SINGAPORE – Musician Pan has identified his contribution to a song arrangement that subsequently became a viral trend in Chengdu and Chongqing, noting that he was unaware of the track’s success until recently.
The disconnect between the technical production phase and the eventual audience reach illustrates the structural anonymity often associated with professional studio session work. While the final performance by the lead artist drives public engagement, the session musicians responsible for the arrangement typically operate within a professional framework that prioritizes the delivery of the recording over long-term promotional tracking. That separation is further reinforced by standard recording contracts and work-for-hire practices in many jurisdictions, where rights and publicity are concentrated with labels and featured artists under national copyright statutes such as Singapore’s Copyright Act.
Production Timeline and Viral Discovery
The arrangement for the song was completed in November 2023 as part of a routine studio engagement, with Pan delivering his parts and handing the project back to the production team. One month later, the musician heard Wang perform the piece live, but he still had no indication that the track would later gain traction on Chinese social media platforms.
Pan stated that he only became aware of the song’s viral status through a chance encounter, underscoring how even wildly popular content can circulate for months before the original arrangers realise its scale.
“I was shocked! I didn’t even know it was a thing until a friend and I were chatting on the MRT about Chengdu and Chongqing,”
Pan added, “He showed me the video, and I was like, ‘I played on that!’” The clip, he said, had already accumulated substantial engagement, with users in Sichuan sharing it as a soundtrack to short-form videos referencing the two cities.
Operational Realities of Studio Sessions
The gap between recording and public recognition is a characteristic of the session musician’s professional experience, especially in regional hubs like Singapore that service multiple Asian markets. Pan characterized these sessions as a primary source of employment, which often precludes the systematic tracking of individual song performance in the marketplace.
“There are too many [songs], and studio sessions are our full-time gigs, so, we don’t really keep track of what blows up. But this is one song that really took off,” Pan said.
Industry lawyers note that this structure is not unique to Pan’s case. In most commercial recording environments, producers and labels oversee release schedules, marketing decisions, and downstream licensing, while session players are paid fixed fees and credited – or not – at the discretion of the production. That dynamic has fuelled periodic debates in parliaments and policy circles about equitable remuneration and recognition for non-featured performers, particularly as short-video platforms and algorithmic playlists increasingly determine which tracks break out globally.
Current Professional Engagements
The 32-year-old musician is currently employed as part of the touring ensemble for Singaporean singer Kit Chan. This professional commitment will bring him to Chengdu this month for a scheduled performance, placing him directly in the city where the song he helped shape has become an online trend.
For Pan, the assignment underlines how Singapore’s live music circuit is intertwined with China’s fast-moving digital culture. Cross-border tours in the region are typically coordinated under bilateral cultural and entertainment cooperation frameworks, with touring acts required to comply with venue licensing, work visa and performance permits in each market. In practice, this means session musicians like Pan can find themselves both anonymous on a viral track and highly visible on stage in the very cities that propelled it.
Pan is currently on tour with Kit Chan and is scheduled to perform in Chengdu this month, where he says he hopes to hear the arrangement that first went viral – this time with full awareness of its reach.