Pricing and Discounts

Pricing for Student Recordings

Audition Tapes, Recital Recordings,
Simple Portfolio Recordings*
Equipment & Setup (Audio+Video)$100-175 per setup (depending on location)
Recording Time (1 hour minimum)$85/hour or $400/day (a day is 5-8 hours)
Audio Mixing & MasteringIncluded
Video Trimming & Color Grading$25/finished hour
Livestreaming$100 per stream
*Student Setups consist of very high quality stereo audio and single-camera HD video.

Pricing for Professional Recordings

  • I use a fixed pricing model based on day rates so you know about how much each project will cost upfront, including post-production.
  • My services are extremely customized, and every project is different. Reach out to me so we can discuss what yours looks like. I’ll send you a questionnaire to make the discussion as efficient and thorough as possible.
  • After I get to know your project vision, I will make you a customized proposal with 2-4 package options (quotes) that reflect a range of needs and budgets, so you can choose exactly which one is right for you.
  • Each package option will have an itemized list of services (equipment charges, recording time, post-production, etc.) to help you understand where every cost comes from and to show you how we can adjust the quote to fit within your budget and meet your exact needs.

The below chart outlines the starting points for my professional recording rates. For recording projects, simple projects will start here for a baseline package and then go up from there according to complexity, time, location, and amount of music to be recorded.

Classical RecordingsNon-Classical Recordings
(Jazz, Folk, Rock,
and Other Acoustic Genres)
Audio-Only Recordingspackages
start at $500		packages start at $400
Video+Audio Recordingspackages
start at $700		packages start at $600
Audio Post-production
Rates (Mixing, mastering,
noise removal)		$450/day,
$250/half-day, or
$75/hour (typically)		(Same as classical)
Audio or Video Editing RatesBilled per splice ($10)
or per edited minute		Billed hourly ($75/hour)
or per edited minute
I’ll send you a contract to sign after you select a package. 50% of selected package cost is due at the beginning of the project, and the remainder is due at final delivery. For long-term projects, recording and post-production are billed separately. Package prices do not typically include the peripheral costs of renting a venue, tuning pianos, or hiring musicians.

Discounts

I regularly facilitate livestreams at An die Musik in downtown Baltimore. Get in touch with the owner, Henry Wong, about booking the space to use for recordings (be sure to tell him I sent you). I will take $50 off of the setup charge for any location sessions booked at An die Musik.

My studio of choice is Heartwood Sound Studio in Baltimore. Contact the owner, Ben Frock, about booking, and tell him you’re planning to have me engineer the session. I will take my standard $200 off for booking in an equipped studio plus an extra $50 off because it’s at Heartwood.

As a composer, I care about new works being heard. The New Piece Discount is 5% off the final invoice for world premiere recordings (either live or for a recording session) of recently composed works, especially for when the composer is involved. I also care about classical musicians programming older works which have been ignored over time due to prejudices against composers who are women, people of color, or other historically marginalized groups. For classical music recordings which favor programming of such works (at least half of the music being performed), I will provide an Underrepresented Composer Discount, also 5% off the final invoice price. (If both discounts apply, then I will take 8% off the final invoice price.)

Affording Recordings

I get it—recording is pricey! It takes a lot of time and expensive equipment on my part to produce the excellent results your music deserves, and I have to charge enough to support my business and my life so I can keep doing this full time. But if you aren’t used to the market price for professional recordings, it can seem unattainable. Fortunately, there are lots of grants available for recording music, and a good proposal for your project might get you far. Here are some links for you to start looking:

Contact me to book