Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
The library would let you know. I’ve not had one ask. And I wouldn’t worry about stems in RF. But I do think that maybe I should also provide bed versions of my 15-30-60’s.
Well, even with the libraries getting several placements on reality/streaming shows, I can’t imagine that is exactly a cash cow for libraries either. Seems like a lot of work even with several placements to make it worth their while, so we composers are not the only ones taking the hit. Or am I wrong. That said I know where my music sits for now and keep aspiring to hopefully bigger and better things.
Composers who I feel bad for are the guys doing the orchestral type scores that seems to require more planning/time then some minimal rock or tension cues. Beside really trying to make my stuff sound as good as I possibly can (really I do) I am asking myself what can I do within a track that makes it stand out/special.
A few favorites. My best single track so far seemed to be a track originally called Dinosaur Shake which got a ton of plays on the Big Ten Sports network, on the various football and basketball shows.
One gift that keeps on giving on E!Tonight called Runaway Models keeps bringing home the bacon, er, bits.
My first was a Toyota tailgate party track I have never been able to track down, all I know that the library contacted me to let me know the had money for me.
Blue streak has been picked up by every library to date. So has Whiskey For Your Sons, they both seem to consistently land somewhere almost yearly. And both car company , er, returns.
While not garnering a lot placement, I am very hyped on getting almost 60000 streams of a track called Bossa Me on Spotify, courtesy of AS, and between Spotify and RS streams am pushing to get over 100,000.
In general, I have a lot of collaborations with a composer on here – he knows who he is and can identify himself as much if he choose to – that I am very excited to see what they do. I know some of the best music I have out there is in partnership with this gentleman.
I’m not naive so I know it is not going to buy me a new car – or possibly even a car tire but who know – but my 23 year old former self is in here somewhere saying “I knew it!” when I hoped back in the eighties to have song on MTV, in this case a TV show called Catfish.
Maybe not the holy grail, but after going on 5 years, 29 shows, 331 episodes, several RF sales by now and growing…we’ll see where this goes.
Music1234 , I know you are right, BUT as some of us have said, they are best options to date. As in best earners, comparted to NE who aren’t paying up front either.
But yes. good questions and good points. And I’m not arguing for that paradigm by any stretch.
I have no problem with your posts, and I think we all benefit from the experience, and thanks for sharing. I think the conversation took a turn though. If you had a blog, I’d be a subscriber. How far off do you see this return to front end payments, are did it never go away , for some of us at least?
I get it though, the downside of opening tv/film composing to the masses is that there is always a multitude of people who will do for free ( semi pros, like I consider myself), guys with day jobs who will submit for no upfront fees , basically for free and a wing and a prayer, what they used to pay full time professionals up front to do. Is not lost on me. But I am also not convinced that the “gold” is in submitting to a bucket load of Non exclusives either. Been there , done that.
Problem is, even though I’m relatively new in the game, I’ve yet to meet an NE that has even come close to placing/earning what my favorite exclusives have.
Exclusives make the process much simpler for me. YMMV but that has been my reality.
Not that I completely disagree with what you are saying. And given this years dismal results all the way around , I’m giving in until the end of next year before I decide where I want to focus. I’ll still be taking part but time will tell.
I think he referred to them as screening services. I would question the ethics of a library who took a cut of the fees charged. For most of these , let’s call them screening services, who get criticized there would be a number of guys who would argue that they helped them get their foot in the door. That said, they are often tougher critics then the libraries often are. But if , say, I submit to libraries and in general, the libraries accept , one in four of my tracks, but I go to a service with several “opportunities” and only one in ten get forwarded, I would question how well that is working for you if the only reason you are there is to get your foot in the door with libraries who may or may not let you in otherwise. Also , one could argue that their success stores are sometimes overblown , but it would also be incorrect to say these don’t work for anyone.
I was going to say, if your stuff is up to par, libraries will take it. If it is not, paying a submission fee is not going to help you other then to take advantage of feedback and the forums. And do you need to do pay to play to get there. Possibly not. If I had some stuff that was well produced in that first year (and I think I did given that some of these tracks were used frequently since), it was because I got a lot of feedback, from one member in particular. That was where the value was for me , in networking and their forums. The feedback forms they sent back as part of the reviews were nothing I couldn’t have figured out on my own if I were being honest with myself. Rejected tracks there went on to do well. Too subjectve in my opinion , there anyway. If I were to experiment with something else now it would be direct submission to sups.
I know people who started with, i.e., the [removed] company who did fairly well and got a good start. They also did well after leaving. After a couple “forwards” in the first year (submitting maybe a few times a month, at $5 a submission ) on top of the $200 membership fee, I did a second year but didn’t do much in that second year and focused on researching here instead. I got a lot of good feedback and took advantage of the forums, which being pretty much a newbie at my first time doing what I considered “serious” recording work, helped a lot and I made some good friends in the process. There it was libraries more often then not, with some music sups thrown in.
I was actually considering doing the same with some smooth jazz… would be interested in doing the same. I ask myself would it be worth doing to upload to AS for licensing and external distribution…I want to play nice with the external distribution though and not get on there and compete with myself. Maybe put it up on spotify, see how it does, and click off the external distribution down the road? I don’t want to compete having my streams up there competing against the externally distributed tracks.
In this as of yet imaginary world I am picturing down the road, I would have enough smooth blues/ jazz tracks to add musicians and start a band mixed with original music and smooth blues/R and B/ jazz covers . Nothing like that much here in upstate NY…although there may be a reason for that. But it seems as if it would fill a niche.
As for myself, it looks like do the album….take a crack at self promotion while still making it available for NE licensing..just not external distribution right away. Thoughts? This would be a totally indie thing.
Never tried it bit there is a way to do it and not get involved with youtube content id, which historically is where people got themselves into trouble. So maybe the more direct questions is, how do I monetize my music in Youtube videos without getting involved in content id.