Broke the Curse - 1st Forward for '08

[aubreyz]

Geeze. You sure know how to make a guy feel great. Thanks for the congrats and comments. Now if the proverbial phone rings, I'll be jumping out of my skin (unless it's Hillary at 3am) Quote:Mind if I ask: did you do everything yourself on these tracks?And here's a hyper-personal question...what scores did you get? I was mostly 7's from screeners 27, 226, and 255 (some custom crits early as I finished the song). I wasn't expecting too much forthe listing phase.Only share what you wish, of course...and thanks for leading the way!Devin,I have a co-writer Poncho Satrio (Ponch 'round us dots) and the recording is just the two of us. He's a guitar guru, great feel for drums and bass. Usually, I do lyrics, he does most of the chordal structure, and we work together on arrangement and melody, and I do the production side. I don't look much at the number score, because different screeners use the scale differently (it's that human factor). What I look for is ratio. For example, Hate Me Save Me scored mostly 8's on this with (2) 7's (Vocal and Lyrics). Skin was all 7's but one 6 on marketability. Another listing that Skin missed (screener thought is wasn't on genre target), was mostly 8's with a 9 in marketability and musicianship. Overall that means they thought the track was pretty equal, element wise. This screener felt like it wasn't quite catchy enough melodically. The last screener felt the melody was great. One thought marketability one higher than other scores, the other one lower. I take these things into account, along with peer input here on the forum and elsewhere.Honestly though, the numbers don't mean squat by themselves. If one category is significantly lower than all others in multiple critiques, it might be a flag for some real improvement in that area. The only number that matters is to keep submitting as many times as it takes to get the info you need to either improve the track, improve your knowledge of submission targets, or get the deal.You have to understand, that just like in real life, the screening process is partly the luck of the draw, just because different people, no matter how credentialed or qualified, will have different opinions. Some of the rejections this year were tracks that have passed similar listings and ala's with very high marks and incredibly encouraging comments. I happened to get a few screeners that either didn't get the music, or didn't agree it fit genre. This is not an exact science by any means. Trends are what matters, not one or two opinions. I don't submit and wait around for results, nor will I stop and celebrate this process. Just keep submitting, keep an open mind and look for trends.My point is this, scores and critiques can be useful in quantities, but this is a game of numbers. Sometimes lightening strikes quickly, but I'm trying to build up enough static charge to create the conditions that are right for some sparks, one submission at a time.Aubbtw- the 11/0 didn't really bother me that much. Just a string of not getting the right song in the right place at the right time. The last few months before that, I was nearing 70% forwards. Always expect a forward, but always keep working like none have ever happened.

[brindabella]

Congrats on your forward! I like "Skin" very much!. Curse? What curse? Both songs are great!

[devin]

Aub, thanks for taking the time for such a detailed response...I really appreciate it.All of your points on collaboration (congrats to Ponch too on the forward!), and "screener calibration" are well taken.Now it's time for Devin to stop reading and start recording LOL!