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Thu Jul 19 2018 |

Sound opinions: Are you being paid enough for your audio work?

By Asbjoern Andersen
freelance audio payment

Are you charging enough for your audio work? Ryan Ike is back with more thoughts on pricing, and how to calculate if you're doing highly specialized audio work - at rates that are effectively below the minimum wage. Read on for his thoughts on setting the right price for your freelance audio work:

Written by Ryan Ike, and republished with his kind permission

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After my thread (and post) about how game audio people (and freelancers in general) donโ€™t charge enough, a lot of people responded with โ€œI want to charge more, but I donโ€™t know how to price myself.โ€

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Itโ€™s easy, but you need to analyze your work, a thing lots of us donโ€™t do. Iโ€™ll explain:

Most of us, especially if youโ€™ve been at this awhile, have a basic idea how long it takes to make X thing. โ€œI can write a minute of finished music in a week working full time hours, less if itโ€™s a genre Iโ€™m comfy with, more if it requires lots of live playersโ€ Something like that.

As freelancers, weโ€™re charging for our skillset, but even more so, weโ€™re charging for our time. And a TON of us forget to take this into account when we set our rates on a new project.

If you sign on to write a full sized indie game soundtrack, (letโ€™s say roughly 45 minutes of music), break it down. How long does it take you to write a 3-4 minute track? Or a minute of music? What about edits and revisions?

Yes, this is tricky and not an exact science, and every project differs based on the working dynamic, the type of work, etc. But just ball park it.

In most cases, youโ€™ll find youโ€™re charging not nearly enough for the amount of work youโ€™re set up to do

Once you have an estimate on how much of your time this will take, charge based on THAT.

In most cases, youโ€™ll find youโ€™re charging not nearly enough for the amount of work youโ€™re set up to do. If I charged $20,000 for the above example and it takes me roughly a week to write 1 min of music, thatโ€™s 20k over 45 weeks at BEST.

If we do a little math on that, that works out to roughly 11 dollars an hour if Iโ€m putting in a full 40 hour workweek each week. Thatโ€™s way under minimum wage here in Seattle, and a lot of other places too.

And thatโ€™s the really surprising thing Iโ€™ve learned by asking fellow audio folks to compare how much of their time theyโ€™re providing VS what they get paid. An absolute ton of you arenโ€™t even working for minimum wage. Youโ€™re working for less.

I was chatting about this with a sound designer friend of mine who wanted to raise their rates, but wasnโ€™t sure what to raise them to. I wonโ€™t name them, but theyโ€™ve worked on some incredibly popular things youโ€™ve DEFINITELY heard of.

ME: Well, how long does it take you to make a sound asset, usually?
THEM: I mean, theyโ€™re all different, but usually around 3 hours.
ME: Ok, and what do you charge?
THEM: $50 per file.
ME: So . . . like 17 bucks an hour?
THEM: โ€ฆoh.


And again, this person is crazy talented and has already worked on some major franchises, and theyโ€™re still barely charging over minimum wage where we live. And didnโ€™t even really realize it, because weโ€™re not used to thinking of our work in terms of time spent.

Game audio is far, far from a minimum wage-level job. The amount of time and practice required to get good, the cost of building a studio space and having the right gear/software, going to cons to network and stay in business, itโ€™s HUGE.

More on setting (and getting) the right price for your work:

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Want to know more audio pricing? Ryan Ike has written another guide on audio pricing, and how to get it right, here. Also check out Kate Finanโ€™s in-depth guide on how to set โ€“ and get โ€“ the right price for your audio work here.

Yet so many of you charge barely more than what youโ€™d get paid if you worked at Starbucks. And not that working there is bad, of course, but it doesnโ€™t require years of practice and thousands of dollars in gear to be employed there.

So, the next time youโ€™re figuring out the finances of a new gig, think how much an hour of your time as a creative professional SHOULD be worth. 50 bucks? 60? More (typically, yes, more).

Break down the amount of work, figure out how long itโ€™ll take you, and charge accordingly.

And it doesnโ€™t matter if you prefer to charge clients based on X amount per track or asset, X amount for the whole project, or if you actually just bill based on how many hours you worked. But base X on how much time youโ€™ll spend, and how you value that time.

A big thanks to Ryan Ike for letting us share his thoughts on pricing! Got some insights or tips on how to set the right price? Please share them in the comments setion.

Succeed in game audio:

โ€ข How to Set (and Get) the Right Price for Your Audio Work

โ€ข 10 Essential Tips for Game Audio Freelancers

โ€ข How to be a successful sound designer โ€“ with Scott Gershin

โ€ข 5 Useful Tips for Upcoming Sound Designers and Sound Editors

โ€ข Building a successful audio post studio โ€“ with Kate Finan and Jeff Shiffman
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Breaking into game audio โ€“ guides and resources:

โ€ข The โ€˜Quit Aspiringโ€™ book โ€“ by Adam Croft

โ€ข Applying for a job in game audio โ€“ by Matthew Florianz

โ€ข Freelance Game Audio: Getting Started and finding work โ€“ by Ashton Morris

โ€ข Yet Another Game Audio Hiring Article โ€“ by Ariel Gross
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Finding those audio jobs:

โ€ข Hand-picked audio jobs on Soundlister

โ€ข Get the weekly Audio Jobs newsletter

โ€ข Join the Audio Jobs Facebook group
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Showcasing your work:

โ€ข Get a free profile on Soundlister

โ€ข Upload your demos to Soundcloud

โ€ข Upload your demos to ReelCrafter
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Networking:

โ€ข Find game audio community groups around the world

โ€ข Find interesting audio events around the world
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Education and knowledge:

โ€ข Get an audio mentor at the Audio Mentoring Project

โ€ข Read the 100s of sound stories and guides here on the A Sound Effect blog (search for stories here)

โ€ข Browse Industry Data: Game Music and Sound Design Salary Survey Results

โ€ข Take online courses in Wwise, FMOD Studio, Unity, Pure Data & Unreal at the School of Video Game Audio

About Ryan Ike:

Ryan Ike is a composer and sound designer based in Seattle, WA, with work spanning games like Gunpoint, West of Loathing, and Where the Water Tastes Like Wine. Outside of making audio, he spends his time trying to help newcomers find their place in the game industry, and is passionate about making sure that game audio pros (and creatives in general) are getting the pay and respect they deserve. You can listen to his work here


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