Customer wants source file...

Hi Guys,

I received an email from someone asking if they could buy the source file to one of my tracks to add their own parts to the arrangement. Got a couple of questions so hope someone can help…

1. By ‘source file’ does the person want each track bounced onto seperate WAV files? 2. How much should I charge for this if its a $14 song?

Any help appreciated.

James Sweet Wave Audio

Source file is the actual saved file of the software that you created the music with. Like “Reason 5” or what ever. In example source file of the Motion graphics would be After Effects .aep project file

I see. Cheers. Is this a common request? Not sure what to charge for something like this. Extended license maybe?

I would offer to provide stems or audio splits for an additional fee but not hand over your source file. It seems like giving someone your source file leads down a murky road in terms of copyright.

||+519421|pinkzebra said-|| I would offer to provide stems or audio splits for an additional fee but not hand over your source file. It seems like giving someone your source file leads down a murky road in terms of copyright.

Yeah thats probably the best idea. What do think is a fair additional fee?

||+519408|sweetwaveaudio said-|| 1. By ‘source file’ does the person want each track bounced onto seperate WAV files? 2. How much should I charge for this if its a $14 song?

1. The only way to find out what another person needs exactly is to ask that person I assume the client refers to your DAW ’s source file, however, the client should understand that he or she needs to have the same DAW , the plugins, and so on. Just ask I guess. In fact, pinkzebra’s suggestion about the stems makes a lot of sense. Much easier for everyone. 2. It’s really up to you and how much you think your work is worth. Ask about their budget, intended usage, start with a higher quote, negotiate down, offer several quotes with different terms.. there are really no hard rules. Selling directly is fun

Just my 2 cents.

M

Thanks everyone. The bidding starts at $1,000,000 (Dr Evil smile)

haha

What I do is keep track of what I’ve made in stock music sales over the last couple of years I’ve been doing it and actually estimate (at today’s rate of sales) what I would earn per song on average over a period of 3 years. Then I divide that by the amount of hours I believe it took me to create each song. I use that as my hourly rate, and multiply that by the amount of hours I think it will take to do the freelance work.

This is kind of complicated, but it gives me some assurance that I’m not losing money by doing freelance. One mistake I made early on was to charge too little in the hopes of being competitive, but the problem with that is that I felt rushed in the studio, or even a bit self resentful because I knew that I could be creating a royalty free track with that time and making more from it. I would rather lose a freelance bid than feel like I’m doing sub-par work in order to make money from it.

Obviously if your motivation includes building up your list of clients you might have reason to charge a little bit less at first, but don’t lowball too much.