Advice on charging a band

JohnRoberts said:

From my perspective you appear a little too sensitive to constructive criticism.

You are not being attacked, by me either.

JR

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I see nothing constructive about taunting and being a douche like that guy was.

But thanks for playing.

Ricardus said:

I see nothing constructive about taunting and being a douche like that guy was.

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calling somebody a douche is actually against the rules.

#4 said:

4. You will find that the members of this community are incredibly courteous and respectful of each other, so please reciprocate those gestures. Leave the Flame-war mentality at another forum.  Personal attacks as well as general hateful comments (regarding race, religion, gender, sex, etc...) will not be tolerated.

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But thanks for playing.

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I am not playing... I hoped to cool the situation, but apparently failed.

Carry on but be nice...

JR

These are good advices:

Dreams said:

I vote to just give it to them and tell em to credit you if they use it for anything beyond personal listening

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Recording Engineer said:

I know how I would handle it; the way I handle most things...

There is value in connecting with others and the potential of it leading to something very minute or huge on a personal and/or professional level, with any timeframe, and at any point in one’s lifetime. Therefore, I have no problem doing some small first-time-only jobs I enjoy for free. Besides, I’m already doing it for my own enjoyment anyhow, and that alone is value.

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Dreams said:

I wouldn't walk into a supermarket and arrange the shelves and then ask to be paid for the work or tell the manager they couldn't arrange the shelves differently. No one asked you to put in the work up front. I don't think asking for money is the play here, and i know you're not trying to hear that answer, but if anyone pulled that with me it would leave a pretty bad taste in my mouth.

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Gold said:

Then what’s the problem? Ask for some money or don’t . If you can convince them it’s the best thing since sliced bread ask for a lot.

If I haven’t been hired for a job I have no expectation of being paid for anything no matter how good it is.

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JohnRoberts said:

From my perspective you appear a little too sensitive to constructive criticism.

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Give it to them for free. Charging a price after the work is done and (it doesn't sound like) was ever talked about is starting off on the wrong foot.

Give it to them for free.

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Bonus- Stays  clear of the  niggles ....

JohnRoberts said:

This is about the kindest, gentlest, place around the internets to get (free) advice about lots of stuff...

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+1000

i  would  charge them 5 bucks,  which means i should really just give it to them for free in order to enhance the chance of working with them again and thus, end up making more than a bootleg of cover tunes could ever reap.

You have contacted the band leader already, no?

Do you have a figure in mind that you would be satisfied with?  you could say the work  required this much of your time to accomplish for the results with a value of......
or suggest if they like the recordings , you could arrange to record , either set up a session or wait til the next show to plan & arrange more closely what they would like, and say , if that isn't possible you could  " prepare  " the existing recordings for a small fee [  doing minimal if any work in addition to what you have done ]

"Sure, I'd be happy for you to come over and listen to it, I've spent n hours making it listenable. I usually don't work for less than m dollars an hour so if you want to leave with a copy(s) I'd like to be paid n x m."

Be 100% honest with them and tell them how you feel about that whole situation (you already wrote enough copy-paste-able content yourself)

Edit: Just saw it's an old thread. So how did the story end?

Hmm... sounds like one for the lawyers, which I am not, thankfully. Their performance. Your recording. Somebody else's music. Quite a mess you have there, even without dodging down the copyright rabbit hole. Your claim is you own the recording because you recorded it. They can claim they own the performance, without which your recording would not exist, so they own the recording as well. It sounds to me like they have the prior claim, but then what do I know? Not much...
I would give them the recording with limited rights for personal listening, excluding such things as using the recording to solicit new gigs or selling the recording. If they want to do that, then go for the money if you want, but you are still in a very weak position, rights-wise, I think. So build good will and suggest that in the future you would consider producing a recording for them they could distribute, and get a contract beforehand. It saves a lot of trouble.
We all want to be compensated for our work, but sometimes it makes more sense to give it away in hope of future paying work. Sometimes it's called advertising.
(Last time I looked at a cover jacket, it was pretty clear the work was owned by the performers and their producer, not the recording engineer. But then what do I know?)

Swpaskett check the first post date....

Sep 24, 2019

Sigh. This is how we learn