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April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 11:42 am
by Russell Landwehr
A BIG shout out to Michael Laskow and TAXI Independent A&R. It's because of TAXI that I can make "success posts" about creating music for TV. Every bit of royalties I've collected is because of connections I've made through being a TAXI member. Joining TAXI gave me focus and direction, but above all, TAXI continues to give me insider access to top-notch production music libraries.

So here's where things stand for me as of April 2014 thru September 2017...

53 of my "music cues" collected money from:

69 episodes

12 shows (Weediquette, Noisey, Basketball Wives LA, Becoming Us, Catfish The TV Show, One Bad Choice, Are You The One?, True Life, VICE, VICE News Tonight, 16x9, I Love Kellie Pickler)

12 channels (ABC FAMILY/FUSION, CMTV, H2/VICELAND, HBO, HBO 2, HBO LATINO, HBO PLUS, HBO SIGNATURE, HBO ZONE, MTV, MTV2, VH1,)

That's 6 cable networks In the USA... plus at least 13 other countries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Hungary, Isreal, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, Peru, Romania, South Africa, Sweden) AND the UK!

As of the end of September 2017, these episodes have aired a total of 1,799 times in the USA on cable TV.

Besides the millions who watch the broadcasts, people watched these episodes on streaming services such as Amazon and HULU 27,279,397 times! (that's 27 Million with an "M")

The piece of music that makes me the most money so far is "Alternate Story". MTV's Catfish used it in three episodes, but they only used it for about the first 24 seconds of the piece... (they used it a couple of times in a couple of those episodes)...

It's earned me about $1,500 so far for the 24 seconds they liked! It's those kinds of stats that keep me composing... thinking that any one of these pieces can go out there and send me back significant $$.

You can hear "Alternate Story" here, but there's no need to go past the first 24 seconds or so.
https://soundcloud.com/russell-landwehr/alternate-story

Russell

EDIT: note that there are only three instruments in the section they used... a Kick Drum, a Throbbing Bass, and a cool Synth Pad..... hmmmm... and to think I waste all that time building EPIC cues! Hahahahahaha!

Re: April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 11:53 am
by funsongs
So - just curious: cue listings are often for the 2:00-length piece. And yet, it seems most success stories are getting "YAY!"s about placements of sections more likely 6 - 30 seconds-worth. Does it make sense, then, to compose 4 separate 'sections' of 30-second length pieces, and link them together with edit points...
almost in the fashion that Stephen Still's Suite Judy Blues eyes was 3 different songs spliced together?
It sorta seems like 2:00 of pretty much the same piece of music is superfluous.

Anyway - mega congrats on all your TAXI successes.
You ready to quit your lineman day-job yet?
From The Peanut Gallery...
CHEERS! AND - Happy St. Patty's! :? :lol:

Re: April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2018 3:42 pm
by ChrisRaggatt
Congratulations Russell. They’re awesome stats :) you must be pleased.

Just out of curiosity, those were from 59 placements, but I was wondering what your forward:placement ratio is.

Were they all from Taxi forwards, or was Taxi just how you got your foot in the door and then did you deal directly with the libraries after making the initial contact?

I’m fairly new and still finding out how it all works.

Once again congratulations on the placements, and here’s to many more.

Chris :)

Re: April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 6:11 am
by Telefunkin
Great to hear your update Russell. Its testimonies like this that keep me pushing on through the frustrations and the 'tumbleweed' after forwards. :) Thank you!
EDIT: note that there are only three instruments in the section they used... a Kick Drum, a Throbbing Bass, and a cool Synth Pad..... hmmmm... and to think I waste all that time building EPIC cues! Hahahahahaha!
There's another lesson for us all too! :)

Re: April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 4:26 pm
by MikeC
Russell thanks for sharing -its interesting information and congratulations on your
what seems to be ongoing success-
MikeC

Re: April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 4:51 pm
by Casey H
Way to go, Russell!! Congrats on all your successes!! :D :D

Maybe you can afford a shirt now for outdoor grilling? :lol:

Best
Casey

Re: April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 8:36 pm
by jdstamper
Congrats Russell, that's so great!

Jim

Re: April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 7:36 pm
by Russell Landwehr
funsongs wrote:So - just curious: cue listings are often for the 2:00-length piece. And yet, it seems most success stories are getting "YAY!"s about placements of sections more likely 6 - 30 seconds-worth. Does it make sense, then, to compose 4 separate 'sections' of 30-second length pieces, and link them together with edit points...
almost in the fashion that Stephen Still's Suite Judy Blues eyes was 3 different songs spliced together?
It sorta seems like 2:00 of pretty much the same piece of music is superfluous.

Anyway - mega congrats on all your TAXI successes.
You ready to quit your lineman day-job yet?
From The Peanut Gallery...
CHEERS! AND - Happy St. Patty's! :? :lol:
Heya Peter R! Thanks! :D

It does seem on the surface to not be worth all the effort to create a 2:00-2:30 piece of work... I have placements that are as short as 5 seconds! :o
Most of my placements are in the 30-50 second range... however... and here is the biggie, I do have quite a few placements that are more than a minute and some nearly two minutes long, clocking in at 1:56.

So, it's better to have a useful cue of the "proper" length than can be used than one that is too short so they don't even bother trying it out where they need.

I don't go for 4 sections of 30 seconds... I really try to let the feel of what I'm creating lead me to the edit points. I do try for at least two edit points. But sometimes there won't be ANY real edit points... I'm finding that underscore (specially drones) tend to be kinda of boring(ish) but useful.

Russell

Re: April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 7:42 pm
by Russell Landwehr
ChrisRaggatt wrote:Congratulations Russell. They’re awesome stats :) you must be pleased.

Just out of curiosity, those were from 59 placements, but I was wondering what your forward:placement ratio is.

Were they all from Taxi forwards, or was Taxi just how you got your foot in the door and then did you deal directly with the libraries after making the initial contact?

I’m fairly new and still finding out how it all works.

Once again congratulations on the placements, and here’s to many more.

Chris :)
Hi, Chris, Thanks! :D

The placements in these shows came from writing constantly for libraries that I signed with through TAXI forwards... it's a foot-in-the-door kind of thing. Once a library likes what TAXI sent them and they sign you, then you deal directly with the library and send your proper compositions directly to them. I don't have the exact stats on how much I've submitted through TAXI and the exact forward-to-signing ratio, but i'm pretty sure it's around 10%.

I've got a bit over 700 cues out there working for me, they certainly didn't all go through the TAXI screening process ;) BUT, they are all because of TAXI.


Russell

Re: April 2014 - September 2017

Posted: Tue Mar 20, 2018 7:45 pm
by Russell Landwehr
Thanks for the Kudos, friends... and yeah, Casey, I like to think that now I can afford the bail if the neighbors call 911 when they see me out there grilling in the topless :lol: