Wanna talk about film/tv?

[arkjack]

Hi Gang...I know many of you have been gracious to share your experience and knowledge on this subject on previous posts ..... its a good subject to keep reviewing....I've been trying to figure out the film/TV part of this business and feel like I'm still stumbling. Basically I signed onto Taxi as a songwriter looking for nashville artist cuts. Thats still my goal, but I would like to tap the library part as well.So I have the backing tracks to the songs I've produced for pitches and if I can tweak the quality a little more I can get to broadcast level. Some questions are still rolling around in my brain.If I'm submitting a backing track that is basically chord progression and fills, is it something they might use? Would it be better to have an insturment solo on the melody? or a little of both?If I do the song as an instrumental and it gets a forward and a contract, would that be preclusive to continuing to use the chord progression and melody for a song pitch?M.L. suggests watching TV with your back to the screen to get a real idea of what kind of music is used.... Always enjoying the dialogue....ArkJack

[gitarrero]

Hi Ark,here are some usefull articles about the tv/film thing:http://taxi.com/faq/ftv/index.html#q1your questions: I think there is no hard and fast rule - it depends on what the listing party is looking for. Just go through the taxi listings and you should get an impression of what they search - and yes: there are possiblities for backing tracks without any prominent melody.Actually the tracks I currently got in the MTV shows are all just backing tracks (HipHop, RnB) and I got quite a lot forwards on backing tracks in the poprock-genre.anyway, the quality (from the composition and the production) needs to be good - but I guess I don't tell you anything new with this;)Also, you need to own the master and publishing rights on your tracks - if you've hired studio musicians for example, you need to have a release form from them.hope that helps,cheers, Martin

[davewalton]

Quote:I've been trying to figure out the film/TV part of this business and feel like I'm still stumbling. Basically I signed onto Taxi as a songwriter looking for nashville artist cuts. Thats still my goal, but I would like to tap the library part as well.Yep, there's no reason why you should pass up an alternative method of gaining access to "the industry". Quote:If I'm submitting a backing track that is basically chord progression and fills, is it something they might use? Would it be better to have an insturment solo on the melody? or a little of both?They use these simple "backing tracks" all the time so that's not really an issue. From my limited but growing experience with music libraries and television placement, I'd say that the focus is on the emotion of the song (happy, sad, mysterious) more than the sophistication of the composition of the song. If it's easily definable in terms of its emotion then the issue of whether or not there's a melody is kind of a minor thing and maybe not of much consequence. Personally, I'd try adding a lead melody and see how it sounds. It might be better or it might make it too busy.The hardest thing I struggle with is that many times simple works over sophisticated. I keep telling myself that and usually whenever I turn something in for the Oprah thing that I think is WAY too sparse, it's exactly what they wanted. I'm still not used to that and I'm still finding my way to strike that balance. That'll just take time and experience though a little bit more trial and error.Dave

[horacejesse]

Dave,What format do the Oprah people want the music delivered in?

[matto]

"Backing tracks" can work although it's always better to also have a version with some kind of melodic focus, unless you're talking about a textural composition.However: you CANNOT sign the backing track for an existing song to one publisher and the song itself to another UNLESS they are both non-exclusive deals. It's still one composition, just different versions of it.

[sgs4u]

Hey I have a question for you all, I made a 12 song recording a few years ago with a small band of my friends, all Tony Bennet & Sinatra covers. The singer pressed 500 CDs, and paid the rights correctly to be allowed to sell them up here in Canada. He gave most of them away. I also mixed band/backing tracks because I thought I'd have a use for them one day. Are these backing tracks applicable to film/TV listings? It's all well-recorded, great musicians doing small band versions of very popular jazz standard songs with pretty stellar arrangements. What kind of listing(s) come up that these might be appropriate for? Will I ever be able to use them for anything? steve

[arkjack]

In my year in taxi I've seen one or two listings for covers.... I am sure there is alot of menusha in clearing the use as well as you needing clearance from all the performers on the track.... you may need to research more and analyze the inventory to see what is usable immediately and what needs to go through the hoops...ArkJAck

[davewalton]

Quote:Dave,What format do the Oprah people want the music delivered in?Ultimately we give them 16-bit 48kHz WAV files and these are delivered on data DVD's. Same with the other projects I've worked on (the little films and such) - 16-bit 48kHz format. All have been WAV files with only one film I think specifically requesting AIFF format.

[gitarrero]

Quote:I also mixed band/backing tracks because I thought I'd have a use for them one day. Are these backing tracks applicable to film/TV listings? steveMaybe - it depends on if YOU own the master rights for these records, and you also need to own the rights on the performances of the songs. This is the case if you did all the recordings AND let each musician sign a release form. You can't own the publishing here since the songs are cover songs.there might be some oppurtunity for that, although I know more for the type of "replacing" tracks (i.e. the track should sound like a known song, but needs to be a complete new composition itself).cheers,Martin

[matto]

Quote: Hey I have a question for you all, I made a 12 song recording a few years ago with a small band of my friends, all Tony Bennet & Sinatra covers. The singer pressed 500 CDs, and paid the rights correctly to be allowed to sell them up here in Canada. He gave most of them away. I also mixed band/backing tracks because I thought I'd have a use for them one day. Are these backing tracks applicable to film/TV listings? It's all well-recorded, great musicians doing small band versions of very popular jazz standard songs with pretty stellar arrangements. What kind of listing(s) come up that these might be appropriate for? Will I ever be able to use them for anything? steveTo be honest, chances that you'll be able to use this for film/tv are extremely slim. As Martin points out, even if you owned the recording and had all the releases, you don't own the songs, therefore any production company who wanted to use those tracks would still have to license the songs themselves from the respective publishers. Since these are presumably well known songs, that would likely be costly and somewhat of a hassle.The reason music supervisors like music libraries is that they can clear a song with one phone call, since the library owns (or is rightfully representing) both publishing and master rights for their songs.Now if you had ORIGINAL songs you wrote yourselves in that style, that sound like they COULD be Bennet/Sinatra covers (or even long lost originals ), with a good convincing crooner vocal and good sounding tight live arrangements/recordings ...then I think you'd find a lot of music libraries and music supervisors interested...matto