How to raise my feature price without losing clients
No platform commission on the price you list · the buyer pays a flat 10% on top.
Pick a date, quote the new number to everyone who asks after it, and honor the old number for anyone already in your pipeline. Raise the floor before you raise the ceiling, give one reason and never a defense, and accept that a raise is supposed to cost you the clients who were only ever buying the price. On iKonX you keep 100 percent of the price you set, at 0 percent commission.
Almost nobody loses clients to a price increase. They lose clients to the way they announce it. The number goes up quietly, then gets explained apologetically, then gets discounted back down the first time somebody pushes, and now the artist has a price they do not believe in and a client who has learned that pushing works.
The fear underneath it is real, though. Your feature price is not a line on a website. It is the last thing standing between you and an empty calendar, and every artist who has ever had a dry month knows what it feels like to want the booking more than the money. So the price stays frozen at whatever you charged when you were desperate, long after you stopped being desperate, and it quietly becomes the ceiling on what you earn.
Then there is the client you are actually afraid of losing. Usually it is one person: an early supporter who bought when nobody else was buying, who still texts you like it is 2023, and who is paying a fraction of what a stranger pays today. You are not pricing for the market. You are pricing for that one relationship, and you are charging everybody else the price you set for them.
List it. Price it. Keep it.
A price increase is a scheduling problem, not a persuasion problem. You do not need anyone to agree that you are worth more. You need a date after which the old number stops existing.
Set that date far enough out that you can honor what is already in flight. Anyone who has already had a number quoted, already sent a deposit, already agreed to terms, gets the old price. That is not weakness, that is grandfathering, and it is the single move that converts a price rise from a betrayal into an announcement. It also does something quieter: it puts a deadline on your old rate, which is the only thing that has ever made a fence-sitting buyer move.
Raise the floor before you raise the ceiling. The most common mistake is doubling the headline number while the actual work you take on stays the same. Instead, kill the bottom of your range. If you were quoting a wide band and taking whatever landed, the raise is simply this: your lowest yes goes up. The top of the range can stay where it is for a year and you will still earn more, because the cheap work is what was eating your calendar.
Give one reason and stop talking. Demand is up. My calendar is full through the spring. My rate changes on the first. That is the entire message. The moment you start itemizing your improvements, you have handed the client a list to argue with, and a negotiation you did not need to have. Nobody asks a venue to justify a ticket price.
Then make the new number real by collecting it. A raise you discount on request is not a raise, it is a starting bid, and the fastest way to prove the number is soft is to take a deposit on the old terms. That is the half iKonX handles: you set the price, the buyer pays inside the app before the file leaves your drive, you keep 100 percent of what you set, iKonX takes 0 percent platform commission, and the buyer pays a flat 10 percent on top. iKonX is free to download and explore, and full access to paid features is a flat $9.99 a month. Straight about the boundary: no app can make somebody want your verse. It can stop your new price from quietly turning back into your old one.
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iKonX puts every side of the music business in your pocket. Artists set their own price and keep 100% of it · iKonX takes 0% platform commission. Browse, message, and book straight from the app.
How to raise your feature price, step by step
- Set a date, not a mood. Pick a specific day, at least two to four weeks out, when the new rate takes effect. A price that goes up whenever you feel underpaid is not a price, it is a mood, and clients learn to catch you on a good day. A date is neutral, it is not personal, and nobody argues with a calendar.
- Grandfather everything already in flight. Anyone who has a quote in hand, a deposit sent, or a verbal yes before that date pays the old number. Say so explicitly. This is what turns a raise into an announcement instead of a betrayal, and it gives every undecided buyer a real reason to commit this week.
- Raise your floor first. Do not touch the top of your range. Delete the bottom of it. Your lowest acceptable yes is the number that moves. The cheap bookings are the ones filling your calendar and capping your income, so removing them earns you more even if your headline rate never changes.
- Give one reason, then stop. Demand is up. The calendar is full. The rate changes on the first. Do not itemize your growth, do not list your streams, do not apologize. Every extra sentence is a handle for the client to pull. A short message is not rude, it is a price, and prices do not explain themselves.
- Hold the number by taking payment on it. Quote the new price, collect the deposit through iKonX before you record, and refuse to re-open the number after it is agreed. Re-paper the terms in writing every time they change, because under 17 U.S.C. 204(a) a transfer of rights is not valid unless it is in writing and signed. The first person you discount for is the person who tells everyone else your price is negotiable. Practical guidance, not legal advice.
Three ways to raise a rate (and what each one actually costs you)
| Silent raise | Dated raise with grandfathering | Case-by-case raise | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you do | Quote a higher number and say nothing | Announce a date, honor every open quote | Charge more when you think they can pay |
| What repeat clients feel | Ambushed when they come back | Warned, and given a window | Suspicious, and correct to be |
| Creates urgency | No | Yes, the deadline does the selling | No |
| Survives a pushback | Rarely, there is nothing to point at | Yes, the date is not personal | Never, the price was always invented |
| Best for | A brand new buyer pool with no history | Almost everyone, almost always | Nobody, it is how you get a reputation |
| On iKonX | Whatever number you land on, you keep 100% of it · 0% platform commission · buyer pays a flat 10% on top | ||
Sources and dates. 17 U.S.C. 204(a) (live, July 2026): a transfer of copyright ownership is not valid unless an instrument of conveyance, or a note or memorandum of the transfer, is in writing and signed by the owner of the rights conveyed. 17 U.S.C. 101: a specially ordered or commissioned work is a work made for hire only where the parties expressly agree in a signed written instrument and the work falls within one of nine enumerated categories, and a standalone musical work is not among them. IRS (2026): net earnings from self-employment of $400 or more trigger self-employment tax, currently 15.3% on the covered base, so a raise is taxed on the increase and the number you feel is not the number you keep. Pricing bands, client behavior, and the grandfathering pattern here are market observation from the independent market in 2026, not published statistics. Practical guidance, not legal advice. The iKonX model is the only fixed claim here: artists keep 100% of the price they set, iKonX takes 0% platform commission, the buyer pays a flat 10% on top, iKonX is free to download and explore, full access to paid features is a flat $9.99/month, and the only payout deduction is a low, sub-5% withdrawal fee, below the industry standard.
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Raising your feature price FAQ
How much should I raise my feature price by?
Move your floor, not your ceiling. Take the lowest number you have said yes to in the last six months and raise that, because the cheap bookings are what fill your calendar and cap your income. A raise you can defend beats a raise you can only announce, and if you are booked out for weeks, the market already told you the old number was too low.
What do I tell a repeat client who is used to my old price?
Tell them the date and honor it. Anyone with an open quote or a deposit in before the change pays the old number. Then say the rate changes on the first, and stop. One reason, no defense, no itemized list of your improvements. You are informing them, not asking them.
Should I grandfather my early supporters forever?
No, but you can retire the discount slowly and on purpose. A loyalty rate is a real thing and it is allowed to exist, as long as you chose it rather than got trapped in it. Give it a name, give it an end date, and never let one relationship set the price you quote to strangers.
What if I lose clients when I raise my rate?
You will, and that is the mechanism working. A raise is supposed to remove the buyers who were only ever purchasing the price. If you lose a few of the cheapest bookings and the same calendar earns more, the raise worked. If you lose every single client, you did not raise the price too far, you announced it in a way that invited an argument.
Should I put my price publicly or quote it privately?
A published number does the filtering before the conversation starts, which saves you the negotiation entirely. A private quote lets you read the budget behind the request first. Either works. What does not work is having no number at all, because then the buyer sets it, and they will set it low.
Does iKonX take a cut when I raise my price?
No. iKonX takes 0 percent platform commission and you keep 100 percent of the price you set, whatever you raise it to. The buyer pays a flat 10 percent on top of your price. iKonX is free to download and explore, full access to paid features is a flat $9.99 a month, and the only payout deduction is a low, sub-5 percent withdrawal fee, below the industry standard.
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