Pricing

Pricing

We try to keep our pricing as simple and predictable as possible. So, for the most part, our rates are “by the reel.” This means our pricing includes whatever it takes to make the best possible transfer including baking (!), standard cleaning, mounting, reasonable splice repairs, etc to get the job done. We price this way for a number of reasons:

1. Peace of mind. You’ll know, before you ship or deliver your tapes, what the cost will be. No surprises.
2. Protection of your tapes. Stressed or rushed people make mistakes and have accidents. We believe that an engineer working on your analog recordings should be free of distractions and never feel pushed or rushed.
3. Quality of life. We don’t want our clients or our engineers stressing out over how long the job is taking. Sonicraft maintains an atmosphere of calm. Our transfer engineers are encouraged to take as much time as they need to get it right.

First Reel:For each job, we have a “first reel” rate of $250, which meets our minimum and covers baking, standard cleaning, mounting, reasonable splice repairs for your entire project, as well as initial lab setup and transfer of your first reel.

Here’s the breakdown for additional multitrack tapes:

Setup fees The first reel rate of $250 includes the initial setup fee.

Half-inch stereo master tapes:

Quarter-inch tapes:

If your quarter-inch tapes are multitrack (four or eight-track), the multitrack rates above still apply.

Cassette tapes:

• 30 minute cassettes – $75/cassette
• 60 minute cassettes – $100/cassette
• 90 minute cassettes – $125/cassette
• 120 minute cassettes – $150/cassette
• Cassette setup – $25

Akai:

• Transfer – $125/tape
• Technician fee (1/2 Day) – $250
• Technician fee (Full Day) – $400

EXCEPTIONS

Mid-tape program changes:
If we do the initial set up for your tape and the program changes speed, format, directions or noise reduction encoding, the applicable additional setup costs will apply.

Extended running time:
For any quarter-inch tape with a running time that exceeds 30 minutes, we will need an additional $2.50 per running minute. For any half-inch stereo or multitrack tape with a running time that exceeds 30 minutes, we will need an additional $4.00 per running minute.

“Two-sided” tapes:
If any tape is recorded in both directions, we will need to bill it as two tapes.

Mold or serious contamination:
If your tapes are suffering from mold or have gotten wet or otherwise contaminated, this requires deep cleaning (see the section on tape cleaning here). If your tapes require deep cleaning, rates vary from $25-100 per reel depending upon severity.

Blank tapes:
If we discover that any of your tapes are blank, we will not charge you anything for preparation of that tape. We don’t charge a fee to a client unless we deliver something of value to them. The only exception occurs when we have to deep clean a tape before we can play it. In that case, you will pay only for the cleaning.

Shipping and Handling:
Delivery physical media via USPS Priority, such as hard drives or DVD-ROMs is $10.

Reel return to domestic locations: $30 for the first Reel, $5 for each additional 1/4″ or 1/2″ Reel; $10 for each additional 1″ or 2″ Reel. If you are west of the Rocky Mountains, please add 20%. For international shipping, please contact us to make arrangements.