ABA Media Platform | AMP

The price sheet

Where a record starts, and what the first steps cost.

An example: one song, four to five minutes, from the kickoff to the finished mix. Example prices, October 2026; your kickoff or Muse Chart Room sets your own figures. Part of ABA Media Platform, a one-person media studio in Greeley, Colorado.

This is not the whole song. It is the rhythm section, recorded and mixed so a band can work with it, plus the finished-mix pass that lets you leave with something you can use. Horns, strings, solos and the lead vocal are the steps after it, each priced at the close of the one before. Two ways in. You pay for the next step only.

Studio bills that arrive as one big number at the end are where trust goes to die. Here, each step of your song is priced before it starts, and you pay only when that step is done and signed. Today you commit to the first step, nothing more.

What you control
  • You see the price of each step before it starts, and you only pay for the next one.
  • Engineering that runs over is our cost. Anything that comes in under comes off your bill.
  • Your song and your performances stay yours. Stop at any step and you still leave with a finished mix.
  • If the budget is short, work comes out. Nothing is ever discounted into something less.

Song ready to record? Start with the kickoff. Not ready yet? Start in the Muse Chart Room instead of the kickoff.

Example: one song, 4–5 minutes
Not ready to record yet?

Muse Chart Room

Bring your chart to the Chart Room.

You know this song matters. You haven't settled its shape yet, and paying to record a song before it's settled feels like a gamble. Sit down with a Composition Coach, instruments in hand, and shape it first. The room is the Muse Chart Room, the round pod where two or three people write the song.

What you leave with

  • Your portfolio: your bio, the song, your answers and what the song needs, written so a producer, here or anywhere else, can read it

Part one, writing

  • A chart showing the form, key and tempo
  • A tempo map, so your recording sessions start from the song's tempo
  • The song's options laid out (other bridges, choruses, solos, intros and endings), so you know what to ask for later
  • Everything the kickoff covers, including an estimate for Milestone 1, your first recording step

Part two, an ABA recording, adds

  • Your song recorded the way our sessions record, and the rhythm-section performances you keep are staged for Milestone 1
  • If you stop after the room, your song goes out through Milestone 8 Light, the short finished-mix pass; it is inside the price, not a separate step
  • A hand-off in your portfolio that an engineer can start from

The song stays yours. You pay for the consultation, and ABA takes no share of the songwriting.

Parts one and two$292.50

Part one, writing: two hours, $130.00. Part two, an ABA recording: $162.50, Milestone 8 Light inside it. Take both, or part one on its own. Example: a singer who plays guitar; a band or more parts adds hours. Every quote is itemized, line by line, at $65 an hour.

The Muse Chart Room: going on to Milestone 1. What you leave the Muse Chart Room with is yours to keep, whether or not you go on to Milestone 1. Your portfolio starts here if the room is your first step, or comes with you from the kickoff. That's why the room's fee stands on its own and isn't credited against Milestone 1 or any later milestone.

  • Part one, writing: the room asks the questions that matter and defines what success means for your song. That's the kickoff's job, so you go straight on to Milestone 1.
  • Part two, an ABA recording: your rhythm-section performances are kept and staged for Milestone 1. If you stop after the room, your song goes out through Milestone 8 Light, inside the price. Your portfolio then also carries a hand-off an engineer can start from.
  • Coming here first: $292.50 for both parts, or $130.00 for part one. No kickoff needed, so there is no kickoff credit to apply.
  • Sent here by a kickoff: your full $234 comes off the room, so both parts cost $58.50 more than the kickoff you already paid.
Ready to record

The Bed: kickoff, rhythm section, finished mix

Milestones 0, 1 and 8. One person is the producer, the engineer and the talent. Bring your own band and the rate is the same; the hours are the song's.

Milestone 0

Kickoff

Planning session, in the room$234.00
Paid when the kickoff ends.
Milestone 1

Rhythm section

5 hours at $65, our playing included$325.00
Drums, bass, guitar, keys and the melody guide
Recorded and mixed so a band can work with it
Your kickoff, credited in full− $234.00
Due when Milestone 1 ends$91.00
Milestone 8

The finished mix

An hour and a half at $65: performed live, checked, delivered$97.50
Paid when the session ends.
Value of the work$656.50
Your $234 kickoff is credited in full toward Milestone 1− $234.00
You pay$422.50

Song production is billed at one hourly rate, $65, our playing included, and each bill shows each line to the cent, with its total.

Milestone 0 · Kickoff

We plan the song with you: what it needs, how it will be heard, who plays. Every kickoff is $234, a fixed price for a fixed amount of time, and we walk you through why, line by line. If you go on to Milestone 1, every dollar of the kickoff comes off that bill.

Milestone 1 · Rhythm section

The foundation is recorded and mixed: drums, bass, guitar, keys, and a melody guide to build on. It includes a quick automation pass that prepares the mix for its finished version. The example is 5 hours; your song's hours are set at the kickoff.

Milestone 8 · The finished mix

Our engineer performs the final mix live, the way a conductor leads a band, then it is measured against the targets set at the kickoff and delivered. The example is an hour and a half, $97.50; your song's hours are set before it starts.

Stopping early · the checkpoint

You can ask to leave at the end of any task, not only at the end of a milestone. Whenever you leave with recorded work, you leave through Milestone 8, full or light: Milestone 8 Light (half an hour, $32.50) for a stop in Milestone 1 or 2, the full pass from Milestone 3 on. Stop before anything is recorded and you leave with your portfolio.

When an estimate misses

If a task runs under, you pay less. If it runs over, we absorb it. Extra takes by talent, up to three per part, are billed at the rate shown.

Muse Chart Room

Before you book, you get a short checklist, the Muse Chart Room entry checklist, linked below. Come able to explain the song, with lyrics for every section (repeats are fine). If the lyrics still need writing from scratch, there's an optional extra hour at the same $65 rate: we talk it through before you book, and you decide in the session whether you need it. If the room runs under, you pay less. If it's running over, the producer stops and asks: finish where you are, or agree to more time.

Want more than the rhythm section? Horns, strings, solos and the full arrangement are the steps between 1 and 8. Each one is priced at the end of the step before it, from what we learned together, so you never sign up for more than the next step.

When you want to see it

Tell us about your song.

You'll see the price of the first step before you pay anything. If you already have a quote from somewhere else, bring that too: we'll lay ours beside it, line by line.

Tell us about your song → Not ready to record? The Muse Chart Room checklist How the record is made