11 forwards... what now?

[AaronTrew]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie, joined in October and in the last 5 months I've submitted 68 songs/cues and received 11 forwards.

Can you experienced composers tell me:

- How do companies/labels/music supervisors contact you? I'm in Australia and am worried about missing calls.
- What is your strike rate for hearing back on your forwards? Of the 11, none have called/emailed.
- Have you made back your membership/pitching expenses? Here in Australia it turns out to be an expensive deal...

On todays exchange rates:
$7.30 per song + $426 membership.
So far I've spent $489.60 pitching songs on top of $426 for membership.
Total TAXI fees are $915.60. Not including studio fees or session musician costs!

- I've convinced one of my friends to join, would Taxi ever reduce the following years membership fees for when we do this? I could probably get 2 or 3 more composers but It's hard for me to recommend the service with no results.

Thanks for reading!
Cheers Az.

[hummingbird]

Hi Aaron, nice to meet you

- How do companies/labels/music supervisors contact you? I'm in Australia and am worried about missing calls.
.... almost always by email.

- What is your strike rate for hearing back on your forwards? Of the 11, none have called/emailed
... it's early days yet, no one can really say whether you will be contacted or not. You made it through the first audition, which, believe me, is not easy. After that the listing party will put the tracks through additional screening until the final track(s) are chosen. So you could hear next week or next month or next year or never. This is why our mantra here is 'write, submit, forget, repeat'

- Have you made back your membership/pitching expenses? Here in Australia it turns out to be an expensive deal...
On todays exchange rates:
$7.30 per song + $426 membership.
So far I've spent $489.60 pitching songs on top of $426 for membership.
Total TAXI fees are $915.60. Not including studio fees or session musician costs!

... I'm in Canada so a renewal of $199US is $265 to me and each submission is $7. Your renewal would be about the same in Aussie dollars. Serious money, in any case.
... If you have made 65 submissions and have 11 forwards, I wonder if you need to work on targeting the listings better? What kind of feedback are you getting from screeners? Have you used Peer to Peer here on the forum to help you sort out how to improve your forward ratio? Are you watching TAXItv, that is a very helpful resource as well.

- I've convinced one of my friends to join, would Taxi ever reduce the following years membership fees for when we do this? I could probably get 2 or 3 more composers but It's hard for me to recommend the service with no results.
... I'd speak to TAXI about this but if I remember correctly, a member who recommends TAXI to a new person receives a discount on their next renewal.

In terms of 'getting results' - the irritating truth of it is that this is a very slow business. For example, I just signed a track last week to a library for a specific call for music they had. The next step is for them to pitch my track and the others accepted by the library, to the producers of the show(s). The producers go through their screening process. My track gets registered at my PRO. Assuming that my track is actually one of the ones getting placed, I might receive my share of the sync fee in about 6 months, as that's how often my library pays out. And the royalties for broadcast... I will start seeing sometime next year.

Some people get contacted within a few weeks of a forward, some months later, some even after a couple of years. And some forwards do not end with any contact at all. Whether TAXI is a good fit for your business plan is a decision only you can make.

You might find this a good read:
http://forums.taxi.com/topic134296.html

cheers
H'bird

[FMstereo]

Hi Az

Congrats on all the forwards you've got so far!

I certainly hear you on the difference the exchange rate makes.

All my contacts with libraries/publishers have been by email, so I wouldn't worry about the time differences.

As Vikki says, this is a slow business, but if you can find people with different skills to collaborate with, it doesn't have to be so expensive. Check out the Collaboration Corner on the Forums.

All the best!

Cheers

[AaronTrew]

Thanks Hummingbird for taking the time to reply with such useful tips. I'm taking it all on board and will use the mantra: 'write, submit, forget, repeat' as you suggest.

I did indeed check out that link, lots of useful stuff there too.

Thanks FMStereo also, I'll look into more collaborations, the great thing about making music these days is we can easily send stems via email, I never considered that until now... lol

Happy writing!
AT

[Paulie]

Now you wait. It could takes weeks, months, sometimes even more than a year to hear from a library. Write, submit, forget, repeat.

[andygabrys]

You have received a lot of solid info above from Vikki et al
Here's my $0.35.

I'm a newbie, joined in October and in the last 5 months I've submitted 68 songs/cues and received 11 forwards.

Congrats! Look for that forward percentage to increase as you get more savvy with targeting the actual needs of the listings.

- How do companies/labels/music supervisors contact you? I'm in Australia and am worried about missing calls.

the only people who call me directly are those from a commercial group and they need stems NOW to get the music placed. In the future when you develop that kind of a relationship, there are ways to get around that (SKYPE, etc).

- Have you made back your membership/pitching expenses? Here in Australia it turns out to be an expensive deal...

On todays exchange rates:
$7.30 per song + $426 membership.
So far I've spent $489.60 pitching songs on top of $426 for membership.
Total TAXI fees are $915.60. Not including studio fees or session musician costs!

A few thoughts - I am not a lawyer or a CPA so check with your local laws:

1) This is actually a BUSINESS although you might not see it as such right now. That means you have to expect expenses (of which all of the TAXI related expenses can be written off as "marketing"), and you have to expect that its going to cost you money to make money. Everyone has a different level of comfort with that. Many people on this forum do their own writing, performing, recording, mixing, and business related work. And many people have very modest home based recording setups (i.e. a laptop and a mic and a guitar and some software). A lot of people also collaborate - exchange a drum track for a guitar track etc. Its your choice to go and hire out a studio and a bunch of session players / singers. For the right material, that is a fantastic way to go (say for modern country pitches) but for tension underscore, most people will do it themselves.

2) This is also a business that favors the "long game". So if you are dropping $1k this year expecting to make $100K - then you are expecting a lot and might be disappointed. It takes a while to amass a sizable catalog and get it out with publishers, and start making money. In later years, the earnings speed up.

3) As a Canadian living in the US, I am well aware of how the exchange rate fluctuates, and how that seems to effect earnings. But now consider the other side - most of the libraries / publishers / music supervisors that TAXI works with are US based, and do a majority of their placements in US media. Of course their are many who have sub-publishing deals in foreign countries that adds a lot in some cases.

So US based companies doing business in the US get paid in US dollars for their placements. And that money gets sent to you via the US PROS and paid to you via a reciprocity agreement with your domestic PRO which I am guessing is APRA. Currently the exchange rate is about $1.00 USD to $1.34 AUD (via xe.com)

Assuming you get a placement, and assuming some total guesses for money numbers - If the placement gathers you $500 USD for your writers share, and $100 US for the writers royalties over the first year, that is $600 USD or $804 AUD.

So while your TAXI membership is 134% of the figure in US dollars, you will also stand to earn the same percentage more in you AUD.

And the GOAL is not to necessarily be always submitting through TAXI for every track, forever. Its your choice how big you want to build your network of contacts. Keep on submitting, getting forwards, and taking the emails / calls from the publishers when they come if it suits your desired results. Most people do this.

But that is also the beauty of the TAXI system - once you get that first email / call from the first library that has received music of yours vetted by the TAXI screeners, now you have a direct relationship with that company. Your music goes directly to them, not through TAXI anymore.

You could not submit anymore music through TAXI, and write 100 tracks for the that first library, and make a little money once your pieces were noticed and used.

You could also sweeten the deal by continuing to submit to TAXI as well as writing for each new library, end up with 10 or 20 library contacts, and write 1,500 pieces for them over a number of years and make a really decent living off of your music. Maybe quit your day work if that is to your taste.

I think for most people that is the GOAL.

A living doing music for TV / Film requires LOTS of placements. A placement requires representation. Representation requires forwards. A forward requires erudite writing and pitching.

Hope that perspective adds something beyond which has already been posted.

[hummingbird]

Good post Andy

[ronnie35]

Andy great post I learn so much from you/aaron Keep up tube great work
Ron

[ComposerLDG]

As always, Andy is right on and the provider of excellent advice!

+1, Mr. Gabrys

[bobporri]

Aaron, that's a fantastic percentage of forwards! Continued success.

Andy, on the level and on the nose.

Bob P.