Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Film composers on A level films generally kick out 6-8 minutes of music a day – including meetings and phone calls. If they don’t they fall behind and will get fired. And that is “to picture”. The difference – they often have a “team” helping them. Someone to mix, someone to orchestrate.
The trick in writing “professionally” is to successfully split the difference between the “artist” mentality and the “crank it out” mentality. Both are absolutely necessary to reach a truly professional level of achievement.
All that said….in retrospect after having a couple thousand + tracks in my catalog (not counting incalculable film cues), the “complex” over the top time consuming tracks never get used as much as well crafted simpler ones. It might just be the paradigm that I fell into, but it held true with film cues I’ve written to picture as well when I had to interface directly with other composers, directors and producers. We are not here to make artistic statements, but instead to support the story line and picture – and quite often, that requires backing off musically. That may be the hardest lesson to learn…..
Are you guys talking any random complex tracks? Hit up any A level library and listen. If you’re talking MY complex tracks, I prefer to stay anonymous here for the obvious reasons.
Len – it could be a variety of things. From a fully orchestrated hybrid orchestra / rhythm section / heavy percussion, etc. to a country piece with a bunch of acoustic overdubs – Mando, Ac. Gtrs of various types, dobro, slide guitar, electrics, etc..
As an example, the guitarist I normally use for Americana style stuff plays – bass, acoustic, high strung, dobro, Mando, banjo, lead acoustics and electrics, and maybe some other stuff like dulcimer. He generally listens to it once, then plays all the other instruments in an hour to an hour and a half. But he’s a killer reader, and a AAA player with 40+ years professional experience. I DO have to do some editing when he’s moving that fast though….
Bottom line – aside from waiting for musicians – I’ll rarely take longer than a day to write anything. Production times can vary wildly due to musicians and instrumentation. But writing and any ITB production had better be done in a day for me. Or I’m getting behind.
So we’re back to how many tracks a day?? LOL. :). OK
Reality is reality. If you can’t turn out one fairly complex and well mixed track a day, it will be very hard to gain any traction in an industry in decline. Quality is great. It’s a given. It’s a must. But to maintain even status quo due to streaming, global competition, shrinking sync’s, shrinking royalties, AI and a host of other things, you’d better be cranking out the hits. That’s what it takes to survive unless you can consistently hit those $10-20k commercials and/or trailers and have 50% sync sharing. For normal work, you’d better be doing better than a cue a day…. And it had better be top notch.
If you only have a free acc. bmi might behave the same way?
Nope. No go on BMI. Warner Chappell PM can’t even get them to acknowledge the performances. And out of 500+ Tunesat detections, I listened to a substantial portion of them, and they were 100% accurate from what I could tell. I had no “generic” loops. Real instruments, and the detections were very accurate.
and the problem with library music is other composers will use the same loops as you and it will create sooner false positives on Tunesat / Vericast.
True, but it cuts both directions – I’m not really concerned with it. I’m not really sure what good Tunesat is anyway. I’ve got thousands of verified performances on them that BMI won’t pay out on. Probably some cue sheet f up.
Libraries don’t think that way. A decent library will have virtually all forms of music in it. Very, very few specialize in only specific styles. It limits their reach and client potential.
If I’m working to a brief, I do one song at a time. And I TRY to write, mix, edit one to two a day.
If I’m working on a project for my production company, I’ll do fast sketches of 10+ ideas a day, get 20-30 ideas and flesh them out and then go into production on 20-30 songs. Production can take anywhere from one day to 6 months for a song. Depends on what musicians / vocalists I need, their availability, the overall size of a project, and money…. 🙂
Over the last couple of years – between the never ending briefs for shows I write for – I was working mostly on 5 different projects of 20-30 songs apiece – varying styles for each project. I finished all of them before I started mixing. Close to 150 songs. I’m NEVER doing that again. Ever. I’ve only got 35 more songs to mix and edit. And I can’t wait to be done!!
Maybe change the name of this website to “Music Money Report”.
That works for me. Hey Art – do I still get my lifetime subscription?? 🙂
Seriously – everybody has to eat Johnnyboy. And other than the EXTREME difficulty of “making it”, I see no downside to making a living writing music. If you want to be a “soul surfer”, great – but don’t blame the uber-talented professional athletes who get sponsored and become celebrities in their own right in that sport. Being a composer is not really much different. Being a professional by definition means making a living at it – and that requires the ever evil $$$ that you seem to believe corrupts art. Sorry if it sounds harsh, but from my experience, it’s usually sour grapes that bring on that reaction from those who can’t compete…
The most artistic and gifted folks I have ever met have been extremely business savvy, and DO in fact focus on making a living with their art. And the folks I’ve met who despise the corruption of art for the sake of art….eh…they are generally either educators or not that great at the art part of things.
I’m proud to have earned the right to call myself a professional. It was difficult, and yeah, I’m focused on money when I create. But that doesn’t mean I don’t care about the music. And BTW, I earned the right to be called a professional the old fashioned way. If you want to be a hobbyist I say go for it!! Maybe lobby for “Music Hobby Report”.
Oh, and a 100 tracks a day? LOL Exaggerate much?
And yeah, I’d still make music if I had another job that paid my bills. There are occasional days when I do regret taking a music career over another path. With the same skills I’ve put into my art, if I put them into virtually any other “real” business I’d be living on an island in the pacific by now. Only a fool goes into music for the money.
Rident is in the US (where I’m located), I had other composers recommend them, they were very responsive. That did it.
Of course, you are dead on correct.
You’ve got people / organizations who push and push and push to try to keep things “like they used to be”. Then you’ve got others who push towards the future – people / organizations who “get it”. The PMA and PRO’s are in the first camp. Aaaannnnnnd….there’s pretty much no one in the second camp – at least no one who can effectuate change. Until the powers that be fall into the second camp (most likely kicking and screaming) the big money will not be flowing to composers.
I DO get BMI payments from Youtube (millions of streams a year), but as you well know, ANY digital streaming performance royalties are incredibly low and obviously far out of balance to even the most casual observer. Coincidence? Everyone can decide for themselves.
IMO, the whole paradigm of performance royalties as anything other than pennies that might pay for lunch is slipping quickly into the morass as media moves AWAY from traditional broadcasting and towards youtube, Spotify, etc.. All of which employ business models that they claim are not sustainable for themselves, much less for composers. Haha! Right!
Until the PRO’s get better contracts with the new tech companies, we will be getting less and less and less. I can absolutely quantify it as more and more of my shows move out of cable/network over to streaming. Ridiculous. And BMI? They won’t even return a phone call right now.
Glad you got a nice payment from Germany!! Maybe overseas will be the piece of the puzzle that holds us together and allows us to live at poverty level instead of going completely bankrupt. 🙂
I recently signed with Rident as well. Too early to tell anything. And yeah, 15% is their take. I believe NRG is 15% as well.
Congrats m1234!! But if I had 1000 episodes on line and got paid $330, I’d STILL be screaming. That’s insane…. Hope it continues for you and wasn’t just a “please shut up now” payment.
Be glad that ASCAP is hearing you. I can’t even get BMI to acknowledge I exist or return a phone call after 4 months now….
I always check their IMDb listings to see what they are REALLY all about. He’s not even listed. Not any credits. Unless he writes under another name.
You can get free info from others around here who have hundreds of series airing, and thousands of actual placements – or you can pay someone with zero IMDb presence. Your choice. Best of luck.