OffKey Season 3 Episode 4: The Recording Artist
This week on OffKey, we’re looking at our next character in the storyline of the creation of music: the Recording Artist. In this episode, we learned from the expertise of: Andrew Karis from ACTRA-RACS; Byron Pascoe, an entertainment lawyer at Edwards Law; Jeff Wolpert, an engineer and producer at Desert Fish Studios and educator at the University of Toronto; Mateo Palmisano, composer and producer at Xitmuse; and Matt Craig from MROC. We explored what the recording process looks like and who is involved, how session work and studio culture have changed over the years, and how performers make money from the recordings they contribute to.
The Recording Artist
The terms “Performer” and “Recording Artist” can be used somewhat interchangeably, referring broadly to someone that performs and records in the studio or on stage. For clarity’s sake, we’ll start to think of them as separate characters in our storyline when we unpack the recording and live performance sides of the music industry. Although these two roles commonly overlap, they represent very different ways of earning money, or at least very different revenue streams. So we should differentiate between earning money for your recordings, e.g. through streaming or selling vinyl records, versus earning money for your live performances on stage.
For now though, let’s focus on understanding the role of the Recording Artist in the process of recording. A dictionary definition of a recording artist is “a person who performs music for recordings”. More specifically, this would include instrumentalists and backup singers (known as session players), band-members, and the artists that the public knows — A.K.A. the name on the cover of the CD or that you search for on Spotify. While these artists are the people we primarily associate with any given recording, there are usually at least a few other performers in the background that contribute to the recording.
Session musicians have historically been very important to the recording process, providing the instrumentation that sometimes came to define the songs by solo featured artists. For example, Frank Sinatra has become known not only for his vocal performance, but also for Quincy Jones’ unique arrangements and the many session musicians’ skillful performances on Sinatra recordings. Similarly, the Funk Brothers at Motown Records played on more number one hits than the Beatles, including recordings for Diana Ross, The Temptations, and Stevie Wonder. Another group of session musicians that came to be known as “The Wrecking Crew” performed on hundreds of Top 40 hits in the 60s and 70s by the Mamas & Papas, Sonny & Cher, and Frank and Nancy Sinatra. Sometimes, they even acted as “ghost players” on songs credited to bands like The Beach Boys and The Monkeez. In the 1960s, session vocalists such as Darlene Love recorded lead vocals for songs that were then credited to other artists. Overall, session musicians were generally not publicly recognized for their work while they were active, but recently there has been more attention brought to their important contributions to many recordings we love through documentaries like The Wrecking Crew, Standing in the Shadows of Motown, and 20 Feet from Stardom.
Today, session players are less active, primarily because of technological innovation. With a computer, keyboard, and voice, a person can create a recording with a full range of software instruments and stacked vocal tracks. Session musicians still play a small role in the modern music industry, particularly in film scoring, but overall, the recording culture has shifted significantly in the past few decades.
The Recording Process
Although studio culture has seen a dramatic shift with technological innovation, recording studios remain an important part of creating music, especially when artists are ready to turn demo tracks into a fully produced EP or album. So, what does the recording process look like and who is involved?
The Role of the Producer
One of the major players in the recording process is the producer. The producer’s role is challenging to define, because it can take on many different forms, ranging from technical to more directorial expertise. The cost of hiring a producer also varies greatly depending on each particular agreement.
The Recording Artist’s Rights & Royalties
As we discussed in the first episode where we introduced the recording artist and the songwriter, recording artists hold sound recording or master rights over a musical work. Pop stars like Britney Spears or Justin Bieber, along with their labels, have master rights over the recordings they perform on, which is one way they earn their riches. But what about the rights of other performers on a recording like session players? How does this compare to the featured recording artist?
In a recording, various performers are classified as either “featured” performers or “non-featured” performers, which is important to determining royalty splits. Featured performers would typically be the person whose name is associated with the recording, whereas non-featured performers would be those who perform in the background such as background singers or musicians. Using the song “thank u, next” as an example, Ariana Grande would be the featured performer and Victoria Monet and Tayla Parx, would be the non-featured performers as they sing background vocals on the recording.
Each country has different regulations on recording artists’ rights and royalties. In Canada, the Recording Artists’ Collecting Society (ACTRA-RACS) and Musicians’ Rights Organization of Canada (MROC), represent performers’ rights and advocate for equitable remuneration for all recording artists. In 1997, the Copyright Act of Canada was amended to recognize recording artists’ essential contributions to the creation of recordings. Up until then, performers were largely unable to capture a share of the royalties from the use of recordings they performed on, although Canadian songwriters and publishers had been collecting royalties from those recordings for many years. This type of right is called a “neighbouring right,” reflecting how recording artists’ performing rights are the “neighbour” or equivalent to the performing rights of songwriters.
So, if recording artists hold neighbouring rights, what are the main revenue streams they can make money from?
Decline in musicians’ wages and opportunities to work
Along with the decrease in performers’ income from the shift towards streaming, musicians’ pay has decreased significantly and session work is increasingly done overseas, thus leaving many musicians without work or with work that’s underpaid.
Although the industry has changed dramatically and the majority of musicians’ incomes have faced a steep decline, as Matt and Andrew pointed out, performers’ rights and royalties are always being renegotiated as the industry evolves.
For now, the most important take away for any Canadian Recording Artist or performer listening to this is to register with a collections society such as ACTRA-RACS or MROC so you’ll will be able to collect royalties on the songs they performed on, and hopefully be set up to collect more as these organizations push for a greater share of royalties from revenue streams like streaming.
Thank you to Jeff Wolpert, Andrew Karis, Matt Craig, Byron Pascoe, and Mateo Palmisano for their contributions to this episode!
If you have any topics you would like me to cover in future episodes, please feel free to reach out via email to offkey@membran.net. Otherwise I can be found on Instagram at @membranlabs or @taliyasw
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