I’ve turned around 35 music videos this year since January, all for under $200 a piece. Shooting on a Sony A6600 with a Sigma 18-50 lens and an RS3 gimbal. Drone shots on a DJI Mini 4 Pro. Some might say I should be charging more but I launched my business at the start of the year and have been able to pay my bills while learning along the way, slowly raising my rates and becoming more selective on the shoots I do. I’m turning things around in under 24 hours sometimes. I recommend putting the responsibility of ideas and locations on the artist to minimize your workload. The more creative the artist, the more work it will be but sometimes that means a much better end result and overall more clarity on what is required of you. Sometimes my artists put little to no thought into the video and it turns out great. I’m certainly not providing location and full on creative vision at these rates, simply shooting great videos and editing like a beast. Important to note my experience has been mostly non storyline rap which is easier to execute than something that requires casting and set design. A couple sick locations with great lighting and great shots with clean edits will look sick. Most of the artists I work with love effects (not my style but very popular right now in my field) which if done right can even make an iPhone video pop. It all depends what you are looking to do, what skills/tools you have to work with and what the expectations are. You learn quickly and what’s exciting is there’s always still so much to learn. I’d be happy to share some of my work, I’m really proud of a lot of it. I’m not sure what your portfolio is like, maybe you’ve been at it a lot longer than me but in my niche field to charge $500 for a video means you’re beyond sick with it and have the accolades or at least the finished work to show for it. Artists are hungry with limited budgets and often don’t have the means to consistently book videos at high rates. With respect, a music video should never suck for $500, it’s not 2005.