Guitar Session Work? Price?

[Chrizcol]

Hey all,
Is there a standard pricing for guitar session work? Just wanna get some ballpark figures. Hourly? Per track?

Cheers,

Chris

[Kenny M]

It's all very entrepreneurial at this point and all over the board. If you want to ballpark union scale, figure $100 + an hour. Some guys want a day rate or double scale. It's not uncommon to get guys for $100 a song. Really depends on the producers budget. As a producer I usually hire the same guys most of the time and usually try to build my budget around their going rates. This allows me to get them for less when I don't have much of a budget.

As a guitar player the best advise I could give is to just get a feel for which producers are cheap and which are fair and see what they have budgeted for the players. As a producer I can tell you that while it may be an area to save a buck here and there, I don't make much profit ripping off musicians. Besides, I hire guys I like to hang with so why would I want to beat them up over a few bucks. The bottom line is if you've got a lot of work then you can usually charge more, but start with the less desirable clients first.

[quietdrive]

Usually per track. I'd suggest you get hi-end guys who do double scale. Hire them for 4 songs, do them all in one day. You'd be looking at around $800-1200, or even more, depending on the track record of the guy. But you should be able to hire top session players for that money, if your in NYLANASHVILLE and if its an indie project. If its major label stuff, you'd pay that kind of money per track.

[GregoryC]

For Union stuff, I was paid $1000 per song, but that's Sony. It really depends on the budget, artist, producer. While I was doing that Sony record, an unamed pro drummer we were tracking with got a call from the
"high-up suit" guys and asked what it would take to get said drummer on tour with one of their artist for 4 weeks. The drummer was tired and didn't want to do it and threw out a figure he felt they would laugh at and say no.
He quoted $50,000 and without hesitation they said no-problem. Maybe, he shoulda said $100,000 or more...LOL Ah the music biz....

[GuitarRuss]

The main variables are talent, experience, ability to get a take quickly, reliability and for some gigs reading and chops.

There are lots of amazing players who because they show up late, or take too long to get the right take or who don't take direction well, aren't called to many gigs. These criteria weed out the masses of guitar players. If you are willing to work with someone who is lacking in any of these or who doesn't have a name yet, the price will be cheaper. Those who have these skills and networking skills can be paid quite well. The variation is pay is huge so it makes an answer hard. Some great "non-session" style players will play something great, but it's better to give them a CD a week earlier so they can practice and learn. Good luck.

[Chrizcol]

Thanks for the responses. I'm currently doing home-studio based sessions...recording guitar parts for 2 bands.. coming up with the ideas, recording (3+ tracks each song) them at my studio and emailing them the parts. Also revising any changes they want.
For USD$120 a song. (NOT hourly.).

I have a college degree (laa dee da..), can read, have jazz/metal chops, experience, high-end gear, creative etc. and have EXTENSIVE click and natural groove knowledge/practice.
I'm not in one of the recording capitals..

Think i should be charging more?

Non-hourly is making me play my parts with less takes... I end up wasting MY time if i'm not playing well.

[HEADROOM]

Originally Posted by Chrizcol

Thanks for the responses. I'm currently doing home-studio based sessions...recording guitar parts for 2 bands.. coming up with the ideas, recording (3+ tracks each song) them at my studio and emailing them the parts. Also revising any changes they want.
For USD$120 a song. (NOT hourly.).

I have a college degree (laa dee da..), can read, have jazz/metal chops, experience, high-end gear, creative etc. and have EXTENSIVE click and natural groove knowledge/practice.
I'm not in one of the recording capitals..

Think i should be charging more?

Non-hourly is making me play my parts with less takes... I end up wasting MY time if i'm not playing well.

120$ for 3 tracks on one song including arrangement of the gtr parts is cheap.

it would be 300 euro average...here.

Depends on the project of course. when it is a n indie DIY band
thing /friends it is a different thing of course.

But if it is a commercial there is usually more budget.......

[cajonezzz]

Your WAY cheap. If your good.

maybe try to: average what it takes in hours to do the tune... lets say 3 hours completed including clean up and prepping and sending off to the client, multiply that times the local hourly scale in you nearest industry town. ( lets say 100 an hour for arguments sake) and you have 300 a track ( indy ) do 3 tunes a day... at that point you can come up with a discount on volume.

I'm staying busy with sessions by using that approach-- I'm not doing big records, rather stuff in the 10-20k "all in " range.

My all day rate in town hovers between 750-1200 a day depending on location, and that generally works out to 3- tracks to a full record in a day ( charted straight ahead stuff)

FTP stuff is another story and it will be interesting to see how biz models like "esesssion" work out. If you DO have clients that are confident in your ability to get the job done with no hands on from them, and you can do things at your own pace, you may do better by offering an all in deal, a standard fee. How you can set rates is the tough part, as I think the human interaction aspect of recording is what your paying for ( unless it's someone you have a symbiotic musical connection with)



I've been doing a fair amount of this, but as a drummer- The financial challenge is a bit greater, as I choose to stack up FTP clients on a single day, and use a big tracking room. That kinda knocks me out of the 100 a track competition that is so prevelant on the web ( fine with me )

I think the other side is that if your just getting your name out, play on as much quality stuff as you can. Unfortunately, what i refer to as the "inverse proportion of money to talent" seems to be in effect, and you will find that most of the projects you really want to do, don't have a budget and vice versa.... such are " starving artists" . I think it's important to your career, and your soul as a player to do as much of those as you can afford, and try to find SOMETHING in the crappier projects to get excited about ... ( it might be just the money... but find something or you'll go mad)

FWIW: there are numerous killer guitar players... pretty much ALL the guys that would come up in "session guy" conversation, that are doing tracks via FTP... in fact, it's becoming a real standard. a couple of LA guys: Jamie Kime, Raphael moriera, Dean parks,
and many more... most are in the double union scale range for their home tracking. figure 1500 a day. Indy. Some will of course be more, and some way less depending on their interest in the material etc.