I have had a rough week.. After feeling exhausted, rehabbing from knee surgery and traveling, my back (or rather hip flexor) decided it had enough and started to spasm, so bad that I could not move or be left alone. Ever had that happen? It is THE WORST! Luckily I have a network, a community of friends and family that took me to the doctors and took care of me. What does this have to do with Pay to Pitch you ask? Well the key words are "Network" & "Community” There are many opinions on the pay to pitch model, some are really against it, even some music supervisors. It is not truly how the business works, but it CAN work if you understand it and do it right. Most of my connections to publishers and supes have been formed through the pay to pitch model. In this blog I am going to give you what has worked for me, and my opinion on the topic. I am not going to name any company names. If you would like to ask me about my experience with certain companies please feel free to contact me. When I was first starting out, I had no connections. ZERO. I had no idea where to start. I was learning about song writing in Nashville, taking workshops, writing for myself and didn't know much about the Licensing world. So for me, I started out with the Pay to Pitch model. These guys had the contacts right?? I would get on the fast track, right?? Well, it depends. Some places did me know good because I didn't have the knowledge to pitch strategically & some of the listings were bogus. So here are some things you should look for in a Pay to Pitch model: What you DO want: Cheap Submission Fees Legitimate Listings Forums Communication with successful members Yearly conferences where you can meet with publishers/supervisors posting the listings Feedback for why the songs were not chosen or forwarded Timely response to listing submissions Training/blogs/ ability to meet collaborators Well crafted listing describing in detail what is needed, including song examples What you DO NOT want: Sites that promote contests as their attractor Extra fees tagged onto submissions (submission fee, + site fee + song review fee) Bells & Whistles like crowd & peer reviews, song popularity tracking etc. Forums are great ways to communicate with members, see if the site is legit, ask if songwriters are getting placements & deals etc. Once you determine that songwriters have had success, you can they try submitting to a few listings. Be sure that your songs are targeted for the listing. The closer you are to the listing description, the better the chances you have for it getting sent on to the listing party. Make sure your songs are broadcast quality, have universal lyrics and are structured for Film&TV. (See my previous blogs for more info) This is key to your success with the pay to pitch model. Sending songs in Willy Nilly in to any listing that sounds just a bit close to your song, will waste your money and your time. Ideally, the pay to pitch company hosts yearly conferences either for free with membership or at a fee. This is where the magic happens. Let's say you get a song sent on from one of the pay to pitch listings. This person contacts you wanting your song, you say "HELL YEAH" (after checking the deal) . Next you exchange some emails and send a few more songs, then you arrange to meet at the conference. BOOM! This person now knows you and will be contacting you directly when they want new songs. Also on forums and at these conferences you meet other like-minded songwriters, you collaborate, you submit, you get introduced to their contacts, you get more songs signed and more songs placed! Of course you can make these connections via conferences alone as well as other methods that I will talk about in my next blog. But you want to try and choose smaller conferences where you can establish relationships directly with the people who can place your music. Be sure that the conferences have pitching sessions. Most conferences are not free, can take time out of your schedule, and you may only be able to afford one a year. Paying to Pitch a song , to the right listing, can jumpstart these connections for you. Once you have the connections then you can wean yourself off of Pay to Pitch model or be more selective Sites that promote bells & whistles like contests, crowd reviews etc., are just a waste of your money and a time sink IMO. If I want a review of a song for a listing, I can post it on a forum, post the listing as well, and ask for feedback, all for free. I don't care about a popularity contest, I care if it is right for the listing. Contests are fun, and you can win some stuff, but if it is associated with a pay to pitch site, I feel like that method is just trying to persuade you to submit and to keep submitting to listings that may not be legit and your song goes into the abyss never to be heard from again. My early placements have initially come from getting songs forwarded from pay to pitch listings. After signing the songs and establishing relationships with the publishers, I was able to start sending them songs directly. So don't poo poo pay to pitch. It was a vehicle for me to get this ball rolling and it can be for you if you do it right! Until Next Time!- Michelle Register for my Licensing workshop on Dec 5th in Maryland!: Licensing Workshop - Michelle is a multi award winning songwriter with placements in Reign, The Fosters, Benched, Longmire, American Chopper, The Hustlers, GearHeads (Theme song) and more
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I'm a dog owner, and with that comes the disgusting task of picking up poop. Poop is messy, smelly, dirty, I just wanna ignore it. But I am a responsible dog owner and I do my "duty". So why am I talking about poop? Well, what else is messy, smelly, dirty that you want to ignore? Um, how about Life? The problems in life, the lost dreams, the painful situations, guilt, shame, death, break ups, the "u done me wrongs", the fears ... These are all things we want to ignore and want to brush under the rug. But if we do that, if we don't face our problems, we end up stuck & unhappy, and things just fester until they are a stinky, stank mess. What situations are going on in your life that need cleaned up? How are you dealing with them, or not? Drinking? Drugs? Binge Eating? Social Media obsessions? Doing Busy work? Ignoring those in your life that hurt you? Taking on too much so that you can't even breathe? Staying in your comfort zone because it is "easier", Watching endless Keeping up with the Kardashians fare?? This is no way to live. No way at all. If you look in the mirror are you really happy? And maybe happiness is not the word, are you content? Do you like who you are? Are you pursuing life with a passion? Are you doing the things that make you really happy? Are you fixing the problems? Are you seeking out those who hurt you or those YOU hurt to find some resolution and path to forgiveness? Is there a hidden fear or self hatred you have? Ignoring these things will just make us hurt more and feel hopeless. Most of us fear facing these things in our lives. It is easier to sit on the sidelines. I have been through it, I still go through it at times and it is hard. Facing these things gives you the feeling that you are falling off a cliff with no bottom. Incredibly scary. But you can come out on the other side feeling sooooo much better! But you can do it! You have to do it if you don't want to live in a life of shallowness and hopelessness. Start by writing down the things in your life that you have always wanted to do. Follow that with all the things that you think may be holding you back. Seek counsel through a church group, or counseling group, or find individual counsel. Read books like The War of Art, 212 the Extra Degree, Own your Dreams, Chasing Daylight, Action Trumps Everything, and The Search for Significance. I have read and re-read all of these. I have attended counseling groups, I have lead counseling groups. I still talk to friends and counselors when I feel like I am backsliding. It is an ongoing process but I can tell you that I feel so much better about who I am as a person and why I am on this earth. I want you to feel the same. So I have written blogs, created vlogs and courses to help other people. I urge you to watch my previous Vlogs that talk about the book The War of Art and how to attack life like a professional, and I created a free lesson on finding your passions and purpose. I urge you to sign up for it: FREE Lesson . In the near future I will have a full course on finding your self worth and facing your fears so you can live a better life with passion and purpose. Sign up Here to learn more: SIGN UP You CAN pick up the poop in your life. Do it now !! There is no better time! - with Peace & Love- Michelle SIGN UP NOW for your FREE LESSON and FREE TIPS and CHECKLIST for tackling your projects! 17 Tips to Achieve your Goals + Checklist! Episode 15: Resistance No More, The To Do list10/15/2015 In this weeks episode, we get serious. I go over 17 tips on how to turn professional and achieve your goals. WATCH the Episode and SIGN UP to receive your FREEBEE checklist and a list of the 17 Tips. 17 Tips to Achieve your Goals + Check list! Join NOW! This week I started to realize some things. My subconscious mind was doing things my conscious mind was not aware of. I have been so busy trying to be successful in music and in other passions that I just didn't know up from down and left from right. I was doing so many things that I didn't even know what to focus on anymore so I would subconsciously distract myself and before you know it, no real work was done or I was in a frenzy. But even more than that I was missing important things in my friends and families lives. This past weekend a good friend of mine got Baptized. I had every intention of going. I never put it on my calendar as a reminder and it just slipped my mind. I was so upset with myself for missing this milestone in a friends life. Luckily she had tons of support and was not upset with me, but I was upset with myself. Those are the kinds of things that can pass us by on the way to success. But what good is success if you have lost everything else? It caused me to take a step back and think. In the long run what is more important? For the last couple months I have been running a Workshop called "Search for Significance" for a group of wonderful women at my church. One woman, who helped facilitate, I new her correct name the entire time but the last couple of weeks I started calling her a different name, and I had no idea I was doing that. I even put that name on a gift for her. WHAT??????? This was more than just putting the milk in the cub-bard and the cereal box in the freezer. (Please tell me you do that too!) Another sign of being so busy I don't know my A$$ from my Elbow. She was really cool about it and understood. But again I felt bad, another sign of doing too much. I am sure there are many more subtle things that others see and I don't. I also stopped going to a small group bible study with my girlfriends. I was too "busy". I decided to go last Friday and it felt so good to sit down with friends an talk. We take the stories we read and start discussion how the lessons apply to our lives and affect behavior, it becomes really good discussion and leads to a great connection with these women. Something that I need. I forgot how good that felt. Way better than running around doing the million things I "need" to do and checking Facebook every five seconds. I was also able to perform with the church band again a couple weeks ago and it felt really really good. I felt Alive, as I usually do with when I can sit back and just sing. Our church also had a great Good Friday experience where you visit the stations of the cross, read about the events at each station and reflect. I needed that time to reconnect with God and with myself. I don't know how long I sat in the tomb section but I needed to just sit and be. So with the gentle reminders that I have received I am going to take a step back. Look at the really important things in life, my career and achieve more balance. If every little thing is not done perfectly or if it doesn't get done, then so be it, I need to make time for my friends and family. I don't want to miss those important milestones. I want to be more mindful. I want to have closer relationships and take time to sit and have coffee with someone. I want to put the phone down in the evening and talk to my husband more. How long has it been since you sat in a quiet place and just was present with yourself? Or present with God? Or with Nature? Or to just be quiet and reflect? Or just present with each other? Our lives are so busy, it is just "do do do" all the time. No wonder some of us have no time for the really important things in life or "forget" things. And how much of the stuff we do is really necessary? What can we cut out? How can we be more efficient but be ok with less than perfect? I used to think that multitasking was a great talent.. but now I think it does not allow proper focus on a task. But more than that, it makes our minds constantly moving and thinking to the point of obsession and anxiety. It is time to take a step back, to reflect, to just be, to enjoy, to nurture, to move slower, to not be so perfect , to be mindful and to love. Those are my thoughts for the day, as much as a reminder for myself as for others. Peace and Love HI Everyone! In this episode, I want to discuss PROs and Copyright because the PRO’s get you your money and the copyright entitles you sell your intellectual property. PRO’s PRO’s, as you know, are Performance Royalty Organizations. They perform the following function: o Collect monies from performances of your songs o Pay you at specific rate determined by the PRO and the placement type Each one has their methods for calculating this rate. They come out to about the same, except in vocal placements. BMI pays more if you have a song with vocals placed on a show. Here is a blog talking about the PRO differences: http://blog.songtrust.com/songwriting-tips/pros-whats-the-difference/ When do I register my songs with a PRO? You do not have to register your songs right away. I usually wait to see where I will be signing the songs. Note: All publishers and music libraries will register your song with your info and theirs and a unique identifier so that they will get paid their share of royalties. If I sign a deal that is exclusive in perpetuity (See episode 8 with Guest writer Casey Hurowitz for deal types), then I do not have to register the song at all. The publisher or library will do that since they now own the song. If I sign a non-exclusive deal or co-publishing deal, I will register the songs separately, because I can still pitch that song directly to opportunities and bypass a publisher. If my song is used, then it will ensure I get paid all the royalties the song earns. Once a song is placed in film or TV, the network sends in what are called “Cue sheets” to the PRO’s. A Cue sheet lists the show, type of placement (Instrumental, vocal), length and number of times used. This determines the pay rate. You will usually get a higher rate of pay for the following types of placements: Theme Opening credits Opening scene Ending credits Understanding Copyright I get a lot of questions on whether a song needs to be registered with the Copyright Office. The minute that the song is in a fixed format, written on a fixed media, or even recorded on your iPhone it has been copyrighted. It is now your intellectual property and you own it. But to protect that copyright is another thing. One way to do this is to send a certified letter to yourself and leave it un-opened. This is called the Poor Man’s Copyright and may not hold up in a court of law. The sole purpose in registering your copyright is to have official protection of your intellectual property. While it is a good idea to register your copyright with the Copyright office, you have to have a pretty high amount of damages to file a claim. But in the case that someone does challenge you, having the evidence of the official registration may be enough to prove the song is yours. You can register with the US copyright office here: via http://copyright.gov/eco/ Copyright Registration form types: Form PA: Music and Lyrics only Form SR: Sound recording only Note: Under the form SR, you can also register the copyright for the Music and Lyrics (Form PA). Here is a downloadable pdf by the copyright office explaining the differences in copyrightable material and how you can register your work: http://copyright.gov/circs/circ56a.pdf Warning: There are many services out there that say they will register the copyright for you; however they charge a more exorbitant fee (three or 4 times the actual cost) and this is something you can simply do yourself. Registering a song (or a collection of songs) and the sound recording master (if you own the recording) just costs $35! When should you register the copyright? I register a copyright once I know where the song is going to be signed. Do not register:
Register:
I will also wait until I have a collection of songs with the same writers and then register them (remember $35 bucks per song OR Collection). I typically register about twice a year. Exploit your copyright First, exploit is a negative word, and I learned at the Songwriting and Music Business conference that we should really be saying “ Employ” your copyright. Because that is what it really is, we are looking to sell or license our Intellectual property. So that will actually be next week’s topic. How does employing your copyright for your song make money? Well, that is enough to stuff your brain for now. Stay tuned for next week’s continuation on Show Me the Money where I will discuss the types of ways your song can make money! Have a great weekend! References: Copyright information http://copyright.gov/eco/ http://copyright.gov/circs/circ56a.pdf PRO information http://blog.songtrust.com/songwriting-tips/pros-whats-the-difference/ Hi! While Michelle has her toes in the sand and a drink in her hand for some much needed down time, I have the pleasure of writing this guest blog. Thanks for the opportunity, Michelle! My name's Charles P. Hurowitz (better known as “Casey”), and I'm a friend and colleague of Michelle's through Taxi, the independent A&R company that we both use. If you’d like, you can read about me and hear songs I’ve written or co-written at www.caseysongs.com and www.soundcloud.com/caseyh. Let me share with you some information from the business side of writing music for Film/TV. A very large percentage of all music used in Film/TV comes from production music libraries (I’ll just call them “music libraries”) so I’ll focus there. Understanding all the terminology, types of contracts, etc. can be a real challenge at times, especially for those just getting started. For discussion purposes, “Film/TV” can mean any application involving synchronizing music to video including movies, TV, advertising, Internet, etc. Well, here goes… What is a music library? A music library is basically a music publisher that focuses only on Film/TV placements (i.e. not artist cuts). They become your agent to pitch your music to Film/TV music supervisors and other decision makers and often perform administrative duties such as registrations and royalty collection. When you place your music with a library, you give them permission to sign a wide variety of licenses on your behalf. That’s a good thing! They can quickly and with no hassles sign a deal for a movie or TV show to use your song because the music is what’s known as “pre-cleared.” In most cases, all income between composer and library is split 50/50. There are many different types of music libraries and contract terms. Keep in mind that there is no absolute right or wrong type of deal, every deal has to be evaluated according to a composer’s specific situation, comfort, and goals. Here are some of the most common contract types: Exclusive An exclusive contract allows only that library to pitch the music you sign with them. In some cases, it also involves assignment of your copyright. For the term of the contract, the library has sole control over what happens with your tracks. Now that can sound very scary but there can be situations whereby a library that represents tracks exclusively can open doors that couldn’t be opened otherwise. Sometimes the term of the contract is finite such as 3 or 5 years. Other times it is “in perpetuity” which is the fancy legal way of saying “forever”. Advantageous to the composer is a “Reversion Clause” which states that if the library does not secure a placement within some time period (e.g. 2, 3, 5 years), all rights revert back to the composer. Deciding whether to sign an exclusive, especially if there is no upfront money and it is in perpetuity with no reversion, is one of the toughest decisions for a composer. Lots of factors need to be weighed. What is the track record of the library as far as securing placements? How prolific are you as a composer? Are these your “babies” or do you feel you could write 10 more just as good with relative ease? How risk aversive are you? Non-Exclusive With Re-Title Many libraries will pitch your tracks on a completely non-exclusive basis which means you can still do whatever you want as far as pitching elsewhere including other non-exclusive libraries. In order to distinguish performance royalties generated by a non-exclusive library’s efforts from those generated by other libraries or entities, re-titling is used. Let’s say you sign a song called “The River Of Tears” with Happy Face Music Library. They may re-title it as “Flood Of Tears” or “HFML The River Of Tears”. Then they will register it with your PRO under that re-title with themselves as the publisher. Another non-exclusive re-title library may sign the song and re-title it “Crying A River” and register it that way. When a track is used on a TV show, the production company files a “cue sheet” with the PRO’s (e.g. ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc.) listing all titles, cue lengths, writers, and publishers. The different titles uniquely identify which publisher made the placement, allowing the correct publisher to be paid their share. The writer always gets their share. This is great, isn’t it? You can put the same song in lots of libraries. Well not so fast. Although you CAN do that, there are definite pros and cons and re-titling is one of the most hotly debated subjects in the music library world. Some think this practice of composers putting the same tracks in many libraries has driven prices down and become a nuisance for music supervisors who get tired of receiving media from multiple sources with the same tracks. We have seen some TV networks or production companies begin to only accept music from exclusive libraries. On the other hand, many composers feel the exclusive deal, especially with no money upfront, is too restrictive. And despite predictions that re-titling will become a banned practice, non-exclusive libraries are still making lots of placements. Exclusive with Respect to Film/TV Only This is the same as an exclusive contract but the exclusivity applies only to pitching the songs to Film/TV. The composer has total freedom to pitch the songs for artist cuts, release on his/her own CDs, iTunes, etc. This makes a lot of sense if you are an artist working on your own career and want to pitch your music to film/TV in parallel to seeking Film/TV placements. Or maybe you want to pitch songs for artist cuts and still have options open for Film/TV. Exclusive with Respect to Other Music Libraries Sometimes called a “semi-exclusive” deal, this type of deal only has exclusivity as far as placing the same tracks in other music libraries. You can still pitch the tracks directly to music supervisors, ad agency executives, or anyone needing music as long as it’s not a music library. Summing it all up One of the best ways to place your music in Film/TV is through music libraries. As you can see, there are different types of music library deals. Understanding what they mean, the pros and cons, and balancing it all with your own situation will help you move forward in the music library world. PS Casey’s Extra Tips Tip 1: To pitch tracks for Film/TV, you must own 100% of the rights to the composition and the master recording. If you hired any musicians or vocalists to work on your project, you need to have each of them sign a Work For Hire/Musician’s Release agreement. This agreement would state (paraphrasing, not legal language) that they performed the work as work-for-hire and have no future claims to any payments or royalties and you maintain all rights to the master and composition. Tip 2: Google is your friend. Search for “production music libraries” and you’ll find tons of good information right there on the word wide web. Of course, always be careful about the source. As Abraham Lincoln said, “Just because it’s on the Internet doesn’t make it true.” Tip 3: Recommended resources: www.taxi.com www.musiclibraryreport.com http://thebusinessofmusiclicensing.com/ (eBook for purchase) Thanks for reading and good luck! Casey One of the hard things about writing for Film & TV is to not only write Universal lyrics (no names, places, dates, specifics etc.) but also to a make the listener deeply FEEL what you are saying in the song. If I say in a song “ I think I love you”. Ok, well that’s great, but a little boring and doesn’t give you the emotional goose bumps (unless this is someone who is standing in front of you and says that to you, which is totally different, but we are talking about songs, not your specific love life ;). You want the song to really bring up the feelings in someone. So if I say: “Unsteady I fall for you, you’re stirring up my heart, its true, there’s no one else on earth for me, and I realize that you’re the one, …” (Together (We Belong) written and recorded by Stephen Wesley Guiles and Michelle Lockey) Saying it this way gives more of a sensation of what’s happening,- butterflies, fainting, increased heart rate, all things associated with falling in love with someone. In Ingrid Michaelson’s song The Way I Am, she describes things lovers do for one another to depict a feeling of love and security by using associations “If you were falling, then I would catch you If you need light, I'd find a match Cause I love the way you say good morning And you take me the way I am” Those words bring up the feelings of being loved and feeling secure and comfortable in a relationship… much more so than if the song said “Hey, I love you and feel secure” while those are nice words, in a song, they don’t bring up the same secure love filled feelings. In my song Easy to Love (written with Michelle Murray, of our band Michelle Michelle) we use these associations like : “ You’re like my favorite pair of shoes, we fit together just me and you. You’re morning kiss, is like a blanket of love, it wraps me up and it’s more than enough” That kind of association helps to give insight and to bring the feelings alive for the listener. Another technique is the use of metaphors, Instead of saying “ Man, I just want to feel good, I’ve had so many bad relationships” You could say, as does Ingrid Michaelson in Be Ok: ” Open me up and you will see, I’m a gallery of broken hearts, I’m beyond repair, let me be, and give me back my broken parts” (Sorry for all the Ingrid references but studied her stuff a lot since I have a similar style ;) EXERCISE: Take a look at these lyrics: “Cause I don’t stand a chance in these four walls and he don’t recognize me anymore Burned out flames should never re-ingnite But I though you might… Take me home, Take me home” (Daughter “Home”) What feelings do they bring up in you? Write them down in the comments The point is to try and find ways to use clever ways to describe a feeling, using an association or metaphor. Use images, sensations, associations and metaphors to convey emotions Another thing to do is to associate emotions with color, then associate the color with an object, or something physical or idea, action Here is a true to life exercise for a song I wrote with my friend Amanda Jane Anderson. She sent me the basic lyric and then to solidify and adjust the lyric we imagined being afraid and wrote down words and colors associated with that feeling. Fear- frozen, hair rising up on my arm, being chased, screaming, ghosts, haunted, running, black, creepiness, stalker, shadow, darkness, Using those words the following lyrics were crafted: In The Dark - by Amanda Jane Anderson and Michelle Lockey https://soundcloud.com/michellelockey/in-the-dark-a-tale-of-love-cello-mix-new-melody “I’m the shadow you catch in the corners of your mind And you think it’s the wind that brushes you by You’re head starts to pound and the pain stops your heart When you see me watching you, in the dark” Instead of saying “I am afraid because there is a stalker following me” we tried to use associations and metaphors to convey fear and if you listen to the song with the music, hopefully you will feel all creeped out! EXERCISE: Take the following words and write down any colors, action words, images, and objects, sensations that they bring up. Then try to describe the emotion using the items from your list. I do this all the time, it is a bit more automatic now and it will be for you the more you do it: Love Hurt Anger Pain Fear Joy Lust Depression Regret Lost love Blissful Panic Hope that was helpful! The next couple weeks I will be out of town but I will have a couple of guest writers to talk about the types of Film & TV deals . Thanks for reading! -Shell Writing & Licensing Songs for Film & TV Episode 5: Titles, Ala's and Broadcast Quality... Oh My!3/3/2015 Titling your song may seem like a no brainer, BUT for a Music Supervisor scanning through songs, the title is everything. In and instant the title will tell the Music Supervisor what the song is about and if it will fit the scene. Titling your songs is important to capture the mood and vibe of the song. That sometimes means that the title is NOT the hook , sometimes it is. Titles like: Love on the Rocks, Am I Invisible?, Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, I’m Gonna Let You Go Now, Strong Enough, Everybody Smile, Haunted Moon, This is the End, Stuck on You Instantly give the Music Supervisor an idea of what the song is about and if it will match the scene or commercial. Titles like: Cue no#1, Yes, Paper, Gold, Piano Tune #7, Together, Glue, are not as good or meaningful. (ok, so those are a bit extreme) Seems like a no brainer? Maybe, but you can always fine-tune your title to be more meaningful and stand out. Like the title “Together” may stand out more re-titled as “We Belong Together” Glue might be better as “You are the Glue” or “Stuck on You” For Instance my song “Mama’s Eyes” has been used in a few shows where the mother was getting married or something related to mothers. “Everybody Smile” has been licensed in everything from Web commercials, weddings, B2B corporate videos, to someone’s YouTube video of their kid’s birthday. No doubt the title caught the attention first before they heard the song… “You’re My Sweet Sweet Home” was used in ABC family show where the family was all together happy , eating breakfast. You get the idea.. It’s not rocket science, but just thought I would hammer the point home. Titles are also a great way to come up with song ideas. An exercise to try is to set a timer for 2 minutes and come up with as many titles as you can. Come up with titles that are about people, situations and emotions. Flip to a page in a book and see if some ideas are sparked there. Google a word and see what comes up. Put these in a notebook and when you are running low on ideas go to your title list and pick one to start working on. The title may change in the end, but at least it will get you started. Ok moving on to Ala songs. Often times you will see music supervisor/publisher listings (i.e., descriptions of what they want) referring to Ala songs aka “In the style of” . Most of the time, the actual song they want by a famous or well-known artist does not fit their budget. So they want songs that give a similar feel to the ala song. They DO NOT want you to rip off the song.. meaning they do not want a sound alike. You can come close to infringing if the song is too close in sound, lyric and style of that particular artist. So you need to study how the song is constructed and use those elements in your song, but put your own unique style to it. This is sometimes a hard thing to learn. A few times a song of mine has been rejected because it was too close to the ala. But it is all a learning experience. So when you see a listing that mentions and ala song, study those songs and artists. Does the song have a dynamic build? What instruments are used? What effects are in the song? Do the vocals sit back in a bed of reverb or are they up front and dry? What kinds of characteristics are in the vocal? How is the percussion being used? What is the emotion of the song? What is the song structure? What is the melody doing? All of this should help you to incorporate those elements into a song that could replace the actual song /artist/style they are looking for . Broadcast Quality: In almost everything I read , you must have a broadcast quality song. This is sometimes a confusing thing to understand. It does not have to be the over compressed expensively produced songs you hear on the radio. You can make simple guitar or piano vocal songs in your home studio and it can be broadcast quality. This definition is from Robin Frederick’s book Shortcuts to songwriting for Film and TV… Shortcut 65 “A broadcast quality recording is the result of several things, all working together and working well: -Instrumental arrangement and performance -Vocal arrangement and performance -Recording and mixing quality “ Basically your song has to be as good as other songs used in Film and TV. Go to TuneFind.com and pick some shows and listen to those songs. While they may not be hit songs on the radio, they are good enough in overall style, performance and production to be used in film and TV. Even unplugged versions of songs, that you can do at home, will be fine if they are constructed well, sung well, instrumentally performed well, have universal lyrics a good melody and a basically clean recording. If you are not good at playing or singing, then hire someone who is, and you don’t have to spend a lot of dough to get this done. When I first started this I was spending a lot of money at a studio getting these great productions done. Then I started to collaborate and co-writing with people that had home studios and through these partnerships I was able to get really good sounding songs for less money. And now I am starting to produce my own songs at home with basic piano or guitars with vocals. These songs are getting some traction and I am so excited! Down the road I will talk more about collaborating and networking, getting more bang for your buck, being your own producer etc. Ok, so if you have read this far, and I hope you have here are your exercises for this week: Title exercise: 10 titles in 2 minutes set a timer for 2 minutes, come up with as many titles as you can and write them down in a notebook for future ideas Re-title a song If you have any songs with vague titles, what title might make them more noticeable by Music Supervisors? Ala exercise: Here something typical you might see in a listing. Music supervisor needs Female Singer Songwriter songs for a new TV show. Slow to mid tempo songs, ala Gabrielle Alpine, Cat Powers, Priscilla Ahn. Songs about love, heartache, moving on. No sound alikes ! Universal lyrics, broadcast quality songs needed. Basic piano or guitar with vocal songs Ok for this pitch. Look up those artists and start listening to some of their songs. Write a song similar, but not copycatting the artists Broadcast Quality The only way to learn this is to start listening to songs used in Film and TV Make a playlist on Pandora or other service, like Spotify and just listen for the items I mentioned above about Broadcast Quality. Instrumental arrangement and performance -Vocal arrangement and performance -Recording and mixing quality “ Hi! My name's CK, and I'm a friend and colleague of Michelle's through Taxi, the independent A&R company that we both use. Michelle has graciously invited me to write a guest post about instrumental cues. If you’d like, you can hear a bunch of my work by visiting http://www.reverbnation.com/ckbarlow. Let’s get right to the point, or at least one of them! If you take nothing else away from this post, please remember this: Anyone with a credit card can get the same gear – the same instruments, the same software, the same loops and sound libraries, the same boutique mics and exotic preamps, on and on – as you. So the most important tools you've got, ultimately, are your creativity, your unique style, and your commitment to quality. Let's face it: When we’re talking instrumental cues, a monkey can throw a bunch of loops into a DAW, let the software match the key and tempo, then stick a fork in it and call it done. Set yourself apart by aiming higher than that. Be a composer. Make music that you're proud of. OK, off the soapbox and on to some details! Form In instrumental cues, you'll typically use one of the structures described below. In all of them, two things will hold true 99% of the time: ● you’ll want to maintain the same key for the entire piece, and ● you need a button ending, meaning the piece stops definitively rather than fading out. One of my publishers recently requested something pretty smart: endings that combine hard stops with big hits that then fade out. Consider the ending of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and how useful those hits are to a music editor on a show. You could cut the song after any of the hard-stop hits or after that second-to-last hit that sustains and fades. Give the editors some cool options! Now for some forms. ABA Start with a very short intro and then build some variation on ABA (ABABA, AABA, etc.), where the successive A sections are bigger, more developed, more exciting than the last, or maybe broken down and then built back up – your goal being to balance interest with unity. This is the closest to normal song form that you'll likely produce as an instrumental cue. If you work at it, you’ll be surprised how many variations you can create with just those two sections. My highest-earning instrumental track, Snap Crackle Pop, complies with this form, but to be honest, its intro is probably too long. Music is really subjective, but if I had to guess at this track’s appeal I’d say that upbeat, fun tracks are always in style, and this tune combines several interesting sounds that fit the vibe. Nothing virtuosic, but lots of fun. C? Nope. But You Do Need Edit Points. It’s rare that you’ll need a distinct third section comparable to a bridge. What you will need, though, are some edit points, which are spots in the cue where things halt or at least break down enough to let a show’s music editor cut away from the music cleanly and easily. This doesn't have to be difficult! Genres like dramatic orchestral lend themselves to breaks really well – you know, BOMP BOMP… BOMP! But once you get the hang of it, you’ll find ways in any genre to create breaks and even to do them at ad-friendly times like 14-15 seconds in, 29 seconds in, 59 seconds in, and so on. I’ve posted my track Skipping Stones, owned and represented by Drama King, to illustrate these ad-style breaks for you. Check out the melody leading up to the 59-second mark – I shortened it by a measure to hit the 59 while still leading musically back to the tonic. A, another A, another A, etc. … and that’s it. This form has no intro; it comes out swinging with what songwriters would consider a chorus, then builds and differentiates mainly with textural changes to maintain interest and create movement. See the Taxi TV episode with publisher/artist John Fulford; he explains this well and also points out that these intense cues will only last a minute or so, and they should make up only about 20% of your catalog. Per John’s request, please do not swarm him with emails. Thanks! Drones and Underscore Cues Like all cues, these exist to create a mood. There might not be a true musical statement beyond the mood, perhaps some instrumentation and scale choices that indicate geography/ethnicity. And there might not be a clear delineation of sections, or much if any harmonic movement. You’ll hear plenty of these that sustain a single bass pitch with subtle changes above that to create motion. It needs to set a mood without distracting from the action. I recently learned that five tracks of mine were used across four episodes of HBO Vice, so I've posted those for you as examples. Note that in every case, the supervisor chose an alternate mix – that is, a mix with at least one part removed – rather than the full mix. You should always provide alternate, reduced mixes for just this reason. Length Your publisher will usually give you a target range. Generally for instrumental cues, 1.5-2 minutes is a great target because it gives you ample time for a basic ABA form with some nice edit points. As mentioned, those edit points are crucial! If you have advertising hopes for the track, put the edit points at around 14-15, 29 and 59 seconds. I do have publishers who ask for lengths of 2.5-3 minutes, but in my experience those aren’t as common as 90 seconds to 2 minutes. Mood and Genre What should you write? There are many possible answers, depending on your own career stage and circumstances. If you have publishers already, they're probably asking you for specific genres and moods. If not, and if you don't have personal connections in the industry, your best bet in my opinion would be to use services like Taxi and Hit License – not one of these but several – that will help connect you with music supervisors and publishers; and by virtue of using those services, the supes and publishers have specified their in-demand genres. Again, the Taxi TV episode with publisher John Fulford spent a little time discussing hot genres. John specifically mentioned dubstep (yes, still), dramedy (think Desperate Housewives light orchestral with a mischievous vibe), urban, and gangsta grass (aka hick hop). I can vouch for that; I've got hick hop and dramedy requests from one of my publishers right now! More tips: ● It’s always smart to watch current TV shows and then produce tracks comparable to those used on the show. Putting a towel over the TV screen is a great way to focus on the sound world of the show. ● Within a genre, stay current (unless you’re asked for specific past era). If a publisher asks me for hip hop tracks, I immediately visit Billboard, check the hip hop charts, then study the top three tracks to pick up trends. ● Finally, if you’re just starting out, try new genres! You never know where you might discover a hidden talent. Then, as you build your catalog and your publishing relationships, analyze which genres – and which publishers – are working best for you, then focus your energy there. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! |
AuthorMichelle Lockey is a multi-award winning singer-songwriter sharing the knowledge she has learned over the years writing for Film & TV. Like what you are reading? Please Sign up to receive a FREE Music Licensing checklist! 10 Steps to Sync Success
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