Invitation to illustrate music program covers, no idea what to charge.
December 4, 2015 3:21 PM Subscribe
I was recently asked by the conductor of a well-known classical music ensemble if I'd be interested in illustrating the programs for some of his upcoming performances. A collaboration like this would be a cherry gig for me, and I'm very excited, but I'm worried about messing it up.
I've done a number of illustration projects as a freelance artist, but I've never worked with a famous ensemble, so I was thrilled to be contacted by a well-known conductor recently who had seen some of my work online, and was interested in having me do some programs for an upcoming concert.
I have no idea what to charge. I'm leaning toward just asking this person, "What is your budget?" Otherwise I would have no clue. I obviously want to quote a figure that's not weirdly lowball, for fear I'll look like an amateur, and on the other hand not outrageously high, for fear of looking like...an amateur. I've done program covers for a local church choir, but this is a totally different ball of wax.
This musician also records a lot for different labels. I've been wanting to do cd cover art for some time, and I'm thinking that if he likes my work on the programs, I could float the idea of my doing his next cd cover. Problem: I have no idea what artists charge for cd covers.
I usually use contracts, or letters of agreement, and I have a number of boilerplate versions that I could tweak to work for this situation regarding the programs. I'm retaining the rights to my work, and would be licensing it to this group for a certain period, and I plan to charge them a one-time fee to keep it simple. The program cover part will be easy. So far so good.
If this thing mushrooms into a cd cover project (and it may or may not), I would probably be working directly with the label, and we'd have a separate agreement. Again, I would have no idea what sort of fee to charge. In helping a friend put a book together recently, I worked with a photographer who would have charged about $2,000 to use his photo on the cover of the book for an intial print run of 5,000. Apparently his price had something to do with the size of the print run. I'm thinking that if I knew the number of cds the label was going to print, that might help me to arrive at a fee. But I'm not sure.
If anyone knows about musicians and their relationship with labels - are artists given carte blanche to do what they want with their covers, or does the label decide? Or does it vary?
Any other thoughts you might have would be welcome.
I've done a number of illustration projects as a freelance artist, but I've never worked with a famous ensemble, so I was thrilled to be contacted by a well-known conductor recently who had seen some of my work online, and was interested in having me do some programs for an upcoming concert.
I have no idea what to charge. I'm leaning toward just asking this person, "What is your budget?" Otherwise I would have no clue. I obviously want to quote a figure that's not weirdly lowball, for fear I'll look like an amateur, and on the other hand not outrageously high, for fear of looking like...an amateur. I've done program covers for a local church choir, but this is a totally different ball of wax.
This musician also records a lot for different labels. I've been wanting to do cd cover art for some time, and I'm thinking that if he likes my work on the programs, I could float the idea of my doing his next cd cover. Problem: I have no idea what artists charge for cd covers.
I usually use contracts, or letters of agreement, and I have a number of boilerplate versions that I could tweak to work for this situation regarding the programs. I'm retaining the rights to my work, and would be licensing it to this group for a certain period, and I plan to charge them a one-time fee to keep it simple. The program cover part will be easy. So far so good.
If this thing mushrooms into a cd cover project (and it may or may not), I would probably be working directly with the label, and we'd have a separate agreement. Again, I would have no idea what sort of fee to charge. In helping a friend put a book together recently, I worked with a photographer who would have charged about $2,000 to use his photo on the cover of the book for an intial print run of 5,000. Apparently his price had something to do with the size of the print run. I'm thinking that if I knew the number of cds the label was going to print, that might help me to arrive at a fee. But I'm not sure.
If anyone knows about musicians and their relationship with labels - are artists given carte blanche to do what they want with their covers, or does the label decide? Or does it vary?
Any other thoughts you might have would be welcome.
AIGA publishes a best practices/pricing guide. Can't link to it but amazon or their own website should have it.
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 12:39 AM on December 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 12:39 AM on December 5, 2015 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks for your responses, guys!
posted by cartoonella at 8:15 AM on December 5, 2015
posted by cartoonella at 8:15 AM on December 5, 2015
In addition to AIGA, the Graphic Artists Guild has been putting out a Handbook of Pricing & Ethical Guidelines for many years. It has sections covering illustrations for various types of clients and products.
posted by Kabanos at 7:17 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Kabanos at 7:17 PM on December 6, 2015 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Not at all sure what to say about album art, sorry.
Sounds like a cool opportunity-- good luck!
posted by underthehat at 4:24 PM on December 4, 2015 [1 favorite]