Resubscribed for a third year - my progress so far

[PeteCrane]

I pulled the trigger on resubscriptions for Taxi and Dispatch and thought I'd make a post on what I've achieved so far via Taxi and see if others have had a similar journey.

I'd been aware of Taxi for maaany years, maybe early 2000s, but never thought it would be for me as I make fairly obscure music (electro-industrial/EBM/aggrotech). At the start of 2020, a friend sent me a screenshot of a taxi listing looking for "Aggrotech" tracks which actually used one of my band's tracks as a reference. Simultaneously, I was just starting to start work on other soundtrack bits like an animated YouTube series. Knowing that there was an appetite out there for my kind of music in soundtracks was really eye-opening so I thought it would be worth trying.

I made a couple of tracks and submitted them. They both got through the Taxi screener and sent through to the client, who was a music library. The client contacted me and wanted to take the tracks, and since it was such an obscure genre that they weren't likely to find other composers working in, asked if I could make a full album for them and I said yes.

While this was happening, I was posting about all this on Facebook and a friend contacted me as he worked for a videogame developer and they were looking for a composer. I made a couple of demos for the game and was then contracted to make the full score. I put the above music library album on hold and completed the videogame soundtrack.

While this was happening I got hooked on writing for Taxi listings. I wrote a track for a "Cyberpunk" listing and that got a Forward by Taxi and landed in another music library. I also submitted some of my band's tracks for an non-exclusive "Industrial rock" listing, which got Forwarded and led to a music library licensing 6 of my band's tracks to their library, which they have forwarded to shows including Better Call Saul, though haven't had any placements yet.

Other Forwards I've gotten have been for orchestral-hybrid trailer-style tracks and tension cues, though I haven't heard back from Clients for these tracks yet. From the discussions on this forum, I can see that trailers is the most competitive area of music licensing, so I consider it a journey with a big learning curve ahead to land trailer tracks.

Finally, I got back to finishing that full album of "Aggrotech" tracks for the first music library I mentioned earlier this year, and they published it last month - woo! Two of the music libraries my works are published in are corresponding with me about further collections and I'm working on a new batch of "Industrial cinematic electronica" tracks for one of them. These feel like long-lasting relationships that will lead to lots of future publishing opportunities.

So all up in the first 24 months, my works have been published in a few music libraries with ongoing relationships to work on further albums, and I got a bunch of additional Forwards, all directly from Taxi. But beyond that, it's opened up the door to working as a game composer (albeit non-directly) which I'm really trying to focus on and take further.

The reason I chose to keep going with my Taxi subscription is for any tracks I make that aren't quite right for the music libraries I'm now working with, but also that I just love the process of getting feedback, taking it in and learning from it. I feel like I've grown as a composer and producer rapidly in the last 24 months from working with clients and submitting to Taxi listings and really taking in the feedback. I've been telling all my composer friends about Taxi and am very happy to keep going.

I always warn anyone about Taxi that their work is most likely to "just" end up on a music library, as direct-to-supervisor listings are rare, so they can manage their expectations. Composer friends often want to get their tracks placed directly into a movie/TV show or land a trailer straight away, and I always tell them that Taxi is not the way to get that. But with patience and the willingness to take it as a learning opportunity, it's a very good option to put yourself in a position where you tracks could be picked up.

[magicjuani]

Very inspiring story to read!

Little by little you made our way into the business, entering it with a super niche market! Congrats! You should be proud of you and YOUR way of success!

Getting feedbacks at least allow members to keep a healthy an efficient creative and business routine.

If it doesn't jeopardize any NDAs, can you tell us the names of the video games you have been credited on?

Cheers

[PeteCrane]

Thanks magicjuani!
I really like the idea of making habits, not goals. And working with Taxi makes for very good habits in terms of staying prolific and learning to take feedback.

I have also observed with composer friends that they have a misconception about the soundtrack world in that they think you have to work in wildly different styles on any given day, and be really flexible with the ability to churn out music you don't really like in order to be successful. I think that's an important thing I've learned - I feel you are far better off being authentic and doing your own sound really well. Clients will always be able to tell when something is inauthentic, and I feel you will get a lot more gigs being "the guy" to go to for a particular sound, rather than trying to do everything inauthentically. Not sure if others agree?

The game I composed the full score for is called Rise of Humanity (riseofhumanitygame.com). It's out in Early Access on Steam with half the levels implemented.

[cosmicdolphin]

I have also observed with composer friends that they have a misconception about the soundtrack world in that they think you have to work in wildly different styles on any given day, and be really flexible with the ability to churn out music you don't really like in order to be successful. I think that's an important thing I've learned - I feel you are far better off being authentic and doing your own sound really well. Clients will always be able to tell when something is inauthentic, and I feel you will get a lot more gigs being "the guy" to go to for a particular sound, rather than trying to do everything inauthentically. Not sure if others agree?

Not sure I would agree. If I just stuck to my " authentic self " I'd probably be churning out badly sung Depeche Mode type songs in a variety of minor keys. Although I'm sure I'd find them delightful and have great fun doing them, they would be pretty unusable for sync and would generate a handful of streams maybe from friends and family.

Most of the music I've had on TV is in genres I'd never really listened to let alone attempted writing prior to joining Taxi, inc. Futurebass- Dramedy - Orchestral - Trailer - Funk - Hip Hop - Dubstep - Asian... some of the genres I hadn't even heard of at all.

Yes it helps if you like the genre you are writing, and I would never write in a genre I detested ( ie. Country Music ) but I'm not sure the clients can actually tell I don't really listen to Hip Hop or know how to play any Asian instruments other than watching a few Youtube videos beforehand. As long as you're reasonably competent in the studio and your tracks sound polished and broadcast quality I think most people could tackle quite a wide range of genres if they analyze the references properly.

I can definitely say if I hadn't stretched myself and tried things outside my wheelhouse I'd have a lot less music in libraries and on TV than I do now. ( about 500 library tracks and over 300 placements )

Mark

[KCFYX]

Great story, thanks for sharing.

[PeteCrane]

Not sure I would agree. If I just stuck to my " authentic self " I'd probably be churning out badly sung Depeche Mode type songs in a variety of minor keys. Although I'm sure I'd find them delightful and have great fun doing them, they would be pretty unusable for sync and would generate a handful of streams maybe from friends and family.

Most of the music I've had on TV is in genres I'd never really listened to let alone attempted writing prior to joining Taxi, inc. Futurebass- Dramedy - Orchestral - Trailer - Funk - Hip Hop - Dubstep - Asian... some of the genres I hadn't even heard of at all.

Yes it helps if you like the genre you are writing, and I would never write in a genre I detested ( ie. Country Music ) but I'm not sure the clients can actually tell I don't really listen to Hip Hop or know how to play any Asian instruments other than watching a few Youtube videos beforehand. As long as you're reasonably competent in the studio and your tracks sound polished and broadcast quality I think most people could tackle quite a wide range of genres if they analyze the references properly.

I can definitely say if I hadn't stretched myself and tried things outside my wheelhouse I'd have a lot less music in libraries and on TV than I do now. ( about 500 library tracks and over 300 placements )

Mark

You would be surprised - the scene I'm in is entirely built on a perennial influx of artists that either rip off Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb or a combination of the two

That definitely sounds like a fun mix of genres to have a crack at writing. And that's a very impressive track record of placements!