composer/arranger compensation

[taylorchandler]

How much should a composer/arranger recieve for score and parts and rendering new work per minute? How much for custom arranging score and parts and rendering. Disregarding film/media work, I have heard everything from $1000 per min to $100 per min for new work and $100 to $400 for custom arrangments. Opinions anyone?

[nikolas]

It depends SO much on who and what you are doing it for, so there is NO clear answer I'm afraid.

Factors:
* budget (of your employer)
* length of music (5 minutes? 60 minutes?)
* size of the orchestra (different writing for a duet and writing for a huge orchestra, no?)
* venue (score are to be performed. Where? A pub in Burmingham or Royal Albert Hall)
etc...

I guess that there could be some standard or something, but it's something that I don't know... I don't have many comissions to base anything really, so... Sorry 'bout that

[DarwinKopp]

Taylor,

I found this, hope it helps:

Commissiong Music - A Basic Guide 2004 (pdf) (http://www.elizabethalexander.com/CommBasicGuide04.pdf)

[taylorchandler]

Darwin:
Excellent answer and research,,,,,many thanks
Taylor)(~

[jmc]

That's a great resource, DarwinKopp. Thank you for sharing!

[Rhap2]

Taylor:

I've found that $1,000-2,000 per minute of completed
score material is a fair price in my market which is
Northern California. Don't forget, you may never receive
any additional remuneration for arranging works of others
since the composer gets (and should receive) most of
the compensation.

I use the same fee for commisioning purposes. Less, if
it is for an organization that I know can't afford the "going
price." I have been successful with this formula and it
has brought repeat business in the past.

Since I use Finale to publish my scores and parts, I just
send one copy of the conductor's score and player parts
to the music director and he has his librarian reproduce
everything that needs to be copied. I don't charge extra
for copying fees unless the commisioning agent cannot or
will not reproduce player parts (and assemble them).

It mostly comes down to who you are dealing with and an
investigation into that area should not be overlooked.....

Jack

[vivmarsh]

Thanks for the link to the PDF file, Darwin - it's a real eye-opener. You mean some people earn real money from writing music ? Down at the bottom of the food-chain where I reside, a composer can consider her/himself lucky to recoup recording and printing costs, let alone be paid outright for original performed work. Having said that, I must add that the stuff about where copyright resides is incredibly useful (especially for waving at people). I will now shuffle back to my garret.