Taxi - is it worth it?

[mophilly]

I submitted 3 tracks for a tension cues request. You can see it here:

https://youtu.be/TKSFldNVnpw

I'll bite. First, I am new to taxi; a musician for decades; have sold nothing; just another songwriter who likes to sing.

The music line is a good idea; quality is ok. To work in a trailer, I suggest more attention to building the intensity. Start small, simple lines, then add as the trailer movies through the scenes. E.g. first encounter with the suspect should have a middle weight "heavy-ness" that pushes the ethereal lines of the simple line. Toward the end of the trailer, the music should be pushing "extreme heaviosity(TM)". The idea is to drive the emotions of the viewer toward anticipation; drive the heart beat.

I hope this helps.

[SimonF]

Thanks Mark - on the 100 tracks in 10 libraries - I'd say about half I've never seen any royalties from. Having said that I have a track with EMI - nothing for about 7 years and now it's used regularly in a Portuguese TV show. The most successful tracks are in established UK libraries (eg DeWolfe) and German libraries (eg Sonoton). The small libraries I get a bit of usage but we are literally talking cents in terms of royalties.

Simon

Good post Simon

I would say :-

1. It's only worth it if you think it's worth it - everyone's journey is unique

2. 31% Forward Rate is good so you're clearly doing something right

3. If you have 10 Publishers do you really need more ? I have 10 as well with 400 tracks signed ..I would say 3 or 4 are worth it...the rest not so much

4. Screener 309...couldn't barely ever get anything past that dude/dudette

5. Pitchy Vocals - Hear them a lot ( trained ears ) from people who swear they aren't - would have to listen to agree/disagree - sometimes they are but it doesn't matter - other times pitch is non negotiable

6. Trailer track - It's a perfectly decent tension underscore but it's nothing like the actual trailer - Doesn't work as a trailer track for me but would be fine in a TV scene

7. Songs are hard..Like really hard. Signed a few , placed none.

8. What are the results form the 100 tracks in the 10 Libs ?

Mark

[cosmicdolphin]

Thanks Mark - on the 100 tracks in 10 libraries - I'd say about half I've never seen any royalties from. Having said that I have a track with EMI - nothing for about 7 years and now it's used regularly in a Portuguese TV show. The most successful tracks are in established UK libraries (eg DeWolfe) and German libraries (eg Sonoton). The small libraries I get a bit of usage but we are literally talking cents in terms of royalties.

Simon

Good post Simon

I would say :-

1. It's only worth it if you think it's worth it - everyone's journey is unique

2. 31% Forward Rate is good so you're clearly doing something right

3. If you have 10 Publishers do you really need more ? I have 10 as well with 400 tracks signed ..I would say 3 or 4 are worth it...the rest not so much

4. Screener 309...couldn't barely ever get anything past that dude/dudette

5. Pitchy Vocals - Hear them a lot ( trained ears ) from people who swear they aren't - would have to listen to agree/disagree - sometimes they are but it doesn't matter - other times pitch is non negotiable

6. Trailer track - It's a perfectly decent tension underscore but it's nothing like the actual trailer - Doesn't work as a trailer track for me but would be fine in a TV scene

7. Songs are hard..Like really hard. Signed a few , placed none.

8. What are the results form the 100 tracks in the 10 Libs ?

Mark

Wow, that's some top tier libraries ... I would be delighted if I could get into them myself. I've tried to no avail although I've picked up a couple of Libraries with good sub publishing recently. Well done though that's some achievement.

Half your catalogue earning something is a fantastic result. I have about 30 tracks from 400 that have been on my PRO statement now and like you say some of those are not worth having they're such tiny amounts. From the many forums , articles and blogs I have followed most people seem to agree that getting 20% of your catalogue placed is good going.

Sounds like you've done well to me , better than most. I don't know how productive you are, I made an effort to do 100 tracks last year and got virtually all of them signed.

Maybe the question should not be 'is Taxi worth it ' but ' do I really need Taxi ' ? Perhaps at the stage you are at you could be filling up those existing Libraries and pitching your own albums directly.

Mark

[SimonF]

Thanks to all those who responded.

Two things that Taxi has done for me is to challenge me to write in genres that I wouldn't have normally considered before and also to up my game in terms of production techniques.

So despite a few reservations I'm going to stick with it.

Simon