As 2022 comes to and end

[Casey H]

What were your music highlights and successes in 2022? What are your goals and plans for your music in 2022?

Casey

[Casey H]

2022 Highlights for me:

• 11 placements so far on The Young and the Restless in 2022. And it ain't over yet.
• A sync fee placement on "The L Word: Generation Q" on Showtime.
• Building new and keeping up current collaborative relationships with: Shannon Hurley, Marcus Cohen, Greg Carrozza, Kristin Chambers, Bob Mete, Juliet Lyons,
• Becky Ketelsen, Kimberly Hou, John Lewitt, Peter Boynton, Marc Blackwell, Tom Hoy, Michelle Levrerette, Owen Gretch, and others. (Apologies if I left a name out! Not intentional! )
• Working with a new sync agent.
• Got a new library in my arsenal.
• Wrote/co-wrote more songs and got them signed.

Goals for next year:

• Keep writing and pitching.
• Wish list I have only a little control over: Landing a national ad. A placement in a movie with my name in the credits.
• Continue to give back to the community that gave me so much.

Casey

[superkons]

Highlights
Working with new publishers
New collaborations on music signed by different publishers
More placements on American reality shows
Placement on the BBC!
Did additional music for an Xbox game
Attended the Rally and met old friends/made new ones

Next Year goals
More placements (of course )
Keep writing new music/working with new publishers
Scoring more films and working on more games

[eandersonmusic]

Great post Casey!
This is my second full year.. here's a quick comparison to my first year
I wanted to triple my total cues written, didn't quite get there, but I did (almost) double them, so that's a plus.
I made just about the same amount of submissions, but this year the number of forwards more than tripled!

2022 Highlights-

-composed 96 cues/instrumentals, a few of which were collaborations
-received 20 forwards
-got my first contract
-got my second contract and delivered an album
-got my first placement(s) - was able to hear my music playing while watching the show live
-got to know a few fellow Taxi members pretty well and am very thankful for them

Goals for 2023-

-try and break 100 compositions
-get into a few more libraries
-make more connections/collaborations
-attend my first 'live' Road Rally

[TerrellBurt]

Great thread, Casey. A reminder why I will continually be grateful for the TAXI community.

2022 Highlights

• 1. Was invited by one of my European publishers to participate in a K-pop/J-pop songwriting camp in Italy this past fall. Sync is still my main target, but toying with the ideas of K-pop and J-pop pitching have been intriguing. Especially since it is so influenced by western Hip Hop and R&B and that is my main specialty anyway, so I'm not really doing anything much different than I have been doing. This was my first time ever traveling to Europe and I didn't want to come back lol. I had a blast, met some very talented people, ate some delicious food, and got to expand my international network!
  
  2. Had some cool placements in TV shows like All American (CW), Now & Then (Apple TV), Growing Up (Disney+), The Cleaning Lady (FOX), and The Young and the Restless (CBS). I even had placement in a movie called TÁR starring Cate Blanchett and some placements in the video game MLB The Show 22 on PlayStation as player walk up music.
  
  3. Helped my best friend (who I started writing lyrics with as a teen) get his first in with a publisher that had a lead single cut this past summer on a Top 10 Billboard album! This is his first ever deal with a publisher. Wins are cool, but when you win with the people you came up with, it’s more meaningful. I am in the process of helping him close out another deal with a different successful publisher before 2023.
  
  4. Hit 6 million streams for my song "Limits the Sky" that went viral on TikTok around the time when COVID first happened.
  
  5. Was a guest blogger for TAXI member Michelle Lockey on her music sync blog. You can check that out here https://michellelockey.com/musicsync/tr ... rrell-burt
  
  6. Started a sync Discord community with TAXI members Andrew Jordan and Mark Himley.
  
  7. Connected with some people in person at this year's Road Rally that will help with my upward trajectory in 2023.
  
  8. Updated my website with some new professional pictures.

2023 Goals

• 1. I already have two placements confirmed so far for 2023, one for a TV show and the other for a movie. So I'm looking to build onto that and hopefully land some placements in projects that I'm a fan of, like the movie Creed III and the TV show Bel-Air.
  
  2. Hopefully I get invited back to another song writing camp in Europe. I felt like my time in Italy was way too short lived, so I would like the opportunity for more abroad rest and relaxation.
  
  3. Match or surpass my output for 2022. I wrote/co-wrote 30+ songs this year. In the past years I've stayed in the 20 songs or so per year range (I still work a 9-5 full time), but I was very impressed and quite surprised by my output this year. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come.
  
  4. Continue to grow as a creative. I experimented with different genres that I never have before this past year (like Afrobeats), so I want to continue to grow and experiment.

[funsongs]

Good onya, Casey, and the rest.

My list only pertains to my own retirement/full-time hobby catalog - but includes some collabs with TAXI members:
2022 highlights - few, but of personal value - (it's about the people with whom I got to work):
1) Getting a forward, with Dave Barnett, for the song version of his B.B. King/Lucille tribute: Put Your Hands On Me;
2) Getting to assemble some Musos for a World Music instrumental, courtesy of Andre Stepanian: Night Skies;
3) finally renewed a YouTube channel, learnt how to use iMovie - since early September have posted 87 Funsongs Music productions.

Goals for 2023:
1) saving and planning - in hopes of there being a safe and peaceful in-person Road Rally in November - and getting to attend;
2) maybe some more inspired collaborating, toplining, producing song tracks with more TAXI Amigos;
3) staying strong and healthy enough to enjoy all of the above.

And KUDOS to Robert F. Else & Kristoff Scott - marvelous musicians, and even better friends.

Peace, Yall.

[GCampbell]

Thanks Casey, it's fun and motivating to read everyone's responses!

2022 Highlights
-after almost 2 years of dilly dallying, last summer I finally committed more seriously to writing instrumental production music.
-submitted 15 instrumental cues to Taxi since June, and of those got 13 forwards. Of those forwards I landed 2 deals and just completed a full album for each publisher.
-starting seeing my first activity on Tunesat last August for a handful of tracks released earlier this year.
-rented a banjo and started learning.

2023 Goals
-become a more efficient composer/producer. At this point I'm just making library tracks in my free time, and averaging about 1-2 tracks a week. I'd like to get this up to 3 a week without compromising quality.
-Not sync related, but I'm releasing an album of original classical chamber music in March. It's a passion project that's been about 2 years in the works. I recorded it earlier this year with an amazing group of 10 musicians. I'll be happy just to finally have it out in the world, but if it leads to some new opportunities, I'll be even happier!

[FredGuggenberger]

Dear Casey,

thanks for the great idea. Right now, I am a "highly motivated Apprentice", so I can´t name any placements in 2022. Still it was a great year.

2022:

- Finding a new love and being happy as anyone can be
- Finally buying that wonderful Gretsch 6120
- Finally buying that wonderful VOX AC 15
- Finally buying ... no, that´s it.
- Losing a hell of weight and not gaining it back
- New place to live, wonderful neighbors, new friends
- After the long Covid Break returning to stage and playing shows that were really fun
- Meeting new musicians and having the honour to play with them
- Joining Taxi
- Buying Dean Kriphanes Books and reading them day and night


Goals for 2023:

- Building a catalog of Instrumentals and Scoring Cues
- Becoming better in organizing my time and work
- Learning a new instrument
- Reaching the point where Taxi forwards my work and seeing it signed
- More wonderful moments with my wonderful girl and the cats
- Making it back to the USA and wondering that everybody got older + realizing that I got older, too.
- Not starting to drink after realizing, that I got older, too
- Not shooting a bullet in my head after I realize that I will keep getting older ...
- Looking for a book with the title: "There are bader things than getting older ... sadly I can´t name them"... (I should probably stop doing that jokes, haha)
- Winning the Grammy and my own star at the Hollywood Walk of Fame ... Just Kidding: 2024 would be early enough for this )

Rock on
Fred

[cosmicdolphin]

- Finding a new love and being happy as anyone can be

You win !

[Casey H]

- Finding a new love and being happy as anyone can be

Wow! That must be some guitar!!