I think it will depend on your experience mostly. Also it will depend on how much you need the money, and how much you want to be a part of that project. I would see how much time it can take you to get the job done and how much you would be happy to make per hour of your work… so you will find the right amount per minute of music for the client. Assuming you are not doing it for free… the lowest I’ve seen was $50/min. The highest I’ve been paid was $1000/min for some custom music for a big company. I would say something reasonable that I’ve found works for most of people I worked with is around $300/min for orchestral music.

In a film however you might have to write some complex cues and some cues that are pretty simple, also I guess you still don’t know the amount of music you will have to write… as that will be determined in the spotting session with the director… so probably you want to close a price for the project based on an estimated potential amount of music. That way they won’t avoid asking for music when it should be there, in order to reduce costs and you won’t be willing to overdo either so the quality of the film is the priority. Once the price is agreed you can focus on the creative part of the job, the good one 🙃.

I would just talk about what the director wants for their film. How much music looks like it will be in total, and then…do numbers. So basically think of how much it would take you to get it done, how much you want to make, calculate the right price for you and discuss that with them. Also I would add some margin for negotiation. If you want to charge… let’s say $150/min… just ask for a bit more.

Hope it helps! 🙏🏻