Forwards for Non-Film/TV Opportunities

[ChipD]

Like many of you, I have a day job but dream of the day when I can do music full-time.

Some of you are living that dream now with a nice amount of forwards, deals, and placements in film and on TV. Some of you are well on your way.

From what I've been reading, it seems like one would need a catalog of at least 500 well-recorded, high quality songs to make a living writing music for film and TV. It would seem that getting a cut on a successful artist's album would land one a bigger chunk of change in a shorter time frame but is obviously more elusive an opportunity.

Taxi lists both film/TV opportunities and artist/producer/publisher opportunities, so let me ask you...

How many of you have gotten a forward for an artist/producer/publisher opportunity?

How many of you have gotten a "hold" for a possible artist cut?

How many of you have gotten a cut on an album through a Taxi listing?

I don't see many posts in the Forwards forum for artist/producer/publisher listings. I'm sure that Taxi forwards fewer tunes because they often mention that "the bar is high." I sure hope they at least forward ONE submission for each such listing.

I'm sure all of us would love to hit a few grand slams rather than hundreds of infield singles, but I'm wondering if any of us "average Joes" on this forum has actually had success in this manner other than the few "success stories" on the Taxi site.

[Casey H]

Hi Chip
There definitely are forwards for the non-film/TV listings. As you noted, the bar is much higher so the percentage of forwards might be lower. But Taxi does have some very talented members who get songs forwarded for these listings.

And after a foward, the bar is even higher-- drastically so. Reality is, the odds of getting a cut in Nashville (where most song opps are) are very, very tiny even for a terrific song.

Taxi did help land one cut, a song called "Buy Me A Rose", recorded by Kenny Rogers. There may be others-- Taxi staff can add to this.

You'll find many more folks working in film/TV these days because there is opportunity to create a steady income stream. And that includes instrumentals. Many more instrumentals are used in film/TV than songs with vocals. So, as you would expect, most success stories you read about are in film/TV. The ratio matches the real world... Many thousands of pieces used on TV vs. the occasional breakout cut by an unknown songwriter.

Best,
Casey

[ChipD]

Thanks for the reply, Casey. I'm guessing that, from the lack of responses, that not many Taxi members are successful with the non-film/tv listings, even with just forwards.

That's motivation! 'cause you know if you get forwarded, your song MUST be good!

I also appreciate your comment about instrumentals. I want to explore that area. I feel that a weakness of mine is writing really good verse melodies. I can write a chorus hook and music no prob, but sometimes verse melodies challenge me. That makes for instrumentals being appealing, especially if there is $ to be made with them!

Thanks again!

[lucy]

Hi Chip,

I have had songs forwarded for pitches to artists on the big record labels. I think the reason people don't post the songs in the forward section is that they are hoping an artist will record it and so it's not a great idea to have the song out on the internet in the public domain before anything happens. There is an element of confidentiality I think. I guess that's the way I see it.

cheers
El