Introduction to research portfolio on session musician work as an area of the creative industry.

This research portfolio intends to explore the required personal, academic and professional skills required in a career as a session musician. It will focus firstly on the overall application of these aspects to a person looking in to this career path and secondly will relate to my own personal experience as a musician looking into this career path. Session musicians (or recording musicians) are defined by Berklee College of Music (2004) as “expert studio players who are hired on a short-term basis to record backing tracks for recording artists.” This is the definition I will largely referencing in this portfolio.

What are the academic and professional qualifications and/or experience required to enter the profession?

There is no academic requirement to becoming a session musician. That is to say that proof of any experience in higher education, especially in relation to music and any other arts is not immediately deterministic of whether you might find this career successful or more rewarding. It is widely agreed that the most advantageous approach to enter the profession of session musician work is to become first, a professional of your instrument or instruments. This aspect of musical proficiency is the common denominator of all session musicians, more so than sight reading ability, and therefore, experience would be my main focus of practice if preparing for this profession, over the pursuit of supplementary academic and professional qualifications. Wong (2020) discusses the topic of attaining session work consistently and notes that experience with live performance is a contributing factor, particularly in getting your name and brand out, for producers to notice.

Attempting to attain session work without a suitable foundation as a known musician, is the first obstacle in this career. I personally would have to play more live shows to overcome this obstacle, as well as furthering my rapport with friends and mutual musicians at Leeds Conservatoire and the surrounding music scene. Reynolds (2025) discusses local venue, open mic nights as an opportunity to showcase yourself and I agree as this allows for a wider breadth of listeners opposed to how some live performances cover a narrow demographic. It is important to understand a variety of genres in this profession, and to be able to convincingly reproduce them, therefore my live performance experience needs to be applicable to multiple different musical sounds, atmospheres and general presence. Overall, pursuit of academic recognition regarding work as a session musician is useful for me, as it allows development in areas of live performance and provides a ground for meeting and working with like minded musicians. However, I find that the more important aspect for this profession is the aspect of working with and performing with musicians to gain recognition as a springboard into opportunities and gigs as a session musician.

What knowledge, skills and personal qualities/attributes are needed for success within the profession? And what are the intellectual and personal challenges presented by the profession and how might these be dealt with?

As with any collaborative profession, the most important personal quality is the ability to work and create with like-minded and not-so like-minded individuals. It is the ability of oneself to be able to handle the stress of a high tempo work environment and balancing that reality with the financial and daily stresses that I will mention later. And it is the ability to be pragmatic in unexpected circumstances whether in the studio, at a live performance or managing relationships with musicians outside of your personal working hours. Dr Ficek (2025) states that the “paradoxical and volatile dichotomy [of work in music] is the main contributor to the mental health distress [he is] so often faced with day to day [in his] clinical practice”. The skills of this profession expand further on the concept of becoming a professional at your instrument. You also need the ability to interpret and articulate instructions into tangible musical ideas, from a producer a colleague or director and so on.  A successful session musician is able to understand what is needed for a track or any other production and to be able to efficiently produce this need/want, in a studio environment. This ability is another example also, of what might be a personal skill that allows a session musician to discover more employment opportunities, as a producer or colleague that holds you in high regard may recommend you to others, broadening your network. Furthermore, if you our attributed to a successful song/production you further strengthen your employability within the music industry.

It is a competitive and mentally straining career path, as Luck (2024) puts it, “rejection and criticism are unavoidable, whether it’s a gig that falls through, a submission that’s turned down, or a scathing review. Competition is fierce, making it difficult to stand out and secure steady work”.  This provides a somewhat pessimistic view toward the music industry as a whole, however the advice is clear, if you can’t combat failure and hardship, and if you don’t want it, this career is not going to be nice to you. I find this motivating in way as sets realistic expectations and doesn’t promise you all you want, it ties in with the personal attribute of being in love with music, which is needed, perhaps more so than any other attribute, to ‘survive’ in this profession. Longevity is achieved only through initial willingness to do whatever it takes and sustaining a long-term music career requires appropriate mental fortitude and a love of the craft. Overall, the personal skills and qualities required to become successful in a career as a session musician demand and extreme enjoyment in music and music performance, which promotes artistic and creative involvement and engagement with others in the field (producers, colleagues and workers in parallel mediums). The personal and intellectual challenges faced can be the make or break; the deciding factor of whether this career path would be right for me.

What are the duties and responsibilities of the profession – what does a typical day’s work involve?

A session musician is responsible to manage their own hours and source their own employment and gig opportunities. A large capacity of the work involved in maintaining a career in this area of the creative industry is work related to the upkeep of relations with employers, clients and colleagues, as well as building upon your personal brand and rapport. A session musician must be able to remain at the forefront of employer’s minds as work is often acquired on a short-term basis, meaning that without the upkeep of relations and networking, a degree of uncertainty can arise. A typical day’s work for a developed session musician would involve working on a contract to complete an agreed piece/part of music for anything from a major label pop song to a small indie-film backing track. UK Music describes this work as spanning “the recording and broadcast industry recording commercial audio, film soundtracks, music for adverts, jingles, television signature tunes, incidental music and music for radio”.

Contemporary session work in recent years has migrated more toward remote work due to the ease of access when it comes to sharing music digitally. Parry et al (2022) discusses a rise in hybrid working (blending office and remote work) after the COVID pandemic reaching a peak national average of 47.3% of workers utilising this working pattern. As such, a day’s work for many session musicians might involve checking emails and forums for work and completing agreed contracts at home, in home studios, where the engagement and stress may differ form an in-person studio recording. Overall, a session musician is responsible to adhere to the requests of their employer and to fulfil certain recording targets. A day’s work involves recording and completing as many targets as possible with efficacy and maintaining an inflow of new work.

What are the main financial and legal issues that impact on this profession?

The wide majority of session musicians are freelance, self-employed workers and cannot rely or depend on a consistent salary. Many supplement this by working in other areas of the music industry too, for example, in music education, as it allows for more comfort financially whilst slightly diminishing your flexibility as an artist. Freelancers work on flat-fee contracts and require versatility to attain them, earning fees per session can act as a bonus to consistently paid work such as aforementioned music education. Self-employed workers are expected to manage their own taxes and therefore must keep continues accounts of income and expenditure. A study by DHA Communications (2012) found that 56% of musicians were earning less than 20,000 pounds per annum and that only 35% pay into a pension scheme. It is frugal to save and invest money as a musician particularly with regards to emergency funds and pension plans. Legal issues that freelancers face often involve contract disagreements. It is a session musicians’ responsibility to fully understand a contractual agreement before embarking on a piece of work.

What would the potential marketing and promotional aspects of this profession look like?

Modern day marketing for a session musicians leans heavily into social media presence. Social media platforms such as Instagram are tools which can be utilized by musicians working in this area of the creative industry to appeal toward a target demographic or broaden opportunities. Personally, the majority of musicians I connect with, I will contact initially through the use of such social media platforms as well as getting details about musicians, such as upcoming tours or releases, from these platforms. Algorithms are intended to partner like-minded creators as well to display your content to its most appropriate demographic. Live performance is also a method of promotion as it allows for networking within venues and allows a musician’s name to become more known.

I find uploading videos and recordings to social media allows me to create a larger following of musicians and producers as my content is shared with them. Another advantage of sharing your work on social media is that it allows you to better understand your own image as a musician and provides a foundation to build upon it, practicing how to build a personal music identity. It is important to portray a wide variety of skills in your marketing and posts and to show depth of understanding in different genres as aforementioned. Overall, a contemporary session musician can utilize social media in building their brand and business (albeit it a rather competitive approach). Promoting oneself in this way allows for direct interaction between musicians and opens opportunities for networking more effectively between producers and peers in the creative industry. 

What career-progression/development opportunities are available within the profession?

Session musicians often find fluctuating opportunities throughout their career. It is a competitive area within the wider creative industry and progression/career development in a traditional sense is not guaranteed. It is more appropriate for working session musicians to manage a portfolio career in order to maintain sufficient career growth. This allows for the development of personal and professional skills across a more diverse arrangement of roles within the industry. Career growth for a session musician is about using this portfolio to support a constant workflow and income stream. Overall, a session musician must slowly climb the ranks of popularity and focus on work that prioritises a balance between income and personal/meaningful enjoyment.

Bibliography

Berklee (2004). Session musician. https://www.berklee.edu/careers/roles/session-instrumentalist. (accessed 16/12/25)

Cory Wong. (2020) How to *Musician* EPISODE 7 : Session work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXQC0EeoFLE. (accessed 15/12/25)

DHA Communications (2012) The working musician. https://musiciansunion.org.uk/MusiciansUnion/media/resource/Guides%20and%20reports/Education/The-Working-Musician-report.pdf?ext=.pdf. (accessed 20/12/25)

Ficek, A. (2025) Musicians and mental health | BPS (https://www.bps.org.uk/blog/musicians-and-mental-health. (accessed 16/12/25)

Luck, S. (2024) Beyond The Music: Essential Skills and Qualities for a Sustainable Music Career. https://musiciansunion.org.uk/news/beyond-the-music-essential-skills-and-qualities-for-a-sustainable-music-career. (accessed 16/12/25)

Parry, J. et al. (2022) Work after lockdown: No going back. https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/system/files/resources/files/Lessons%20from%20Lockdown.pdf. (accessed 19/12/25)

Reynolds, R. (2025) How to Become a Pop Star: A Realistic Guide to Going Pro. https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/how-to-become-a-pop-star-78432/. (accessed 15/12/25)

Session Musician – UK Music (2021). https://www.ukmusic.org/job-profiles/session-musician/. (accessed 19/12/25)