Pitching to Artists

[Damiano]

Hi
I joined Taxi a few days ago and am beginning to think I may have made a mistake. It seems all the success stories are coming from film and TV whereas I am only interested in pitching to artists. I don't have the production skills or vocals to make broadcast quality songs, I just try make the best demo's I can and hope it's enough to sell the song. Does anyone know of any threads where there are members dedicated to artist pitches? There are lots of listings wanting songs for artists, I'd be interested to know if people get many forwards or holds.

[VanderBoegh]

Hey Damiano, welcome to Taxi. Here's the first thread that sprang to my mind about a songwriter scoring with an artist pitch. Happened last spring:

Scott Free's "Badass" gets an artist deal with Janiva Magness: http://forums.taxi.com/topic127772.html

I know there's TONS of other success stories like this out there. Ever heard the song "I Loved Her First" by Heartland? That was written by Taxi guys, and it ended up hitting #1 on the country charts. As you can probably imagine, the amount of members that are active on this forum only represent a very very tiny fraction of Taxi's actual membership, and so there's a lot of people out there making waves who just don't ever get on the forums to post about it.

I look forward to hearing your work during your first year here. Don't be a stranger!

~~Matt

[Len911]

http://www.taxi.com/about-guarantee.html

Hi
I joined Taxi a few days ago and am beginning to think I may have made a mistake. It seems all the success stories are coming from film and TV whereas I am only interested in pitching to artists. I don't have the production skills or vocals to make broadcast quality songs, I just try make the best demo's I can and hope it's enough to sell the song. Does anyone know of any threads where there are members dedicated to artist pitches? There are lots of listings wanting songs for artists, I'd be interested to know if people get many forwards or holds.

There's a full year guarantee. You've only been a member for a few days, so take some time on the forum and discover what you can learn about production skills, collaboraton opportunities, etc. There's a lot of helpful and informative people, and maybe not so informative people, such as myself,lol! But you have plenty of time to decide.

[Damiano]

Cool thanks guys...

[byllsong]

http://www.taxi.com/music-business-faq/ ... -funk.html
Kenny Rogers

[TerrellBurt]

I too am a songwriter that lacks vocal skills but what I do is find good vocalists to record my songs for me as works for hire. That's going to be key if you want to successfully get forwards with TAXI to major artists.

I sometimes use Craigslist to network and find vocalists. TAXI can be beneficial for this too.

[Kolstad]

Actually for pitching demos to artists, you don't need a work-for-hire vocal, because this is not considered a commercial use. Pitching a song to artists is strictly business-2-business, and doesn't involve any direct selling of the song.

You only need the work-for-hire terms in case you want to sell your song directly to people, and thereby use the vocalists performance to make money.

Of course having a vocal on work-for-hire terms doesn't hurt, in case the song doesn't go anywhere from pitching it, and you at a later stage therefore decide that you want to shop it to music libraries or put it up at CD Baby ect.

But for pitching to artists alone, you can manage perfectly well with the demos many studios offer to songwriters for pitching purposes only.

Taxi member Dean Krippaehne has also had quite some success with pitching to artists, if I remember correctly. Plenty others as well, but be aware it is only a minor percentage of Taxi members that post in the forums. Therefore many success stories goes under the radar here, allthough the ones posted certainly provides a helpful insight.

[TerrellBurt]

Actually for pitching demos to artists, you don't need a work-for-hire vocal, because this is not considered a commercial use. Pitching a song to artists is strictly business-2-business, and doesn't involve any direct selling of the song.

You only need the work-for-hire terms in case you want to sell your song directly to people, and thereby use the vocalists performance to make money.

Of course having a vocal on work-for-hire terms doesn't hurt, in case the song doesn't go anywhere from pitching it, and you at a later stage therefore decide that you want to shop it to music libraries or put it up at CD Baby ect.

But for pitching to artists alone, you can manage perfectly well with the demos many studios offer to songwriters for pitching purposes only.

Taxi member Dean Krippaehne has also had quite some success with pitching to artists, if I remember correctly. Plenty others as well, but be aware it is only a minor percentage of Taxi members that post in the forums. Therefore many success stories goes under the radar here, allthough the ones posted certainly provides a helpful insight.

Explain more about these studio offered demos. There's none of these in Orlando to my knowledge.. My process is that I'll pay a vocalist that I feel fits best on the song and compensate them along with covering studio costs if they don't have their own recording equipment.

[Kolstad]

It's used a lot in Nashville, where studios have very affordable rates for songwriters. As low as 75$ for a vocal track and about 300$ for a full demo. You don't get to exploit the master commercially, but you can use the demos for pitching to artists, publishers, a&r ect. You have to research the studio mrkt yourself, but those deals are out there.

Many upcoming artists don't want to work for hire either, because they can be exploited later if they get a record deal. So it can be a good way to get a high quality vocal track for pitching purposes (only, though). Of course you cannot publish those demos on a website, or shop it to music libraries, music supervisors nor sell it on Bandcamp/ CD Baby. But you can use it for pitching to artists.

[TerrellBurt]

It's used a lot in Nashville, where studios have very affordable rates for songwriters. As low as 75$ for a vocal track and about 300$ for a full demo. You don't get to exploit the master commercially, but you can use the demos for pitching to artists, publishers, a&r ect. You have to research the studio mrkt yourself, but those deals are out there.

Many upcoming artists don't want to work for hire either, because they can be exploited later if they get a record deal. So it can be a good way to get a high quality vocal track for pitching purposes (only, though). Of course you cannot publish those demos on a website, or shop it to music libraries, music supervisors nor sell it on Bandcamp/ CD Baby. But you can use it for pitching to artists.

Oh okay. Good to know even though I'd still prefer paying someone to retain the right to exploit the master commercially.