Session rates?

[Stevo42w]

I dont know who else of you did. But i got an email from Paul G. Asking to do some midi drumming on his songs. Which is all fun and swell but he mentioned money?

How much does a session drummer charge to put his drums on someone elses track. I already know i want between 5 and 10% of the APRA royalties. But i dont know how to charge my "skills"

Should it be per hour or per song and just how much of each?

[middleman]

Hello Stevo. I'm not sure if you mean "midi drumming" as sampling and programming drum beats to a song or not. As far as session rates, there's different variables that will factor into your price. One being is how far do you have to travel- is the food, gas money, lodging, etc paid for? A low ball figure per drum track can be from $75-$100, this also can depend on your local rate/supply and demand in your town. With major backing this can be hundreds or thousands a song. If you have a full record that you're recording then per hour would be a better choice. Per hour you could charge anywhere from $30-$60, but this can go higher or lower depending on what the person is willing to pay. You might need adjust to what Paul is looking at. One factor of adjusting price is the total budget for the recording project. Is the team or person that's hiring you, backed by a label or paying out of their own pocket? Also if the project is something that you really like and might lead to more sessions down the road, charge a little less as a "favor" and when recording for them again, adjust to your "regular" rates. If you can, try to get half of the money upfront just to cover your ***. Musicians like to change their minds and they might try to cheat you after "maybe" scratching a song you already recorded. This might be overkill on a small project, but you might want the session offer in a contract so you have a visual on what's to be expected of you, so if and when things change you have this to refer back to.

As for royalties and your asking of 5-10%, this generally is not to be asked for by a drummer. The majority of the time and in the court of law, recording royalties go to the songwriter and the producer of a song. One such exception is if you're in a band situation and the songwriter wants you to have some of the pie to keep you in the band. This scenario is getting more rare these days. Of course with rap, the producer gets a much larger chunk for "writing" the hook/beat. Keep in mind also that a signed band normally is paying their lawyer 5-7% general commission and manager 10-20% for his duties as well. If you can get a royalty set up then by all means go for what you can get. I hope this helps a little. Blessings........

[middleman]

One last thing I'd like to add is this. I had a buddy in Nashville that had an opportunity to get either a royalty set-up or straight upfront payment with doing sessions for a newly signed artist. The royalty option was rare but he went for the upfront money (because he didn't think the artist was going to sell very many units), but in the end the artist went multi platinum and he missed out on a lot of money from royalties. Sometimes you just never know what's going to make money in the music biz. Blessings........

[backtodrum]

One last thing I'd like to add is this. I had a buddy in Nashville that had an opportunity to get either a royalty set-up or straight upfront payment with doing sessions for a newly signed artist. The royalty option was rare but he went for the upfront money (because he didn't think the artist was going to sell very many units), but in the end the artist went multi platinum and he missed out on a lot of money from royalties. Sometimes you just never know what's going to make money in the music biz. Blessings........

Wow, what a bummer man!!!:

[bongobro]

Thanks middleman--haven't been as fortunate as Stevo, but a couple of my buddies have asked me to play percussion for them on an upcoming album (may take a while since they're still working on their own tracks!), and I haven't given much thought on session rates...somethin' to keep in mind...

Thanks, bro'!