Pricing
How clipping CPM works
CPM means cost per thousand. In clipping it means cost per thousand views that survived a bot check, which is a narrower and more expensive unit than the one advertising uses, and the difference is the entire point.
What the thousand actually contains
CPM is a standard advertising unit with published measurement guidelines behind it. An advertising CPM buys a thousand impressions. Nobody checks. On most networks a meaningful share of those impressions were never in front of a human at all, and the invoice looks identical either way.
A clipping CPM should buy a thousand views that have each been checked against the account that produced them. That check removes accounts with no watch history, accounts that post nothing but campaign clips, accounts whose engagement curve does not resemble a real audience, and view curves that arrive faster than a feed can physically deliver them. What is left is a smaller number than the platform reports and it is the only number worth paying for.
This is why a verified CPM looks expensive next to a raw one. You are comparing two different units. A raw view count with no account-level check attached is not a discount, it is a different product.
The four things that move a rate
- Account tier. The largest variable by a wide margin. Creators with follower bases in the hundreds of thousands give a new post a real first impression, and access to that tier costs more than access to the middle of a network. A campaign routed to the top tier and the same campaign routed wide are different prices for a reason.
- Approved clip count. More clips means more editing, more briefing and more review. It also means more angles, which is usually the right trade on a record with several distinct moments.
- Genre. Narrow lanes cost more per thousand. Country, Latin and dance each have a smaller eligible pool of creators than rap does, so the same reach takes more of the available network.
- Clearance complexity. A single release with master and sync already signed off is cheap to set up. A catalogue with three publishers and a featured artist is not, and that work happens before a single clip is cut.
What does not move the rate: how urgently you need it. We would rather tell you a record needs ten days of clearance than take the money and start posting on audio nobody has cleared.
Why CPM beats a flat fee and beats a retainer
| Model | Who carries the risk | What it incentivises |
|---|---|---|
| Flat fee for deliverables | You | Delivering the minimum that satisfies the contract. Thirty clips exist. Nobody had to watch them. |
| Monthly retainer | You | Staying on the account. Performance and payment are disconnected by design. |
| Guaranteed view count | Nobody, because the number gets manufactured | Buying whatever hits the number cheapest, which is bots. |
| CPM on verified views | Us | Placing clips on accounts that produce real watch time, because a view that fails the check does not appear on your invoice. |
That last row is the whole argument. It is the only one of the four where our incentive and yours point the same direction.
Red flags in a clipping quote
- A guaranteed view number. Nobody controls how many people watch a video. A number promised in advance is a number somebody has decided to manufacture.
- No named verification method. Ask what the bot check actually tests. If the answer is vague, there is no check.
- A promised stream count or chart position. Not deliverable, by anyone, ever. Streams follow from a sound page being used, which makes them an outcome rather than a line item.
- No approval step. If clips post without you signing them off, a weak batch quietly eats the budget.
- A published flat rate card. Sounds transparent, and it means the quote was set before anybody listened to your record.
Why we do not publish a number
Because it would be wrong for most people who read it. A catalogue record with one obvious hook seeded into the middle of the network and a new single routed to top-tier accounts are genuinely different pieces of work with genuinely different costs. A published range would flatter one and mislead the other, and neither is useful to somebody trying to plan a release. So we quote the record instead.
What we will do on a first call, before anything is committed, is tell you which of those two your record is. That is more useful than a range, and it takes about thirty minutes.
Questions
What happens if the campaign overdelivers?
You keep the upside. You are billed against the agreed verified-view volume and anything beyond it costs nothing extra. Overdelivery is common when a hook lands.
What if a clip performs badly?
You are not paying per clip, you are paying per verified view, so a clip nobody watched costs you nothing. If a whole angle is not landing we drop it and move those slots to the ones that are.
Can I reject clips?
Yes, and approval is per clip. Nothing counts toward your volume until you have signed that specific clip off.
Is there a minimum?
There is a practical floor rather than a contractual one. Below a certain clip volume a campaign cannot generate enough data to tell you which hook worked, which defeats the purpose of running it.
Get a rate for your record
Send one track and tell us the timeline. You will get the hooks worth cutting, the seeding plan, and the rate per thousand verified views for that specific campaign. Send a brief.