Guides

AI mastering without a subscription: what you actually pay per song

Updated 2026-09-06

Subscription mastering is priced for people who release every week. Most people release a few songs a year. The arithmetic is not close.

What the models cost

• Monthly subscription, typically $12 to $25 a month. Release four songs a year and each one cost you $36 to $75. Cancel and some services keep a royalty on what you already released.
• Per-master credits, typically $5 to $10 per song, no monthly fee. Release four songs and you paid $20 to $40, once.
• Free tools, often preset-based, often browser-only, and the price is that your unreleased track sits on someone's server.

How Burnish charges

On the web, mastering and previewing are free and unlimited. A credit unlocks a download: one credit, one master, MP3 and WAV, forever. Credits are $5 each in a pack of five and never expire. On iPhone and iPad, mastering is free and offline, with no limit, and you hear every master in full on the device's speaker or headphones. Saving your masters is a one-time purchase of $24.99.

Why not a subscription

Because a mastering tool is not a daily habit. You use it when a song is done. A monthly fee taxes the months you are writing. A one-time price means the tool waits for you. It also means we have to earn the next purchase with the product, not with a cancellation flow.

What you get for the price

The repair stage AI tracks need before mastering, a chain that prints every move in dB, level-matched before and after, and a report you can check against your own ears. Run the free analysis to see the report before you pay for anything.