Prices posted by Portland-area recording studios and rehearsal rooms, read from their own websites in October 2026.
Most recording studios don’t post their prices. We read the websites of 85 recording studios and rehearsal rooms in the ten counties around Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. Forty-one of them post at least one price. All but one are on the Oregon side.
An hour in the studio
Twenty-three studios post an hourly rate for studio time with an engineer, or don’t say whether one is included. The middle half charge $50 to $75 an hour, and the median is $60. The lowest posted rate is $35 and the highest is $100.
Commercial studios tend to charge more. The 13 commercial studios that post an hourly rate have a median of $70; the 10 project and home studios, $50.
Days, rooms, mastering and rehearsal
Seventeen studios post a day rate, with a median of $480. Among the 15 that post both an hour and a day, a day usually costs about what eight hours would.
| Kind of booking | Studios posting it | Median | Lowest to highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio hour | 23 | $60 | $35 to $100 |
| Studio day | 17 | $480 | $100 to $700 |
| Room only, per hour | 4 | $45 | $30 to $60 |
| Room only, per day | 6 | $325 | $150 to $430 |
| Mastering, per song | 14 | $67.50 | $50 to $120 |
| Rehearsal, per hour | 5 | $20 | $15 to $50 |
| Rehearsal room, per month | 4 | $242.50 | $160 to $325 |
Few studios post room-only or monthly prices, so those medians rest on four to six studios.
Mostly small operations
In Multnomah County, the U.S. Census Bureau counts 14 sound recording studios with paid staff. It also counts 285 one-person businesses in the sound recording industries, which take in studios, record labels, music publishers and other recording work (2023).
How we read the prices
Each price is the lowest a studio posts on its own website for that kind of booking, read between October 6 and 15, 2026. A studio hour or day includes an engineer, or the site doesn’t say; “room only” means without one. Deals, song packages and bundles are left out. Studios that post no prices are counted but not priced. Prices change, so check a studio’s own site before you book.
Run a studio here and see a price that’s missing or out of date? Write to lsri@musicalform.org.
Why we collected this
The Local Sound Recording Initiative helps cities, agencies, and funders map and strengthen the local recording ecosystem. What it costs to record is one part of that picture. These prices come from our Portland-Vancouver example, which also maps 551 music places and lists funding for creatives and federal numbers on music jobs.