What does it cost to record and produce a song?

This is the first question almost everyone asks, and the honest answer is annoying: it depends on the song. Not because anyone is being cagey, but because 'record a song' covers everything from mastering a finished mix in an afternoon to building an arrangement from a voice memo over three weeks. Those are not the same purchase.

What you can do is work out roughly where your song sits, which is most of the way to knowing what it costs. Four things move the price, and nothing else moves it much.

1. How much of the record already exists

This is the big one. In rough order of cost, from cheapest to most expensive:

• You have a finished mix and want it mastered. The smallest job there is.
• You have good stems and want them mixed and mastered. A defined job, quoted from the track count and the state of the recordings.
• You have solid recordings but the arrangement is thin and needs parts added.
• You have a good vocal and a guide guitar, and the record has to be built around them.
• You have a voice memo. Everything is still to be written, played and recorded.

The distance between the top and the bottom of that list is very large. It is worth being honest with yourself about which line you are on.

2. How many instruments have to be played

Every part someone has to perform is time. A song that wants programmed drums and two guitars costs less than one that wants live drums, bass, piano, a string arrangement and a horn line — not because anyone is charging per instrument, but because someone has to sit down and play, edit and mix each of them.

This is also where studios differ most. If the producer plays everything, you pay for their time. If they do not, you pay session fees per musician on top, and you wait for diaries to line up.

3. How finished you need it to be

Releasing on streaming needs a master. Releasing on vinyl needs a different one. Pitching to a sync agency needs an instrumental and usually stems. A band demo to get gigs needs none of that. Decide what the song is actually for before you buy anything, because half the cost overruns in independent music are someone paying twice for the same song.

4. How decided you are

Nothing costs more than changing your mind late. Revisions are normal and every quote should include some, but rebuilding an arrangement after the mix because the band has now decided the song is in the wrong key is a second production, not a revision. The cheapest thing you can do, before spending anything, is agree with yourself and your band what the song is supposed to be.

Why there are no prices on this site

Because a price list would be a lie in both directions. It would overcharge the person who just needs a master and undercharge the person who needs a record built from nothing, and it would push everyone towards whichever package looked like good value rather than the one they actually need.

So the process here is: send the song, however rough. You get an honest opinion on what it needs and a quote for that, and if the answer is that it needs less than you thought — or that you should spend the money on re-recording the vocal instead — you get told that too.

← All notes