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The $5 composers! Really?


pirateman

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Hi, I’m new to Fiverr as a pro seller - our company has been working professionally in Music for 30 years and whilst we’re grateful not to be short of work, we thought we’d embrace the 21C and explore the wider network. However, I can’t get over the pricing situation on Fiverr - people offering to sell their mothers for the price of a coffee! I’m really interested to know what other professional composers and arrangers think about the pricing on here and whether there are any ‘real’ clients looking for proper professional services for a reasonable price…or whether it’s mostly people looking for you to compose a whole track, mix and master etc. for $7.39. I honestly can’t imagine what they are getting for their money - it takes us typically 2-3 days to write a piece to picture (and we’re very quick, often working 20hr days where needed!) May be this isn’t the right place for pros to pitch - and we’re certainly not prepared to lower our prices to the lowest common denominator - but maybe we’re out on a limb here. Any thoughts people???

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On Fiverr you’re competing with sellers from third world countries, hobbyists or beginning freelancers who don’t know how to value themselves.
Some deliberately undersell themselves in order to get gigs and reviews, knowing full well that $5 is unsustainable.

I’d stick to your own pricing. There are buyers looking for quality and who are willing to pay normal prices.

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Well, it does make me wonder how good they are! In my line, I charge from $300 up and there are people offering ‘the same’ service or similar for only $45. It makes me wonder, how do they make any money? How good is their service. You pay for what you get!

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Well, it does make me wonder how good they are! In my line, I charge from $300 up and there are people offering ‘the same’ service or similar for only $45. It makes me wonder, how do they make any money? How good is their service. You pay for what you get!

Thanks for your replies (wow - that was quick!) I completely agree with you both @cc_animation and @teachernita . The trouble is, are there people on Fiverr who do actually pay proper, sustainable prices? I guess may be time will tell (unless anyone on here can save me the time lol!)

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Thanks for your replies (wow - that was quick!) I completely agree with you both @cc_animation and @teachernita . The trouble is, are there people on Fiverr who do actually pay proper, sustainable prices? I guess may be time will tell (unless anyone on here can save me the time lol!)

These people will not last. I have used a few different sellers on Fiverr and I have learnt, choose those with good ratings, and those that charge. The service I have got from one or two sellers has been terrible.

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Thanks for your replies (wow - that was quick!) I completely agree with you both @cc_animation and @teachernita . The trouble is, are there people on Fiverr who do actually pay proper, sustainable prices? I guess may be time will tell (unless anyone on here can save me the time lol!)

Funnily enough, I was looking at UpWork too - and that seems even worse in terms of what people are asking for. Some guy asked for 10 composed tracks for $3.50…and had 10 proposals before I’d even read the pitch 🙂

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Thanks for your replies (wow - that was quick!) I completely agree with you both @cc_animation and @teachernita . The trouble is, are there people on Fiverr who do actually pay proper, sustainable prices? I guess may be time will tell (unless anyone on here can save me the time lol!)

Thanks for your replies (wow - that was quick!) I completely agree with you both @cc_animation and @teachernita . The trouble is, are there people on Fiverr who do actually pay proper, sustainable prices? I guess may be time will tell (unless anyone on here can save me the time lol!)

Some are, but regular buyers might have gotten used to the relatively lower prices compared to ‘normal’ freelance rates.

Your mileage may vary so it’s worth a shot, if you’re looking to expand your clientele and income stream. For me it offers a nice side income. (And I don’t have $5 gigs 😉 )

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Well if I ever need an animator…I know who to ask and will expect to be charged accordingly 🙂

You’re welcome anytime!

I just checked your profile and I noticed you actually have a Pro Verified badge. That hopefully should attract clients who don’t expect $5 prices. So I don’t think you have a lot to fear from cheaper sellers.

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Hi pirateman,

I am a copy editor here and I have never charged $5 rates. You can bill whatever you like and the clients will come. I’d wager that the higher the rate–commensurate with proven experience, of course–the more high-calibre clients you will attract. And there is no scarcity of these. Just because the site is called Fiverr doesn’t mean that clients don’t come here with thousands of dollars to spend on one project, same as anywhere.

So, my advice would be charge what you charge and don’t even take time looking at what everyone else is doing. What they are doing is likely to have little correlation to your services, and the right clients will see through the mist and find their way to you.

Annie

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Mostly new seller do this in order to fetch some starting orders.

Also if you see many people use low price to attract the buyers, once buyer starts conversation they offer different prices.

However, many might offer service at 5$ which is not a good thing if you already have good amount of reviews. So, it’s basically a high competition game were everyone wants to do good that is why different people have different tactics.

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These people will not last. I have used a few different sellers on Fiverr and I have learnt, choose those with good ratings, and those that charge. The service I have got from one or two sellers has been terrible.

These people will not last.

Not only that they will last, they will last and be extremely successful and profitable.

I started as buyer 2017 and wasted 400$ on designers and other orders where seller delivered garbage or nothing. When I asked for refund, someone was dying, daughter, father, planet Earth, I need please good review please, but it was phrased in such way that you really do not want to be bothered by 5$ refund.

And that is what they do. Some have skills and deliver good thing for 5$ but 5$ can go long way in some countries, and some have no skills but after client gets nothing it usually plays on their emotional side and do not want to be bothered with customer support and refund, “lets just call it donation”, and last one, client who gets garbage but has no idea how good thing suppose to look like so he is happy and leaves 5*.

5$ composers? Yes. For a client with 5$ budget they are perfect for each other.

So, it’s basically a high competition game

Exactly. Fiverr is set to reward those with sales and reviews and how to get those?

I kept my prices realistic so it took me longer to reach Level two in the most oversaturated categories.

Design, logo, brand identity… to do that for 5-50$ is just ridiculous.

So pick - 1 order of 500$ in 8 months or 100 orders for 5$ in the same time?

100 would help you level up and rank, but …

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Sure there are $5 composers but that doesn’t mean the quality will amount to a $500 piece. People get what they pay for and the fact there are sellers charging as little as $5 doesn’t make the marketplace any less professional, it just means there are options for all budgets.

image.png.13673c89e01696f4c140370cd0fbe5ef.png
This is just a quick search I did and plenty of sellers seem to be making sales regardless of price point.

So, again, just charge what you charge. Of course that won’t guarantee the same amount of sales a $5 gig might receive but personally I don’t think the point is to overload yourself with cheap work and Fiverr is one of many sites, you lose nothing by putting up your gig and welcoming the possibility of working with clients looking for the value you can provide.

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This difference of pricing is one of the greatest issue in every category. I guess there are two main reasons behind it.

  1. Most of them only doing this for get their first few reviews that’s it.
  2. Their concept of getting more buyer is “If I am offering lowest price, I’ll get more clients.”

Some of buyer even asked me why you are asking for that budget, one of freelancer of your country is asking for 5 usd for the same service. I have nothing to say them only that “You can go for that seller”…

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Hi pirateman,

I am a copy editor here and I have never charged $5 rates. You can bill whatever you like and the clients will come. I’d wager that the higher the rate–commensurate with proven experience, of course–the more high-calibre clients you will attract. And there is no scarcity of these. Just because the site is called Fiverr doesn’t mean that clients don’t come here with thousands of dollars to spend on one project, same as anywhere.

So, my advice would be charge what you charge and don’t even take time looking at what everyone else is doing. What they are doing is likely to have little correlation to your services, and the right clients will see through the mist and find their way to you.

Annie

Thanks Annie - reassuring to know!

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As a fellow composer, I hear you. Sadly most of these freelance places seem more a pit of fools than a temple of commerce.

While in some ways I respect the rights for every seller & buyer to set their terms, there are some real problems here in that a $5 seller who claims to offer music as good a John Williams but delivers something not fitting for Williams’ dead cat’s deader rat to eat - totally unchallenged & unchallengeable - is a problematic thing. As it lowers standards for all.

Some say, if the buyer is happy… Sure, but this is not right. Imagine if is was a cafe serving rotten food, people eat it but it creates failure in them. Would that be ok?

Like you a piece takes a couple of days to create well. That is at least 10 hours of specialist, skilled work to create something that is not just formulaic loops and blarts from a sample pack, but real melodic storytelling.

This stuff about other countries is a strawman argument to disguise poor form. If a person from Utter Flurthervilleland can sell their thing for $500 why would they ever sell it for $5? Not even because they are just starting here. A thing worth $500 is worth $500. Selling it for $5 only shows that it was never worth $500 at all as the $500 buyer passed it over for the 💩 it really is.

Places like Fiverr should let anyone from anywhere sell equally. instead they have allowed us to drag everything and everyone down to level of the worst among us. Not a thing any should be proud of.

I have done stupidly cheap work here and in other places. It has never benefited me in any way.

🙂

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Thanks so much for your message and honesty. It’s both reassuring and disappointing to hear at the same time, if you get my drift!

I can’t afford to work for next to nothing and nor should anyone! Our studio is a financial drain and, like many, we have bills/wages to pay.

We made a decision not to undersell ourselves on here or elsewhere. If that means we don’t get the new work in from these newer places (well, new for us) then I guess that is our hard cheese. I’m beginning to think that may well be the reality on Fiverr!

Are you now receiving decent / fair payment for your gigs (if you don’t mind me asking)?

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Thanks so much for your message and honesty. It’s both reassuring and disappointing to hear at the same time, if you get my drift!

I can’t afford to work for next to nothing and nor should anyone! Our studio is a financial drain and, like many, we have bills/wages to pay.

We made a decision not to undersell ourselves on here or elsewhere. If that means we don’t get the new work in from these newer places (well, new for us) then I guess that is our hard cheese. I’m beginning to think that may well be the reality on Fiverr!

Are you now receiving decent / fair payment for your gigs (if you don’t mind me asking)?

Thanks for the (sane) response. Sorry I just got a gobfull for not waxing about how amazingly amazing “Rocket Man” (the Elton John hipster travesty flick) was. It was rotten food. I have a right to say that, esp if someone has the right to say how amazing it is. I am adding this here as it is very relevant to the broader topic.

Sadly I have only written one piece of music here at Fiverr and I don’t even want to say for how low a price I had to do it to get the business. It was simple work in many ways but still 1/10th of what it should be for the time invested. So, no I can’t really answer the question properly.

I do get some Mix & Master work but even there (on every platform) pretty well only with some hack n slash of pricing which still tends to come with mutterings of how I’m the most expensive.

In another place I recently mixed a track for my full $150. There was another version of the track being mixed by another person who cost a lot less. My mix was nailed first time and the customer loved it. He also noted that the other guy needed 5 revisions to get to acceptable. That guy has lots of sales even tho his work is not half as good as mine - to justify his “cheapness” - despite all his claims of “pro” status. Customer noted that while he was nervous about the extra spend with me, he did see the difference in the results.

I wish I could just say to you, as yeah, you’ll do fine. As I am not doing fine here (or anywhere to be brutally honest - which is prone to causing me issues despite my passion for what I do). All I can say is draw your lines in the sand and only cross them when there are no Red Flags. Maybe you will find a path here.

🙂

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On Fiverr you’re competing with sellers from third world countries, hobbyists or beginning freelancers who don’t know how to value themselves.

Some deliberately undersell themselves in order to get gigs and reviews, knowing full well that $5 is unsustainable.

I’d stick to your own pricing. There are buyers looking for quality and who are willing to pay normal prices.

They undersell because their quality of work… I would like to add that there some clients who have little budget and don’t need professional work. They try to hire worker with less price. I have gig with $5 but I charge more for quality work . I ask the prospects before making the contract.

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Well here we are just over a week later - I’m still awaiting 2 gigs to be approved (very slow, Fiverr) and not a single enquiry from my other gigs - even those I dropped down to the lowest price possible as a pro seller. In the meantime, I’ve taken on 3 jobs outside of Fiverr and one (with one pending) on (dare I say it) a competitor’s website. Oh dear - not much more I can add 🙂

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If you are a pro seller, you should charge any amount of money you need to deliver a professional work and more. I’d prefer having a well paid order here and there, than lots of underpaid orders.

Quality over quantity, if other sellers have lots of orders but unsatisfied customers or cheap work, it’s not the ideal. Rest assured that a client who knows to value your work will come soon or late.

I have very low prices but it’s because I’m a new seller and a beginner in editing. I should set my prices higher because some people in my categories start at 50$, but I can’t compete with their seller rating yet. Sadly I have to rely on having lower prices than the competition, and I don’t recommend it because you get way too many problematic, entitled customers.

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oof that’s me lol

Personally, I charge $5 because I’m not a professional by any means - merely a student, and this is for me, a way to challenge myself, learn more, share music, and help others in the process but I don’t want to charge too high because if I’m not sure if I’m not sure how “qualified” I am. I don’t want to oversell. My only edge would be the fact that I’m affordable and that I can get the job done relatively well.

That said, I’m also not very familiar with the average and reasonable price point for people my level selling their services (despite the research I’ve tried to do), so I’m starting small and as I get more familiar and better, I’ll (maybe) raise my price a bit.

I’m currently test-running my value, so to speak, so I start with the smallest price and see how sustainable it is and if other people might think I’m worth more.

That’s my reasoning – I do think that pro sellers also have a place here. People know that they will get what they pay for, so they’ll probably pick higher rated or more expensive sellers if they’re looking for a very professional job done, and they’ll pick cheaper options if they’re budget isn’t as large but they can’t do it themselves.
(Note that I don’t think that just because a service is cheap, the seller is automatically not as good or professional. Perhaps it, like I said earlier, could be them not being able to value themselves properly, or perhaps a cheaper price is their only edge. But I’ve seen good sellers for cheap prices)

You’re right, though - when it comes to our time, we shouldn’t undersell. But I don’t want to “oversell” when it comes to my qualifications as well.

Just the two-cents of Fiverr noob, hopefully you get what I’m saying haha XD

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oof that’s me lol

Personally, I charge $5 because I’m not a professional by any means - merely a student, and this is for me, a way to challenge myself, learn more, share music, and help others in the process but I don’t want to charge too high because if I’m not sure if I’m not sure how “qualified” I am. I don’t want to oversell. My only edge would be the fact that I’m affordable and that I can get the job done relatively well.

That said, I’m also not very familiar with the average and reasonable price point for people my level selling their services (despite the research I’ve tried to do), so I’m starting small and as I get more familiar and better, I’ll (maybe) raise my price a bit.

I’m currently test-running my value, so to speak, so I start with the smallest price and see how sustainable it is and if other people might think I’m worth more.

That’s my reasoning – I do think that pro sellers also have a place here. People know that they will get what they pay for, so they’ll probably pick higher rated or more expensive sellers if they’re looking for a very professional job done, and they’ll pick cheaper options if they’re budget isn’t as large but they can’t do it themselves.

(Note that I don’t think that just because a service is cheap, the seller is automatically not as good or professional. Perhaps it, like I said earlier, could be them not being able to value themselves properly, or perhaps a cheaper price is their only edge. But I’ve seen good sellers for cheap prices)

You’re right, though - when it comes to our time, we shouldn’t undersell. But I don’t want to “oversell” when it comes to my qualifications as well.

Just the two-cents of Fiverr noob, hopefully you get what I’m saying haha XD

I will say take care.

If you are $5 because you know you are selling garbage, it is easy to think that is between you, your customers, and your God.

But it is also between you and other sellers who are working to be professional and be paid as such. Sellers selling for $5 makes people think it can (and therefore should) be done. Bargain basement sellers affect everyone negatively. Especially when they write Pro on their product like it is a real Ferrari for $5 as buyers then see pro everywhere and can’t tell why the prices are not the same. Hans Zimmer, why is he not $5, the utter, utter, scumbaggery of him for ripping everyone off. I better write and tell him to fix his game. Wrong.

It is also between you and your future. You start out selling at $5 (a stupid price) so how do you transition to $50, $500, $5,000? You really can’t very well. If you start where you should at say $150 then $200 is not a great jump. Sure, maybe do a student collab for $0 but that is still a value exchange. If you value your time so low, how do you ever value it properly - fairly? How will anyone else?

I have not looked at you Gig, I have only responded based on what you wrote. You might be doing great work. You are however pricing destructively for all (incl customers who are encouraged to think all things are the same).

🙂

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I will say take care.

If you are $5 because you know you are selling garbage, it is easy to think that is between you, your customers, and your God.

But it is also between you and other sellers who are working to be professional and be paid as such. Sellers selling for $5 makes people think it can (and therefore should) be done. Bargain basement sellers affect everyone negatively. Especially when they write Pro on their product like it is a real Ferrari for $5 as buyers then see pro everywhere and can’t tell why the prices are not the same. Hans Zimmer, why is he not $5, the utter, utter, scumbaggery of him for ripping everyone off. I better write and tell him to fix his game. Wrong.

It is also between you and your future. You start out selling at $5 (a stupid price) so how do you transition to $50, $500, $5,000? You really can’t very well. If you start where you should at say $150 then $200 is not a great jump. Sure, maybe do a student collab for $0 but that is still a value exchange. If you value your time so low, how do you ever value it properly - fairly? How will anyone else?

I have not looked at you Gig, I have only responded based on what you wrote. You might be doing great work. You are however pricing destructively for all (incl customers who are encouraged to think all things are the same).

🙂

I don’t think I’m selling garbage, but I also don’t think I’m at the level of Hans Zimmer, and made sure to tell any potential customers that. I understand your points, that’s true. Perhaps I should reprice some stuff…xD

Thank you for your thoughts and comments!

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On Fiverr you’re competing with sellers from third world countries, hobbyists or beginning freelancers who don’t know how to value themselves.

Some deliberately undersell themselves in order to get gigs and reviews, knowing full well that $5 is unsustainable.

I’d stick to your own pricing. There are buyers looking for quality and who are willing to pay normal prices.

I disagree, because i am new on fiverr, i compose orchestra for somebodys music, i dont charge $5 but $10 in the basic package, and i will not charge $50 in the basic package because i do not have ratings yet and somebody will not order a service from me, cause that, freelancers must be constantly improving their gigs and profiles.

You can imagine along with me that, some buyers will not buy something cheap from a new seller, unless you have at least one 5.0 star rating to be considered a trustful seller by buyers.

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