First music library deal signed - finally!

[shanegrla]

Hi everybody,
This is going to be a long post. Sorry, but I think it could be useful for people to read. It is a story about determination, patience, perserverence, and just a general refusal to give up when things look like they really suck. So without further ado, here goes.

I´ve been a member coming up on a year now. In that time, I´ve had 9 forwards, and up to a couple months ago, hadn´t heard back from any of them yet.

Well, finally I heard back from a music library that liked my song "Ferdinando" (sorry, don´t have a direct link to the tune, but you can find it on my Taxi page, taxi.com/shanesearles) from an instrumental rock listing looking for tracks a la Franz Ferdinand.

The only problem was they didn´t want to sign me for just one song. They only wanted to sign people with many tracks. And they had to be instrumental only. He asked me to send in three more tracks as sort of an "audition." Unfortunately I don´t have too many instrumentals just lying around. Most of my tunes are vocal tunes. (This particular submission was sort of an experiment to see if I could write for a listing on demand. I had thrown it together fairly quickly and, to my surprise, it got forwarded.) Now, since this was my first (and only) contact in almost a year, I wasn´t about to tell him "Sorry, I only do vocal tunes. Better find someone else." I was determined not to let this fish get away. So it was time to get busy. And quick.

After the initial panic, I realized I actually did have a couple other instrumentals already: "Area 51 Anthem" and "Do You Need Love (Dub Mix)" (both also found on my Taxi page). The problem was they didn´t really sound anything like the original submission, which is what I figured he was looking for. But I quickly determined there was no time to write anything new because I was under the impression that he probably wanted to hear something rather soon.

So I sent him those two tracks, and for a third, I decided to just try to convert an older vocal song to an instrumental. I worked for hours on it and then sent all three in.

Rejected.

Honestly, I know there are a million reasons why rejection sucks. Somebody is saying they don´t like what you do; your hopes for the future are now all shot to hell; and on a more practical note, all the hours you spent which all seem to have been a complete waste of time now. And yes, I felt all these reasons. And it sucks.

But after a couple hours, I decided to get over it, and I emailed the guy back, and in the nicest, most nonconfrontational sounding way I could think of, I asked him for some constructive feedback. Was it my writing? Was it more in the production end of things? He was kind enough to email me back and say my stuff was pretty close, and that it just lacked a certain professional sheen to it. Was it a bad compressor? Bad EQ? Is something distorting?

So here´s where I´m a little confused. I went back and listened to that third track I sent in (called "Freak Show") and I was absolutely horrified at what I had heard. I heard everything he was talking about and more. How could I have turned this in like that? (I guess that´s what I get when I do these marathon recording sessions. My ears start to lie to me, and my brain starts thinking crap sounds good.)

However, the first two songs I think still sound pretty good. I don´t hear any of those things on those ones. So my theory is that he listened to that third one and just stopped there and said "Nope. Ain´t gonna work for us."

He was also kind enough to let me submit more stuff someday -- but only if and when it´s ready. He told me to listen to their demo reel to see where the bar was set. So I did. And then I spent the next two months working on two new tracks, plus a third converted vocal tune again (but this time I did a much better job).

He loved the tunes this time. He specifically said good job on working on the things he told me to work on and fixing them. And then, of course, he asked me how many more tracks I had of this caliber. Once again, I had to fudge things around a bit, and told him I could come up with a total of 10 (including the ones I´d already submitted previously). And that also includes a couple of the tunes that had been forwarded that I haven´t heard anything from.

Long story short (okay, I know, too late for that, lol) I ended up converting a bunch more of my vocal tunes, but this time with the higher standards of that second submission. They took them all. And now there´s basically an open door to keep submitting stuff indefinitely.

So the moral of the story? When someone rejects your stuff, get mad and quit! Just kidding. No, the moral of the story is that I got 10 tracks in a library that might now make me some money where I could´ve had zero had I just taken that rejection and stewed over it and felt sorry for myself.

Anyway Michael, I hope this counts as 10 submissions into that contest to win every time we let you know of a deal!

Thanks.
Shane

[fusilierb]

Now that's how you work it!! Congrats.
B

[georginasaint]

Shane, that's such a great story, and told so well!
You're inspirational and very professional.
Bravo!!!
Here's to many more deals for you!

Georgie

[jeffgreenleaf]

Major congrats and great job stepping up to a big challenge. The bar is set extremely high and it's not uncommon to be asked to make edits quickly on library submissions. I still make little errors on my mixes sometimes that have to be fixed fast. Good job!

[crystallions]

Thanks for sharing. What a great example of never giving up and of being willing to learn and do whatever is needed to move forward. Congratulations on the deal!!!

~ Lydia

[bmete]

Hi Shane,

Great story nicely told! Super example of working it, text book perfect.. Congrats and wishing you continued success.

Bob

[shanegrla]

Thanks everybody. Yes, there are a lot of last-minute fixes and updates ´n stuff that are always needing to be done, and that can be quite a challenge. In fact, I just found out that I´m still not done with the songs I already gave them. Turns out they want alt mixes of all the tunes now too! (A mix w/out the lead guitar, another w/out the lead guitar and the piano, etc.) They say this makes the music MUCH more likely to be placed.

I guess just goes to show you´re never really done, even when you think you´re done.

[teleblaster]

Great story; I tend to shrink away when something is returned from a library and submit it to places that have a lower bar rather than actually ask for help ('what can I do to fix these tracks for you'). Best of luck with this business relationship and others.

[deankripp]

good story and
congrats

dean

[davewalton]

Great story and a pretty great ending too!