Tom, this is a hard question to answer. I do have statistics somewhere in a spreadsheet that tracks the amount of submissions, the amount of forwards, and the amount of deals. That info is saved on my studio computer, and right now I'm in my house typing this message during a rain delay for the Boise State / Boston College bowl game. Next time I'm in the studio, I'll look that up.Now, here is a question to you, that would help me as a newbie (with no placements and 1 single forward) to understand these statistics a little better: Over the years, how many submissions became forwards, how many forwards turned into deals, how many deals turned into actual placements?
# submissions : # forwards : # deals : # placements
Not sure the statistics is that straightforward. But maybe there is a number such as, out of 100 submissions you got 5 placements, or similar.I think it would put into perspective how much work even a super-successful pro as yourself has to put in to actually get placements. Also, how long on average does it take a placement to actually happen, say, from submission to airing?
But, this part: "how many deals turned into actual placements?" is pretty much impossible to answer. The reason for that is because a forwarded song that turns into a library deal will almost inevitably turn into an open-door to submit that library more music. I don't know for certain, but am almost positive that I have library deals where the library has landed me tons of placements, but never placed the original track that spawned the deal.
When it comes right down to it, I've got 25 library deals. Let's say 15 of them came as the result of Taxi forwards (a guess right now)..... those 15 tracks were essentially "door openers" that lead to the signing of hundreds of additional songs.
Other deals came to me because of my posts right here on the forums, which led to a library owner clicking on my SoundCloud link and listening to a bunch of stuff, and wanting to sign me as a composer based upon my skill set. They didn't want to sign a particular track, rather, they wanted me to write custom music for them. In a lot of these cases, the library stumbled upon tracks that I initially made for Taxi listings.
So really, it's impossible to tell. This is why Michael is always struggling to put statistics on "success figures" from Taxi members. One forwarded track that turns into a deal might only go on to make a mere $5, but the other tracks that were created because of that deal might make tens of thousands of dollars. It gets too unruly to track all of that stuff after a while. So we just collect our checks and go back to work.
~~Matt
But hey, it came in December and I know it’s the first of many!
