It is very difficult to create a fixed price-list for music-related services because there is so much variation from one job to another. Your one-page lead sheet may take half the time to complete than another customer's one-page lead sheet.
For that reason, we like to look at the requirements for your job first so that we can get a sense of how long it will take and of how complex the job is. We can then give you a quote tailored to your requirements.
For example, to quote a price for an engraving job, we must take into account complexity of the music, note density, length of the piece, the number of instruments and any special requirements.
Our quotations are free and there is no obligation for you to proceed with your order.
The following section is provided to give you some idea of what your job may cost. Remember, this is indicative pricing, not an actual price-list.
| Piano-vocal, lead sheets, chord charts, SATB | $25/page |
| Song books (five or more songs in piano-vocal style) | $20/page |
| Full Scores, band arrangements, ensembles | $50/page |
| Part Extracts - With an order for a score/band layout | Nil |
| Part Extracts - From a pre-printed score you provide | $25/page |
| Classroom resources (worksheets, exams, workbooks) | $20/page |
| Instructional books and books about music |
$50/hour |
| Custom Style Sheet Setup | $25 |
| Custom Style Sheet Setup - Specialised | $50-$100 |
| Transposition We don't charge extra for transposition! |
Nil |
Transcription cost is based on an hourly rate of $60 AU, and is estimated per instrument/part. The time taken per part will vary depending on the level of accuracy you require, the complexity of the original, and the quality of the sound source. Total time for the job will depend on the number of instruments or parts to be transcribed. Price includes all engraving work.
The following table gives you an idea of how many hours it will take to transcribe a single part for a 3 minute song of average complexity, and assuming the customer wanted the transcription to be as accurate as possible.
| Vocals, melody instruments, bass, drums | 1 to 2 |
| Piano, keyboards, guitar (incl. classical and fingerstyle) | 3 to 6 |
| Short solos (guitar, sax, monophonic instruments) | 1 to 2 |
| Chord charts, rhythm guitar | 0.5 to 2 |
For example, suppose you want vocals, bass, drum and guitar parts transcribed for a simple 3 minute pop song. This would be expected to take about 6 to 12 hours and would cost $360 AU to $720 AU. Of course, if the piece of music was very complicated, the same 3 minutes may take three or four times as long to transcribe.
The Transcription of spoken word is based on a rate of around $15 AU per 1 minute of recorded speech. For example, a five minute interview would cost $75 AU. However, the cost of transcription will be affected by the quality of the recording, the number of different voices speaking, the degree to which voices talk over the top of each other, and the amount of "dead air" in the recording. The actual cost might therefore be higher or lower than the standard rate.
Sequencing is estimated on an hourly rate of $60 AU, and is calculated per instrument/part. The time taken per part will vary depending on the level of detail and expression you require. The total time for the job will depend on the number of instruments or parts to be sequenced.
A typical three minute pop-song might require 30 minutes to an hour per instrument to sequence to a "standard" level of detail. If, for example, you wanted bass, drums and keyboard, then sequencing would cost between $75 and $150 AU.
If you want something more professional ("human" sounding rather than "robotic"), the time taken might be 2 to 4 hours per instrument, and so the cost of sequencing the three-instrument, three-minute song might be somewhere between $300 and $600 AU.
For sequences that are to be used on a CD for mainstream commercial sale, we can negotiate a reduced fee combined with royalties.
For digital recording, we charge an amount per instrument per track. This is typically between $200 and $500, depending on how demanding the music is. We can offer a discounted rate for orders requiring multiple instruments on 4 or more tracks.
For up-and-coming artists preparing a CD for mainstream commercial sale, we can negotiate a combination of a lower once-off session fee with a royalty based on actual sales.
All associated costs such as postage, handling, a laser- or inkjet- printed copy of your music, CDs and so on are either included in the cost or provided at no additional charge. You won't get any nasty surprises when your job is complete.
If you require us to arrange volume printing for you, this will be in addition to the cost of the job, and will be determined by your requirements and our printing company's charges.
Similarly, if you require graphic design work, say for a book or songbook cover, this will be quoted separately.
If you lose your copy of work we have done for, we may charge a small fee to prepare a duplicate from our archived copies. (Usually this will be limited to the cost of postage)
Exchange Rates
All prices we quote will be in Australian dollars. This means that
the dollar amount we quote will probably be even lower in your own currency,
particularly if you live in the US, the UK or Europe.
For example, $50 Australian is currently about $38 US, €29 and £19 British pounds. Please use a currency converter to check the latest exchange rates if you have any concerns about this.
Large Projects
For extremely large projects such as instructional books
and books about music, it is often difficult to know how long the job will
take. This is why we charge an hourly rate rather than quote a price for the
job.
However, if it concerns you that we are working to an hourly rate, we can give you an estimate of how long the job will take. We can then arrange to either put a cap on the cost or to provide you with a fixed quote after 10% or 20% of the work has been done.
Custom Style Sheet Setup
Most customers are happy to use our Audio Graffiti style
sheet templates, and no setup fee applies.
However, if you have special needs, we can prepare a custom style sheet for you. With the normal setup fee, you specify the engraving and typographic rules and provide any text fonts.
For the "Specialised" custom style sheet, you also provide the fonts for the musical symbols you want us to use. Mapping the symbols to our software does take some time, so this kind of setup is more expensive.
Estimating Page Numbers
To estimate the number of pages your job will take, we use the following as a rough guide:
Piano-vocal formats, including songbooks, normally require about 3 to 5 measures per system and 4 to 6 systems per page. Lead sheets and chord charts usually fit on a single page.
Scores are based on 3 to 6 bars per page (depending on note density, meter and other factors). For small ensembles where it is acceptable to fit to systems per page, 6 to 12 bars per page.
Part extracts usually fit on 1 or 2 pages, although this can be double for guitar extracts that require tabulature.
