Session Rates

Johan Jansen · Post by **Johan Jansen** » 12 Aug 2001 12:46 pm

Here in Holland, I work for a dayprice.
They rent me for a morning, afternoon or evening,
Also, more charge for A-sessions than for Demo-sessions.
A sessions work with the unionprices.
Johan

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 12 Aug 2001 4:32 pm

...the only "petroleum engineers" I've seen wearing a uniform were at the Hess station

You had me scratching my head on THAT one for a while. Apparently, I know how to spell, I just don't know which word to type. Either that, or I was uninformed about how to spell uninform.

>>> The Unofficial Photographer Of The Neighbors

If you do too much of THAT, you might get to see some people wearing a diffent kind of uniform -- like black/white stripes.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 12 Aug 2001 6:17 pm

What do you suppose a Nashville A-teamer makes per session?

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 12 Aug 2001 8:36 pm

When I lived in Hollywood, I had some neighbors that lived in the apartment building across from me who would do very intimate acts in their living room with the drapes open. But they were so hairy, they looked like Wookies. It was pretty scary so I had to close my blinds.

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 12 Aug 2001 9:38 pm

What do you suppose a Nashville A-teamer makes per session?

For the record, the number I *thought* I heard (of 4,000 to 6,000 actually -- I just said 5,000 for simplicity) was definitely referring to musicians recording for CD's that would be released on major record labels for known artists.

I still think that number being "per musician, per track" sounds high, though. Then again, I don't have any basis for comparison (other than what others have said here).

At a rate like that, you could record one track a week, and take 12 weeks vacation a year, and still make $200,000 a year.

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 13 Aug 2001 9:32 am

"What do you suppose a Nashville A-teamer makes per session?"

For major label work, these guys are double scale, or $595.00 per three hour session (plus the contribution to their health/pension fund and cartage)

David Pennybaker · Post by **David Pennybaker** » 13 Aug 2001 9:52 am

or $595.00 per three hour session (plus the contribution to their health/pension fund and cartage)

How much do the *extras* end up costing?

How many songs do they usually end up getting done in a 3-hr session? Or, to put it another way, how many sessions does it normally take to complete an album? I realize there's probably a large range on that.

And the leader gets double that?

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The Unofficial Photographer of The Wilkinsons

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 13 Aug 2001 1:21 pm

Wow! Some of you guys must be really fabulous players!

As most of you have guessed...this is a very closely guarded secret, and the range runs the gamut from what I charge (never more than $250/session, even when I've done 6 songs!) to who knows how much. But I'm sure $5,000 is high...unless you're hiring Eric Clapton. Only the top players around here could charge $200/song. And they wouldn't do many sessions...with that rate. I don't believe in "pricing myself out of the market", so maybe this is why I get the session work that I do.

How do you know when you're charging too much? Like any other business... it's when someone else does it better and cheaper.

Roger Miller · Post by **Roger Miller** » 13 Aug 2001 7:05 pm

Hey Bobbe, Ever do a session for chickens instead of cash? I got my wife some new teeth one time for doing Mexican Trilogy.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 14 Aug 2001 12:01 pm

The real money is if there is a 'back end'

John Steele · Post by **John Steele** » 14 Aug 2001 12:37 pm

Larry, LOL !
It was great... a nice little yamaha U-12 upright. With a couple of AKG mics and the invaluable placement advice from Forumites, it sounded great.
I'm still trying to figure out why he hired me for the job. When he asked me about my repertoire, I told him I only know 2 tunes; Bill Bailey, and Lush Life.

-John

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 14 Aug 2001 12:44 pm

One of the back-ends is the Special Payments Fund. All labels who are signatory to the union (ie all the majors) pay a percentage of their sales for records that sell more than 20,000 units into the SPF. At the end of the year, the total number of sessions on the books are divided into this fund, and there is a dollar amount determined per session. You get a check for the number of sessions played that year multiplied by the dollar amount per session. This adds up to a fair chunk for a studio player that does a lot of dates.

Another back-end is residuals on jingle dates, which can be some fairly tall coin on a national spot that airs for a good while...

David--the "extras" are the health/welfare contribution at about $40 a session/per player, plus cartage, which is generally in the $100-$200 per player for a round-trip cart (of course this money goes to the cartage company, not the player).

If everyone is double scale, there is no double for the leader.

One other interesting point is that there has to be a leader for every session (not counting the double-scale I mentioned). Soo, if you are doing an overdub by yourself, you are the leader, so it is double-scale for a one person overdub.

Oh yeah, time and a half after 1:00PM on Saturday, and double on Sunday and holidays...

Did I mention lots of paperwork for the employer...

Hope this helps.[This message was edited by John Macy on 14 August 2001 at 01:54 PM.][This message was edited by John Macy on 14 August 2001 at 01:56 PM.]

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 15 Aug 2001 11:38 am

The cartage doesn't always go to the cartage company, If I cart my own rack and set up, it goes to me and actually, the cartage is one way, the return is gratis.

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 15 Aug 2001 2:09 pm

That's right, though I believe if you cart yourself, the fee is preset by the union. In my case, everyone I use on sessions is with a cartage company, with the exception of fiddle players and guys like Jerry Douglas. I'll try and go back and look at a contract and see what it was.

Michael Holland · Post by **Michael Holland** » 25 Aug 2001 3:08 pm

I do demos in my home studio. I produce, arrange, engineer, program drums, play electric, acoustic and bass guitar, pedal and lap steel and dobro, mix, master, make copies and serve coffee. I make about minimum wage.

Gary Lee Gimble · Post by **Gary Lee Gimble** » 25 Aug 2001 3:29 pm

"and serve coffee"
French Roast or generic? Perk or drip?

Just curious!

BTW, I like mine with a shot of Irish!!!!
Gary Lee

Larry Miller · Post by **Larry Miller** » 25 Aug 2001 3:29 pm

Mike, you mean you don't let Doug play the Dobro?

Larry

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GO TITANS GO!!!

Jay Ganz · Post by **Jay Ganz** » 25 Aug 2001 4:08 pm

Out here in the "boonies", I got a
100 bucks for doing steel on one tune
last month at a brand new
studio about 30 minutes away.
If the song is really lousy though,
I usually charge more.<center>
<img src=http://members.localnet.com/~jsganz/Smile.gif>