I've been a Taxi member for just over 3 years and I remember looking through these posts for inspiration and things to aim for. I feel like I'm getting close to being able to call licensing my living and wanted to share how that's happened with all people here. Hopefully you'll get something out of it!
First off, I live in the middle of (relatively) nowhere in the UK, two hours away from London and with no real publishers/labels nearby to pitch music to, so Taxi listings have been a big focus early on and a big factor in getting placements and deals. I've posted threads on here before about deals/sucesses etc, but 3 years in I know it's not just down to one deal, and in fact the work ethic that is needed to keep writing and pitching is altogether more important (though one doesn't work without the other...).
Patience is a necessary virtue in this biz! I posted some time ago about my first Taxi deal with an exclusive library that signed 17 of my tracks to pitch, mainly for advertising. Nothing happened for months and months after that, but two years later and one of those instrumental cues has been used for adverts for Crate & Barrel, AT&T, Seagate and others. The same company has earned me primetime song placements on European TV (Poland and Germany at least) resulting in a sudden spike in youtube/soundcloud/spotify listens. In license fees alone that company has got me halfway to 5 figures just this year.
I've also signed over 100 tracks to an LA library that sells music mainly to photographers as well as corporate/business uses. They've licensed my music over a hundred times for these private uses. Over the past two years I've sent them more music and have seen their quarterly checks increase greatly, most in 4 figures. They're still fighting to get more placements and I'm still fighting to get them more music!
I think the most important deal I've signed in terms of "lessons learned" has been my most recent. In April 2013 I joined up with a company that pitches to reality TV shows amongst others. They sent out an opportunity to pitch music for a show in a short time frame. I bit the bullet and created them 10 tracks in a two week period, submitted and waited. One of those tracks ended up as a 15 second placement on Catfish Series 2, something I found out when they were asking for material for Series 3. I thought "well if that's how it works..." and buckled down over the next three months to write around 90 cues. I've since found out that amongst those cues I've had 5 placements totalling 2:30-3mins in Catfish Season 3, 2 placements around 2 mins in HBO's VICE, as well as placements in MTV's upcoming One Bad Choice and recent MTV documentary "Nine Days And Nights With Ed Sheeran". Since then I've been working my hardest to keep up 3-5 cues a week, submitting to that same publisher as well as a few others, and I'm optimistic for new placements.
I think it's the last deal that really hit home to me that "if you want the work you have to do the work", as well as the "write, submit, forget, repeat" motif I see around Taxi alot, which is just as true for publishers as it is for Taxi listings.
As well as these I've had music recently placed directly on a feature film for release in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, as well as having 26 songs with a very prominent LA publisher that have pitched relentlessly for major league network, movie and advertising placements. It's all a matter of time...
My "day job" is as a live performer, playing wedding and pub gigs over hear in the UK. Those deals made up nearly a third of my income this year, and I'm still yet to see any of the TV royalties come through, so I'm optimistic that within a year or two I can flip the switch from "performer" to "composer". It's a day I've looked forward to for a long time now and the path seems clear, just keep that work rate up and the results will come.
Looking forward to seeing you guys at the rally, it'll be my first since 2012 so come and say hi! I promise I won't waffle on this much!
I hope this post goes some way to helping those who felt stuck and uncertain as I did a few years ago. Keep learning, do the work, keep focused and have a little faith. It'll work out!Massive thanks to TAXI and all fellow FM's who've helped me along.
