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Hello,

I’m new to TAXI but I’m attending the Road Rally. I wanted to get some thoughts from the Road Rally veterans regarding my particular circumstances.

My background: I write songs but I’m not a stage musician. My role model is a pro like Diane Warren who is a pure songwriter but not a public performer. My focus is writing mainstream pop music for female singers. I’m wondering if I’m a minority at TAXI and therefore, I could use some extra tips for making more effective use of the convention?

I’m not really interested in submitting to music libraries for film/TV. The Road Rally seems weighted toward this niche. These types of sync license deals seem to be the most popular among TAXI members but that may be me just misreading things.

Is there advice for navigating the Road Rally considering the genre I’m working in? Are there like-minded folks of pop hit writers that naturally cluster as a subgroup at the Road Rally? I’m not necessarily looking for co-writers but it’d be great to meet songwriters doing the same type of work I am. To me, I think the networking aspect with other TAXI members is more valuable than trying to fight the mob (that'd be us, lol) for face time with the major-label A&R reps after their panel concludes.

Thanks for the info. I'm looking forward to meeting everyone.

I'd hardly call film/TV a niche, since it's where most of the paying opportunities for new music are, particularly if you don't want to spend 80% of your time promoting your music, rather than writing and recording it. If you're a 'pure' songwriter, you'll need a team to allow you to focus on that, and the Rally's a great place to meet people. I would opine that non-performing songwriters need the Rally even more than performers do; I can always sell stuff at my shows, but you're going to need some different strategies, which you can learn more about at the Rally.

Sorry, I didn't intend the "niche" to be derogatory. I'm aware that flm/tv placement is considered the "new AM & FM radio" and that more of the income of the Big-4 publishers actually derives from sync licenses (film+tv+advertising+etc) and not the mechanical royalties flowing from record company CD sales.

Can RR veterans give any insight to the (informal) statistics of attendees? I think I read the attendance is about 2000. What percentages would you guess for particular clusters? Is it mostly film/TV composers? Or songwriters? And within the songwriter subset... are they mostly the country genre focusing on Nashville? Or is it pop top-40? I know TAXI didn't collect formal surveys for this but I'm just curious of any educated guesses based on members' observations at previous events.

That's a good and fair question. I don't know the answer and I doubt if Taxi does. It's a useful thing to know, so maybe they should do a survey; I don't know of a better way to collect that kind of info, though there might be others. (oh, and I'm not offended by your use of the term niche; just mildly in disagreement, k?)

I'm always amazed at the amount of songwriters and artists that attend the road rally. The lure of a record deal, or a placement with an artist, is still a big magnet these days, although more and more artists and writers are seeing the reality of film/tv placements as a good way to generate income from their music while chasing the dream of a signing or placement.

The forum, at least the places I navigate to, might be somewhat skewed towards film/tv, but you have to remember that the market for production music (music for film/tv) far outstrips the market for songs written specifically for artists. There are literally millions of slots for music on TV (not to mention slots in web video, corporate video, infomercials, etc.) and probably hundreds of slots, it that, on albums by singers that don't write their own music (a rarity these days).

If I were in your shoes, I'd be at the rally looking for collaborators, singers, producers and folks to pitch not only your songs for artist cuts, but also for placements. There's no reason these days not to produce "masters" as demos and try to license them. There also may be up and coming artists looking for songs to cut.

Going to the rally with a goal is a good strategy, but also be open to what you might discover that you never even considered.

Have fun!

Mazz

The rally always has TONS of classes on the pure art of songwriting-- lyrics, melody, etc. Some of the best songwriting gurus in the biz (Jason Blume, John Braheny, Jai Josefs, Pat Pattison and MANY more) teach classes so there's plenty outside the pure film/TV realm.

Did you check out the rally class schedule?
http://www.taxi.com/rally/index-ballroom.html

Look through the panels and breakout classes. I think that will answer your question.

Hope to meet you there!
Casey

Welcome Jason,
Like you, I am a songwriter. Are you mainly a composer or lyricist? What instruments do you play?
Each of us has his/her own strengths and weaknesses and I'm guessing you know pretty well where you want to find help. While I look forward to meeting you, comparing notes with each other would probably be less productive than looking for people to fill the niches (different meaning from earlier use of the word) lacking substance in our songwriting and business skills.

My recommendation is to get in the registration line early (hours before noon) Thursday in order to sign up for the mentor session with one of your top picks from the list. Deciding your favorites and numbering them 1 through 20 or higher, depending on how close you get to the front of the line, will give you the best chance of pairing with someone who can give you the advice you seek.

Going through the list of workshops and classes can be dizzying. As soon as you get it, you can map out your activities for the whole rally. Then when you get into fascinating conversations with dots, instructors, or people you met in line with you, you can change your itinerary. But you already will have an informative basis for all your decisions. And don't worry, almost any class you miss will be available again next year.

Meet you soon,
Bette

mazz wrote:, but also for placements. There's no reason these days not to produce "masters" as demos and try to license them. ...

The only reason I can think of for avoiding (over-eager) licensing is that the songwriter loses control over the "first release." I'm not an expert on copyright but I would assume that placing the music in a TV show will count as a "commercial release." Therefore, the songwriter loses that leverage to help shop an "unreleased" song to competing producers & singers with more potential sales$.

Granted, it might be delusions of grandeur to even think strategically about such things at this point. I do think the autopilot decision to license to TV is easier for the self-contained singer&songwriter than a non-performing songwriter. The self-contained artist is all about exposure. The non-performing writer needs some exposure too but the equation is a little different it seems.

Another complication with film/tv is that you need to have a ton of songs (or cues). I just don't have 100+ songs in me. That's not self-deprecation -- it's just the reality of how fast I actually work. At this point, I've got 11 songs with vocals.

mazz wrote: There also may be up and coming artists looking for songs to cut.

Yep, that would be cool to run into those folks. However, I think I'm realistic in assuming most singers attending will prefer their own material. I'll keep my antenna up.

bete wrote: Are you mainly a composer or lyricist? What instruments do you play?

I write both the music & lyrics. I handle drums, piano, guitar. Basically, I try to produce the whole song as much as I can except for vocals and cellos. I'll try to post some songs before the Rally. In any case, I'll definitely bring my iPod + headphones for anyone to hear my material.

Casey H wrote: The rally always has TONS of classes on the pure art of songwriting

Ok, I see the classes. However, I'm really going for networking mostly with other TAXI members. I consider meeting the A&R reps as a "bonus". I also consider the songwriting workshops a "bonus." Of course, I'll take advantage of whoever and whatever is offered! In the end, it's the attendees themselves that's the primary draw for me and not the structured activities.

I've never been around a group of people that write songs so this will be a new experience for me. Ok, based on the responses, I guess it's best to hang out and see what chance meetings happen. It doesn't look like there's a bulletin board to act as matchmaker and perhaps 2000 attendees is small enough that it's not required.