Crucial Music
| If you are a composer and/or songwriter, please leave your comments and experiences with this company. We want to hear the good as well as the bad! Please rate, from 1 to 10, by clicking on one of the stars. Below is some general information but we make no guarantee of accuracy. Check with the company for all details. Please contact us for any corrections. | ||
| URL: | http://www.crucialmusic.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Accepting Submissions: | Yes | |
| Submit Via Uploads: | Yes | |
| Submit Via Mail: | No | |
| Submissions Reviewed: | Yes | |
| Types Accepted: |
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| Charge For Submissions: | No | |
| Up Front Money: | ||
| Royalty Free: (non-broadcast use) |
No | |
| Exclusivity: (Exclusive, Non, Semi) (Semi = Free to place on own but not with another library) |
Non-Exclusive | |
| Re-Title: | Yes | |
| Set Own Price: | No | |
| Contract Length: | 3 Years | |
| Payment Schedule: | ||
| License Fee Split: (writer/library) |
50/50 | |
| PRO Split Based on 100%: (writer/library writer/library/publisher or writer) |
100/0 | |
| Requires Licensee To File Cue Sheet: | Yes | |
| Notes: | ||
Crucial Music’s system can be finicky when uploading. Scroll down to April 14, 2010 comments for various solutions.
Categories: Music Libraries C to D | 
Tags: composer, crucial music, music, songwriter | 
171 Comments »
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Well looks like I have my first track accepted into Crucial,Gotta say I’m pretty happy
knowing the rejection % runs high.I have only submiited 4 tracks so batting 1 for 4 feels good right now.
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Alex, April 1st, 2010 at 9:33 pm Reply:
Nice work. That’s about what I’m batting too. I think I’m 3 for 10, but I got a placement within the first few months so I’m feeling pretty good about them.
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Anonymous, April 2nd, 2010 at 12:03 am Reply:
I submitted to them over 3 weeks ago and have still heard nothing .
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darkstar, April 2nd, 2010 at 1:01 am Reply:
Submitted some more song based material ( as opposed to instrumentals ), took about 8 weeks for the rejection to come through
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First 2 songs sent to them were accepted (forwards from Taxi) Everything since has been nixed. Tried several different genres including acoustic, instrumental, Jerry Lee Lewis sound-alike and even a couple of Polkas, which ended up getting signed elsewhere. Wish they’d send a sentence or 2 as to why…i.e. not looking for that genre/not recorded well enough/drums too loud…anything…throw us a bone here!
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I just got one instrumental track accepted out of three. First time submission so by all accounts, a good result.
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Hello, is anyone willing to share links to their accepted tracks so we all can listen and try to find some rhyme or reason to the process?
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Art, April 2nd, 2010 at 9:45 am Reply:
Here’s a link to a cue they accepted of mine Salsa Toluca. Took me about 13 tracks to get one accepted.
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Frank, April 2nd, 2010 at 11:05 am Reply:
That’s not likely to help. I’ve been very successful with Crucial and have over 40 tracks there. But I’ve submitted many tracks similar to what was accepted and had them rejected. And have had many tracks accepted that I never thought would make the cut. It’s all a gut reaction on their part and there’s no telling what causes them to make those decisions.
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Harry, April 2nd, 2010 at 5:40 pm Reply:
I agree…the first 2 tracks they accepted were PD Xmas songs played with medieval /renaissance type instruments/feel…I then sent 2 more tracks from that CD and no dice…I’m assuming 2 tracks of that type of music was enough for them…don’t know what else to think!
Btw, that was a few years ago, and no placements to date…
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Art, April 2nd, 2010 at 6:09 pm Reply:
Hi Harry,
Check out Pump Audio on this site. Lots of comments about them.
Art
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Andrew Aversa, April 13th, 2010 at 10:19 pm Reply:
Sure, here’s a track, “Warhead”. Been very successful with this one, both in Crucial and elsewhere. They haven’t accepted anything else by me though (subbed about 8-9 others.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFjRpwf3AFY
Still, I love them. One of the best music libraries I’ve ever worked with.
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darkstar, April 14th, 2010 at 6:59 am Reply:
Very nice track – just another 200 or so like that and you’ll have quite the pension fund
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Dan, April 14th, 2010 at 8:08 am Reply:
I got this track accepted a few months back (1 of 6 to date) http://www.youlicense.com/SongDetails.aspx?ID=189123
I did get an email asking for more of the same – this track is a little different from the other stuff I submitted but I think generally they’re at a point where they’re not going to take music that’s similar to what they’ve got unless it really is top notch. As others have said, this track has made me less money than tracks they’ve rejected but that doesn’t mean that all rejected tracks aren’t good in their own right.
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They refused a track that is accepted on all the other libraries I have music with (including Yooka !!!) and is my best selling son on itunes. What does that tell you ? I will answer – They don’t know much about music.
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Anonymous, April 8th, 2010 at 4:32 am Reply:
Crucial tends to sign songs they need at the moment. You can have a great song, but if they don’t have a need for it right away, they’ll pass. That doesn’t mean they don’t know about music, it means they just don’t sign stuff up just to store in their catalog. Smart business IMO.
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John (the other John), April 8th, 2010 at 4:35 am Reply:
“What does that tell you ?” – Anon
They’re more selective than the other libraries.
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Anonymous, April 8th, 2010 at 9:50 am Reply:
Selective isn’t the word I would use. Good Feedback and 5 star ratings from buyers on itunes etc is my gauge thank you very much (the other John).
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Anonymous, April 8th, 2010 at 9:53 am Reply:
More selective than Yooka ? Yooka are very selective indeed.
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John, April 8th, 2010 at 10:26 am Reply:
Apparently they are.
I’m not necessarily saying they’re more selective in quality. They may be more selective in the style / genre. Maybe they have enough of your kind of tracks in their library and are looking for something different.
I remember once that a library turned down a piano/string track of mine, because they said there was already enough of them in their library.
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Anonymous, April 8th, 2010 at 12:50 pm Reply:
I take your point and perhaps I was being too defensive. I will have to approach them from another angle and select stuff they may find “Licensable”
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Alex, April 8th, 2010 at 10:58 am Reply:
From my experience, Yooka is not very selective. I have never had a track rejected by Yooka. It seems like Yooka will take any track with decent production quality. I have had tracks rejected by Crucial, but I don’t think it’s because they were necessarily any worse than the ones that were accepted.
I think Crucial knows their clients and has a good sense of what will work for their business strategy and they accept tracks based on that.
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guscave, April 8th, 2010 at 11:09 am Reply:
I’ve found Yooka to be quite selective (not as much as Crucial). I’ve only been able to get my guitar based songs accepted, while most of my dance & electronica music has been rejected. Although my dance songs have generated more income through other libraries than anything else.
In all I think if you can get your music into Crucial you’ll have a good shot at a good placement. They have a very effective track record.
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Alan, May 17th, 2010 at 4:52 pm Reply:
Crucial accepted two of mine that Yooka rejected. LOL
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Frank, April 8th, 2010 at 8:55 am Reply:
Take a look at Crucial’s very long list of high profile credits and compare that to the other libraries that have your music. That should indicate that not only does Tanvi know music, but she knows how to exploit those tracks in this extremely competitive marketplace.
Crucial tends to limit its catalog but aggressively promotes every track for maximum placements and income. Better that than the libraries who accept a boatload of material to fill their pipeline, then have it sit there collecting dust or getting tiny, obscure placements that pay very small dollars. I’m not putting down other libraries – just saying that Crucial marches to a different drummer and their business model is extremely effective.
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Anonymous, April 8th, 2010 at 9:52 am Reply:
Funny, someone above posted that they have had music accepted that has been there years but NO placements.
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Frank, April 8th, 2010 at 10:40 am Reply:
Yes, but some tracks take years to get a placement. My first placement in the business took almost 5 years with a busy, high profile library (not Crucial). And some tracks will never see the light of day no matter how hard a company pushes it. It’s not necessarily the company’s fault – some tracks just never find a fit.
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RT @MusicLibraryRpt: New Comment: Crucial tends to sign songs they need at the moment. You can have a great song, but if they don’t have …
via Twitoaster
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I’ve submitted about 40 songs (all with vocals) to Crucial Music and only one has been accepted. On the other hand I’ve never had a song rejected by Yooka. So, Crucial is much more selective. Crucial is incredibly selective, almost to the point of madness. But that one song that got accepted sure did feel good.
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Anonymous, April 8th, 2010 at 12:48 pm Reply:
And did it earn you any placements ?
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Cruicial is highly selective and that’s what makes them successful. They only take tracks that the team has good confidence in as far as placement potential. They aren’t in a catalog building mode just for the sake of it. I’ve never had a song accepted (about 0 fer 8 or so) yet but that’s all part of the business.
No guarantees ever but if you get a song signed with Crucial your odds of placement are higher than with many libraries out there. But remember, higher odds in a long odds game doesn’t change the fact that it’s tough. A song can be in any library for 5 years or even forever and never get placed.
One day, I’ll get a song in their catalog!
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Anonymous, April 9th, 2010 at 1:33 am Reply:
Sounds like library music is really quite non productive as all I keep hearing is “May never get placed” or “takes 5 years and that’s when you have gone through the mill if your lucky” and so on. Surely there are millions of placements every day round the world and more network channels than ever so there is more demand than ever. As much as I dislike them, Pump audio have me placements every statement.
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anon, April 9th, 2010 at 4:54 am Reply:
Hi
I wouldn’t agree at all that it is non-productive. Those who are successful tend to put a great many tracks in a variety of libraries– building up to hundreds of tracks. With the odds of any one track getting placed are small, it’s a numbers game. A (weak) analogy would be buying 100 lottery tickets instead of one. Even though it’s still hard, you’ve multiplied your chances by 100. I hate the lottery analogy because (1) music isn’t all random chance, quality and marketability factors mean alot and (2) with a lottery ticket you might be cutting the odds from 100 million: 1 to one million:1 and I wouldn’t put the odds of placement quite as dismal.
Congrats on the Pump Audio placements. This is actually a good example. Some people have had tracks with them for years and no placements while others have a steady stream. I think, for example, you have 10 tracks with Pump, imagine 10-20 tracks in each of 10 more libraries.
Back to whether or not it is productive… It also depends on your goals. For example… Are you artist looking for a label deal using film/TV music as an interim step or way to make some side pocket cash? Are you interested in film/TV composing as a full time gig or source of steady part time income?
I don’t think anything significant in the music biz gets accomplished without thinking long term planning, 3-5 years minimum…
Just my humble thoughts this morning…
Good luck!
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darkstar, April 9th, 2010 at 5:05 am Reply:
No I wouldn’t say non-productive either, it can be very lucrative. It is however a long hard slog and frankly the way the goal-posts keep shifting it can also be very precarious. But yes, long term with a few hundred tracks placed in well performing libraries, with on time PRO collection, it is a viable full time gig.
Which is nice
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It says that they do re-title but PRO Split is 100/0…
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Anony, April 12th, 2010 at 4:32 pm Reply:
They keep 100% of the Publisher’s share. You always get the Writer’s share.
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Anyone having trouble uploading to Crucial Music? I’ve uploaded a number of tunes in the past without problems but now always get an error. Tried Firefox 3.5, IE8 and Safari. Also re-rendered the MP3 file, deleted all cookies and turned off Zone Alarm (firewall). Someone else said they had this problem. Any clues anyone?
Thanks
Art
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Dp, April 15th, 2010 at 12:22 pm Reply:
Yep,I did.I ended up being able to upload using a pc instead of mac.
I dont know if that will help as Ryan said there has been ghosts and some are having problems uploading regardless of computer!Good Luck!Switch, restart…whatever it takes,just adds more time into the process,damn it I …… when that happens…..
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Denis W, April 15th, 2010 at 3:25 pm Reply:
I can only upload using Safari/Leopard not Safari/Tiger on Mac . Go figure. Definitely something weird at their end I think.
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Art, April 15th, 2010 at 4:34 pm Reply:
Just installed Google Chrome and I was finally able to upload. Go figure! I’m on a PC, WinXP SP3.
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bprice, April 26th, 2010 at 3:59 pm Reply:
I had (have) trouble uploading on a Mac using Firefox/3.0.10 on Tiger 10.4.11
but it uploads(most times) on Safari 3.1.2.Is there a way to put that in the info for future uploaders.
BP
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Art, April 26th, 2010 at 4:49 pm Reply:
Not easily as there seems to be different solutions for different people but I will put a note for folks to look through the comments.
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My song, ‘SO WHAT DO YOU SAY” from my “DREAMS ARE MEANT FOR TWO” album, has just been placed by Crucial in NBC-TV’s Primetime show, “PARENTHOOD” for their episode “Perchance To Dream” airing on Tuesday (tomorrow !!) April 27, at 10 PM Eastern and 9PM Central time.!!!!!!
You can preview the song at pjparker.net, listen to more, and even purchase directly at the website!
HOPE YOU’LL WATCH! Thanks- PJ Parker
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Denis W, April 26th, 2010 at 3:01 pm Reply:
Well done. I live on the other side of the planet but good work!!!!
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Good people.
David
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Just had track accepted. Yipeeeee
I have to send it on a CD though, no uploading 
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I got one rejection e-mail from my 1st submission and was waiting on the other two.They never arrived so I checked my account which said accepted for the other two. I haven’t received any e-mails on the acepted tracks, is that normal? How were you contacted on the accepts?
Thanks.
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Denis W, May 12th, 2010 at 2:15 pm Reply:
It can take a couple of days to get the email either way, I would say if it says accepted on the site then that is correct. Well done
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Alan, May 13th, 2010 at 8:29 pm Reply:
Thanks. Based on what I’ve read, I was (still am) shocked to be accepted. Though still no official notification, we’ll see…
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Here’s a link to an interview with Crucial’s CEO
http://musiciancoaching.com/executive-interviews/how-to-license-music/
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Anonymous, May 17th, 2010 at 3:07 pm Reply:
Very interesting on what he says about submitting same songs to various libraries
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Alan, May 17th, 2010 at 4:48 pm Reply:
Yes, I agree, and it has put my mind at ease too. I’ve been snooping through several libraries and noticed some composers give the same song different titles for different libraries. I have used one title per song for all my submissions so far and wondered if I shouldn’t. I do wonder what would happen if the same tune got pitched from two different sources with (a) the same title or (b) different titles? It suppose it shouldn’t matter, and I think the odds for that would be astronomical anyway.
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Anonymous, May 30th, 2010 at 12:33 pm Reply:
she!! Tanvi Patel is a woman
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1 out of 15 tracks success is ridiculous. They are turning away unique stuff that others have taken. Funny enough when i listened to some of their music on the site it seemed mainly cheesy hip hop (a genre I hate) which seems to be a safe option for most libraries. Makes me feel better as to me nothing stands out as amazing.
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Tom, June 1st, 2010 at 12:20 pm Reply:
I have to say I agree with Anonymous above – I think that Crucial are only taking music that they know that they can place in a relatively short time frame. The problem with this mass rejection though, is the cut throat attitude to licensing puts off many people who have the potential to get their music/songs placed in TV/Film but are really put off by the amount of rejections they’ve had.
From my experience, if anyone (like me) is out there and questioning their ability – don’t give up – keep improving your craft and don’t put all your eggs in one basket (ie don’t concentrate just on one music library/placement co.)
Persistence pays in this business, as does patience.
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a-non, June 2nd, 2010 at 6:43 am Reply:
I don’t think it’s fair to call what they do ridiculous. They have a system that makes them successful. The objective is to get placements and make money and by accepting only tracks that they feel will catch a music sup’s interest in the first 30 seconds, they are doing well. Some libraries do more catalog building that others. Crucial likes to work a small number of tracks that they have high confidence in. Libraries have diffferent models.
I’ve never had a track accepted by Crucial including many that have been accepted elsewhere. It’s just part of the business. I figure if I ever DO get one accepted, I’ll know I have something extra special.
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Yes they are very picky. But, they do get great placements for the tracks they accept. I have about 12 songs with them and so far 5 placements on network primetime television shows. With them the issue is quality not quantity with songs and with placements.
With them I am also confident that they are shopping out the songs where applicable.
Just recently a song of mine was rejected by Crucial, one week after it had just aired on a network show placed by another company, just the way it goes I guess
All my tracks are with female vocals in the pop rock, pop punk, pop alternative catagories.
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Anonymous, June 2nd, 2010 at 8:34 am Reply:
What type of music have you had accepted?
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blastbeet, June 2nd, 2010 at 8:38 am Reply:
All my tracks are with female vocals in the pop rock, pop punk, pop alternative catagories.
cheers
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Anonymous, June 2nd, 2010 at 9:19 am Reply:
I do think that they are probably much more interested in vocal songs than instrumentals.
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Denis W, June 2nd, 2010 at 9:25 am Reply:
I have submitted all instrumentals and have had 1 accepted out of 8 submissions
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blastbeet, June 2nd, 2010 at 9:34 am Reply:
I always submit an instrumental after my song has been accepted by crucial. They have been used, along with the vocal version.
my three favourite libraries for instrumentals only are Scorekeepers, Music Kitchen and Pump. They all consistently get plenty of back-end only placements.
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Alex, June 2nd, 2010 at 10:21 am Reply:
I have submitted 8 or 9 tracks and have had 4 accepted. They are all instrumentals.
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Anon, June 14th, 2010 at 10:02 am Reply:
4 out of 10 accepted, all instrumentals
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Emmett Cooke, June 14th, 2010 at 10:45 am Reply:
1 out of 7 accepted so far lol
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Anonymous, June 17th, 2010 at 2:46 pm Reply:
Well I am sick of them rejecting very good quality instrumental music. Out of almost 20 they have taken 1. Other high quality libraries have taken my music, as well as one publisher who has been at the top of the music business for over 30 years. He has taken my music and looks like it will be placed in movies. My music on itunes gets 5 star reviews so all these other folks can’t be wrong.
I have listened to the “quality” of crucials catalogue and quite frankly, nothing stands out to me as quality. It seems to be hip hop, hip hop and more hip hop. Same as Pump really.
Their loss I suppose.
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Alex, June 17th, 2010 at 9:29 pm Reply:
Music is subjective!
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Sonic Psyops, June 29th, 2010 at 4:11 pm Reply:
It could very well be that after the screener listened to your “very good quality instrumental music” that they said, “Wow! these are some kick ass tracks!” They then went right over to itunes and purchased the downloads for the tracks they just heard (your tracks) and THEN they sent you the rejection email.
If you’re not recording what they’re placing then they don’t have a need for your music. Thus they’ll pass on it.
However, it would be nice if they could announce on their submission page something to the effect of, “Currently, we are only looking for Hip Hop-Polka fusion pieces. All others need not submit. Check back later.” I guess they’re afraid they won’t get any submissions if they do that. Considering how dynamic this industry is it seems rather odd that they wouldn’t want to at least have some sort of diverse library for that unusual request that comes in.
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panda, July 10th, 2010 at 9:35 am Reply:
To Anonymous…
You have to get over yourself, you sound to have a very blinkered view. (If your music is sooo good where are your links, Anonymous!)
People who buy your tunes from iTunes will probably bother to rate it and those who dont buy wont bother, hence a good star rating and not a good guage of how good you are.
Finding the right home for your own music is an ongoing thing and takes time, but you will eventually click with a library if you keep searching.
If they want “cheesy hip hop” then why are you bothered you didnt get in, you obviously dont write hip hip (cant stand the stuff myself – in my opinion half of it is cleche, cheap sounding and uninspired)
Two years on from now you probably wont think what you are writing at present is so great because you will have hopefully improved so pull your head our your arse – there a lot of great music out there and a million songwriters.
If you are failing you are simply going to the wrong places (or your music is crap) its up to you to start being honest with yourself and stop being angry – dont you think..
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Anonymous, July 12th, 2010 at 4:44 am Reply:
That’s it, my music must be C**p. Thanks for pointing that out and for your crude analogy.
“A good star rating is not how good you are ”
So all the poor reviews are the ones to go for ? I have never read such tripe LOL.
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Anonymous, June 17th, 2010 at 2:50 pm Reply:
“Quality”, are you sure ? From what I have head it isn’t anything special. Safe and typicaly US cheese.
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Christian, June 17th, 2010 at 4:26 pm Reply:
WOW… so are you referencing all US music as cheese???
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My cheesy US music didn’t get accepted, I guess it wasn’t cheesy enough. All kidding aside, I don’t take offense at all about getting rejected by them. I’ll probably try again in the near future.
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the same week they rejected three of my tracks they also placed me in the debut of “Pretty Little Liars” so I can’t complain!!!
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No point trying anymore. They just keep rejecting good work. Pearls before swine springs to mind.
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John (the other John), June 26th, 2010 at 2:26 pm Reply:
I appreciate them not accepting anything of mine they don’t think they can sell. Better than some libraries that accept almost anything, then bury them forever in their library graveyard.
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They now have a “pitching history” on their site. Once you get a song accepted (could take a while, but they are picky for a reason…they want top quality songs that sound good) you can see the places they have pitched your music to. This is a new feature and quite frankly I was very impressed with the amount and hi-bar level of the pitches they have done for my music. They are working hard to get the placements I’ve had. And these placements pay very well. As we know other libaries take pretty much anything and the best they can do pays pennies. This is not the case with crucial. I would say to the people who constantly get rejected by them to go listen to the tracks in their catalog under the catagory that fits your style. Be honest and compare yourself to the tracks there. Think your better? You may be right so keep on writing and keep on submitting. I have had more tracks rejected than accepted, tracks that have made me money elsewhere, but I know that the tracks they have are being shopped properly to pitches that are worth it.
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Anonymous, June 28th, 2010 at 10:41 am Reply:
THAT is a pretty cool feature. Thanks for posting this. I just checked out my pitching history and was pleased to see that not only are the projects hi-bar, but they started actively pitching my track IMMEDIATELY after the contract was signed. I really don’t think you can say that for every library out there.
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Alex, June 28th, 2010 at 11:39 am Reply:
Wow that’s an awesome feature. Go Crucial.
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Anonymous, June 29th, 2010 at 3:23 pm Reply:
Yes but when I listen to their selection I can honestly say the music quality isn’t any better than Yooka, Jinglepunks and the rest of the cheaper libraries who have taken all my music. Sorry but I am not convinced that it’s that good. having said that, if the placements and money are high end it will be worth it.
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I’m with music dealers and yooka. Recently uploaded 3 tracks to crucial. 2 were rejected but one was accepted. I’m happy with that for a first attempt with them.
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I have had four placements with them on TNT and NBC. Two recent ones. They are ok by me.
David
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I’ve noticed that Crucial requires you to fill out your song’s metadata before you actualy submit. This leads me to wonder how many of our songs are they actually listening to. It makes a whole lot of sense really if you think about how many songs they receive on a given day. You submit a song. The first thing the screener sees is the song’s metadata. Maybe they prioritize their needs and say OK we really really need Hip Hop, we really need Dance, We need Orchestral, we kinda need Singer/Songwriter, and we could use a few Country cuts. We have enough Trance, Pop, Instrumental Jazz and we definately don’t need Rn’B, Polka or quirky Children’s stuff. The screener looks at your well recorded, well produced, brilliantly written #1 hit song’s metadata and, right off the bat, notices you listed it in the Pop genre. We don’t need Pop. Reject. Next track. I’m sure a lot of this is going on.
I wonder what would happen if you were to keep submitting the same rejected song over and over. Say once a week? Cut and paste the song’s metadata in a document on your computer and just keep submitting it. These libraries play their games so we composers certainly can play ours.
But than again maybe I’m right.
BTW Art, great site, thank you so much.
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I think it’s more of an extra hoop that they make composers jump through to weed out the people who can’t be bothered to fill out their metadata. Kind of like what Van Halen did with their “no brown m&ms ” trick. If a promoter wasn’t detail oriented enough to remove all brown m&ms from the Van Halen dressing room candy jar, how could the promoter be trusted to deliver a safe stage/stadium set up for thousands of people…
If a composer can’t be bothered to submit metadata, or if a composer cannot submit CORRECT metadata, they don’t deserve to have their music listened to by anyone, let alone a music supervisor.
Go ahead and try to “play games” with these libraries and see how far it gets you, at best it gets you on permanent ignore by the libraries, at worst it gets you sued by a large network. Good luck.
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Sonic Psyops, June 30th, 2010 at 5:32 pm Reply:
No I don’t think so. If I took days/weeks/months to write and record the song why would 10 or 15 minutes time spent writing up metadata bother me? They do that so that they can pre-screen the submission before even listening to it so that they don’t have to listen to it if they know they don’t have a need for it. Time is money. At least that’s my best educated guess.
“Go ahead and try to “play games” with these libraries and see how far it gets you, at best it gets you on permanent ignore by the libraries, at worst it gets you sued by a large network. Good luck.”
Well the way I see it. They can’t have just one guy doing all of the screening right? So if you were to just resubmit a rejected song maybe the next screener will feel differently than the one who rejected you. If 1 out of 100 screeners feels that your music is good enough to be in their library then your music is good enough to be in their library. …Or, perhaps they don’t need your music today but they might tomorrow or next week or next year. You never know. If they have a problem with that… Simply stop accepting submissions over the Internet. I don’t see it as a litigious issue or one of being black listed. It’s just business.
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a-non, June 30th, 2010 at 5:51 pm Reply:
Knowing the tags for your music- mood, genre, sound-like, etc is part of being in this biz. The better a song is tagged, the easier to place. Sometimes we write music that is hard to clasify as far as sound-like. Truth is those tunes are also much harder to get in film/TV.
In no way do I think Crucial does anything to juts make people jump through hoops. It’s a business and as with any business, it’s about the bottom line. What matters about a submission is whether or not they feel they can license it, period & end of story. Might they give less preference to submissions with meta data not well filled out? Possibly, I don’t know. But I wouldn’t blame them. It’s a lot of work screening all those submissions. Is it possible that re-submitting the same song could get it accepted? Also possible. People are human and their needs change with time. I wouldn’t recommend playing games and doing much of that.
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Yall can go to GarageBand to trash each others tunes if that’s what you are into. I don’t think this site is for criticizing other musicians. Learn to support other musicians even if they don’t rate as high as your expectations. It’s a big world full of all kinds of stuff not like yours. Enjoy.
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Denis W, July 12th, 2010 at 8:48 am Reply:
Well said Steve. In our game there is no good or bad music, just music that someone wants to license on a particular day. Even in a much broader sense I never criticize any one else’s music, I have a volume knob that I use for that if I dont like something.
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Art, July 12th, 2010 at 9:00 am Reply:
So true. I’ve never felt qualified to criticize anyone’s music. There’s a place for all of it, just depends on the situation. I’m amazed when I listen to some of my older stuff that I don’t consider my best work yet it shows up on TV shows all the time. In some cases major networks.
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Bobby Cole, July 12th, 2010 at 10:55 am Reply:
Yes I agree. I recently sold what I consider to be my worst track for the most amount of money that I have ever made on a single sale!!
Also to give you guys a heads up on Crucial, had an email back today that said 99% of the stuff that they accept is with vocals.
Something to think about…!
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Denis W, July 12th, 2010 at 11:18 am Reply:
Thanks for the heads up Bobby, I sussed that by checking their portfolio. I got an instrumental accepted the first time I submitted, I thought “this is easy” since then 8 more submissions and nada. The way of the world I guess. Like you, my best selling track is one that I consider to be average at best, but it keeps selling, if I had 20 of them I could make a very good living.
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Frank, July 12th, 2010 at 4:26 pm Reply:
“Also to give you guys a heads up on Crucial, had an email back today that said 99% of the stuff that they accept is with vocals.”
That doesn’t seem right. I’ve had close to 50 tracks accepted by them recently, in several genres, and none were vocals. They do a lot with instrumentals.
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Bobby Cole, July 13th, 2010 at 6:21 am Reply:
OK, that is also helpful. That was just the email that I got from Crucial.
Will keep trying!!! Have submitted around 5 songs with no luck so far!
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I think I submitted two songs and was rejected both times. I’m not very good with rejection, so I stopped submitting, but after reading that I’m not the only one, perhaps I’ll keep trying. I heard some of the songs they accepted on their website, and some of them were not the quality I’d expect from someone who rejects so severely. It was a little exhausting trying to figure out what they are looking for.. much easier to create when you’re not digging in the dark. But thanks for the posts.. I’ll try again.
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Emmett Cooke, July 12th, 2010 at 2:58 pm Reply:
I’ve submitted 8 and only had one accepted so far – wouldn’t take it too badly
I think they really go for songs that hit them within the first 5 seconds – if they only start after 10 seconds, they don’t want them – thats just guessing now – I can’t be sure though
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Denis W, July 12th, 2010 at 3:52 pm Reply:
@Lea. It has nothing to do with your music, its what the perceive they can sell on any particular day. If a call comes for “Armenian Emo music” and you happen to submit that, your in. It really is a simple as that. Dont take rejection too seriously. I took a listen to your music, its really good, keep trying is the key. Good luck.
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mattgreermusic, July 23rd, 2010 at 10:42 am Reply:
Perhaps this is just me, but if I am creating with only the goal to get placements and make music that I think they are looking for, my art suffers drastically. I get placements from the songs that were written for myself and with the most passion. Different debate altogether I guess but that’s the way I feel about it.
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John (the other John), July 23rd, 2010 at 10:55 am Reply:
I’m with you mattgreermusic! I’ll never get into “assembly line” music. Composing is a passion with me and I want to keep it that way.
That being said; if a film producer wants me to score his film, I’ll do it – but in my own way. If he likes it, great. If he has suggestions – fine. If he wants a different mood for a scene – willing to oblige. If he wants music just like so-and-so – then get so-and-so to do it.
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Does anyone know how long it takes to get the paperwork from Crucial? I got one email saying a song was denied and then today I went to the site to check on the others I submitted and two were accepted. I didn’t get an email from them saying they were accepted, but it was listed on the site. I just wasn’t sure how long it took to get the contract.
Thanks.
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Maddy, July 26th, 2010 at 11:51 am Reply:
Thanks Emmett! Really appreciate the info! I had trouble uploading to the site and went back and forth with them several times so I just wanted to make sure everything is good. Do you have any experience with Crucial?
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Emmett Cooke, July 26th, 2010 at 12:18 pm Reply:
No experience yet to be honest – only got a track accepted to their catalogue about a month ago and nothing happening yet – not bothered as it will take a long time
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Took me 2 weeks to receive my paper work
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I have one track signed with Crucial (a hip hop song with vocals). I signed it sometime in March and I just got my first placement with them this week, which will be this Wednesday, July 28th on “Plain Jane” on the CW. Four months is a pretty short time between signing and placement IMO, especially for a song with vocals.
They definitely get 2 thumbs up from me.
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Steve, that’s great news! I’m just diving into this world of music placements and have been trying to do as much research as possible.This seems like such a great site! Congrats on your placement!
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I had a song on Saving Grace this summer…got one coming up on NBC Sports ..through Crucial. Nice people.
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