Paid for transcription?

I met a guy who wants me to transcribe some polka music for him from recordings and I was wondering how much I should charge? I'm assuming they're just a couple minutes long, he wants it written for Bass, Trumpet, Accordian and drums. He has a list of 20 songs he wants me to do for him but I'm not sure how much I should charge. Thanks for the help.

If you're unsure, I'd say an hourly wage.

As comparison, I get paid about $10 an hour to do interview transcriptions.

Thanks for the tip, I'm going to ask around to some of the local musicians who might now to see because I'm sure it also varies from place to place depending on the community

10$ per hour is quite less for such a work I THINK!

Transcription includes putting the music in Sibelius or Finale, which means copying.

For an AA (double A), film from Disney I was offered the amount of $9000 to create the whole score of the orchestra, FROM MIDI FILES AND AUDIO FILES.

I'd say that if you will end up with pages, charge by the page, like 30-40$ per page. Your client won't be able to trust you, if you tell him you charge by the hour, since he won't be able to take a look at you working. You are no in an office clicking in and out as you leave.

For an AA (double A), film from Disney I was offered the amount of $9000 to create the whole score of the orchestra, FROM MIDI FILES AND AUDIO FILES.

Ummm, isn't it just a matter of procuring the original score and/or parts that were used to MAKE the original recordings with the studio orch.? 'Cause I don't think Disney uses Cubase instead of real musicians. Unless I'm horribly mistaken.

Who was offering?

It was for a straight to DVD, not an original movie for the cinemas, that's why. Can't share names. And, yes, the composer was using finale 2006, at the time and Logic, I believe.

Composers work any way possible. The fact that he needed scores, means that it would be performed live ultimately, but the matter of the fact is that in animation you need music as soon as possible! ;)

Sorry I can't share any names.

Ah, I see. So it was just incidental stuff that wasn't too serious, and thus wasn't already live-recorded. Got ya. Anyways, I wasn't curious for names, more like if they were professional, or just the random guy on the street, if they were professional AND affiliated directly with Disney, ect. I realise you can't share your business transactions or whatnot.

$30-$40 per page sounds a little steep to me. If he's doing 20 songs, each a few minutes long, that would add up to a lot. Even if each song was only three pages he'd be charging $1,800 for the job.

You could probably charge more if it's for a professional. If it's just a student with his group of friends, I wouldn't empty the poor kid's budget.

Ya, his budget is really what I'm afraid. I think I'm just gonna go with a flat rate per song because they should even out with some shorter and some longer and such.

What you could do is say you charge 15$ dollars per minute of music. That way, the number of songs doesn't matter, it's the amount you have to do.

Another thing is you could listen to the songs first and give him an estimate. Perhaps a flat fee would work (like if you think 200 dollars is fair to do all 20, then throw that out there). Remember it can be negotiable - you don't want to jipp him and he wants quality work.