I would welcome some advice.
I am a piano accompanist of very long standing and have been asked by a young singing friend of mine, with whom I have done paid work,although he was not paying me -only the people who booked us.
He is a working person as well as a student and has asked if I will make a CD with him as he is trying to promote himself as a singer. He has said he can only lay out the studio fee but cannot pay me. I am not keen to do this for nothing as I am a professional musician and recording is very time consuming. but don't want to offend him. Can you suggest how I can tactfully tell him this?
Thanks
Barbara

Absolutely not! There's no reason you should do this for nothing. Tell him you don't have time as recording really eats time, and you can't afford to cancel paid work unless it was for better paid work. I wouldn't be too worried about offending him, he obviously didn't take your feelings into account or he wouldn't have considered asking you to do this for nothing.

Maybe you could ask him why he feels your time is of no value.

Projects such as these tend to be a bit open ended and take up an unpredictable amount of time. You could suggest that it would entail turning down paid work and that is really not on.

(edit - sorry - I see dotted quaver has mentioned the point about other paid work too).

You say he's a working person (by which I assume you mean he has a paid job). Can he really not afford to pay you - or is it more accurate to say that he would just rather not pay you if he can avoid it?

If you would be happy to accompany him for a fee, I'd say you'll do it, but not for free. That sort of puts the ball back in his court. Otherwise, simply tell him you can't. After all, would he do his other job for free?

Don't forget, he's presumably come up with this recording venture with the intention of getting paid for work from it, so he should be prepared to make the necessary investment - which includes paying an accompanist.

Completely agree with the others.

Offending him (or not) doesn't come into it.

It is not being rude to say that you can't commit to such a time-consuming project for free.

I've always told my kids that if you ask politely then you can ask any question you like, but there's no guarantee that you'll get an answer, and even less guarantee that you'll get the answer you're looking for.

Simply tell him nicely that you're busy, working, that you wish him luck with his project but that you unfortunately can't help out on a voluntary, unpaid basis.

If you want to do it, and he wants to sell the CD but really can't afford to pay you upfront, then maybe you could take a cut of the profits.

No.
You should explain that accompanying is your job, that you do it in return for money.
If you just give in and do it then you will be at the top of his (and everyone he knows' lists) when he needs a performer for his charity ball, when his mum wants to break into showbusiness, when the school needs a rehearsal pianist etc etc.
Set him a good example and tell him not to work for free. If he wants to be a singer he should take note.

Frankly he's got a nerve. If he can't afford to pay an accompanist, he can't afford the recording. End of.

If it was the other way round and you wanted him to do it for free, what would his reaction be?

Good question !

Put another way - what would he trade with you ?

Thank you all for your advice. I went back to him and said sorry cannot do it for nothing and he asked what my fee would be and when I told him, he said oh that's fine -I thought it would be much more!! There's nought as queer as folk!

I hope you are making enough out of it - he probably has no idea of the amount of work it took you to get to your playing standard, or how long it takes to learn accompaniments, or how stressful recording sessions are for a pianist. I don't work for friends, as they tend to assume they will get it for free or a heavily discounted rate - if this is the case, think up an avoidance strategy for next time!

Well done, excellent result.

I have done the recording -it took 4 hours and I arrived home at 11.15 pm.
Have been paid as well -thank goodness I didn't do it for nothing.
Thanks for your encouragement.

Result!