Being in the wrapp-up stage of my documentary I am starting to seek out music. I have contacted an artists manager who said it is ok with the artist to use the music. He also owns all the publishing rights to his songs so now its a matter of how much?

I expect to submit the film to festivals and hopefully have it bought, but until then I will not be selling it. We discussed how the pricing will work considering the fact if it gets bought then the artist should get more money, which I agree with.

Now my question is, how much up front should it cost. The artist is not big, yet has about 4 CDs he produced himself and does have a small following. I may use one or two songs, so how much money would that cost?

I have no clue how to negotiate this sort of thing?

Any suggestions??

The first thing I'd do, would be to ask whoever owns the rights to the music how much they want for it. They are the ones that will set the bottom line.
Artists have different ideas of what their stuff is worth.
I had one guy want $1000 to have his music used in one video, and another who offered to compose music for me for $200 and give me unlimited rights to use it for any video.

Just ask the guy how much money he wants, and negotiate down from there. If he says "make me an offer" he's probably never had his music used this way before. Lowball him, and negotiate up from there if you have to.

I know nothing about buying music and its pricing. However, I know that you should always let the opposite party set the price first. I learnt that from Negotiation training classes.

If you set the price first, the negotiation will only drive the price upwards. If the seller sets the price first, the negotiation will always drive the price downward. Also, this cuts a lot of guess work.