Commissioning a New Work? What should I pay the Composer?
I get asked this a lot so I thought I should put my thoughts down for all to see There are a variety of articles out there which talk about commissioning works, many even have prices Randall Giles posts this page: A Brief Guide to Commissioning Music Johansen-Werner posts his thoughts: Some Thoughts on How to Commission Music Ken Davis adds his 2 cents: Commissioning New Music Abbie Betnis has her ideas: How to Commission a New Work from Abbie Betinis Even the American Composers Forum has suggestions: Commissioning by Individuals Pretty much all of those guides are considering major performers for major works. Yes, they talk about individual or solo works. But the moment you suggest a range from hundreds to thousands of dollars you're eliminating most of the musicians on the planet. A struggling performer can't afford to pay $4-500 for a new, untried work for potentially a one-off performance. So, here is my simple method for calculating what I might charge for a ne...