Everett, the triple A players in Nashville, guys like Brent Mason, who play on the majority of hits you hear, keep very busy. They have secretaries or secretarial services that organize their calenders. They do not do demos, as demos pay at a much lower rate. They will, however do masters. If they are not booked on major label sessions they will play for union scale, that's $380.02 for a three hour session for full master, or $196.50 per 3 hour session for a limited pressing (no more than 10,000 copies pressed to be sold). If they are the bandleader, they get double that scale. When I've recorded with Brent Mason, he was bandleader.

Sessions for major artists are booked way in advance because the artists themselves are busy performing, so scheduling is not a problem. A triple A session player, like Brent, can make triple scale with a major artist, that's over $350 an hour, double for the leader. Indie artists and labels who hire triple A players also schedule far in advance and will book the session around the player's schedule.

The footsoldier session player gets roughly $60 a song for limited pressing masters. Non union players get about the same. The big difference with union and non union players is with the demo. A non union player gets from $35 to $60 for experienced session players, newbies will go down as low as free smile A union player counts the time, not the songs, for demos. The scale for demos is $156 for a three hour session. With good charts, a good crew of musicians can do ten to fifteen songs in a three hour session. So, generally speaking, a good crew of union players may record demos for much less than non-union players.

Those union prices also get an additional 11% toward the musicians' pension fund and $22.00 per player per session toward health and welfare. I know guys collecting the pension and guys who have gotten health benefits, one good friend of mine got a nice check after the untimely death of his wife, so these are important things for a musician. Non union players do not get benefits like these unless they have saved money and gotten insurance on their own, most, I'm sure, have not.

Hope that helps.

Mike

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music