SHR4C007R 24102238 Research Portfolio

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Woody Lander 24102238

In this essay, I will be discussing the skills, responsibilities and challenges associated with being a recording session musician in today’s music industry. Briefly, a session musician is someone who makes a career out of playing on recordings for other artists.

There are some key skills that are essential to being a successful session musician. Workbred (2023) give some examples on their website, including: ‘proficiency in playing one or more musical instruments, ability to read and interpret sheet music, strong improvisational skills and ability to learn and memorise music quickly.’ These are non-academic skills, and are arguably more important to the career of a session musician than having a performance degree of any kind. These skills allow the musician to sight read a lot of music, regardless of difficulty, and this will minimise the time spent learning the music that is needed. Consequently, the artist will have to pay for less studio time, which earns the musician favour with them. Furthermore, artists will only hire musicians to play with them if they are certain that the musician is capable of playing what is required. This means that if a musician is hired and can’t play what is needed, or if their playing isn’t up to the standard needed, they will likely be fired, possibly resulting in not being paid, not getting credited on tracks, and having their reputation tainted. Reputation is very important in the music industry, because people’s opinions will often heavily dictate whether they will hire someone or not, and if someone has a reputation of not being skilled, they will likely not get hired as much. 

In order to be hired and rehired, a session musician must be open-minded, consistent and respectful. They must be open-minded, as they will likely be working with a variety of artists in many genres, and may have to take gigs in which they may not like what they are playing. They must also be consistent, because session musicians cannot afford to have an ‘off day’. Whoever a session player is playing for will likely only need their services for a short amount of time, so if they have a day where they aren’t feeling good, so play worse, they will probably be replaced with someone who can perform what is needed. Lastly, session musicians must be respectful, because, like I have mentioned previously, the music industry favours reputation highly, so it is pivotal that they are liked by people they work with, and showing respect is a key part of this. Stormzy’s rhythm section touch on this in an interview with ICMP, saying ‘If you do a good job, people will remember and talk about it. If you have any incidents, on or off the stage, the news will spread even quicker and you’ll never have the chance to defend yourself. Keep your name clean!’ (L Yarde, M. Brown 2020)

As with most jobs in the creative industries, the job of a session player varies from day to day. However, a typical day will involve arriving at a studio, talking to the artist they are working with, learning the parts needed and then recording them. There are many responsibilities a session player has during their day, and arguably one of the most important is turning up on time. This is crucial because being late to a gig will result in the artist having less time to record parts, ending up with a lower quality final output. Furthermore, lateness damages a musician’s reputation, as no one wants to work with a musician who is unreliable. A session musician is also responsible for learning anything that has been sent to them beforehand. This links back to saving on studio time, because the musicians don’t need to waste paid time learning songs if they already know them. Something else that session musicians must do before a gig is make sure their instruments are properly maintained, so things like string changes and fixing pickups don’t need to be done in the studio, adding to stress for the artist as well as wasting time. 

Legal issues are common in the session industry, and perhaps the biggest legal issue that a session musician will have to deal with is getting credits on a recording. Credits are vital as they ensure that session musicians earn royalties from anything they contribute to. Performance credits would be the easiest to attain, because they have physically performed and been recorded. This being said, it is the responsibility of the session musician to make sure that performance credits are assured in the contract that they have agreed to. 

On the other hand, writing credits are harder to acquire. This is because it is hard to prove that a session player helped shape the sound of the recording. This is why established session players will sometimes only sign a contract to take on a job if writing credits are included in the artist’s consideration. All credits are important as they correspond to income, however small that may be, so getting credits for a song means that session musicians can earn more than just their fee for recording for an artist.

Another issue facing session musicians is the inconsistency of gigs. Nathan Ruff in a piece for Recording Connection says there will be ‘long hours while a recording project is in session, followed by periods of lull between projects.’ (N. Ruff 2022) This means that session musicians won’t have a consistent source of income when they are starting out. Additionally, being self employed, a session musician will have to make sure that all of their finances are in order, and that they can afford to keep doing what they are doing. Creative and Numbers (2024) recommend to ‘Track Your Income, Document Your Expenses, Organise Your Receipts, Choose the Right Tools and Set Up a Bookkeeping routine.’ This will ensure that they will be on top of things like taxes, as well as knowing what gigs they can take based on if travel and/or equipment is a factor. Remedy (2024) says that a recording session could pay as little as £100: not enough to live on when considering the inconsistency of gigs as previously mentioned. So, most session musicians end up with multiple jobs, some in the music industry but not exclusively. Jamie Ellis (2023) details his week on Music Gateway, saying on Monday he does 3 hours of private tutoring, rehearsal for his function band on Tuesday, composing for sync on Wednesday, and the list keeps going. This is what session musicians do during their down time in order to pay the bills.

To get more gigs in this line of work, a session musician needs to be known, and word of mouth is a more impactful form of promotion than perhaps people realise. Being a good session musician, which includes having the skills and qualities mentioned earlier such as punctuality and technical ability, will make sure they are memorable with people they have worked with. Then, if they are respectful and easy to get along with – other attributes that are key to being a session player – people will mention them and recommend them to others, allowing them to become more known and potentially receive more gigs. The more they do this, and the more people that they work with, the more exposure they will get, which again leads to more opportunities. Drummer Emily Davies makes a similar point in an interview where she says the most important parts of session playing are ‘getting out there and playing with as many musicians as possible, being … helpful … as well as doing a good job.’ (E. D. Davies 2024). 

One challenge that a session musician may encounter is having to speak with artists about the sound they want for a recording. The job of a session musician is to take the vision that an artist has and execute it to their (the artist’s) liking. This is where problems could arise, as they must be able to interpret what someone wants, and this becomes challenging if they aren’t descriptive enough. For example, Charlotte Glasson (2024) recounts ‘I remember working with Jah Wobble and he said ‘no jazz’ on my improvised sax solo, so you’ve got to be able to interpret that, and not get annoyed that he doesn’t want ‘jazz.’ Failure to play what the artist wants, whether from lack of skill or direction, could lead to tensions rising, so session musicians must be patient, and work with the artist as opposed to against them.

Another challenge comes with negotiating a contract when they are hired. There are many things to consider, such as performance/writing royalties (as discussed earlier), dates and payment. Dates would be an issue if there were any recording sessions, gigs or rehearsals that they couldn’t attend for whatever reason. In this case, they would have to reject the contract or make some sort of arrangement with the offering party so this date is covered or changed. If this arrangement is not made, and they accept the contract then don’t attend an agreed date, they could be prosecuted by the artist or their label. Depending on their reputation within the industry, some musicians may be able to demand a higher consideration from the offerer, such as a guaranteed percentage of the royalties, or simply a higher pay per session/gig. The larger their reputation is, the more artists or labels will offer for their services, so as a session musician they should be able to negotiate consideration that works for both parties.

The career progression for a session musician starts with playing at jam nights and small venues as much as possible, trying to get to know as many people as they can and get their name out there. Session player Charlotte Glasson (2024) says that ‘You can build up your network to get more sessions.’ This will eventually result in getting more high profile gigs as they become more well known, and these will pay more. ‘I often go for £100 an hour, if not more depending on who it is for’ Glasson goes on to say. The end goal for session musicians would be to be invited to play for high profile acts. This would include going on tour with them and/or recording for them. A prime example of career progression would be Hal Blaine, often cited as the most recorded drummer in history. One of his first notable gigs was with the Crystals. From the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: ‘Hired to play on Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel,”he began a long-lasting association with Phil Spector.’ (M. Weinberg 2024) Max then talks about how this relationship with Phil Spector led him to be invited to play on many songs that would become hits, and eventually ending up playing for The Ronettes and The Beach Boys, all from knowing Phil Spector, one of the most successful producers of the 60s. This proves that who you know really matters as a session musician, and as a musician in general.

A session musician has a lot of challenges to contend with in the music industry, some legal, some financial, and some personal. With the rise of DAWs and plugins, some would argue that session musicians are less in demand and less valued in today’s industry as they were in the 1960s and 70s with people like Hal Blaine and Carol Kaye. Also with the near monopoly that streaming has on the market of music consumption, session players will be getting paid less in royalties than when buying vinyl was the only way to listen to music, due to Spotify’s method of pooling royalties. (From Spotify (2024) – ‘the rightsholder’s share of net revenue is determined by streamshare. We calculate streamshare by tallying the total number of streams in a given month and determining what proportion of those streams were people listening to music owned or controlled by a particular rightsholder.’ This means that artists will get paid depending on what percentage of the total streams on Spotify their track accounted for. However, session musicians are, in my opinion, still important, and vital to keeping the human and collaborative aspects of music alive. This is echoed by Faster Capital (2024), who say ‘Session musicians offer a unique perspective and skillset that cannot be replicated by a computer program or digital instrument. The human touch and creativity that they bring to a recording session is invaluable and can often be the difference between a good recording and a great one.’ To conclude, I would say that session playing is a good trade to enter into, and can be lucrative, as long as they make sure their contracts give the player what they want. 

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