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billjobsinspace
Community Member

How much should I charge for a specialty in audio programming?

Hi everyone,

 

I've been freelancing on Upwork for nearly two years now— I specialize in music technology and app development, mostly focusing on music and audio applications. 

 

The main technology that I use is a library called libpd — which allows for very flexible and relatively easy to setup audio processing that can be embedded on nearly any platform. I have been told that I am one of the only freelancers on this website with experience using this tool. 

 

When I first got started on Upwork I learned that I was charging extremely low rates for my skillset; this was mostly due to the fact that I didn't really understand what was a competitive rate for what I was doing, and I didn't want to lose contracts for charging too much. 

 

I have been told that my current rate of $30USD/hr is "absurdly" low for what I am doing. I wanted to know what would be considered a fair hourly rate for an intermediate/expert app developer (about 10 years of experience) with an audio specialization?

 

I would like to charge a rate that is fair but is also low enough so that I don't feel pressured to deliver the impossible for potentially non tech-savvy clients. I hope that makes sense.

 

Thanks,

 

-Chris

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caldus
Community Member

I somewhat agree with the other posts, but my take on it is that if you're "the expert", then you're free to set a much higher rate if you wish. Clients really don't have any choice if they really need an expert in that field and you are the only one. It's basic economics. 🙂 I would say as long as it's not absurdly high, then I doubt you would still have trouble finding those types of projects to work on.

 

The downside of being an expert in only one thing is that you're at the mercy of whatever clients show up to Upwork needing that one skill. You may get lucky and have many of them or none of them at any time. I do often see music related projects in job postings, so I imagine you won't have too much trouble. And if you're just taking on smaller projects on the side, then maybe this is perfect for you actually.

 

I see right now you're charging $45 an hour. That's a good rate I think. You could probably get away with $60 an hour. Try that for your next contract and if you're finding anything after several weeks, drop it down to say $50. I understand what you mean by not being pressured because of working at a higher rate. That's why I don't charge absurdly high rates either. I need to not feel pressured to do top notch work at every minute and instead would rather work at a slightly slower pace.

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8 REPLIES 8
tranvanhieu
Community Member

My suggestion to find out the good price:

1/Get enough clients to cover most of your time.

2/Increase your price by 50% for future clients

3/If 2 works, increase your price by 50% more

Repeat until no one hire you anymore 😄

Hieu T
Vietnamese translator

The time to up your rate is when you have more work at your current rate than you can comfortably handle.

 

Upping the rate by 50% will be viewed with suspicion by most clients, I would suggest more frequent, but smaller increases.

 

Up it a bit ( $ 5?) then do a few jobs at that rate (do NOT take less than your profile rate) - then up it another $ 5) and do a few jobs and so on.


You'll reach the appropriate rate when offered jobs at your current rate fill your available hours more or less perfectly on average (There are always fluctuations, of course)

 

As the first page of your history still has jobs at less than $ 15 an hour on it, I would suggest not to do a huge hike until those are pushed off page one by new contracts.

 

 

Agree With You. 

renata101
Community Member


@Chris N wrote:

 

 

I would like to charge a rate that is fair but is also low enough so that I don't feel pressured to deliver the impossible for potentially non tech-savvy clients. I hope that makes sense.

 


Yeah, believe me that makes total sense. I don't work in the same field, so I might be specualting a bit with this response.  You're in an interesting situation. If there's no one out there with your skill set, regardess of how much time you've spent working in your area, you are "the expert."  The other aspect of it is that, since there aren't many people working with that technology, there probably aren't a lot of existing projects (and you may only have a small collection of your own).  So it seems that most of your jobs may end up being exploratory projects. You're being hired as a test pilot and there aren't any clear charts to tell you how it's going to take to reach a particular destination in uncharted territory (or if the plane might crash or not). 

Expectations management is an ongoing communications challenge regardless what you do. Clients don't tend to like uncertainty and certain types of clients may view it as "unprofessional" rather than simply "realistic." (I got a message last week from someone who didn't like the fact that I used the word "try" in one of my communications.) That might be an important part of the equation to work out.  So in addition to figuring out your pricing, you might also try to look at some "soft skills" development to help you navigate the client expecations end of things.   

caldus
Community Member

I somewhat agree with the other posts, but my take on it is that if you're "the expert", then you're free to set a much higher rate if you wish. Clients really don't have any choice if they really need an expert in that field and you are the only one. It's basic economics. 🙂 I would say as long as it's not absurdly high, then I doubt you would still have trouble finding those types of projects to work on.

 

The downside of being an expert in only one thing is that you're at the mercy of whatever clients show up to Upwork needing that one skill. You may get lucky and have many of them or none of them at any time. I do often see music related projects in job postings, so I imagine you won't have too much trouble. And if you're just taking on smaller projects on the side, then maybe this is perfect for you actually.

 

I see right now you're charging $45 an hour. That's a good rate I think. You could probably get away with $60 an hour. Try that for your next contract and if you're finding anything after several weeks, drop it down to say $50. I understand what you mean by not being pressured because of working at a higher rate. That's why I don't charge absurdly high rates either. I need to not feel pressured to do top notch work at every minute and instead would rather work at a slightly slower pace.

I was actually only charging $30/hr for the last contract with this client, after which I had learned about fair rates that other developers typically charge. At that point I set the rate on my profile to $45/hr.

 

I might ask for this (a 50% raise) so that it is not so overwhelming for the client, but at the same time I know that realistically this project is going to be very difficult to complete without me. 

 

I too would rather work at a more steady pace because I have some chronic muscle/nerve pain issues that require me to get up and stretch every so often, and I need to watch my stress levels as well. For that reason I don't feel the need to put extra pressure on myself to work super quickly by raising my rate too high. 

 

Thank you for your response! I am relatively new to freelancing so it's reassuring to know that these kind of rates are reasonable for this kind of work. 

billjobsinspace
Community Member

Thanks everyone for your replies. I did a bit of research and it seems like the median rate is anywhere between $40-$100/hr for this kind of work. Since I was charging $30/hr for the first phase of this project I will probably ask the client if they are comfortable paying me more and then pick something higher but not too overwhelming. 

 

 

The value of your work to the client is the rate you charge. That's pretty difficult to determine online, but working on a cute cat video is worth a whole lot less than working on a youtube video for a channel with a lot of followeers. And that's worth less than working on a piece to be released commercially.

 

I have a lot of experience in recording studios, but the last time I had a piece recorded, or did session work, the leading edge technology was the new 8-track. About a decade ago I did get into a studio to conduct an ensemble performing a piece I wrote for Native American instruments, but they were so esoteric nobody knew what they were supposed to sound like on a recording.