I had been in this band for two and half months, and they decided to record some of their newer songs. I joined the band after all these songs were written and i only contributed obvious bass lines to the simple tunes. When the idea of recording came up, i asked the obvious question of how much it was gonna cost. they told me that they were going to use a guy that they had used in the past who does it for cheap. I ask how much is cheap. they say $15 an hour, which does seem pretty cheap to me. I ask how many songs we are gonna do. they say three. I ask how long do they expect it to take. they said probably about 20 hours. I say okay, sounds reasonable. I go in after the drummer and find out they decided to record 5 new songs instead of three. ( i wasn't able to make it in the first day). I'm like whatever at the time, because it was just me and the engineer, so who am i gonna even discuss it with. I do the 5 songs in under 3 hours including set up. After i'm done i call the "manager" up and ask him when we decided to add two songs. He says they were in there and they just decided to get them done. So i said "how much more is this gonna cost." he said, "don't worry about it, it won't be much more than we originally calculated." Three weeks go by, and today one of the singers calls me and says we are picking up the songs next tuesday and that it's gonna be $284. I'm like cool so who do i give my $60 to (~284 / 5). he says no thats $284 per person. I'm like HOW!??. He's says, "well we spent 28 hours instead 20 because we had 5 songs instead of 3." I say, "so how does 28 times 15 divided by five equal 284." He's says you have to add the $200 per song. I say "what?".
him->"The guy charges 200 per song."
me ->"no one told me that."
Him->"Um, we sent you a text with all the recording prices broken down"
Me-> "i don't get texts, I've told everyone that several times."
him->"well we agreed to split it five ways"
me-> "i agreed to that when i thought it was going to be $60."
him->"well we're picking it up tuesday are we going to have the money by then"
Me-> "no."
him-> "well i guess we can wait for friday. Do you get paid this friday?"
Me-> "yes."
him-> we'll have bye friday then.
Me-> "im not paying more than 60 dollars no one told me about the 200 dollar per song charge, this was not are agreement."
him-> "we agreed to split it"
me-> "whatever i have another call, I have to go."
I answer the other call, who was the drummer of the group. i tell her, (yes her), that singer called me and said it was going to be 284 per person for the recording. She's says okay. I say, "That doesn't seem like a lot to you?" SHe says, "it's less than last time." i say, "hows that, last time you only did three songs." she says, "well last time we spent forever on guitar and bass tracks because they both sucked."
now im pissed.
I call the guitarist up, who is new to the group as well, and only wrote chords for one of the songs and tell him the news. he is upset also, even though he knew about the 200 dollars per song. He found out, by chance, from the engineer after his third day in the studio. I said, "why didn't you tell me that." he said, "i thought you already knew."
to be honest I think they should be paying me for laying down these tracks. I had nothing to do with writing them. I had no creative input, and on top of all that, apparently i saved them money by not having whatever hack they had before me give them a go. The guitarist is thinking of not paying them also. This band only gigs like once a month, and barely makes any money when they do. when they do gig it's sloppy and the singers forget the words. the drummer can't keep a solid beat and doesn't know the songs as well as i do and she's been in the band for a year plus. The band is basically, me and the guitarist playing well and everyone else not. After the last gig went terribly I was considering quitting anyway. Now i definitely am. I'll play the gigs i have already agreed to play, only if they can't find a replacement for me, and then im out. I guess i was wondering if i should pay for the recording or how much i should pay. right now i'm thinking of paying my time, ~$45 and letting them handle the rest. Am i wrong?
ps. sorry this was so long, and even more sorry for adding this ps and making it even longer.
him->"The guy charges 200 per song."
me ->"no one told me that."
Him->"Um, we sent you a text with all the recording prices broken down"
Me-> "i don't get texts, I've told everyone that several times."
him->"well we agreed to split it five ways"
me-> "i agreed to that when i thought it was going to be $60."
him->"well we're picking it up tuesday are we going to have the money by then"
Me-> "no."
him-> "well i guess we can wait for friday. Do you get paid this friday?"
Me-> "yes."
him-> we'll have bye friday then.
Me-> "im not paying more than 60 dollars no one told me about the 200 dollar per song charge, this was not are agreement."
him-> "we agreed to split it"
me-> "whatever i have another call, I have to go."
I answer the other call, who was the drummer of the group. i tell her, (yes her), that singer called me and said it was going to be 284 per person for the recording. She's says okay. I say, "That doesn't seem like a lot to you?" SHe says, "it's less than last time." i say, "hows that, last time you only did three songs." she says, "well last time we spent forever on guitar and bass tracks because they both sucked."
now im pissed.
I call the guitarist up, who is new to the group as well, and only wrote chords for one of the songs and tell him the news. he is upset also, even though he knew about the 200 dollars per song. He found out, by chance, from the engineer after his third day in the studio. I said, "why didn't you tell me that." he said, "i thought you already knew."
to be honest I think they should be paying me for laying down these tracks. I had nothing to do with writing them. I had no creative input, and on top of all that, apparently i saved them money by not having whatever hack they had before me give them a go. The guitarist is thinking of not paying them also. This band only gigs like once a month, and barely makes any money when they do. when they do gig it's sloppy and the singers forget the words. the drummer can't keep a solid beat and doesn't know the songs as well as i do and she's been in the band for a year plus. The band is basically, me and the guitarist playing well and everyone else not. After the last gig went terribly I was considering quitting anyway. Now i definitely am. I'll play the gigs i have already agreed to play, only if they can't find a replacement for me, and then im out. I guess i was wondering if i should pay for the recording or how much i should pay. right now i'm thinking of paying my time, ~$45 and letting them handle the rest. Am i wrong?
ps. sorry this was so long, and even more sorry for adding this ps and making it even longer.
Don't get heartburn over it. Junk like this happens all the time. In my new band we have everything written down that is $$$ related. We have to have a unanimous decision and then we put up the $$$ up front.
