Screeners paid NOT to forward music?

[geo]

Oct 3, 2008, 3:07pm, hurowitz wrote:BTW, there is NOTHING wrong with writing music for the sheer joy of it. Whew!!! Was beginning to worry!!! Peace, Geo

[Casey H]

It seems that a lot has been said on this thread.... I certainly did my share of commenting...Points have been made and made and made and made... I'm not sure there is much more to say without things just degrading.I think it's time to just let it rest (JMHO). Tons of information has been provided as what to do and not to do when submitting music. If William wants his songs critiqued, he can post them on peer-to-peer for feedback. Just my Sunday morning thoughts... Casey

[anne]

William - I hope to hear your music after you come back out of the studio ! I know I'm getting ready to dig myself in mine for the week, and hopeful that I'll have some good songs to post by next weekend.

[coachdebra]

OH, CK - I love you! Seriously - the lesson is to do your homework. When I was an actress (in another life time), we were always studying our craft. Always in scene study class, voice class, dance class - classes and more classes. I've never gotten this thing among musicians that don't study their craft. The point you're making is that when you had to work on the song craft, because it wasn't in a genre you had naturally gravitated to. Well, your craft got better. And that improvement will affect and infect all of your music.The moral of the story - never stop learning and growing!For me, it's what makes life interesting!Debra

[hummingbird]

Oct 9, 2008, 3:20pm, wta wrote: Weapon great point with the rating! I've somehow missed the breakdown on the ratings. Now I will say that I really haven't sat down to write for taxi submissions yet, i've only subimitted works that I wrote for other purposes. From the ratings I HAVE got I really didn't known what a 7/10 or 8/10 ment. Is that good or great or really great? Do the screeners wants 10's in order to submit or is the average a little lower? See what I mean. Could someone post the link to the page on the taxi site or the forum site that breaks this down? That would be a HUGE help... Thanks weapon that was a great help, as for concentrating on my weaknesses I'd likely need counseling to talk me down from the bridge I'd need to jump off of after meditating on all that stuff! Oh and microscopes and biology always made me a bit quezzy... wtaI've had forwards with 7s and 8s. Very few submissions get straight 10s. I did get straight 9s once, and I'm still very proud

[aubreyz]

Oct 8, 2008, 9:20pm, wta wrote: You know Matt it's really kinda funny. To me the screeners are a complex rubix cube and if I can get the math down AND catch the vibe that moves the math cracking the code will be a turkey shoot (some might think a turkey shoot is easy but hitting something running for its life with a 8 gauge is trickier that she looks...). I must admit that the screener's have got some ways of looking at things that make my eyes crossed but, the world will be alot better place when we all just get around to doing things my way (now THATS standup humor!)... wtaWTA,I've been kind of MIA in the forum of late, so am just chiming in. Some great points have been made in this thread. I can understand your frustration with the "rubik's cube" of screening. Even though, after 2 years of the process, I have a pretty good forward ration now-- it still can sometimes seem like a crap shoot. Keep in mind, I run a studio for a living, and have been writing and producing for more years than I'd like to add up -- and it was and still is a learning process.One of the biggest factors for me, and maybe this will help you, is to understand that the screener is just a proxy for the actual listing party or client. It's the clients that determine what music is being looked for. So instead of "trying to get past the screeners" I try to focus on who the listing party is, and what do they want. More about that in a sec, but first about the screeners.Of course, there are several things that won't get you past a screener -- many have been listed. Although we can all think of hit songs that broke the rules, the fact is that there are some basic "rules" of songwriting that a big percentage of successful songs follow. Most every popular songwriting course or book focuses on those things. Taking an analogy, if you were trying out for a university tennis team, would you show how well you could juggle 14 tennis balls or try to show how you could ace a serve and had solid fundamental skills and knowledge of the game. In a lot of ways, it's easier to be a non-conformist and play without a net, but those who can do magical things within the confines of the rules are the ones who shine. As I understand your objective to use the tools you have to produce commercial stuff, my advise would be to pay strict attention to the rules of hook, huge choruses and song structure and then allow the "muse" to do magical things within those confines. A solid, well structured song has a much better chance because it shows that you know what you are doing and can do it well. Success may afford you the freedom to stretch your eclectic wings, but your best foot in the door chance will come by playing within the lines.Back to the clients, a record label looking for artists will have different needs than a music library looking for songs. A big help is to try to put yourself in the client's place. What kinds of songs are getting music library placements? Right now, just about every prime time network drama will have at least one singer/songwriter cut in it. What lyric topics are being used? How vague or how detailed are they? The same thing applies with label gigs -- what's selling? What are the songwriting trends of hits? What are the lyric topics, structure, etc. I tend to write vague, artsy lyrics but the current trend is for very literal, not so clever lyrics. The list could go on and on, but i think the better place to start looking for answers is not "a list of things screeners won't forward" but rather a list of what kinds of things their clients are actually using now. It's an evolving list. I constantly am analyzing the markets I'm trying to reach-- looking for trends. There's no magic list for that, but the information is everywhere - tv, radio, commercials, film, sporting events, etc.IMHO, that's the key. Know thy market. The screener's job is to give their clients material that they can use in their particular markets.I will say this, my focus over the past couple of years has been to figure out how to get more eclectic, artsy stuff past the screeners. I've done pretty well at that, but now realize that the kind of material that I produce the most is used very little in the current market. So my focus is changing, as the market evolves.Hope that helps and welcome aboard. This Taxi ride can be all you make it. There's not a "how to" read between the lines of listings and screeners, but knowing the market, asking questions, and getting feedback from those who are successful are indispensable tools in figuring it out.And for the record, back in the day I could solve the real Rubik's cube in less than 50 seconds. Aub

[squids]

Oct 2, 2008, 11:24am, matto wrote:Many of us are forwarded on a very regular basis and we aren't exactly geniuses (although some of us may think so ). Why, Matto! And you know these people personally?I know you feel blessed.

[squids]

Oct 2, 2008, 11:29am, billg wrote:Now let's gripe about something meaningful . . . like why screeners tell me my music isn't current enough It's like hair, Bill. My hairdresser tells me, when I fret, "look, honey, there's a difference between classy and current. Know it!" She so right. You jes classy. I know I'll be able to listen to your tunes years from now and still not be tired of them or hear all these cheesy 'sounds' from now on 'em. Some things jes plain last.Unlike my tunes which are designed to be put on small shiny discs with which to clean your dirty dishes and then promptly discard! Keep on bro.

[squids]

Wta, I appreciate your attitude and willingness to learn, which I think is the base from which all successful ventures start. Yay! Like Dave Walton, I generally get high marks and have done very well with forwards. But I've also had extremely high marks and completely missed the listing requirements (so embarrassing but there it is) although that was a coupla years ago now, not so much anymore.It does seem like a big ol' maze and we can't smell the bait anywhere. But I found that Taxi lists the bands on their site somewhere (don't have it off the top of my head at this moment) so you can take a quick breeze through them to study exactly what they're lookin' for in the listing. Even then, there's a bit of experience involved as well......I've risked sometimes and won, then done the sure thing and lost. There's a bit of fine reading as well as talent, good engineering and some luck involved as well, although not as much luck as the other things mentioned. Mostly, a willingness to hear things you don't wanna but that will get you there. For commercial writers, etc, this is key. Myself, my life took a different turn. Commercial music isn't really my genre, nor was it ever, really. Jes kinda more interested in seeing what I could actually DO with music, that was the fun. If I got a bunch of forwards, as matto once said, it must mean I did somethin' write (ouch! ). Could I count on that though? Nope, simply because it wasn't that big of a goal. But if it's your goal, you can't go wrong listenin' to some of these guys. If you like writin' to the listings fo the sheer dare of it, the challenge.....then this is your game. Learn, learn, learn. We die without it. Jes my .02 though. Whadda I know? I know you can scrape dishes with my cds and it works GREAT!