Library deal from an Oct 2004 forward

[davewalton]

[also see update below] Hi,I'm happy to announce my first Taxi music library deal for two songs as a direct result of a Taxi listing. Two surprises for me. The first surprise is that this is from a listing that appeared around September 2004 that was forwarded around October 2004. The other surprise is the songs themselves. It's just that if you asked me to guess which Taxi submitted songs would be the first to get music library placement I wouldn't have guessed these in a million years. I don't remember much about the listing - I think it wanted sad, melancholy instrumentals. Here are the two they picked (I think I just sent two):When Love Is Lostwww.DaveWaltonMusic.com/MyMusic/WhenLoveIsLost.mp3Street Peoplewww.DaveWaltonMusic.com/MyMusic/StreetPeople.mp3I took these and a bunch of others off my website recently. Time to put them all back on! Thanks Michael and Taxi,DavePS - One of the best pieces of advice at last year's rally was from a mentor who told me to use Taxi not as my main hope, but as a small part of a bigger marketing effort. Thanks to that advice I started sending out 40 to 60 demos and such each month on my own. After several months I picked up a music library placement in Australia, score for a movie trailer and feature horror film and am currently working on a TV pilot (that actually probably won't ever see the light of day but it's great on the resume). So don't wait for a Taxi deal. Use Taxi to improve your music (i.e. the critiques), submit to the listings, do your own marketing and send people your new and improved music. Eventually things will fall into place. Taxi will improve your craft if you remain open minded and they will get you a deal if you improve your craft and remain patient.PSS - I'm a little pumped

[hummingbird]

Congrats Dave!! Great advice too!! Good for you - just goes to show that persistance -- and patience -- pays off.Great!!H'bird

[johnny]

Was it The Music Kitchen? If so, I got the same letter last week.I think that they gathered music before they were ready and just now got around to it.Since he wrote to my "on the road address" , I only noticedyesterday...But it's a relatively good deal, not the best or worst.It's non-exclusive. That's a good thing. He lets you keep your copyrights, changes the titles.

[johnny]

The music was cool too. Good luck

[davewalton]

Quote:The music was cool too. Good luck Thanks. And yes, The Music Kitchen. Congrats to you for your stuff. Always good to hear these stories.

[guscave]

WTG The Music Kitchen is a pretty good company.Best to ya...

[gen5020]

Way to go Dave!You're post has inspired me with your drive and determination.Could you expound a little about sending your music to other places? How would I go about finding these places? Again, Congratulations!

[davewalton]

Quote:Way to go Dave!You're post has inspired me with your drive and determination.Could you expound a little about sending your music to other places? How would I go about finding these places? Again, Congratulations! :)You just never know when you're little email will go "ding" and the subject says something like "Music library deal for your review". :-)The one specific "other place" is can refer you to is a book called "Songwriters Market 2005". It won't be too long before the 2006 version is out. It's basically a listing of all kinds of record companies, music publishers, etc with not only their contact info but (in their own words) how to contact them and what types of music they deal with. No deals from this source, but more than a few have "continued interest" and I send them new things from time to time, straight through, without all the "new submitter" roadblocks and hassles.The other, less specific thing is just get good at Google and search for things and follow links from sites. It takes a while but I've found small film companies that have something on their site like "looking for composer for upcoming film". Last is to have a way of keeping track of places to which you can submit new material quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. There's no rule that says if a music library doesn't need what you sent that you can't send them something different at a future date.Between all those things, I keep pretty busy searching and sending. Searching mostly. :-)These projects I've been picking up are not huge, but what I call "resume builders". Even though the pay wasn't at top scale by any means, having things like "Reality TV Pilot - Los Angeles, CA" on my resume is a good thing. :-)HTH,Dave

[gen5020]

Thanks for the info Dave!

[davewalton]

Hi,After doing the original two song deal (with the mininum amount of fuss on my part), I took the opportunity to ask if they'd consider auditioning more songs. With their permission I sent a CD with 26 songs and they are licensing 15 of them.It sure is a lot easier doing repeat business!Dave