Musicians Collaboration Studio
Virtual Music Studio => Finished Works => Topic started by: CosmicDolphin on April 03, 2016, 08:19:13 AM
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2016...decided it was time to actually DO something with the music I spend so much time on so I've been focusing my efforts on writing instrumentals this year for film & TV pitches so I thought I would share a few of them with you guys. It's a big learning curve for sure, and I'm doing it with my long time mate of 40yrs Dale so he plays all the guitars and I do all they keys/electronica/mixing. We've joined TAXI after lurking there for about 15yrs..finally decided they are legit haha. It costs but it's not that expensive if you split it with a writing partner and only the same cost a a shiny new piece of gear each year.
The reason I joined now is because there are more & more instrumental opportunities and as neither of us are real "vocalists" it seemed ideal. Here are a few of the tracks I've done this year.
Set for Stun is Electro House
Rezonator is Dark Eletronic Underscore
Little Bombs is Electro Pop
Back to The Hills is Old Skool Hip Hop
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THAT´s the reason for being so quite here...! IC!
They all sound cool and decent!
Any resonance so far?
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THAT´s the reason for being so quite here...! IC!
They all sound cool and decent!
Any resonance so far?
Part of the reason yeah..I still check in though and sneak around though.
So far since the start of Feb we have submitted 20 pieces of music. Takes 4-6 weeks to hear back...5 have been "returned" ( they don't like to call it "rejected" Lol ) and 4 have been " Forwarded " ....that means they are sent on to the Music Supervisor or Music Library Owners Etc. The rest are all Pending at the moment..We just carry on writing while we wait.
Actually those are good numbers from what I have read in their forums, the top people seem to have about 60+ percent of stuff forwarded. Some people take 6 months before getting their music good enough to be forwarded...some never get one at all.
A Forward is no guarantee of anything other than that it has been shortlisted and will be listened to by the right people, but get enough of them and eventually things will happen. It's a bit of a numbers game so we have committed to 10 per month which is manageable between us..I hardly ever watch TV or anything !
A lot of these pieces of music go into libraries that music supervisors go to for putting into reality TV shows and stuff like that, some of them are for Network TV shows and movies as well though.
There's tons of of listings every month for all sorts of music, I'm tending to go for the electronic stuff and my mate is doing the guitar driven stuff.
He's beating me 3 -1 at the moment out of the 4 forwarded tracks ! Although like he said if I hadn't mixed them for him they probably wouldn't have sounded professional enough.
Like I say, BIG learning curve and no money probably for 18-24 months out of any deals struck but the ones who stick at it seem to to pretty well.
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Sounding great, CD!!
Best of luck to you both!
Frank
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Sounding great, CD!!
Best of luck to you both!
Frank
Cheers Zax
Had a Music Library in LA email us about signing one the tracks they received from Taxi last night, just waiting to find out which track it is and what the deal is !
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Very cool. Good luck.
Paul
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Very cool. Good luck.
Paul
Cheers Paul..surprising what can happen when you put your mid to it...Only 11 weeks after we started and things are already happening. I just read a post on one of their forums from a guy who has submitted 60 pieces over 3 years all rejected !
So we are surprised but delighted to have hit the ground running
CD
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THAT´s the reason for being so quite here...! IC!
They all sound cool and decent!
Any resonance so far?
Doc
You'll be interested to know all of these have been "screened" now by Taxi... 3 of these 4 were rejected..one was put forward which was " Back to The Hills "
Rezonator was too repetitive
Set for Stun was not "engaging enough"
Little Bombs..said was a good piece but not right for the pitch, needed to sound more "band-like"
The good news is I can work on them and resubmit them to another opportunity but we've had 9 pieces put forward now out of 20
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Nice Mark
My 2 cents
Stun - The stop (non-sequence) at 0:28 kills the momentum of the song IMO. Lots of potential. Not enough happening musically.
Resonator - not enough happening musically IMO. Lots of potential.
Little Bombs - not enough happening musically IMO. Lots of potential.
Back To The Hills - - not enough happening musically IMO. Lots of potential. The best one of all.
If you are looking for collaborators, I would be glad to help with composition, I will need the midi.
:)
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Nice Mark
My 2 cents
Stun - The stop (non-sequence) at 0:28 kills the momentum of the song IMO. Lots of potential. Not enough happening musically.
Resonator - not enough happening musically IMO. Lots of potential.
Little Bombs - not enough happening musically IMO. Lots of potential.
Back To The Hills - - not enough happening musically IMO. Lots of potential. The best one of all.
If you are looking for collaborators, I would be glad to help with composition, I will need the midi.
:)
Hey Gary, Back to the Hills has already been deemed good enough and sent to the music library owners for them to consider.
As for the rest I can't collaborate on them as I'm doing this 50/50 with my friend and writing partner, and we are signed up with PRS but anyone can join Taxi if they wish to.
CD
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OK
I haven't joined Taxi yet, not sure when I will
You could also post them on iTunes, if you're a member of a Performing Rights Organization you can get royalties from every download. It's not a lot but its something and you can build an audience that way too.
good luck
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Sorry yes you are with PRS you probably also need a publisher account.
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Sorry yes you are with PRS you probably also need a publisher account.
If you place it in a Library they act as the Publisher
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yes Taxi gets 50% for being publisher. It only costs $50.00 here in the states to become a publisher and 5 minutes of your time. if you're your own publisher you can rake in 50% more money. That's how the states do it anyway.
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yes Taxi gets 50% for being publisher. It only costs $50.00 here in the states to become a publisher and 5 minutes of your time. if you're your own publisher you can rake in 50% more money. That's how the states do it anyway.
Taxi aren't the Publisher mate and take no cut of any deal you may get...they just run listings of what their clients are looking for and pass the best ones over to the Library / Music Supervisor / whoever needs it. Any subsequent dealings are directly between you and the client..once your track is with their client Taxi's part is done. The Library is normally the publisher, and yes most publisher splits are 50/50 as you say.
Sure you could set yourself up as your own publisher if you wanted to..but who is going to sign any music off you? The music supervisors in the TV & Movie companies go to Music Libraries that Taxi is sending your music to, they won't sign stuff from an individual person like you or me.
The value of Taxi is in the network of clients they have all looking for music who won't take unsolicited material...but they WILL listen to the the stuff Taxi sends them as they will only send what they think are the best submissions.
Not just a case of how good the music is but also of having contacts..once you get friendly with some Libraries they often sign a bunch more stuff from composers directly.
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agree
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some cool ideas here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZKlUthsPo
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some cool ideas here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uZKlUthsPo
Yes..good videos..have watched most all of them but urge others to watch if interested
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I like the anthem stuff with Fun. at 1:08 just a drum beat with a simple melody cool and catchy
I'm watching more of the TAXI videos
yes Taxi is the way to go to build a library and they make all the connections
;D
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yes Taxi is the way to go to build a library and they make all the connections
;D
Definitely one of the ways...I think you really need your s**t together though and be open to getting a fair amount of rejection as well as paying for the privilege...But learn to fail fast and immerse yourself more in what's happening musically today.
It's not everyone's cup of tea, and sometimes there's only a a few days to turn out a quality instumental.
I started this one last night, and it needs to finished tomorrow ! :o ..It's a Trance tune
https://soundcloud.com/cosmicdolphin/dance-of-the-dolphins-test-mix-3
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the link doesn't work
;D
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the link doesn't work
;D
My Bad..I think I set it to private
Try this, still got another night to work on it
https://soundcloud.com/cosmicdolphin/dance-of-the-dolphins-test-mix-2/s-tmq5y
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very busy tune, I would drop the bpm down a couple beats. maybe?
good luck with it!
:)
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very busy tune, I would drop the bpm down a couple beats. maybe?
good luck with it!
:)
Similar BPM to the reference tracks but I can see where you're coming from
This is one of the examples given.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8hSy1NoFYw
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Mark, what DAW are you using?
sounds like ladd?
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Mark, what DAW are you using?
sounds like ladd?
Sonar 8.5 ...still going strong lol
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and VSTi plug ins?
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and VSTi plug ins?
Yes got many many
Z3TA , FM8 , Pro 53 , Arturia collection, Spark etc.
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Hi Mark,
All the best with the project.
Hope to see your name up in lights soon!!
Andy
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Hi Mark,
All the best with the project.
Hope to see your name up in lights soon!!
Andy
Have signed first contract with an LA Based Library that supply MTV..background cues for reality shows..they use tons of 'em if you watch. No name in lights though lol
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Now the force must be with you, Jedi.
Hi Mark,
All the best with the project.
Hope to see your name up in lights soon!!
Andy
Have signed first contract with an LA Based Library that supply MTV..background cues for reality shows..they use tons of 'em if you watch. No name in lights though lol
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yes, that is a good start Mark.
Andy
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Update:---- 8)
Wow has it really been this long. Just thought I would update you with where we are at now !
Things are starting to take shape. I think we're making better music now than the last time I posted. We've been signed up by 3 more Music Libraries in 2017....2 in the US and one here in the UK and we supplied a bunch more stuff to the one we already started working with in 2016.
Between those 4 Libraries we have over 100 tracks signed, some exclusively but the majority non-exclusively so we can use them elsewhere too.
The back end of last year saw us starting to hear about a few placements we've had in TV shows.
1 - You're the One - Second Chances on MTV used 30 secs of one of my Dubtep cues
https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/so-much-for-the-battle
2 - We got one of our songs used in a TV show called Abandoned on Viceland
3 - We had a soundalike track that was a bit like " Lust For Life " used in a Radio Ad for the last 3 months of 2017
We've yet to receive any royalties as the uses were all in a different country to our own performing rights society so they run 6 - 9 months behind but we are gradually seeing a bit of traction with placements.
We won't get rich off any of these ! You just have to have lots of 'em ..maybe in 10yrs I can quite the day job.
Here is an example of my my most recent track...I feel my mixes are getting slicker, it's just the constant practice ::)
https://soundcloud.com/cosmicdolphin/you-know-it-final-mix-mastered/s-gDtOu
CD
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8) 8) 8)
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8) 8) 8)
Hey Doc !
Got another small but worthwhile update, one of the submissions we made via Taxi has resulted in Music Library called InStyle Music getting in touch about one of our songs.
We've signed up with them now but it has opened the door to submit music for all the TV shows they work with...they just put a call out for Season 15 of Keeping Up With The Kardashians so between now and the end of March we can submit to try and get our music into that.
I know a few people from the Taxi forums who have had placements in the same show and they say they make good money from them so fingers crossed we can get a few things in it.
CD
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8) 8) 8)
Hey Doc !
Got another small but worthwhile update, one of the submissions we made via Taxi has resulted in Music Library caled InStyle music getting in touch about one of our songs.
We've signed up with them now but it has opened the door to submit music for all the TV shows they work with...they just put a call out for Season 15 of Keeping Up With The Kardashians so between now and the end of March we can submit to try and get our music into that.
I know a few people from the Taxi forums who have had placements in the same show and they say they make good money from them so fingers crossed we can get a few things in it.
CD
Wow!
I wish you luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When you get to the Grammy´s then and you meet Kim K. please touch her butt and say hello for me!
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8) 8) 8)
Hey Doc !
Got another small but worthwhile update, one of the submissions we made via Taxi has resulted in Music Library caled InStyle music getting in touch about one of our songs.
We've signed up with them now but it has opened the door to submit music for all the TV shows they work with...they just put a call out for Season 15 of Keeping Up With The Kardashians so between now and the end of March we can submit to try and get our music into that.
I know a few people from the Taxi forums who have had placements in the same show and they say they make good money from them so fingers crossed we can get a few things in it.
CD
Wow!
I wish you luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When you get to the Grammy´s then and you meet Kim K. please touch her butt and say hello for me!
Haha..her butt scares me..I ain't going near that thing
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Cosmic,
Great news, best of luck!
Andy
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Cosmic,
Great news, best of luck!
Andy
Cheers Andy, hope you are well mate.
I'll update you when I actually get paid for something ! ::)
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This seems really interesting stuff Mark well done indeed
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LOL@Henry and Kim K.'s butt!!
Congratulations Mark, wishing you much more success! :)
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This seems really interesting stuff Mark well done indeed
Thanks Stoney
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LOL@Henry and Kim K.'s butt!!
Congratulations Mark, wishing you much more success! :)
Cheers -I will update any progress :)
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When you get to the Grammy´s then and you meet Kim K. please touch her butt and say hello for me!
Hey Doc I have a butt update for you and the guys.
Things have been going fairly slowly all year but we've been really busy writing music and these past few weeks has seen a couple of my tracks appear in Keeping Up With The Kardashians from the stuff I placed with the Library mentioned previously Instyle Music. They supply quite a few different shows and I've got about 25 tracks with them now.
The first one was very much in the background..A Future Bass cue that I wrote...but the latest one was more featured and I got a spot over 30s which is good for reality TV especially one that popular.
The track I wrote is called Velocity ..kinda synth pop , they basically have briefs and refernce tracks to give an idea what they want and then you can submit for consideration, you can hear my track here :
https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/velocity-as-heard-in-keeping-up-with-the-kardashians-s15-e11
If you want to see it in action you it's around 11:20 on this video : https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6wdr27
So I wrote that back in February not long after my previous post about them gathering music for the show ..some of the stuff I submittted was rejected but I got 8 accepted so those would end up in folder sent to the music supervisor on the show by the Library along with everyone else's and then it's just pot luck I guess if it fits a scene.
So 7 or 8 months later it's aired and in about a year or more I'll get paid royalties through PRS which is our PRO here in the UK. It's avery long funnel from writing to getting paid for anything and I am still awaiting payment on the other placements but I don't expect it to be much. The Kardashians should be a better paid gig.
In other news we got into another Library called Lab Hits ( we auditioned with some rejected music that we wrote for Instyle lol ) and the owner asked for an albums worth so I spent about 9 weeks on that little project
That Album is called " Rage Quit " and you can listen to it on the Lab Hits website. It's about 7 rows down on the album page as I did that back in July now..
https://labhits.sourceaudio.com/#!albums
We also contributed to a few other albums on there :
Panic Cage ( the title track is mine plus a few others : Raw Bones & Discompusure : )
Just Let Go ( we also did the title track to this one as well as Yesterdays Dream and Fallen Dreams )
War Tribe ( Dystopean Horde : Savage Freedom : Tribal Solsitice : Sirrocco Sunset )
It's been a ton of work but it's fun to make try all different types of music. Sometimes it's hard when you spend a week on a track and it gets rejected but 90% has been accepted overall and sometimes one Library rejection leads to another opportunity.
The worst thing is probably the delay between writing something and getting paid for it..the pipeline is about 3yrs long even if you are writing good music they need at a good standard. It's hard to be motivated to keep at it sometimes but deadlines help and when you see your track on TV and know that millions of people will eventually hear it that's kinda cool. Even if they will never know it's you !
We are currently writing a new album with the idea of pitching it to a new library , it's hybrid rock / electronic. We imagine it in Extreme Sports type stuff maybe. We will see how that turns out !
CD
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Sounds great CD. you really have that EDM down!
The mixes are clean, driven and pump!
Good luck buddy!
NickT
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Sounds great CD. you really have that EDM down!
The mixes are clean, driven and pump!
Thanks Nick, yeah it's been a big learning curve..very different to mixing a Rock song with vocals and real drums etc. I can understand why these Superstar Mixers stay mostly in one lane. I've probably been averaging 1.5 new tracks & mixes per week so after almost 3yrs of that kind of schedule your ears become more attuned to smaller things. I can hear quite plainy now on some of my old mixes when things aren't quite balanced properly, like a lead part is 1db too loud for example. Sticks out to me now..it's just practice I guess.
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Mark,
What are your favorite synths right now?
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Mark,
What are your favorite synths right now?
For that tune I used Sylenth - Nexus 2 & Massive as the main ones..there's probably a part off something else but I could quite happily live with those.
Edit..couple of things I wouldn't want to be without for making EDM - OTT plugin which is free..slap it on any synth and it suddenly sounds more modern, and Xfer Records LFOTool to get that sidechain vibe they all use now.
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-- Update ---
Been a little while so I thought I would update you guys.
I am just about into double figures now for placements TV shows now, the latest being The Challenge where I had 2 tunes in one episode which amounted to almost 2 minutes of music.
I've updated the placements playlist if anyone wants to listen : https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/sets/as-heard-on-tv
I still haven't been paid any royalties ! I was hoping something would have come through by now but because they are all U.S shows and I am in the UK's performing right's organisation there is a huge lag between stuff airing and it making through the system to this side of the pond, some of the stuff aired over a year ago that I am still waiting on.
I made the tough business decision recently to end the 50/50 Lennon & McCartney style Royalty split with my friend Dale at the end of this year. When we started all this 3.5 yrs ago I honestly thought his music ( which is all mixed / produced by me ) would stand as much chance of gaining some TV spots as mine so it would balance out but every track that has been used so far has been 100% written and produced by myself although he still gets half as that's the deal we shook hands on at the outset.
As time has gone on it's become very one sided with each placement coming from my solo tracks - I think it's around 13 Vs Zero now and I don't feel that musically he has adapted or upped his game as much as I have over the last few years and it's eaten up a lot of my time trying to fix tracks or make them sound more up to date of his. I have told him this and he is cool with my own stuff just being mine going forward although we will still work on some 50/50 co writes and I am teaching him to mix his own tunes so he can fly solo.
We have approx 250 cues in various libraries - they reckon about 20% of your tracks end up getting used so we are still a way off that metric. Need to keep on plugging away.
One library offered to pay us $50 per track up front so we've done a bunch of those but they also take half the writers royalty share so we are down to 25% each on those but at least we have a little cash for them. Those along with a few micro-licences ( I've had a couple of cues use by Greenpeace on their Youtube channel ) add up to £235 earned so far each in 2019. That's up on last year which was £127.
It's a tough gig but I am pushing onward !
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Great update Dolphin and sounds encouraging too...
All the best for 2019 (the rest of it anyways).
ANdy
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Great update Dolphin and sounds encouraging too...
All the best for 2019 (the rest of it anyways).
ANdy
Cheers Andy. I thought it would be a good realistic overview for anyone that's interested in this sort of thing.
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Nice update!
Best of luck!
NickT
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Thought I would report a bit more progress for those still following...
Placements : Placements are up to 20 now. We've had some stuff used on a couple of German TV shows on RTL as well as some other placements on shows 'airing' on Snapchat & Facebook ( I wasn't even aware they made their own content )
A few other placements have popped up too, most notably an EDM track of mine got picked up for a scripted drama called Good Trouble - It was in a scene where the characters are in a club, and when the DJ spins the decks it's my track that plays...not that you get to hear much of it as they cut away and then talk over the bloody thing !
https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/remember-this-night-good-trouble-s2-e3
Scripted drama can usually pay more than Reality shows because they have much bigger budgets, so the production company actually paid $600 to the Library to use it, then the library split it 50-50 ...and even though I wrote it entirely myself I was doing the 50-50 split thing with my buddy as mentioned above so we get $150 each....plus royaties at some stage
Speaking of royalties we actually got some last Quarter, it amounted to £155 for my share...so my total YTD earnings are up to £530 now - the next Qtr is in a few weeks so hopefully some more will be due.
Still writing away in my spare time, total tracks written is nearing 300 :o
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That sounds really interesting Cosmic and a good outlet for your work ... I wonder if they have space for a weird creator like me .... I will have to look into it
Good luck mate and well done
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I wonder if they have space for a weird creator like me
The answer is out there..do you hear similar on TV ? If so ..someone needs it.
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Quick update, seemed to have found out about quite a few more placements recently..now up to 30 :o Some of them were from Germany - Holland - Sweden so a bit hard to find videos and see them in the TV show
PRS royalties for the previous Qtr were a little bit less than the Qtr before at £130 but the majority f placements haven't gone through the system yet..It can take 12-18 months to get paid.
Thought I would do a little analysis as it's a mini milestone getting to 30
Placements By Year track was written:-
2016 = 6
2017 = 10
2018 = 12
2019 = 2
By Genre
Tension = 8
EDM = 7
Future Bass = 3
Acoustic = 3
Ambient = 3
Trailer Style = 2
Hip Hop = 2
Rock = 1
Positive = 1
By Library
Sentric = 6
DeFacto = 6
Instyle = 6
Lab Hits = 6
JPM = 3
Muchas = 1
Crucial = 1
AudioSparx = 1
EXCLUSIVE = 7 Vs NON EX = 21
By Writer
Mark & Dale = 3
Dale = 6
Mark = 20
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Nice!
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Great going Dolphin.....onwards and upwards!
ANdy
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End Of Year Progress Report 8)
So the final royalty statement came for this year, it was a little underwhelming at £84 but better than nothing. Screen grab here of the main page https://gyazo.com/42be1fc455d5912377d23f2b18306840
Good news - A new Placement on last weeks Kardashians for me with my track ' Future Empathy '..you can here it here
https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/future-empathy?in=user-45178330/sets/as-heard-on-tv
Or watch the Kardashians " The Show Must Go On " (Series17 Ep :11)..it's only about 3 mins into the show so you don't have to suffer through too much. >:D
These are my number for 2019 to date..I will probably add a few more cues to the pile before 2020 starts. The last Qtr of 2019 has seen me get a new job which has taken a lot more of my time so I've not been as productive as previously.
Cues written 49
Cues Signed to Libraries 45
Music Earnings £737 for the year ( a mix of royalties, sync fees and up front $$ for some cues wrtitten )..this is up from £120 in 2018 and around £20 in 2017..so it's heading in the right direction.
Placements Total is now over 30..I am still waiting for about half of them to pay out royalties due to the long delay as most of them are in other countries, mostly the US and this adds about a year onto the waiting time.
Have a great Xmas everyone and I will update in the new year..If anyone is interested in getting into Music Licensing you can alway PM me
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Pretty good going Mark. Music licensing seems to be the way forward.
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Really interesting stuff Mark ... keep up the good work
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Got my first little payment for this year of around £40 ..my share for a track used in some Faceboook thing !
I've had a placement on a show called Ex On The Beach which is on MTV with a track I did called Island Eyes. I've added it to my TV playlist if anyone wants to listen.
https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/sets/as-heard-on-tv
I've been working on some Epic Americana style instrumentals with a guitarist friend so we are just reaching out to a new Library to see if they will take them with a view to making more if they like them. If not there are others we can try.
Take a listen here but please don't share as it's a private link: https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/sets/hybrid-americana-album
CD
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Mark .... did you take the play list down as the link came up blank?
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Mark .... did you take the play list down as the link came up blank?
No I think it changes the link address it you edit something though
Try this
https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/sets/hybrid-americana-album/s-6vrz3
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Very good Mark .... I like how you themed the tracks here .... they are short and to the point ... I could imagine all of them snapped up for a western style tv show
I had a browse around your other work as well ... all sounding great and you have been very busy ... like anything else the more names you can put up there the more you will be in demand ..... keep it up and well done
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Found out something cool this week. One of my tracks has been pitched for the new Sony/Marvel movie ' Morbius'
9 times out of 10 these pitches don't amount to anything but you gotta be in it to win it so it's good to even be put forward for it.
Even if you do get picked the scene might not make the final cut of the movie so it's all a bit of a dice roll really, I am assuming ther eis some sort of club scene or something like that.
Here is the track that was pitched https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/swag-on-max-final-mix-mastered-2a/s-wu8Cv
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Nice one.... fingers crossed for you Mark
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Good luck Mark!
Sounds like a party!
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Good luck! It does sound like an over-the-top posh sorta gala event. Kinda like a Matrix party scene if they weren't so angry :) Or a montage sequence for a fashion show.
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Good luck! It does sound like an over-the-top posh sorta gala event. Kinda like a Matrix party scene if they weren't so angry :) Or a montage sequence for a fashion show.
Cheers. Crucialmusic.com are are really difficult Library to get any music into
You can submit 3 tracks at a time. It takes them 12 week to review them. They reject almost everything and have only accepted 3 off me in about 18 months worth of submitting every 3 months!
But if they do accept it, then they seem pretty pro-active and they will always get a sync fee up front as well as you getting your back end royalties. It's non-exclusive as well so you can send them stuff that's been used non-exclusively elsewhere.
They show you in the login area any pitch activity. I've only landed one of the pitches on my list so far.
https://gyazo.com/3dc1f950db2e825ea6f4b5d396d29495
They seem to like EDM / Electronica although I have had an Indie Folk song accepted by them that we did for something else and got a local indie artist guy to sing on for us. Not had any traction with it yet though.
Might be worth a shot if anyone has music that is ' Broadcast Quality ' and sounds contemporary enough.
It's all totally free BTW but you do need to be a member of your country's PRO so that's PRS in the UK or ASCAP / BMI / SESAC in the States, SOCAN for the Canucks.
If they accept anything they will ask you to register it to your PRO as proof of ownership so you also need to make sure that any co-write splits are agreed and everyone who has a split has a PRO membership.
Luckily on this one it's all me :o
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Very good Mark .... I like how you themed the tracks here .... they are short and to the point ... I could imagine all of them snapped up for a western style tv show
I had a browse around your other work as well ... all sounding great and you have been very busy ... like anything else the more names you can put up there the more you will be in demand ..... keep it up and well done
You will laugh Stoney but the first Library rejected them , they said cool music but the mix / master is a bit muddy so they passed.
So I remastered them and tried another one, he liked them but said he didn't have any clients that could use them so they wouldn't be the best fit for his catalogue. He also said the mixes could be better.
So my plan is once the new rig is set up I can remix them properly. This old PC was really straining as there's so many plugins and virtual instruments it was hard to work on them by the end.
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Royalties Update.
Well it was Royalty Day this week, and it's a new personal best of £240 for the Qtr Jan-Mar 2020 plus another Library gave me a blanket share which was £38 by the time it was converted form Canadian $
So £278 + the £40 mentioned in Feb puts me at £318 for the year. the goal is to beat last year and hopefully get over £1,000 so it's a good start.
The statements haven't been released so I don't know what the breakdown is but I'll keep you guys posted when I know.
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Good news Mark ... Keep up the good work
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Great News Mark, keep it up.
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Hope everybody is doing well in these crazy times.
I forgot I said I would post a breakdown of April's. Not sure how to embed it in the post so it's on the link below
https://ibb.co/HTTtrv2
So you can see them in order of how much was paid this time around, I'll run through the Top 3:-
Wasteland Showdown - That was on MTV's - The Challenge...first payout
Ticker - Has been in 4 consecutive Episodes of Catfish...this is the 3rd payout I think, it's earned the most so far probably because it's like 4 placements in one really
Future Memories - That's one of my earlier Kardashian's tracks, think this is the 3rd payout..the others were more
Also bear in mind this is only really half of what I should be getting as I did a Lennon-McCartney type deal with my mate Dale where we just split everything 50-50 that we made in the first few years regardless of who had worked on it.
Unfortunately his half of the catalogue has been more Julian Lennon than John Lennon and barely earned any royalties so I've given half my own royalties away for very little in return. ( 2 of the tracks on that statement are Dale's that amount to about £10 )
We don't work that way any more so at some point my more recent tracks will start earning and I'll get 100%
In other news I've written a 10 track album of cues for a library in the style of my tracks that have been used on The Challenge , took about 6 weeks all told. I've just delivered all the Wavs so waiting for some paperwork to sign once they have reviewed them all.
CD
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Thanks for the update Mark!
Looks like you are keeping the pipe full.
Best wishes for more success!
NickT
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Hi Mark,
Looks like things are rolling in the right direction for you, well done!
Andy
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Looks like things are rolling in the right direction for you,
Haha..yeah...uphill Andy :o
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Keep us updated Mark. 8)
Steve.
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Keep us updated Mark. 8)
Steve.
I will do Steve. It's a long term thing for anyone interested.
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Back with an update folks....
Since my last post I've added a new Library to my roster. Like most it's exclusive but I sent them my lockdown project which was a 10 track album of tension cues basically made up of piano, synths and a bunch of ticking noises. After sending it to 3 different companies ( wait 2 weeks..chase...wait 1 more week..ditch..repeat with another publisher ) and not hearing back from any of them I did get a response from a UK based publisher but they were asking if I could change a bunch of stuff ..like majorly for some project they were working on but I said apart from minor edits they were kind of a done deal so they passed.
Library number five however came back to me the very next day, loved it and I signed a deal with them for it. They asked me what else I had and I sent them some links to my other unsigned tracks, one of which they asked if I could make a whole album's worth ( Pop Funk type stuff ) ...I am just about to start track 10 but it'll have taken me just under a month to make all 10 so I must be getting quicker. It also helps not going out to work , my day job involves driving up and down the country to see clients and nobody is taking visitors right now so it's all virtual and saves me about 4 hrs of driving every day all of which I've pumped into making music.
You can hear the album here but pls do not share publicly : https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/sets/ticking-time-bombs/s-6Neu0PNspPi
Then about a week after I signed it , Library 4 came back to and said..okay we'll take it as is - there's some stuff come in we could use it for now ! I've offered to write some more for them if they can wait but in this game everyone needs things like yesterday.
A few more placements landed since I last posted too, one on a German Reality show and another on HGTV: Caribbean Life Cooking Up a New Chapter on Anguilla and one of my co-writes was used on a promo on CNN where they advertise an upcoming programme . The show was called Shades of America but the track wasn't in the actual show, only the promo for it that played a bunch of times. Some folks have said they never got paid for promo usage as it's done on some kind of survey system and if you ain't included in the survey then it's tough luck. So we will see.
This week was royalties week, the amount was my 2nd highest at £192 but to be honest I was hoping for more as it included payments for 20 tracks which is my highest yet but the average is obviously quite low , about half the highest I've had ...but more cues in more libraries is the way to royalties.
I also passed a little milestone of 350 track produced, that's taken 4.5yrs...which isn't too bad when you consider it too me 5 years to make my Cosmic Dolphins Album
CD
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That's fantastic Mark. Well done! 8)
One of our MCS family is living the dream!! Don't forget us!!! 8)
Steve
Back with an update folks....
Since my last post I've added a new Library to my roster. Like most it's exclusive but I sent them my lockdown project which was a 10 track album of tension cues basically made up of piano, synths and a bunch of ticking noises. After sending it to 3 different companies ( wait 2 weeks..chase...wait 1 more week..ditch..repeat with another publisher ) and not hearing back from any of them I did get a response from a UK based publisher but they were asking if I could change a bunch of stuff ..like majorly for some project they were working on but I said apart from minor edits they were kind of a done deal so they passed.
Library number five however came back to me the very next day, loved it and I signed a deal with them for it. They asked me what else I had and I sent them some links to my other unsigned tracks, one of which they asked if I could make a whole album's worth ( Pop Funk type stuff ) ...I am just about to start track 10 but it'll have taken me just under a month to make all 10 so I must be getting quicker. It also helps not going out to work , my day job involves driving up and down the country to see clients and nobody is taking visitors right now so it's all virtual and saves me about 4 hrs of driving every day all of which I've pumped into making music.
You can hear the album here but pls do not share publicly : https://soundcloud.com/user-45178330/sets/ticking-time-bombs/s-6Neu0PNspPi
Then about a week after I signed it , Library 4 came back to and said..okay we'll take it as is - there's some stuff come in we could use it for now ! I've offered to write some more for them if they can wait but in this game everyone needs things like yesterday.
A few more placements landed since I last posted too, one on a German Reality show and another on HGTV: Caribbean Life Cooking Up a New Chapter on Anguilla and one of my co-writes was used on a promo on CNN where they advertise an upcoming programme . The show was called Shades of America but the track wasn't in the actual show, only the promo for it that played a bunch of times. Some folks have said they never got paid for promo usage as it's done on some kind of survey system and if you ain't included in the survey then it's tough luck. So we will see.
This week was royalties week, the amount was my 2nd highest at £192 but to be honest I was hoping for more as it included payments for 20 tracks which is my highest yet but the average is obviously quite low , about half the highest I've had ...but more cues in more libraries is the way to royalties.
I also passed a little milestone of 350 track produced, that's taken 4.5yrs...which isn't too bad when you consider it too me 5 years to make my Cosmic Dolphins Album
CD
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April 2021 - Back for another update ! 8)
Since I last updated in October I've completed around 60 new tracks, most of which have been have been signed to various Libraries. I managed to pick up another new Publisher based in Germany after I co-wrote some stuff with a friend who already had his foot in the door and one track has already yielded some placements on German TV. Very efficient !
After what seemed like a long stretch with zero TV placements detected things seem to have picked up this year as TV production companies get their schedules back up to more normal levels after Covid19 , since last time some placements have included:-
Chef Bootcamp - Food Network
Golden Globes pre-show - E!
Vice News Tonight - Vice Network
Hessenschau & Lokalzeit - WDR FS & Hessischer Rundfunk FS ( these are German local current affair type programs )
The good news is 3 of these tracks got used 5 or 6 times times , sometimes in the same show and other times in multiple shows spread across several weeks so those will each trigger some extra royalties. It will probably be the end of the year before I find out though what they've earned.
The April PRS distribution amounts were released last week and I have earned £268 in royalties from 25 tracks. It's a new record for me but this is somewhat on the low side and I have found out there has been hold up in the payout for 10 of those tracks due to an Admin error at PRS so it should have been a fair bit more. Hopefully I can get that resolved.
I'm still working from home for the day job and writing away in between on different briefs that come through. I've tried a few new styles I've not done before this year including a pizzicato string track and some East European Folk hybrid :o
Mark
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Hey Mark,
Fascinating, and it's good to know that you are seeing some success!
Long may it continue!
I must commend your tenacity and enthusiasm. on keeping away at it.....I was a keenie too, but I think I'm on my last legs musically :).
When do you quit the day job :)
Did you and your family get your COVID vac shots?
Cheers
Andy
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Did you and your family get your COVID vac shots?
Yeah I quit the day job in about 20 years when the mortgage is paid :o
I have had my Covid shot...wife is younger than me so not had one yet.....child 2 is in at risk group ( cardiac ) so has had his.
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That's great news Mark!
Wishing you continues success!
Nick
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6 months - time for another update !
My July royalty payout from PRS was a very poor £87 which I gotta admit bummed me out a little. Although there were 25 tracks that paid something out there are still a bunch of international royalties missing , and I've had to raise online queries with my PRO in an attempt to get them sorted. Because of Covid response times to these emails are about 3 months so it is taking forever to get to the bottom of it. My case has been sent over to the International Dept now but I can't see it being sorted out by Octobers payout. Some of these TV placements are 3 years old now and I still haven't been paid properly. i.e. getting £3 instead of £100 - 200
On the plus side this year has been the best yet in terms of TV placements. So far it's 54 for the year ( I was hoping for one each week so I've exceeded my goal ) with the majority of them being on German TV shows. I've had one track played repeatedly on the Bundesliga ( soccer ) coverage on the main channel in Germany so I'm hopeful of some decent royalties when they start coming through.
My all time total placements has now exceeded 100 and I'm hoping to complete at least 100 new tracks this year for the libraries I am working with.
The next royalty distribution is in about a month so I will drop by once I know the figures and share.
CD
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Sorry to hear the payout is so slow. otoh, way to go getting to the 100 mark! It's cool that you set these goals and exceed them, plays no small part in your success, I think.
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You are an inspiration to us all Mark!
8)
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Back with another update, sorry it's been a year - time has flown quickly again since all the Covid restrictions got lifted and work kinda went back to some form of normality.
I ended up smashing my goal of 100 TV placements and 2021 saw me getting 145 in total and 2022 has already exceeded it at 165. So my lifetime TV placements total about 370 now. As you can see from my post a year ago things have really accelerated and it's mostly down to the German Publisher I've been supplying music to.
The money is still quite slow to follow , last year ended with a total of £582 and this year it's increased to £857 so far but I still have 2 more quarters worth of royalties that will pay out and the next quarter in October will be the first time I should receive anything from Germany so hopefully it will be quite a boost as that's where most of my music is being used.
I'm still writing away, last year I completed 100 tracks but this year I've been back on the road for work so I won't make the 100 and I'm currently on 60 with a few months to go. I've written a total of 545 tracks now since Jan of 2016. :o
I've had some interesting TV placements, too many to mention really from NBA , to Reality Shows , News items, I had a Hip Hop track in a promo for Shark Tank, a track used on CBS in a promo for a show about hurricanes etc. Plus loads of German daytime TV shows on ARD & RTL plus the regional channels they have.
This is an example of one of mine I found online, it's had a lot of airplay in a CNBC Promo recently.
https://youtu.be/iXWR239QBTk
So that's where I am at right now - I will try not to leave it so long to update next time. If anyone wants to know more just message me, or reach out of Facebook.
CD