How Much Should a Mix Cost?

How much should you charge for a mix? How much should you expect to pay for a mix? How about mastering work—how much should that cost?

The long answer can be found in the podcast episode linked below. For the short written answer, scroll down below the video and read on.

Thanks to Soundtoys for sponsoring this episode. Remember to subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Google Play, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How Much Should a Mix Cost: The Short Answer

There is no one set price for a mix. They could run from $0 all the way up to $10,000 and beyond. But there are some common price points you can expect to find.

Tier 0:
$0 to $50/song

Beginning mixers just looking to get started may work for free or at extremely low rates, just to build experience and a “reel” of work.

Obviously enough, this is not a sustainable rate over the long run, and it’s hard to find professional level work at this price. Though occasionally, very talented new mixers will deliver good work at this price. If they do, they won’t stay at this price for long!

Tier 1:
$100 to $150/song

At this price point, you’ll find mixers who have some experience but are still looking to drum up work. They might be experienced hobbyists, students or part-timers establishing a side-hustle in music.

Quality here is often not up to amazing professional standards, but may be competent. And you’ll occasionally find someone at this price point who is ready to graduate to the next tier but hasn’t yet.

Tier 2:
$200 to $300/song

This is where you will start to find professional work of consistently decent quality from people who are making a sustainable go of having a career in audio. They will often work primarily with the hobbyist market, and with aspiring professionals and part-time pros.

At this rate, you can expect to find mixers who are more dedicated and reliable than at lower rater, who can devote themselves more fully to audio work. Quality will usually be much more consistent than at lower rates, with faster turnarounds and fewer revisions than at the more unsustainably low rates.

Tier 3:
$400 to $600/song

This is where you can start expecting to find work of a very high quality that will likely stand up well to some of your favorite commercially released records, particularly those by established indie artists.

The quality of work here can be VERY good, and artists who are serious about their releases and want to look back at them fondly for the rest of their lives can often be well-served by mixers in this range.

Some of the mixers available in the price range may have even worked on records you’ve actually heard of, and at this range poor mix quality is generally not a concern so long as the mixer is reputable.

Tier 4:
$700 to $900/song

At this price point you’re starting to deal with mixers whose work you’d likely be familiar with. Even your mom may have heard of a few of the names on their client list. Significant releases from pop, rock, hop hop and R&B artists, even some on notable labels, may use engineers in this price range.

Mixers at this price point may even be ones you’ve seen featured in trade magazines, websites and videos on audio and music production. At this price point, they are more likely to use mixing assistants than at any of the lower tiers, and often have a good system in place for delivering high quality mixes quickly.

Tier 4:
$1000-$1900/song

Mixers in this range usually have well established clientèle and may even be notable mixers within their genre. In some cases, they may offer comparable quality to the tier below but are working on older analog systems that increase costs relative to the lower tier, but have clients willing to pay a premium for that process. In other cases, they may offer additional cachet, quality, expertise or experience that allows them to set higher rates.

Tier 5:
$2000 to $10,000/song

This is where mixers top out. Many major label projects, particularly from the largest artists, will employ mixers in this range. Today, the price range is more likely to be $2,000-$5,000, but rates as high as $10,000+ were not uncommon in the past and are not unheard of today.

For more details, nuance and caveats, check out the full podcast episode linked above.

Justin Colletti is a mastering engineer and writer who lives in New Hampshire. He edits SonicScoop.

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