General Music Chat

it's been discussed in other threads, but libraries that solicit money for services are not necessarily scams, in fact, all of the better libraries out there do charge fees for membership.

NOW, if a publisher actually wants money.. well that's almost definitely a scam.

I have had music placed in a few dozen Tv shows and films, and my music is about as obscure as obscure can be.

One would rightly hesitate to even call them songs as they are instrumental, with no semblance of verse or chorus, no AABA structures, no chord progressions etc.

All of it home recorded on very modest equipment (many were recorded on a pc using a 16 bit SoundBlaster card).

I never tried very hard. I had posted some music on-line for the first time, someone wrote me to say it might do well as backing tracks in TV & movies, to send them a CD. I sent a CD and filled out some papers, joined BMI and forgot about it for about 7 or 8 years.

After a few hard drive crashes, I had lost contact with the publisher and figured it wouldn't matter much anyway. One day I found out that I had some thousands in royalties owed to me! I found this out at at time when I was unable to find any sort of "day job" and was having to sell off lots my musical instruments and gear to pay rent.

I sent new material in after all these years, but have yet to see anything happen with it. A small amount of royalties still trickle in from the old stuff, thanks to re-runs!

Overall my own experience has very little in common with that article's author.

What shows/reruns are you referring to?

That's interesting Vinnie - as it happened several years ago, things probably are quite a bit different now.
The directory of publishers that Kramer linked is great - but how do you get them to listen to your music? Blind mailing of CDs to all?

I don't know. I just posted my music on a free music hosting site that was around about 10 years ago. A publisher contacted me. I thought it was probably some sort of scam, but they did not ask me for any money, so I went along with it. They suggested that I join a PRO, so I did.

Things do appear to be different .. there are now a lot of places that ask you for money to submit your tunes for placement consideration ... that's a scam!

I suspect nowadays they do not have to search around for stuff with all that is thrown on their desks. It may be they contacted me because my music was so unlike anything they get sent to them, all day long, everyday.

One huge difference today is that these so-called promoters expect the musician and music to arrive 'ready made'. Nobody grooms or takes the time to develop artist /act themes anymore...quite frankly because the promoters are as dumb as a box of rocks and wouldn't actually 'know' how to properly manage or develop a growing act. They all have the vision of a blind mole.

Online submission is a crap shoot. Even the most legitimate sites are making a ton of money off of your submissions (by way of ad sales, which rely on folks to browse through the playlists) and you wont see a dime of it. This site is doing that as we speak. They could care less about the content (music) and any direction the members have in mind.

Yea Vinny don't treat us like Mushrooms. (keep us in the dark and feed us bullshit.) Enlighten us. I wondered why I can't see your profile, you introvert. lol

Yea Vinny don't treat us like Mushrooms. (keep us in the dark and feed us bullshit.) Enlighten us. I wondered why I can't see your profile, you introvert. lol

Capt! YOU ARE AWSOME!

Nah just sullen, pissy and a diva..(snort)

Don't waive your red cape at me or you get the horns.
lol

(steps on snickers bar with big hoof)

What shows/reruns are you referring to?

The ones that appear on my BMI statements. I've never seen any of the shows that have used my music .. I don't ever watch TV

Yea Vinny don't treat us like Mushrooms. (keep us in the dark and feed us bullshit.) Enlighten us. I wondered why I can't see your profile, you introvert. lol

That can be swiftly corrected Scotty, study carefully the chart below for an hour or two,

... then retire to a quiet place and sit with both feet flat on the floor, closing both eyes, now relax and try to imagine a smug middle aged Asian man with a preposterous Stalin/Saddam/FishermanBob mustache wearing a pricey custom tailored Italian suit .. now try to imagine what that might sound like if you were watching TV

Subjective information cannot be truth . . . well . . . because it's subjective.

It may be occasionally applicable, and worthy of some consideration.
But to chisel into stone would be a waste of a good rock.

Vin I am just saying that since I can't even SEE your profile, it'd be nice if you let us in on the secret.

But I understand the urge for privacy if that's what it is.

I kind of like the music you've been slowly introducing me to so I am not hacking on you..at least you have some quality that makes you interesting.

Not all can say that with a straight face.

Going to music conferences if there's any in your area is strongly advised, if not an outright necessity.. they are huge networking opportunities as well as a direct link to working professionals in all capacities of the industry. They are there to fish talent as much as you are there to fish opportunities.

Not much in this area for 'music conferences', and from what I see elsewhere, costs to attend can be pretty high (couple of hundred $$ typical) - I can see this might be beneficial to the younger 'we're the next big thing' type of performers, but for the average older player/songwriter, any potential sales/deals would probably result in less income than initial costs (just factor in passing out a few dozen or hundred 'press packs' while attending one of these).

Have you heard much of the NEW generation of music?

(You gotta be kidding me, that's music?)

Going to music conferences if there's any in your area is strongly advised, if not an outright necessity.. they are huge networking opportunities as well as a direct link to working professionals in all capacities of the industry. They are there to fish talent as much as you are there to fish opportunities.

Not much in this area for 'music conferences', and from what I see elsewhere, costs to attend can be pretty high (couple of hundred $$ typical) - I can see this might be beneficial to the younger 'we're the next big thing' type of performers, but for the average older player/songwriter, any potential sales/deals would probably result in less income than initial costs (just factor in passing out a few dozen or hundred 'press packs' while attending one of these).

There's two down here - the cape may music conference (CMMC) obviously in Cape May, NJ; and the millenium music conference (MMC) in harrisburg PA. I believe CMMC is around $75 and free if you get signed on as a performing artist (give one performance at a local participating venue one night of the conference), Which is what we did in both 2009 and 2010. You gotta submit for that and be selected, of course. The upside is that there's pretty much a guarantee that at least some of the industry reps will be in attendance, no matter which venue you play (the conf is during day, party and gigs at night, all over town). The MMC works much the same way.

It's worth taking a road trip for. Even the conf workshops and classes were extremely educational and relevant to today's industry and the changin tides and all that happy manure.

Hell, let me know and I'd gladly meet up with you (cape may already passed in march), mmc coming up soon

Kramer I totally agree with what you said to yod.The spammer is an idiot simply posting his opinion.His opinion.What ever happened to just going out and playing good music,introducing your originals in your set and getting a good reaction from the crowd after they have heard it.If you want to publish fine do it.His 5 reasons suck.

There's always a reason to quit.

But you have to dig deep for a reason to keep doing what you love to do, that is if you need a reason at all. (wink)