What kind of signing rate have you had this year?

[SteveBaruah]

First of all, apologies to David Hollandsworth for stealing his post theme, but I found his thread very interesting so I thought I would expand on it to actual placement/music usage figures.

From David's thread it sounds like there are some very successful Taxi members with 30/40/50% forward ratios!
I am still working on my first forward, but I can imagine it is a great feeling to get a professional-level confirmation from Taxi that your music is good enough.

So what is your actual forward-to-signing ratio for 2015? i.e. you had 50 forwards and 5 signings.

If you can, please state song and instro figures separately, as (from what I can work out) it is a lot harder to get a song forward/signing.

Any insight into this is much appreciated!


Regards,
Steve

[hummingbird]

Would you like to include music placed prior to 2015 via TAXI forwards, that were placed/used/still earning money last year? Or is it only music forwarded last year, and placed?

Because I would say, on average, music forwarded and signed in 2015 might not show earnings until this year, as many end users might take three to six months to send a sync fee and it takes PROs generally about nine months to report... SOCAN will report on the spring of 2015 in February 2016, for example.....

[SteveBaruah]

I suppose the year doesn't actually matter. Even taking an average over the last few years would be interesting.

I'm really looking for any useful insights.

Maybe with music libraries, for example, the library accepting the music would be the success, rather than the end-customers using the music.

[ComposerLDG]

I joined Taxi in August 2015. Between then and now, I've had 14 forwards. Two of the forward landed library deals. I'm very pleased with Taxi!

[SteveBaruah]

Congrats, Loren! I would be happy with 2 deals, too!

[Russell Landwehr]

Let's make sure we are talking the same language. Often people may mislabel a "signing" to a library as a "placement." Placement is when the song or cue is actually used in a show.

Now, as Vicki said, tracking placements is pretty hairy. The whole industry lag causes that. As cues signed to libraries increases, and time passes for your music to make it into the pipeline, the placements increase. But it's this lag between the TAXI forward and the placement in a TV show that makes it impossible to correlate them in any one year. Even the time between a TAXI forward and signing it to a library can range from immediate to three or more years. Then you tag on how long it takes a signed cue to make it to film.

This business is a marathon, not a sprint. Just ask Dean K and Chuck S (they are currently trying to decide who first used that line to educate us)
Concentrate on continually creating quality work. The forward ratio is only a useful ratio as a metric to track your efficiency at targeting listings. Your forwards and returns will tell you if you need to step up the quality or do a better job of sending the right stuff in. I've heard that signing 6% of your forwards is about normal. (unless you're Matt Vanderbough... that dude is an animal) But it's not the signed forwards that are the big thing, it's what you do with that contact afterward.

Regards
Russell Landwehr

[SteveBaruah]

Signing is definitely what we are looking for here (I've edited the original post )
Getting a cue into a library should definitely be considered the success. And as you say, I heard it can take years before the piece is actually used/placed and shows up on your PRO account.

A 6% forward-to-signing rate sounds interesting.

You of course have to account for the fact that 1 forward signed could also open the door to more cues being signed by that library (without them be forwards).

[Russell Landwehr]

I just thought of something... if you sign on 5% of your forwards, then that is kinda like the 80/20 rule.

[SteveBaruah]

True!
Still, better than Murphy's Law

[andygabrys]

+1 on what Russell wrote:

Placement is when the song or cue is actually used in a show........

absolutely correct. And really the only barometer at the end if you are "making money" - and like any business, count on it taking a few years. The 5 year plan idea exists for a reason.

The forward ratio is only a useful ratio as a metric to track your efficiency at targeting listings. Your forwards and returns will tell you if you need to step up the quality or do a better job of sending the right stuff in........

For most people that don't have a really strong idea about what the demands are for Production Music - the first thing is how to read a brief, how to write in a stylistically correct fashion, how to produce, how to mix and master. Basically how to swing your bat and nail the pitch.

Getting a forward in some ways demonstrates that you are nailing the pitches, but there are high bar (music super listings, ad listings where they might only sign 1 piece of music in the end), Medium bar (WFH music library listings where they might sign several composers) and low bars (reality music library and other similar where larger numbers of pieces / composers might be offered a deal) - so you have to take into account whether you were trying to shoot high or low.

...........But it's not the signed forwards that are the big thing, it's what you do with that contact afterward.......

I think this is the most important thing.

Although quality is of highest importance - the next measure is quantity. it takes many many placements to create a sustained income. Signing one piece and expecting big returns is like expecting lightning to strike 3 times on the same spot. It can happen sometimes if that one piece is a high budget advertising placement that runs frequently, for a long time on major cable / networks - but again thats a major long-shot.