What you you charge to hire out this rig?

[mksound]

Hey all, with the current economic climate being what it is I've been trying to figure out the best pricing structure for some of my gear. My current band rig consists of 4 stacks of Dynacord F150 tops/F8 bins (1 top and 2 bins per stack) run with Dynacord LX2200 amps and a DSP244.

 

FOH is either an A&H 16:3 mix wiz or a GL2800/32 depending on channel count, outboard rack with all the necessary items and a 30m multi along with all the mics, leads, stands ect that may be required. Monitor world is dependant on the mixes required 2/4 mixes Dynacord AM/M 12's any more than that all EV sx300's.

 

Lighting wise I've 6 NJD spectres with a modified controller (I usually feed it of a direct out from the bass players channel so the lights will only change when the bass is playing, makes life so much easier :P )

 

Anyway at the minute I usually charge €350/400 for half the rig and €700/800 for the full rig including transporting, set up, operating and/or babysitting and load out. Just wondering what other people are getting for similar set ups? This is only one part of my business and not one that is called into action too often, mostly it spends it's time split up in different ways fulfilling other requirments just putting it out there as a matter of interest.

 

Thanks :unsure:

[ian hatch]

Hey all, with the current economic climate being what it is I've been trying to figure out the best pricing structure for some of my gear. My current band rig consists of 4 stacks of Dynacord F150 tops/F8 bins (1 top and 2 bins per stack) run with Dynacord LX2200 amps and a DSP244.

 

FOH is either an A&H 16:3 mix wiz or a GL2800/32 depending on channel count, outboard rack with all the necessary items and a 30m multi along with all the mics, leads, stands ect that may be required. Monitor world is dependant on the mixes required 2/4 mixes Dynacord AM/M 12's any more than that all EV sx300's.

 

Lighting wise I've 6 NJD spectres with a modified controller (I usually feed it of a direct out from the bass players channel so the lights will only change when the bass is playing, makes life so much easier :** laughs out loud **: )

 

Anyway at the minute I usually charge €350/400 for half the rig and €700/800 for the full rig including transporting, set up, operating and/or babysitting and load out. Just wondering what other people are getting for similar set ups? This is only one part of my business and not one that is called into action too often, mostly it spends it's time split up in different ways fulfilling other requirments just putting it out there as a matter of interest.

 

Thanks :)

I think what you are getting is good money, bands and event bookers would only pay about half that on the south coast, unless I'm getting the wrong kind of booker.

Ian

[fatfrog]

Ya Thats pretty decent money alrite.

 

It all depends, look at things from the larger point of view. If you have the possibility of repeat biz charge slightly less but if it's a one off just charge them what you fell is a fair price for your days work!

 

Alan

[drsound]

Seems pretty strong money for the size of the rig. It depends what transport and crew you include. If I was getting you from 100 miles away for a 12 hour show then I'd probably be happy to pay that. What's your local competition like?

 

Interesting that you charge 50% for half the system. Surely it doesn't take half the time to crew the gig or half the transport costs? Be careful with that or you'll find yourself either cutting your throat on the small jobs or over-pricing the large jobs.

 

Generally it's best to work out how much money you want the gig to make you after you have paid your crew and transport costs then work from there. A van and two guys for the day will cost the same regardless of how much gear you're using.

[mksound]

Seems pretty strong money for the size of the rig. It depends what transport and crew you include. If I was getting you from 100 miles away for a 12 hour show then I'd probably be happy to pay that. What's your local competition like?

 

Interesting that you charge 50% for half the system. Surely it doesn't take half the time to crew the gig or half the transport costs? Be careful with that or you'll find yourself either cutting your throat on the small jobs or over-pricing the large jobs.

 

Generally it's best to work out how much money you want the gig to make you after you have paid your crew and transport costs then work from there. A van and two guys for the day will cost the same regardless of how much gear you're using.

 

Thanks for the replies, what would you suggest as a reasonable price for hiring out this rig? I'm just trying to get an idea so I can work accordingly. Depending on what I have to bring out with me and the no. of bands involved I usually look after all myself, if it's a fairly busy stage I'll bring someone with me but if it's just a one band gig I'll run the whole show on my own.

[wmcalin]

Hi

 

For the kit specification you have specified

 

Around £250 for dry hire

 

With you transporting and doing the sound etc 40 mile radius £350 -£400

 

That's the going rate around Northamptonshire, if you are using Tour grade kit then double the amounts.

[lightsource]

Thanks for the replies, what would you suggest as a reasonable price for hiring out this rig? I'm just trying to get an idea so I can work accordingly. Depending on what I have to bring out with me and the no. of bands involved I usually look after all myself, if it's a fairly busy stage I'll bring someone with me but if it's just a one band gig I'll run the whole show on my own.

 

It's difficult to say, without knowing how you operate. How many 'free miles' will you travel, before adding a mileage cost to the quote...

 

You said above..."Depending what I bring with me" That would also alter the quote, as would the difference betweel the 2 mixing desks you have.

 

Other variables include load in / get out times, staff skills / requirements, level of insurance....the list is ongoing, and I really don't think anyone could give you a realistic idea, without at least some basic details of the job we're quoting for.

 

From what you said in the OP...... Does seem a tad on the expensive side

[drsound]

Thanks for the replies, what would you suggest as a reasonable price for hiring out this rig?

Whatever people in your area will pay is generally the right answer. For example in London the price will likely be radically different to what it might be in Yorkshire or Cornwall. Have a browse at some of the companies with whom you're in direct competition and use their rates to establish what they're charging for similar kit. Don't be tempted to massively undercut them, this is unwise.

 

If you were running this as a full time business then the hire rate would be worked out by calculating how much it was costing you to do each gig plus a profit element thus:

 

Cost to hire = ((depreciation + storage + insurance + repairs + other fixed costs)/number of gigs per year + cost of hiring) * profit %

 

So if my speaker was costing me £1000 per year to finance, store and repair and it was doing 20 gigs per year then the first cost would be 1000/20 = £50. Now I've got to add on the cost of actually hiring it. This depends how anal you want to get. Some people might include testing before and after the gig, loading and unloading, touching up paint etc but let's say that it takes a tech 15 minutes at £20 an hour to prep the speaker. This adds a charge of £5 per gig for a total of £55. This is the cost to me to hire you this speaker.

 

Now I add my 25% profit for an equipment hire charge of £68.75. Because I like you I'll give you a discount of 10% on all your hire costs so you actually pay £61.88.

 

This is dry hire and neglects transport and crew costs of course.

 

Now because you only hire three or four different combinations of your gear this is quite an easy calculation to do since you just apportion rough cost of running the kit for each system and go from there.

 

Alternatively you can go old skool and just use a rule of thumb to guess how much to charge. It works for lots of people.

 

One golden rule - just because you own the kit already does not mean you can rent it out as cheap as chips and expect to make a profit. Every gig you do takes life out of the components and you'll be amazed just how quickly things wear out when you're doing 50 gigs a year instead of 20. The PSN 2008 market report shows that hire companies spend approximately half of their capital expenditure each year on replacing gear and the other half on expansion.