# How much to charge for a remote recording?



## musicisum (Mar 1, 2019)

Hi there,

I was asked to record myself as a singer for a few songs which will end up in a CD production.

I use to sing in an indie pop/ambient music band and I know my rates for live events, but that here seems to be a really different topic. 

What kind of rate would be reasonable, knowing that there will be 6 different little songs (of about 1min) and that I won't have any royalties from that CD production? 

I think this will take up to an entire day where I will do my best and try to record different versions so as to give some flexibility to the producer.


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## Henu (Mar 1, 2019)

I'd perform or pay about $400-500 for a job like that. As you're recording yourself, you can add a couple of hundred dollars for that on top if you will. Studios aren't free.


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## thesteelydane (Mar 1, 2019)

That's about the rate I could get when I was doing the same thing for strings. About 100 USD pr track. Given how much time it took me (and maybe that was my own fault), it never became something that I could make a living on, but if its something you can do in an hour pr track including all the editing before you send the track off, it may work out better for you. I never got quick enough to end up with a reasonable hourly rate though. In the end normal session work in other peoples studios paid way more than I was ever able to make as a remote session musician. And in the long run, not having any backend from your work is not sustainable.


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## chillbot (Mar 1, 2019)

I would separate vocals from Steely Dane's strings, not to put down string players in any way, just that vocals are generally prominently featured in a track whereas strings are generally not. Depends on the context, but I would normally pay a bit more for vocals, like 1.5x or 2x.

As someone who pays for this kind of work all the time, somewhere between $40-$60 per track for strings and $70-$90 per track for vocals would be reasonable. People are going to say whoa that seems low, but I'm basing that on A) tracks are only 1 minute and B) a bulk rate for 6 tracks. I would expect to pay more for longer or more involved tracks and I would expect to pay a lot more if it was only 1 track (like say $150+).

Factors to consider:

If you came into my studio, we would knock this out in an hour probably. Maybe two. I would likely pay you around $300, more-or-less, depending. So for you to do it in your own studio with your own gear (assuming it's quality) you should get a bump up for that but $400-$500 as Henu says sounds reasonable.

I may only be getting paid $100 per track with no guarantee in royalties. Maybe I'm getting more, but it's always hard even if I was getting $200/track to pay you half of my upfront.

If it was a big national ad or somewhere where your vocal would be very prominently featured, this should bump the rate up considerably, at least 2-3x. But if that was the case I'd probably be recording it myself and not remotely.


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## musicisum (Mar 2, 2019)

Thank you very much for your comments.
The prices you mentioned were about what I just agreed with the producer. 
Knowing I have a pretty good setup and that I will offer various mixes and versions we ended up agreeing on 750$


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