A Spreadsheet of ALL OF MY SUBMISSIONS

[sguiles]

Ok. I'm "spreading it out" for all to see.
I just decided to do a little data analysis of my submissions to look for similarities, differences etc.
I've taken every single one of my submissions and listed as much info as I think I can to help me track what I'm doing and HOW I'm doing.

I have yet to get a placement, but I feel I am definitely on the right track for the 5 year plan.

Let me know what you think and what other columns might be worth adding.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... jVZS1VwVUE

[jazzstan]

A couple of thoughts, from my turn in the curmudgeon chair ...

1) Folks here have often said the formula is "write, submit, forget." These are the same ones who advocate the 5-year plan.

2) You didn't ask "what columns might be worth deleting." Other than song title and a summary of any constructive feedback, I don't think the other info will help you add value to your work. In "The War of Art" the author talks about jettisoning any and all distractions. As a hardcore spreadsheet guru I know how tempting it is to organize and manage info. It ~feels~ productive, doesn't it? So does writing this post. (ha ha, you see, I have my own distractions that take me away from my DAW.)

[Len911]

I think it is a good thing to be organized. I don't think it will do anything for analysis other than having everything together to look over for analysis. I tend to make a lot of database type midi or audio template type things to use later and make things easier, but usually by the time I get through making them, I know how to do it well enough not to need them. The problem with write, submit and forget, if anyone truly never looked back or analyzed anything they quite possibly could be making the same mistakes over and over again. Otoh, over analysis probably does more harm than good. So I think it's a good thing. I wouldn't make it too complicated or burdensome though.

[sguiles]

That makes sense, guys. I guess I'm looking to see some patterns in my submissions as well. For example, is there a song I submit over and over again and it's almost ALWAYS returned? I find it helpful to see the general gist of comments made in regards to songs. It was helpful just going through ALL of my submissions and seeing how the comments, in general, changed.

[Len911]

Steven, what's wrong with peer-to-peer? Very likely if you asked people, "hey folks, what is wrong with this song, I keep submitting it and it keeps getting returned?", you could probably cut through all the paperwork,lol, and someone will answer you spot on. The more specific the question the better.
For example, I put a song up and folks said it sounded too midi. @#!!$%, not what I wanted to hear at all,lol, but it was quicker than wading through yes or no returns, not broadcast quality, checkbox audio, "Beautiful, transcendental, serene and delightful melody, just not what the doctor ordered"
How about a spreadsheet of peer-to-peer comments? or a column for those comments to be included?

[sguiles]

Nothing wrong with peer-to-peer! I've been using that quite a bit recently, actually.
I really hadn't used the forums much until a few months ago.

I may very well add a peer-to-peer column! Great idea!

[mikeymike2000]

Hi Jack,

Let me first say congratulations to you for first taking the time to do this and second, for your record. You are blowing me out of the water for sure. (But I am not here to compare me to you, just a statement of fact).

While I do now believe in the "write, submit, forget" (although I would like to say I really wish Taxi would change the word "submit" to "Audition" but that is just subjective) I think it is ALSO important to take stock of what is working and what is not so you can improve your ratios on the "write, audition, forget" road.

Now, as a data analyst here is my conclusion:

You have approx 35 songs that were submitted for 97 listings, so you send in each song about 2.7 times. It cost you $485 to attain this data. Your forward ratio (to date, not counting still out) is about 28%. This seems like a really good number but now for next year I would have a goal of 50%. That would mean, based on this data that you should be more choosy to what listings you audition for.

At a quick glance a majority of the comments seem to point to "stylistically off target" or something similar.

Now I am not suggesting to pay much attention to the number of auditions or the total cost. It is something to be aware of for the sake of setting next year to up your forward ratio.

There is a fine line between doing stuff like this and getting stuck in a rut of "WTF Taxi" or "what is wrong with me". So while I think it is awesome and may do something similar for mine, I have to caution you to not think too much about all this. You have all the data, now use it to improve.

And again, congrats cause these are great stats in my opinion.

Personal note: for me, if the same song gets returned 3 times in a row (forwards reset it to 0) then it needs to be put to the side and/or re-worked. You should always be writing too. My first year I wrote about 25-30 things, some still not finished but I already have a goal to double my production as I go into my second year. (that is a mere 1.5 songs per week)

For someone who thinks like you (us) I would suggest doing this kind of thought for projections (more of a positive nature) to form your road map and then you just follow the map to meet your goal.

Hope that is useful.

[sguiles]

Mike,

Thanks for looking at and analyzing the data!
I'm definitely not looking at my data in a discouraged way. I'm very ENcouraged by the fact that I'm getting more forwards now ON TARGET than I used to. I just want to get better at it.

One thing I'm doing more of this past year is write songs specifically to the listing, rather than submit preexisting album material. I'm also involved actively with a few collaborators.

[Russell Landwehr]

I like what you've done. I hope it works for you. It's really nice to see in detail like this the way that others track thier stuff. Thanks for posting.

I love spreadsheets. A couple weeks ago I created a spreadsheet for myself to track songs as well. I wanted something that had three purposes:

1. Track the status of songs and song "files."
2. Track the parts of the screener feedback that are important to me.
3. Compile the metadata info in an easily accesable location.

I don't have a "deal" column yet. I can always insert that when it's time.
The columns I have include Mood, Genre, StartKey, BPM, Composer(s), Publisher, Company forwarded to, plus others. I have columns for the screener "scores." I have columns for what website the song is uploaded to.

I'm still filling in the blanks, but if you or anyone else would like to see it, PM me and I'll send you a copy.

Russell

[richmstudios]

Not to wander too far off topic here, but I noticed that out of all the 28 FORWARDS there has not been one placement/deal. Now I know that a forward certainly doesn't guarantee a placement and that it can sometimes take a while before a forward gets a deal, but I didn't expect the foarward-to-placement ratio to be null this far into submission history.

The music is obviously good, even great, considering the percentage of forwards but the end result has me a bit discouraged. Don't mean to put a negative spin on this, but I'm just sayin'.

Rich