Anyone heard from the $150 sync fee movie?

[pwaara]

Hi everyone,
I'm curious if anyone has heard back from your forward to the independent movie that was offering a $150 sync fee for songs. I had a couple of forwards that I thought were good contenders and I was wondering if they chose someone else or if they haven't processed the forwards yet. Just curious.

[melodymessiah]

i think the chances for anyone without any serious connections and credits landing a deal like this is incredibly slim. has any taxi member ever done it?
i think it''s pretty much like getting a cut with a major label artist. these are inside placements. if you sign up with taxi to get any of these placements, you're naive. for smaller placements taxi seems to work, albeit only for a relatively small group of members.

[pwaara]

I'm pretty sure many Taxi members have gotten songs placed in small independent movies. (If any of you read this, please jump in.) And as far as small goes, this is about as small as you can get for a sync in a movie. Why would they even send a brief to Taxi if they weren't looking for music from its members? I'll keep pitching. You are free to do as you like.

[eeoo]

I had an indie movie placement through Taxi a few years back and I highly doubt I'm the only one.

EO

[Casey H]

With $150 sync, the odds, while still long, are still well within reach for unknown folks like us. Taxi members like eeoo have gotten these placements. It's the 5-6 figure syncs that generally go to known artists, making the chances for folks like us, extremely tiny.

BTW, a Taxi member friend and collaborator of mine once got a placement in a DKNY commercial (through a Taxi friendly library) that I"m sure paid 5 figures.

Best,
Casey

[VanderBoegh]

i think the chances for anyone without any serious connections and credits landing a deal like this is incredibly slim. has any taxi member ever done it?
i think it''s pretty much like getting a cut with a major label artist. these are inside placements. if you sign up with taxi to get any of these placements, you're naive. for smaller placements taxi seems to work, albeit only for a relatively small group of members.

Yep, I know PLENTY of people that have landed indie movie placements. For the price this movie is paying per sync ($150) the only thing they're likely to get the rights to are songs by people like us. If you think someone huge is willing to allow their music to be used in an indie film for a measly $150, you're nuts

Like Casey already said, it's the BIG sync fees - think mid 5 figures, to 6 figures (yes, they're out there) - where all of a sudden you might find yourself in competition with the likes of Bruno Mars, Ariana Grande, and Lil Nas X. But even still, I know people that have landed those too, and they are not "well connected" musicians.

~~Matt

[TerrellBurt]

My first ever placement in my early days as a TAXI member came from a forward and was for a documentary film. The sync fee was minimal, but was more than $150 since they used more than one song. It's not impossible if the music fits the need.

The film: https://www.amazon.com/Not-Black-Enough ... B075MX5TPQ

[melodymessiah]

damn, i think i crapped my pants. i read $150K, not just 150

[funsongs]

damn, i think i crapped my pants. i read $150K, not just 150

I thought that was a misprint, too, when I first saw that $150 'reward' for all the work it would take;
unless you, or someone, already had something in the hopper than just happened to be a good fit.
Fortunately, I didn't soil myself over it.

[admin]

We've had tons of members get indie film placements, some of which have ranged up to $1,000 if memory serves. $150 is the low end, but we'll take those if producers are active. Sometimes they come back with bigger budgets and sync fees on future films. Indie film producers love the music they get from our members, often commenting how much better it is than what they've gotten from royalty free libraries. We've had some films that have used 8, 9, 10 pieces of music from TAXI members in the same film. Those producers almost always come back for their next film. Problem is, most of them average making a new film about every third or forth year because they have to develop it, get funding, sign actors, etc.

ML