Advice from Road Rally Works
Posted: Tue May 16, 2017 7:02 am
I attended my first Road Rally in 2015. At the time I had a handful of licensing deals under my belt with about 5 companies, all attained through Taxi listings. I had absolutely no placements at that time. I was feeling both excited and discouraged.
I attended the Rally and took every bit of advice I could. A couple things really stuck with me though:
1) Stick to what you can do really well. Honestly, I had been trying to pitch to every listing I thought I could possibly get. But that wasn't working a lot of the time. So, after the Rally, I really dug in and just tackled the listings that I thought I could really connect with. Right away, I was getting way more forwards and much fewer returns.
2) Write often. Previously, I was sort of taking my time, maybe putting out one instrumental cue a week if I was lucky, and if I did a song with vocals it was a few weeks in the making. After the Rally, I really took this advice and started pumping out 2 or 3 cues per week (except for big orchestral cues, those I was still lucky to do 1 per week given I only have a couple hours each day to work).
3) Write, Submit, Forget, Repeat. Best advice ever. I don't allow myself to be tied to my cues emotionally. I write them, put them in my catalog, pitch them wherever they might fit, and then let them go. But I don't wait for anything. As soon as one cue is done, then next one begins.
Since that road rally, I've bumped my libraries from 5 to nearly 15, and I've written about 150 pieces of music. Best of all, of those 150, I think about 135 of them are already signed to libraries, many of them even done as work-for-hire.
And to top it off, I've gone from 0 placements to almost 100 now, and changed my ASCAP royalties from somewhere around $0 per quarter to over $1500 per quarter -- and they just keep growing.
Honestly, Taxi has really pushed me so far in such a short time, but the information and contacts I made via the Rally have been an enormous boost to my success. I can't wait for Rally 2017!
I attended the Rally and took every bit of advice I could. A couple things really stuck with me though:
1) Stick to what you can do really well. Honestly, I had been trying to pitch to every listing I thought I could possibly get. But that wasn't working a lot of the time. So, after the Rally, I really dug in and just tackled the listings that I thought I could really connect with. Right away, I was getting way more forwards and much fewer returns.
2) Write often. Previously, I was sort of taking my time, maybe putting out one instrumental cue a week if I was lucky, and if I did a song with vocals it was a few weeks in the making. After the Rally, I really took this advice and started pumping out 2 or 3 cues per week (except for big orchestral cues, those I was still lucky to do 1 per week given I only have a couple hours each day to work).
3) Write, Submit, Forget, Repeat. Best advice ever. I don't allow myself to be tied to my cues emotionally. I write them, put them in my catalog, pitch them wherever they might fit, and then let them go. But I don't wait for anything. As soon as one cue is done, then next one begins.
Since that road rally, I've bumped my libraries from 5 to nearly 15, and I've written about 150 pieces of music. Best of all, of those 150, I think about 135 of them are already signed to libraries, many of them even done as work-for-hire.
And to top it off, I've gone from 0 placements to almost 100 now, and changed my ASCAP royalties from somewhere around $0 per quarter to over $1500 per quarter -- and they just keep growing.
Honestly, Taxi has really pushed me so far in such a short time, but the information and contacts I made via the Rally have been an enormous boost to my success. I can't wait for Rally 2017!