How would i price for podcasts??

[Andy Graham]

I've been asked to give a price for shooting and editing 6 podcasts at half an hour each. The only thing is I have no idea what the going rate for shooting podcasts is.

I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on what I should be charging.

The details are: I would be using all my own gear...HD100e, apple quad FCP5, dollys, mics etc and finding all the actors (who have to be very good at comedy).

Any info would be greatly appreciated.

cheers Andy.

[Bill Mecca]

I wouldn't think the end use would have any bearing on the price unless of course you also encoding it to the podcast format. then you would have additional time and expenses.

your time is your time, do you have rates? that is what you would charge. At least that is what I would charge.

[K. Forman]

I agree. Regardless of the final delivery medium, you still have the same amount of work to do, so charge them whatever you feel is fair.

[Brian Wells]

Originally Posted by Keith Forman

I agree. Regardless of the final delivery medium, you still have the same amount of work to do, so charge them whatever you feel is fair.

Ahhh, but the client, product, and number of viewers (thus advertising "reach") are all factors in calculating potential revenue for a Podcast and, ultimately, the amount they are gonna be able to spend on the production.

Many 30 Second spots for national brands cost well over $300,000. Local ad's for small business may only go a few hundred bucks. The important thing is to research the client and their product and figure out the amount they are willing to pay and through negotiations work out a fair price.

Originally Posted by Andy Graham

The details are: I would be using all my own gear...HD100e, apple quad FCP5, dollys, mics etc and finding all the actors (who have to be very good at comedy).

Do the industry a favor, and be sure they know you are shooting on low end HD. If customers think they can get true HD for such low prices, the profit margins possible in the higher end of the market you probably hope to tap into later in your career will have eroded (this is already starting to happen). It's sort of like saying, "yeah, we shoot on film, no problem" and then showing up with a Super8 camera. Film is film, right?

Also, in regards to pricing theory, many start-up's think they have to have the lowest price to get new accounts, but this simply is not true.

Remember, in the end, what you are selling is ART (I hope) and there is a high degree of subjectivity between suppliers. Find a unique way of doing things and the price may become less of a concern in a competitive field.

Just my $0.02.

[Andy Graham]

Originally Posted by Brian Wells

Do the industry a favor, and be sure they know you are shooting on low end HD. If customers think they can get true HD for such low prices, the profit margins possible in the higher end of the market you probably hope to tap into later in your career will have eroded (this is already starting to happen

Of course I would always disclose that kind of information to a client, I would never say "I'm shooting HD" when in fact it was HDV but it is a good point about HDV's effect on high end HD profit margins, I never thought about it like that.

I have come up with a number based on my usual rates which I will submit, in retrospect it was a bit of a dumb question really.

Anyway thank you all for the advice

Andy.