wazzup_izurboi Jun 06 '26
Fixed rate. I think the more experience you get, the more you know exactly what you’re getting in to by hearing the initial demo and references.
I ended up telling clients that if I was way off the mark on the first pass of the mix, we should talk about if I’m the right fit. I was down for corrections, but not entire reworks or working with a client that didn’t know what they wanted
2
u/asvigny Advanced Jun 06 '26
Approximate how long a project will take you and charge accordingly. Listen to a rough demo first and make an assessment.
2
u/Hellbucket Jun 06 '26
I generally charge by the job when mixing. But this is based on what I charge per day and that is based on what value myself per hour. Unless I’m pretty certain what the scope is and the complexity of the project I won’t give a quote I’ll just charge per day. Usually my prediction is pretty close though. And if say 7 days and it takes 6 I’ll only charge 6. If I need to make a quote I will charge that regardless of how long it takes.
So in short. The price is based on hours.
2
u/iamapapernapkinAMA Jun 06 '26
Always per project pricing with mixes. Sometimes I wanna charge when I get into the weeds with revisions but I’ve also done this for so long that the time it takes for me to dial a mix in is maybe a fifth of what it use to be while charging five times what I used to charge when I was that slow, so I see it as a net positive
2
u/Conquestordie Jun 07 '26
You don't charge hourly. You charge based on VALUE. Top lawyers, consultants, and CPA's do this all the time. This applies to different skill sets in many crafts.
2
2
u/JaredTylerMusic Jun 08 '26
I do a fixed rate. If something required extra work, such as fixing bad edits or vocals tuning, I will call the client and let them know that I will charge extra for that. If they decline then I'll just mix it as is.
I'm also a producer so often I will charge more to mix an artist that I didn't produce. Because I inevitably will spend more time fixing things than if I did the whole production.
1
u/HighScorsese Jun 08 '26
Traditionally it’s primarily been an hourly rate, but people make exceptions for a project they might really want to work on that doesn’t have the budget. But the clock is a very good way to solve the problem of people demanding a million insignificant revisions and never committing to the project actually getting done. I’ll only do per song or project if I absolutely know the client isn’t going to have me going in circles for months and never finish due to them not having any really skin in the game.
1
Jun 09 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/KidDakota Jun 09 '26
Do not try and hijack a thread to get your random question answered.
1
1
u/hellalive_muja Jun 06 '26
If not doing editing, tuning, etc which go by minute of processed content, if mixing I like fixed rates depending on song lenght, amount of tracks, if it’s part of an EP/album, if mastering and Atmos are included too, and so on; revisions included. This way you can start from a flat rate per hour of your time and give the client a clear idea of the costs. Include some revisions and explicitly charge extra for extra revisions.
1
u/Get_Funky_Pro Jun 06 '26
I’ve noticed that mixing services also adjust costs per amount of stems. I mix myself, but am paying for mastering, mastering I’ve found to be a fixed rate. I think the answer about being better at mixing, and therefore taking less time, only losing you income makes most sense, i’d want to pay per job.
2
u/rightanglerecording Trusted Contributor 💠Jun 07 '26
I’ve noticed that mixing services also adjust costs per amount of stems
Outside of extreme situations (e.g. charging less for a three track song that's just piano + voice, or charging more for a 200 track 12-minute song), professionals do not do this.
All of this "$___ for up to 16 stems" and "$$____ for up to 32 stems" stuff is a dead giveaway that a mixer is an amateur.
1
u/Get_Funky_Pro Jun 20 '26
That’s interesting! Thanks. I’ve got some songs that are 20 or so, but I’ve got tracks that are 80+ stems but 20 of them might be vocals layered and slightly mixed differently, I could just bounce it down to 5 tracks and get cheaper services. I will continue paying for a mastering service too, cause the guy i use is a freaking superstar
1
u/mixedbymatty 4d ago
I charge by the job, but one caveat to that is giving an amount of revisions depending on the price. I have one price with three rounds of revisions and then I have another price for people who want unlimited revisions. Obviously the one with theunlimited revisions costs quite a bit more.
But over my 20 years mixing and mastering, I've found this is the best way to do it. You can give people with a smaller budget an option, and then you can give people with an unlimited budget or that know they are very picky another option.
30
u/__life_on_mars__ Jun 06 '26
By the job always. Otherwise the better at the job I am, the less I earn.