It is an unfortunate current occurance, but indie music artists need to know it is perfectly fine to charge their full worth. When you as an indie music artist, graphic designer or music video producer undervalue yourself by charging a low price you are not doing yourself a favor. Let us, walk you through the reasons why low service charges are a disservice to yourself.
The Risk!
The under-pricing of your creative abilities might have been a music marketing strategy. One aimed at getting you the attention of the market over the many other indie talent recording their own music. This strategy, however, has major pros and cons.
- In many cases you stretch yourself too thin
Yes, you will be making money. But, often times this will come by way of the sacrifice of quality. That is what usually happens in cases of fast, mass production of most work projects. You, however, do not want to be producing mediocre quality music and videos or mediocre quality design services to quickly meet the demand of badgering clients. This is because at the end of the day bad reviews will affect the success of your ensuing career.
- Reasonable priced services receive adequate amounts of demand too
Some will say if you charge certain service fees you will not have any clientele, but we beg to differ. Once you charge a reasonable fee, people will try your services. This is why the indie music and creative works industry keeps expanding because there is a continuous demand for entertainment as well as creaitivity and innovation. Even if concert goers prefer to see only one indie artist all the time (which is highly unlikely) that artist cannot be at more than one location at a time. This gives you the chance to perform.
- When you finally raise prices you turn away most of your clientele
So, you did decide to under-price your services on the market. And what if at this low price and subsequent high demand you managed to produce high-quality work everytime. If only! You must remember that no matter what some clients will be unreasonable. Once you think you have made a reputation for yourself and decide to raise your service fees clients may leave in search of cheaper talent even if the quality is much lower. You just have to realize that people will be cheap and you cannot undervalue yourself to please them.
- Your price says a lot about you
Similar to how people judge books by covers and the quality of clothes by their brand labels, the same applies to the pricing of your services. Your price is your brand label. If priced too low you may just be misleading onlookers about your potential. The best way around this is not holding yourself to a price. It is times like this that you apply the marketing strategy of price discrimination.
The Solution – Price Discrimination
So, how do you successfully price your services? Price discrimination is your best pricing strategy. Once you have enough background knowledge on a client, you can charge them at a price that matches their willingness to pay and your self-worth charging price. This is a win-win for everyone involved in the negotiation process. And remember never enter a contract that pays under your self worth, you will regret it in the long run faster than you think.
