For the first time since 2007 when I opened my home studio to the public, I am increasing my prices. Being an independent musician for over 30 years myself, I have always understood how hard it is to make and release music on your own, especially when you’re working with a shoestring budget. My goal has always been to offer industry standard audio services for a fair price to indie artists. Where else could you record on a $10,000 Sony C800G microphone for $40-50hr around Seattle? Nowhere. In fact, for many years I was one of the only people in the state of Washington that even had one of these highly coveted microphones.
Times have changed. My studio has grown significantly as well. I’ve moved my studio twice in the past 7 years to commercial locations and spent a lot of money doing build outs, as well as major equipment upgrades. Though I’ve considered it many times, and have often been advised to by other professionals, I’ve never increased my prices. Inflation has also increased over 35% since 2007 and the dollar just isn’t worth as much as it used to be. At this point, it doesn’t make much financial sense to keep my pricing where it is. Especially, when you factor in my experience and equipment – I’m worth far more than what I’m charging. The industry low end pricing of the services I offer is generally twice what I charge. So, it makes sense to move my pricing in that direction.
Effectively immediately there will be price increases for all services. My hourly recording rate will increase to $60hr. Mixing services will move to a sliding scale of $100-200 per song depending on the size of the session, number of tracks, and complexity of the songs. Mastering will increase to $30 per track. This pricing is still below industry norms and shouldn’t have a dramatic impact on project budgets.
Thanks for your understanding.