CD Design Quote
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- cbass99
Yo, my friend signed with a record label and I'm designing there first album. It's an 8-panel, full color design. I want to give my friend a break because ultimately he/band will be paying for it. I'm sure you've been in this position. What would you charge?
- ephix0
shouldn't the label have a budget for that?
- yeah, what's up with that?OSFA
- Bands starting out will, as cbass said, ultimately pay for everythingDancer
- I asked my buddy that and he said he wasn't sure what it was.
Is that the way I should go about it?cbass99 - maybe it's one of those "wannabe" labels. with myspace distributionephix
- Even though they signed to a major label, they will be paying for everything until they make that money back with sales.cbass99
- record label will give you e,g $1M for signing, but out of that you need to pay for EVERYTHING!FallowDeer
- pffft! tell him to audition for American IdolOSFA
- scrap_paper0
Yeah, I'd look into it and see about who is setting the budget limit. See if you friend knows if his label is covering those expenses. They should be.
- scrap_paper0
If you are doing a project as a favour then ultimately it is up to you what you want to charge. I would ask your friend what kind of cash they have to put into the project and then base your efforts on that combined with the favour aspect.
- That's a good way to go about it. Thanks scrap_paper. You know how it is when you do work for friends...cbass99
- I always have a love/hate relationship working with musicians. Their work inspires me to create but then they don't ever have the money to make any significant effort on the projectscrap_paper
- never have the budget to support any real effort on their design.scrap_paper
- I know what you mean...He wants me to get paid but probably not what I should be paid since he'll be paying that back later.cbass99
- cbass990
I was thinking somewhere between 1200-2000 but I think that's way more than he was thinking...
- ephix0
if they signed with a major label as you said, then they would have a pretty good "advance" to pay everything with. don't under-value your services. they will likely be paying most of it for recording so why shouldn't they pay you. Otherwise make some kind of deal to get more once they start selling, if you do it for cheap.
- That's a good approach too to get more if they start selling. Good advice ephix...cbass99
- cbass990
Appreciate the advice everyone.
- Spookytim0
The artist pays for everything in the end.
- cbass990
Anyone have a good resource of "record label design rates" or is it all about the labels budget?
- Meeklo0
it's all about the label's budget.
If I like the artist I wouldn't mind doing it for cheap. If I don't like the music then I will probably ask for more money.Unless you get a "radio type" band that gets played all the time, there is really not much money in record / cd covers.
- good point...I like the music a lot so it's worth it.cbass99
- Randd0
we just did something for a little known "New Music" ensemble for a small label and the budget was 2500
- TResudek0
I would keep in mind that you are taking money from the label and not the artist. In fact, if you want to give your friends a break, you should give them a piece of your cut rather than take a low budget. Money a band has to recoup is not real money... very far from it. If it were real I would owe Julie Greenwald a couple hundred grand. :)
Charge the absolute top of what you think you can get.
- Funny, if I charged by the hour, they'd owe me about 43,000.cbass99
- dewilde0
I think it depends on how bad you want to do something. If they are your friends give them a break, if you dont really want to do it that much, charge alot. People worry about getting their dues too much. Some things you just do for fun rather than sucking the life out of a project, and milking it for as much as you can get. There is a fine line between enjoying your work, and turning it into strictly business...