22 votes

Studio musicians are still waiting for credit in the streaming era

11 comments

  1. [5]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    Kinda sad, really. A lot of times when I listen to or watch live recordings from a studio, I try looking up the names of all the studio/session musicians involved so I can find more of their work,...

    Kinda sad, really. A lot of times when I listen to or watch live recordings from a studio, I try looking up the names of all the studio/session musicians involved so I can find more of their work, but their names are rarely listed anywhere so that often turns out to be impossible.

    E.g. In this coversong by Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers on ABC's Triple J they had a musician playing rhythm guitar for them (the one on the far left). And the only reason I figured out she wasn't part of the band was because she wasn't included in their interview, isn't listed as a band-member anywhere, and doesn't appear in any of their other live videos. But sadly I couldn't find any info on who she actually was. :(

    About the only station/site/channel that seems to go out of their way to include the names of everyone involved in a recording is NPR. Their Tiny Desk concert articles and video descriptions always list all the musicians who contributed, even the backup singers. And I've actually discovered quite a few cool new artists by looking up the other musicians involved in those concerts. So kudos to Bob Boilen and NPR for doing that, and giving those people their due. And shame on the record labels, studios, and radio stations for treating those musicians as disposable and unimportant, so not worth crediting.

    17 votes
    1. [4]
      PigeonDubois
      Link Parent
      That's Meg Holland, she's a touring member

      That's Meg Holland, she's a touring member

      7 votes
      1. [3]
        cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        Oh, snap. Thanks for letting me know! It looks like someone edited their Wikipedia entry in January to include her, which is cool. She wasn't listed there when that Triple J video first came out...

        Oh, snap. Thanks for letting me know! It looks like someone edited their Wikipedia entry in January to include her, which is cool. She wasn't listed there when that Triple J video first came out last year, and I was trying to find out who she was.

        Edit: Apparently she also plays and sings for a band called dog god too. And also has a few tracks up on Soundcloud. Nice. Thanks again for the info. I genuinely appreciate it! :)

        5 votes
        1. [2]
          PigeonDubois
          Link Parent
          Ha, Wikipedia was the second place I checked so kudos to that editor. Like a Version is probably my closest exposure to studio musicians and is exactly what I thought of when I saw this topic....

          Ha, Wikipedia was the second place I checked so kudos to that editor.

          Like a Version is probably my closest exposure to studio musicians and is exactly what I thought of when I saw this topic. Especially for some of the bigger ensemble-style covers, it can be tricky to ID everyone (e.g. Alex Lahey's cover of Black Parade)

          2 votes
          1. cfabbro
            (edited )
            Link Parent
            Yeah, it really is a genuine shame. I often find the studio musicians to be the highlight of many live in studio performances, but since it's usually nigh impossible to find out who they actually...

            Yeah, it really is a genuine shame. I often find the studio musicians to be the highlight of many live in studio performances, but since it's usually nigh impossible to find out who they actually are, I usually can't look up more of their work. :(


            Edit: Oh, nice... Triple J actually included info about who else played on that Alex Lahey cover on their site!

            To help her red hot performance, Alex enlisted Clio Renner on keys and vocal, Jess Ellwood on drums, Ritchie Buxton on bass, Matt Jennings and Jono Tooke from Cry Club on guitar, and noted keen bean Georgia Flipo on "a bunch of orchestral percussion."

            They normally don't do that though. Every other time I've looked up a Like A Version track on their site when trying to figure out who all the musicians were (like on the Teen Jesus track) there was nada about their names.

            p.s. Georgia Flipo (the cymbals, kettle drum, and maraca player on the Alex Lahey cover) AKA "G Flip", did her own Like A Version cover of Taylor Swift's Cruel Summer recently... and damn, she can sing!

            And that is a perfect example of why I love it when all the musicians are actually properly credited... By looking them up I can get introduced to exciting new (to me) artists and bands.

            1 vote
  2. [5]
    blivet
    Link
    I don’t use streaming music services very often, and I’ll admit to being dumbfounded when I couldn’t find the information about who played on a track that I was used to finding printed on album...

    I don’t use streaming music services very often, and I’ll admit to being dumbfounded when I couldn’t find the information about who played on a track that I was used to finding printed on album sleeves or CD booklets as a matter of course.

    If I were a musician I would be furious, and I find the industry excuse that “metadata is hard” ridiculous. Librarians know that it is possible to catalog literally anything, even a piece of fruit, in a standard format.

    9 votes
    1. [4]
      RheingoldRiver
      Link Parent
      afaik,* it's more that librarians know that metadata is hard, so they make a lot of compromises on standard format and log things in confusing ways so that everyone is super confused and...

      Librarians know that it is possible to catalog literally anything, even a piece of fruit, in a standard format.

      afaik,* it's more that librarians know that metadata is hard, so they make a lot of compromises on standard format and log things in confusing ways so that everyone is super confused and structured data is a lie, but technically everything is logged, somehow

      *from being super interested in LIS for a year or so and reading a bunch of textbooks for fun

      4 votes
      1. [2]
        blivet
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        My point was that producing a list in a standardized format of who did what on a piece of recorded music is hardly an insurmountable problem. Much greater challenges have already been addressed at...

        My point was that producing a list in a standardized format of who did what on a piece of recorded music is hardly an insurmountable problem. Much greater challenges have already been addressed at least as far back as the 1970s.

        2 votes
        1. RheingoldRiver
          Link Parent
          Agreed, but it's a hard enough problem that you need to care a lot to not give up on it, and I don't think major tech companies care that much, so it's unsurprising to me that they give up.

          Agreed, but it's a hard enough problem that you need to care a lot to not give up on it, and I don't think major tech companies care that much, so it's unsurprising to me that they give up.

          1 vote
  3. Fin
    Link
    imagine doing a trump audio book and expecting to be paid

    imagine doing a trump audio book and expecting to be paid

    1 vote