How much does it cost to get my track mixed or mastered?

Once you've written the track & are happy with how it sounds, it's time to get it finished. The final stage before release is mastering & in this article we're going to break down how much it costs.

You have two main options when looking to get your track ready to be released. Mixed & mastered or just mastered. Let's have a look at each option to break down the differences.

Mastering:

• Loudness is optimised for streaming and playback

• EQ'ing is applied for consistent tonal character

• Stereo width is managed & balanced

• Limiting is applied for smooth dynamics & loudness

• A final quality check is completed for clean playback

• Masters are delivered in release-ready format.

Put simply, mastering is the process of preparing a track for release, ensuring it hits the right loudness, sounds balanced and clean, is competitive against others in the same genre and meets the technical requirements of streaming and distribution platforms.

Mix & Mastering:

• Track is broken down into stems & mixed by the engineer

• Tailored EQ, compression and tonal shaping is applied

• Creative effects for depth and energy can be used

• Vocal stem is treated & processed (if desired)

• The mix is mastered

• The completed track is delivered in release ready format.

This option gives the engineer much more freedom to finalise the track. Outcomes like tonal balance, loudness & clarity are much easier to achieve when using stems, as you have much more control over the elements of the track & how they interact with each other. Once the track is mixed, a full master is then completed to finalise it.

So, how much does it cost?

Mastering prices vary across the industry, the main drivers of cost are:

• Engineer reputation

• Online/physical studio

• Demand

• Skill level.

The different mastering price ranges you can expect converted into USD, NZD & GBP:

Lower tier, less experienced engineers:

• $35 - $75USD

• $60 - $128NZD

• £26 - £55GBP.

Mid-tier freelance or online studios:

• $75 - $250USD

• $128 - $430NZD

• £55 - £186GBP.

High end studio's + renowned engineers:

• $250 - $650USD

• $430 - $1,115NZD

• £186 - £485GBP.

Now for the different mix & mastering price ranges you can expect converted into USD, NZD & GBP:

Lower tier, less experienced engineers:

• $10 - $80USD

• $17 - $137NZD

• £7.50 - £59GBP.

Mid-tier freelance or online studios:

• $100 - $300USD

• $171 - $514NZD

• £74 - £223GBP.

High end studio's + renowned engineers:

• $300 - $800USD

• $514 - $1373NZD

• £223 - £597GBP.

A-list engineers (grammy winning):

• $3,000 - $15,000USD

• $5,149 - $25,747NZD

• £2,238 - £11,194GBP.

For most of you, we would recommend using the mid-tier options. It's unlikely the lower cost alternatives will give you the result you're after & the high end studio's are charging more based on their reputation than the actual quality of their output.

I hope this has given you a bit of an insight into what sort of costs you might expect when looking to get your music mixed or mastered, if you have any further questions feel free to shoot me an email at: [email protected]

Max.