Knowing Your Worth & Setting Your Feature Prices Accordingly

Detroit rapper Icewear Vezzo recently sat down with "Million Dollaz Worth Of Game," where he confessed to making $1 million doing rap features within one year. The revelation is a testament to the lucrative business of features.

As an indie artist, you may feel that you are not a big enough act to charge for features. However, if people are seeking out your musical art to enhance their songs, you absolutely have the right to put a price on that. While we cannot tell you how high or how low to set your feature price, we want to give you a few tips to help you decide how much you intend on charging.

1. Determine the Artists Needs

When an artist inquires about a feature, you must ask what kind of feature they need. Do they need you to perform the hook, a verse, or both? Or, do they require your vocals throughout the entire song on multiple verses?

Do they also want you to be in the music video for the record?

2. Determine the Artists Budget

Have an open conversation with the artist regarding their budget for the record, music video, and marketing. This will help you determine what role they need you to play, and you can name your price from there.

3. Determine Whether or Not You'll Need to Travel

If you have to travel to them to record the feature, consider that when determining your price.

4. Determine What the Record Will Be Used For

Is the record a single or part of a complete project? This will be important just in case your vocals are needed elsewhere.

5. Determine if the Artist Already Has a Beat

Ask the artist if they already have a beat or if they are depending on you to assist with this? If they are leaning on you to find a beat, this can also drive your fee upward, as it requires more work from you.

As previously stated, it is up to you to determine what your features are worth. However, be sure to consider everything the artist needs from you and apply that to your price. After securing your collab, begin to market yourself so that others musicians know you are doing features. Treat this as you would any other business: be punctual, be professional, and most importantly, bring your A-Game to each feature that you do.

Best of luck to you!