How much to charge for a CD COVER

[emerging]

Hey guys. Generally speaking, how much would I charge for a cd cover and cd top design plus a poster design (all obviously referring to the same album)

Please let me know! Doing this for the first time although i have good skills with flyer and poster design. Not sure how much to ask for and I need to come up with my price tonight.

THanks in Advance!!!

[jcTEK]

How much are they willing to pay?

Because pricing all depends on complexity of the whole project. To me, that's the best way to gauge how much to charge.

If you have the resources, you can also 'sub-contract' through printer and provide the prints too so you can make a little extra cheese off the top and charge as a 'package'.

If you only doing the designs and providing the files for print, then you don't want to over charge because they are probably on a budget and still need to finance the printing part themselves.

Anyways, i'd probably just go off a set rate per hour (like $75) if you're assuming position as an independent artist.

I don't know of any set, standard rate to apply since there are a bunch of variables with these gigs.

[dpaint]

How many hours it will take you times how much an hour you normally charge.

[Dusty]

As with all freelance art...it depends.

1) Frankly, what kind of client are you dealing with? A label, the band directly? Is the band popular or a myspace band that hasn't even recorded a demo yet. This shouldn't matter, but it does a little bit. Labels typically have a max price they will deal with, and it is an acceptable question to ask them what their budget is for the artwork. Then you have your price. If it's a band that is bound by a label, same question. If it's a band that is unsigned...then you have to basically deal with their limited pockets and how much they spend will very much depend on how excited to have you on board as an artist. If they just need someone...anyone...they probably won't pay you much. But if they specifically want YOU and only YOU, they will pay a little more.

2) How much do you want to make per hour? How long will it take you to finish the project? Unless you previously worked for minimum wage, a good starting point is to take however much you make annually and divide down to how much that is hourly, then take that number times how many hours you think it will take you to complete the project. You aren't really going to "clock in/clock out" with this, you just need that to estimate.

There isn't really a definitive answer. It could be 250.00 it could be 2000.00. It depends on what they want, when they want it, how much back and forth they are gonna give you, how many sketches you are going to be required to put down before you start, etc. My advice is to start with what I said in #2 and don't be afraid to go a little higher as a starting point. The worst thing they can do is say "OOOooo....well that's a little high for me", and then they will either counter or if they don't, you can decide if you want to drop the price or not.

It really is up to you, man. Sorry, but it's just not the kind of thing that you can safely thrown out a ballpark figure, because we don't know anything about the situation at all. Only you do!

Good luck!

[OldJake666]

$200 - $2500 depending on the complexity, amount of exposure, etc.

[OldJake666]

$200 - $2500 depending on the complexity, amount of exposure, etc.