Submission/Forward/Deal Statistics

[Paulie]

I'm a numbers guy, Michael used to give me crap about it. I track everything, I chart stuff, etc. MattV is right, everyone is unique, there's no real easy comparison. Just focus on writing the best music you can. Forwards are just forwards, they are a sign that your music meets a screeners bar to not jeopardize Taxi's reputation when they send music to a client. There are SO MANY variables as to what happens after a forward... and the industry has become more competitive than ever, so some people get frustrated when they don't hear back from forwards (a.k.a. "crickets").

That's why the mantra "Write, Submit, Forget, Repeat" is a thing. Don't waste time getting caught up in metrics. Use that time to study genres or work on your mixing. Figure out your goals, if you want to make a decent amount of money doing this you need to write good music, and A LOT of it. So, stop reading this and get to work!

Paulie

[Shalee]

I'm at the wonderful statistic of 0%!
Instrumentals seem to be a lot easier to place than vocal tracks for specific projects. I wish I could produce but I'm useless at it, so there's no point becoming an average producer to be competing with great producers.

I honestly don't know if I'll ever get a forward, let alone a placement through TAXI. So my team and I do our best to not get overly depressed everytime we fail to make the cut, and to utilise the listings to learn what the current market wants, and to build a large catalog of tunes in a certain style to try and promote and get in a library. So every return doesn't just end up in the dust and a waste of time because the track can get used in different areas, can get reworked, can work for a different opportunity, etc.

I dunno, I get the appeal of crunching numbers to see how you are improving but I don't think it's particularly helpful if you aren't doing as well as everyone else seems to be doing and your comparing to anyone but yourself.
That's just my two bobs worth.

[ttully]

Hi Shalee,

Guess what... EVERYONE starts at ZERO!
And NO ONE starts out as a great producer!
And MOST people will NEVER be a GREAT producer.

Yes, comparing yourself to others is not nelpful...
You can ALWAYS find people who are better than you...no matter what you are doing.

I was usless at this when I started too.... everything I did sounded terrible and like it was written by a complete amateur...because it was!!!

The ONLY way to get good at this is to keep working at it.... just like anything else.

Maybe you are not meant to be a music writer or producer or mixer.....maybe you are a guitarist or a singer or a cello player
In that case you need to find the right places and talented people to utilize your particular skills.
In any case..you have got to do your best...all the time.

It is often the people that try the hardest that SUCCEED!
Now get busy.

My 21 cents worth,
Tim

[ResonantTone]

I think you’re on to something, Tim.

I was feeling a little deflated the other day because of a couple returns. But when I got some perspective on it, returns are one of the main things at this point helping me improve. It lets me know that I need to re-evaluate and work harder at getting a song perfect for a specific listing.

I had hopes that maybe I was some hidden prodigy at cue writing, but I’ll settle for doin just ok with my first dozen or so submissions and focus on getting better every time I finalize a song.

Thanks for a good perspective on things!

Andrew

[markhimley]

Really great thread here, I hope many new members see this and soak it in.

Statistics don't matter much IMHO. Everyone's path is going to be different, there's no way around it. Yes it's a numbers game, and yes it's good to analyze your numbers in a way that you can become self aware to what IS working and what ISN'T working, but there comes a point if you think about it on an XY graph for example, where the time spent analyzing data stops being directly proportional to the gain you get from such analysis. Hope that makes sense. Most people keep analyzing way beyond this point and are constantly comparing themselves to others.

In short - use your statistics/data to figure out where you're the most successful and all that, but don't waste time comparing your data to other people's. Once you figure out the best plan of attack for yourself switch your focus to executing the plan. Then stop analyzing for a bit until you need to analyze again to make tweaks to your game plan.

Totally get why you're wondering, many of us (myself included) felt the same way starting out. I got to a point where I was constantly comparing myself to others and constantly feeling like an imposter and like it would never happen for me. Same stuff we all go through - just focus on what YOU need to do for YOUR path. Learn from others, yes, but don't try to replicate someone else's path. Take bits and pieces from everyone's advice and utilize the bits that serve you best.

You're off to a great start, just keep making forward progress one day at a time and make sure to enjoy all the little wins along the way.

[ResonantTone]

You're off to a great start, just keep making forward progress one day at a time and make sure to enjoy all the little wins along the way.

I’m making this my desktop background.

More great perspective. Thanks Mark!

Andrew

[Shalee]

I agree with everyone above.
I've been lucky in that I work entirely in a collaborative environment- so I find people who are good at things I'm not good at and we team up.
Since commenting above, I've had a few more returns... BUT... they were great returns, and only returned for very small things that can be fixed easily. I've also noticed that in all my critiques- nearly every one has said that they personally really dig the track, but can't forward it because of small problem x, y or z. As bummed as we get when we get the return, knowing that most of the time stylistically we are hitting the target (except for commercials, which I've kind of realised by listening to what gets forwarded, that more often than not the listings specifically for commercials want the tunes to slide towards the jingle side of music, and we've been building songs that don't have that jingle vibe- so the next commercial we do I'll try focusing from a jingle perspective), and it's just often production choices, shows exactly where we have to work on.

Also, I've distributed some of my rejigged returned tracks on a sync sessions EP, and the responses I'm getting from the public are AWESOME. One tracks been getting such good responses that it's gotten me paid work toplining because producers have liked that specific track and want that vibe on their own stuff. I'm also gearing up to start promoting heavily to local businesses/gyms/social influencers to really get the tunes out there and working.

It's all a development game, and I do have to say, even though I haven't had a forward yet, my writing game has upped so much since joining TAXI. The listings give me a great idea of what's in, and what industry is looking for, and having briefs is allowing my brain to come up with songs that I would never have come up with without the listing, so I'm expanding my linguistics, my structures, and my melodies and writing some of my best stuff. My latest listing I wrote, produced and submitted on my own could potentially be one of my strongest and most empowering songs I've ever written in the 15 years I've been writing (and one of my best vocal deliveries as well).

So the moral of the story is HOORAY, go taxi, go collaboration, and go growing and getting better everyday!

[ttully]

Hey Andrew,

I wouldn't feel too bad about getting a few returns....
I just counted all of mine.... 839 so far.... you got a long way to go to catch me!!!


My 839 cents,
Tim

[ttully]

HEY Tom,

Ha...good one!!!!

As you can see...I did pretty much everything wrong that was possible....
Along the way, I even invented a few new ways to write bad stuff!

Tim

[ResonantTone]

Tim,

Man, if I can get half the determination you have had in this game, I think I'm in a good spot. The more I read and listen to those that have done this successfully, the more I understand that having that kind of determination and perseverance far outweighs the actual numbers and ratios I originally posted about.

Andrew