http://www.archive.org/download/R.I.P.HeavyDMacMiller/Podcast8
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http://www.archive.org/download/ReelToReel/Podcast7a
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The question of how to charge for professional audio services can be a confusing one. The decision only becomes more weighty when we take into account the confusion that prospective clients can feel when they compare engineers or studios that have seemingly incompatible price structures.
It’s important to provide our clients with the clearest, most accurate estimate of costs that we can, so let’s look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of charging an hourly rate versus charging per song.
The Hourly Rate
Charging an hourly rate is a long-standing tradition in the commercial studio world, but that doesn’t mean that it makes the most sense for everyone. So, when does the hourly rate (or day rate) shine?
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- When ‘Time’ is the unit of sale. The aforementioned commercial studio, for example, sells time in the room. The majority of clients will be expecting the rate to be expressed per hour or per day. For the small group of prospective clients who are unsure (or too sure) about the amount of time they need, simple formulas can be devised and tweaked to help accurately estimate the time needed to accomplish their work.
- When you want to provide value for the clients who have done their homework. The strength of the hourly rate in a specialty like mastering, for example, is that clients are encouraged to bring in the highest level of preparation. Simply put, a mastering engineer won’t need to spend as much time on excellent mixes. Everyone’s work sounds better, and the client probably saved a little money. Conversely, for those clients who choose to rush the mixing process, mastering billed hourly will prove to be more expensive. The hourly rate excels if it’s O.K. that your dream clients see you as affordable and the least prepared folks see you as kind of pricey.
- Anytime a project lacks a clearly defined finish line. Working on a ‘per song’ or ‘per project’ basis may sound simple, but it can get very complicated if there isn’t a clear definition of completion or clear limits to the time frame. Charging for the time ensures that if work continues, or the scope of work changes, you’re still getting paid.
Charging Per Song
There’s no question that charging by the song or by the project provides the simplest estimation of costs for your clients. Unfortunately, when your underlying assumptions about the project prove to be wrong, you end up effectively paying part of the bill. Here are some good examples of situations that typically lend themselves to billing per song:
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- Commodity music should be priced as a commodity. Many of us are confident enough in our experience to admit that we’re not always making fine art for art’s sake. ‘Spec’ work can pay the bills. When these clients pay their bills they expect to see simple unit pricing. If you ask a butcher how much the lamb costs, he doesn’t tell you how many hours it took to raise it.
- All of the typical ‘unknowns’ are known. When you’re familiar with the material, the players, and the production environment you can be confident that your estimation of work time will be accurate. Some projects just aren’t complicated. These are great opportunities to work in simple terms with your client.
- Sometimes you just want the gig. Working per song with lots of variables can mean accepting a highly variable rate of pay. If there’s a project that’s worth the risk of working at an unknown rate, a song rate or a project rate can often provide the assurance that a self-financed client is looking for.
Set the Rate and Do the Work
You won’t meet too many people who enjoy thinking about money, and even fewer who enjoy talking about it with their clients. However, a little forethought about which pricing structure works best for a particular project can help. If you’re confident in the rate you set, and which type of rate you’re using, you’ll be more prepared to pass that confidence on to your client with a clear and accurate estimate of costs. Then you and your clients can get on with the real goal: making music!
Chime in with comments about your own experiences of charging per hour versus per song.
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This Cypher was NASTY! If you haven’t seen the video check it out here & then apologize to yourself, me, hip hop, your friends & strangers. In Podcast Episode #6 we discussed the cyphers, its impact on the BET Awards & which Cypher was nastier, G.O.O.D. Music or Shady 2.0. Click the icons on the bottom right of the picture to see the full video and picture.
Which Cypher was nastier? G.O.O.D. Music or Shady 2.0?
Check out the G.O.O.D. Music Cypher here.
http://www.archive.org/download/Podcast6TheCypher/Podcast6final
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His collection of writings will be available for scholarly research.
Via TheAtlantaJournalConstitution By Ernie Suggs
It is clear now, more than a decade after his murder, that Tupac Shakur was more than a rapper.
Today on accessAtlanta
His short but prolific career touched on everything from music to literature.
In death — Shakur was shot down in 1996 — his estate has released a half-dozen albums of previously unpublished music, and several books have been written about him.
Nikki Giovanni dedicated a book of poetry, “Love Poems,” to Shakur and carries a lasting memory of him — a tattoo reading “Thug Life” on her wrist.
“He was one of the most influential and compelling artists of my generation,” said Georgia Roberts, a doctoral student at the University of Washington who teaches a course called “The Textual Appeal of Tupac Shakur.” “Growing up in the Bay Area to a single mother, I read books because of Tupac,” she said.
Now, Shakur’s writings are being collected and archived at the Robert W. Woodruff Library of the Atlanta University Center.
Last week, the library and the Tupac Amaru Shakur Foundation, run by his mother, Afeni Shakur-Davis, announced a partnership to make his writings available for scholarly research.
“The collection will certainly enhance hip-hop studies, research and scholarship,” said Loretta Parham, CEO and director of the Woodruff Library. “But what is especially exciting is the prospect of marrying the primary resources within the Shakur Collection with teaching and learning currently taking place at our AUC institutions. Shakur’s writings, notes and correspondence will be outstanding companion resources for existing courses in a variety of areas.”
Scholars studying Shakur will sit next to researchers focusing on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Maynard Jackson, C. Eric Lincoln and Walter Rodney, whose papers are housed at Woodruff.
Shakur, who died at the age of 25, holds a unique place in history.
He was at the center of the East Coast-West Coast rapper war and did prison time. When he was killed in Las Vegas in a hail of bullets, it wasn’t the first time he had been shot.
But he was capable of producing tender lyrics and poems about despair, family and pain. He was the rare rapper who could be on the cover of Rolling Stone with his bullet wounds showing and still open a movie.
“His life experiences and his creativity still resonate with people today,” said Karen Jefferson, the records manager at Woodruff. “Part of his controversy is about who he saw himself as. On the one hand, he had strong family values and a commitment to the black community. On the other hand, he was into the gangsta rap scene. I think he recognized that he had strong values that we would appreciate.”
It was Jefferson who initially approached Shakur-Davis about housing Shakur’s writings. At the time, the foundation was meeting with scholars — including Roberts — about creating an academic curriculum focusing on Shakur’s works and influences.
“The impact that he had and still has is incredible,” Jefferson said.
Jefferson said Shakur’s writings — dating from 1989 until 1996 — are in 11 boxes.
“In addition to providing historical material, his writings document a social period,” Jefferson said. “… This material has that kind of historical research value. And it is more than just the music.”
If any similarity exists between the writings of King and Shakur, it might be in the intellectual evolution. Although he was of a different era, Shakur wrote everything in longhand. He never used a computer.
“With Tupac’s writings, you can see where he might have scratched something out as he was developing it,” said Tre’ Maxie, a Shakur Foundation board member. “When people use computers, you only see the finished product.”
The collection will include music video treatments, movie scripts, personal notes, letters, musical concepts and lyrics.
Specifically, those writings include:
● Handwritten playlists for “All Eyez on Me” and “The Don Killuminati : The 7 Day Theory,” his last two albums before he died.
● Handwritten versions of poems included in his anthology “The Rose That Grew From Concrete.”
● A copy of a handwritten management contract with Shug Knight.
● A hospital’s handwritten listing of Shakur’s personal items returned to his family upon his death.
● Letters to his family from jail.
“It is enough for you to get a good concept of who he was,” Maxie said. “I was a Tupac fan, so I am not surprised about what is in the papers. But I was inspired by the level of diversity of his knowledge. I was enlightened and inspired.”
You know what’s a real thug-ass candy? Sour Patch Kids, that’s what. Know how I know? Because Method Man, the 40-year-old rapper and actor of Wu-Tang Clan and How High fame, made a music video co-starring Sour Patch Kids running around his crib and messing around in his recording studio. If you don’t think teens and young adults can connect with this sort of product/celebrity placement on an emotional level, well, you just don’t get it.
From Mother NY comes the greatest Method Man-related collaboration since he teamed up with Mary J. Blige for the 1995 hit, “I’ll Be There for You/You’re All I Need to Get By.” This new track from Meth, “World Gone Sour (The Lost Kids),” will also be featured in a new Sour Patch Kids video game. However there’s no word as of now as to whether or not it will be featured on Method Man’s new album, The Crystal Meth, expected to be released this year after a string of delays.
To be perfectly honest, I’m amazed that Mother NY got a rap legend like Method Man to be the new spokesperson for this Kraft Foods candy brand, and I applaud Method Man for doing something more child-friendly as his focus is shifting from being a hardened representative of East Coast rap to being a family man. But, as has happened with names like Ice Cube, the target audience for this campaign doesn’t remember 36 Chambers or the impact that album had on the pop music landscape.
So, it’s kind of bittersweet that today’s youth might only think of Method Man as “that Sour Patch Kids guy,” as they probably already think of Ice Cube as “that TBS sitcom guy” or Dr. Dre as “that Dr. Pepper guy.” Admittedly, I saw Ray Charles play live before he passed away, and though I had heard of his impact on music (which was obviously much more significant than any of the aforementioned rappers) and in some way understood it, it was hard not to think of him as “that guy from the Pepsi commercials.” But, at the end of the day, maybe that’s alright. At least a new generation of consumers will know the stars of yesteryear in some way
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