Major Labels, Indie Labels, Pop Labels, Rap Labels, Christian Labels, and Country Labels are actively looking for new artists every day.

It’s easy to think that songwriters and artists can make it on their own with all the great self-promotional tools and opportunities on the Internet. But looking at this week’s  Billboard Top 100 Chart, I can’t find a single band or artist that has become successful on their own using the Internet as their only form of promotion. Yes, the Internet is a large piece of the music promotion puzzle, but it’s a piece, not a panacea.

Companies that sell music promotion tools and advice are cropping up everywhere you look. Can they help? Certainly some of them can, but as part of an artist’s overall marketing strategy. I have yet to see any music-marketing tool or music promotion plan that’s a magic bullet that by itself will deliver stardom on a silver platter.

Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Beyonce, Breaking Benjamin, Black Eyed Peas, Foo Fighters, Weezer and virtually all of the other artists I just looked at on Billboard.com have found fame and built their careers in the music business doing it the old fashioned way – writing or finding hit songs and signing with record labels.

Sure, it’s possible to have a video that goes viral on YouTube and drives sales on iTunes and other music download sites. But those events are few and far between. If you thought the odds of getting signed by a record label were slim, try and name ten acts that have had Billboard, chart-topping success based on the Internet alone.

The Sick Puppies were exposed to millions of people worldwide when their song, All the Same, was used in the massively popular Free Hugs videos. But they didn’t hit the Billboard charts until they had a veteran artist manager and Virgin Records behind them as their record label. Maybe that’s the magic formula for music promotion and marketing – simply create a video that goes viral on YouTube. That’s easy, right?

But the Sick Puppies are certainly an exception, and far from the rule. Even with millions of people listening to their song every day, exposure on Oprah, and just about every other media outlet worldwide, they still recognized that they needed a record label to take them to the next level.

How long have you been on MySpace? How about iTunes? Twitter? Facebook? How many sites do you have your music or your musical “brand” on altogether? How long have you been working the Internet music promotion thing with no substantial results? Is there a lesson to be learned?

Look again at the artists on the Billboard charts, and I think you’ll agree that there is a huge lesson staring us all in the face. Those artists are all signed to record labels. Illegal downloading may be killing the labels, but it’s been a slow death. More than ten years after Napster sprang up and illegal downloading began, Major Record Labels and top Independent Record Labels still look like a pretty smart option until somebody comes up with that magical silver bullet for artist promotion that millions of bands, artists, and songwriters have been waiting for.

Michael Laskow is the founder and CEO of TAXI, the world’s leading independent A&R company. He is also a multi-platinum engineer, record producer, and lover of great songs and talented artists.

TV Music Licensing pays songwriters and composers differently than Film Music Licensing does. Most songwriters don’t know that, and they ask me the question pretty frequently! The short answer is “yes, it pays differently,” in the U.S.

In the United States, composers of scores, background music and featured songs do NOT get paid when the music is played in a movie theater. In other words, there’s no back end, no performance royalty for music played in theaters. But there IS a performance royalty for theater play in many, if not most other countries.

So, while you won’t get an ASCAP, BMI or SESAC check for U.S. screenings of a movie with your music in it, you WILL get a check from your Performance Rights Organization months down the road from screenings outside of the U.S. Those checks are often slow in coming, as they need to go through the accounting systems of the foreign PROs, then go through the accounting system of your U.S. PRO.

BUT, you WILL get paid for your music if it’s in a Film that airs on a TV network in the U.S., so all is not lost. If you have music that ends up in a film that’s a huge hit, and gets tons of play on major and cable networks, month after month, year after year, you will see some nice checks hit your mailbox from those.

I’ll get into the difference between pay scales for music in cable vs network shows in another blog post. That’s a complicated matter and will need more time than I’ve got at the moment.

Talk to you soon,

Michael

Thursday, November 5th
5:30pm – ’til close:	Rally Registration - Hotel Lobby – next to Grand Ballroom – Must have your Photo ID to get your Road Rally badge!
6:00pm – ’til close:	One-to-One Mentor Registration – Grand Ballroom Foyer – next to the Rally Registration desk. Refer to the Mentor Bios sheet to make your selection. Members only, please. One Mentor per member. First-come, first-served basis. Must already be registered and have your Rally badge with you to sign up.
6:00pm – 8:30pm:	Dinner
8:30pm – 11:30pm:	Open Mic – Grand Ballroom – Names are drawn at random to play in front of your fellow members and their guests. Members only on this stage – guests can accompany you. One song per performer, please. 2nd Stage Open Mic in the Mezzanine Theater, for members and guests!
Friday, November 6th
8:00am – All Day:	Registration – Continues at the Rally Registration desk near the Grand Ballroom.
9:00am – 9:05am:	Opening Remarks – Grand Ballroom – Jason Blume, Hit Songwriter and Author.
9:05am – 9:15am:	Welcome – Grand Ballroom – TAXI Founder, Michael Laskow Michael will draw a ticket stub (between 9:00 and 10:15), and one lucky person will win $500 Cash to help pay for their Rally travel expenses. You must be in the ballroom and have your ticket stub to win!
9:15am – 10:15am:	Jeffrey Steele; Lifetime Achievement Award & Keynote Interview – Grand Ballroom – Mega-Hit Songwriter/Producer, Jeffrey has had hits and cuts with Miley Cyrus, LeAnn Rimes, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Rascal Flatts, Montgomery Gentry, John Waite, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gloriana, Phil Vassar, Heidi Newfield, Trace Adkins, Steve Holy, Keith Anderson, Craig Morgan, Collin Raye, Diamond Rio, Billy Ray Cyrus, Van Zant, Kevin Sharp, Gerald Levertt, John Michael Montgomery, Pam Tillis, Aaron Tippin, Joe Nichols, Chris Young, Little Feat, Steve Wariner, and more.
10:15am – 11:15am:	Broadcast Quality Demystified – Grand Ballroom – It’s more than just sound quality, and you don’t need an expensive studio to get it. A solo piano piece could be Broadcast Quality, but a song recorded in a million-dollar studio might not be! Want to know why? We promise to take all the confusion out of it for you by playing examples, including some randomly picked music from the audience. Want to see your Forwards, Deals and Film/TV Placements increase dramatically? Don’t miss this panel! Michael Laskow (Moderator) Tanvi Patel – President, Crucial Music Todd Parker – Director of A&R, TAXI
11:30am – 12:30pm:	Writing & Pitching for the Country Market – Grand Ballroom – Some randomly drawn songs from members will be played, plus examples from top Country writers. Audience questions taken as well! Michael Laskow (Moderator) Ralph Murphy – V.P., ASCAP Nashville Cliff Audretch III – Sr. Dir., A&R/Producer, Universal South Records Sherrill Blackman – Three time winner; Nashville’s Top Songplugger Danny Wells – Hit Songwriter, with cuts and hits by George Strait, Collin Raye, including “These Days” by Rascall Flatts and many more.
12:45pm – 2:30pm:	Mentor Lunch #1 – Concourse Ballroom (Mezzanine Level / 2nd Floor). – You must already have pre-purchased your tickets to attend.
2:45pm – 4:00pm:	Do You Have Music for My Film or TV Project? – Grand Ballroom – Some of the top people in Film and TV Music listen to randomly selected TAXI members’ music and take questions from the audience. Michael Laskow (Moderator) Harry Garfield, Executive V.P., Music, Universal Pictures Dave Trotter – Exec. Producer/Creative Director, Studio 51 P.J. Bloom – Music Supervisor/Partner, Neophonic, Inc. Jon Weiss – Music Supervisor, Bunim-Murray Productions
4:15pm – 5:30pm:	A&R Panel #1 – Listening/Q&A – Grand Ballroom – Live critiques, music will be randomly drawn. Genres: World, Electronica, Folk, Blues, Roots, Jazz, Contemporary Christian, Gospel, New Age, and Alt-Rock. You must be a current TAXI member to submit your music for this panel. Some Q&A too! Todd Parker (Moderator) Peter Torres – V.P. of A&R, Thrive Records Cindy Wilt Colville – Leading Indie Christian Music Publisher Ted Myers – A&R Mgr., Concord Music Group
5:45pm – 7pm:	Make Broadcast Quality Recordings in Your Home Studio – Grand Ballroom – Apogee’s Stephen Bright and some very special guests will demonstrate how incredibly easy it is to record Broadcast Quality music in your home studio using just a Mac laptop, GarageBand and Apogee products like, ONE, Duet and GiO. This will blow you away!
6:30pm – 8:30pm:	Dinner Break – On your own.
8:30pm – 11:30pm:	Open Mic - Grand Ballroom – Names are drawn at random to play in front of your fellow members and their guests. Members only on this stage – guests can accompany you. One song per performer, please. 2nd Stage Open Mic in the Mezzanine Theater, for members and guests!
One-to-One Mentoring – Friday, Nov. 6th Only – A&R People, Producers, Hit Songwriters, Managers, and Industry Pros of all kinds will sit down and listen to your song, answer your questions, and give you real-world advice. Members-only and by appointment only. Sign up in the Grand Ballroom Foyer (near TAXI Rally registration) Thursday, Nov. 5th, starting @ 6:00 p.m. As always, One-to-One mentoring is free, but on a first-come, first-served basis.TAXI Drivers’ Ed Classes – Friday, Nov. 6th through Sunday, Nov. 8th – Many of our favorite music industry experts will be sharing their tips, techniques and secrets of success in these intimate “classrooms.” We’ve doubled up on some of the most in-demand classes to give you a better chance of attending the classes that best fit your needs! Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. See the Driver’s Ed sheet for class times, rooms, and descriptions. Improve Your Songwriting Instantly with MasterWriter 2.0 – In the mezzanine-level, theater – Friday, Nov. 6th from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 7th from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.; and Sunday, Nov. 8th from 9:00 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Join Hit Songwriter Barry DeVorzon and see the huge arsenal of tools to draw from in one, easy to use program. Come to any one of the three seminars, for a chance to win a FREE Taylor guitar. They will announce the winner at a drawing at the end of their presentation on Sunday. You need not be present to win!
Saturday, November 7th
9:30am – 10:45am:	Writing Songs and Composing Instrumentals for Film & TV – Grand Ballroom – Some of your most successful fellow members will show you how they write songs and instrumentals that get signed and licensed. They’ll play examples and give you tips and techniques that have worked well for them! Michael Laskow (Moderator) TAXI Members: Matt Hirt, Suz Doyle, Dean Krippaehne, Chuck Schlacter, Ed Hartman, Martin Haene, Vikki Flawith, Dave Walton, Barry French, John Mazzei and Tracey Marino.
11:am – 12:00pm:	Give Your Songs the Competitive Edge – Grand Ballroom – Robin Frederick, author of “Shortcuts to Hit Songwriting,” gives 10 brand new Shortcuts to creating songs with the commercial appeal that attracts the music industry and turns listeners into fans. Learn “Genre” shortcuts, four secrets of successful Film & TV songs, plus three valuable tips for writing songs that get noticed by publishers and record labels!
12:15pm – 2:00pm:	Mentor Lunch #2 – Concourse Ballroom (Mezzanine Level / 2nd Floor). You must have already pre-purchased your tickets to attend this luncheon.
2:15pm – 4:15pm:	Major Label A&R – Grand Ballroom – Your Golden Opportunity to get your best songs heard (drawn randomly during the panel) by top A&R people. We’ve added a half hour to this panel. It will be mostly listening with some questions interspersed. Good luck! Marshall Altman and Michael Laskow (Moderators) Cliff Audretch III – Sr. Dir., A&R/Producer, Universal South Records Monti Olson – Sr. VP of A&R, Universal Music Publishing Group; A&R, Interscope Records; Owner , ORG Records David “Touch” Wright – Dir. of A&R, Island Def Jam Ken Komisar – President, Tennman Records (Justin Timberlake’s label)
4:30pm – 6:00pm:	Creating and Licensing Video Game Music - Grand Ballroom – Want to learn how to create what Video Game Music Supervisors and Producers really need? Want to learn about the business side of the Video Game Music industry? We’ve got three World-Class Experts to give you answers to these questions and many more. Don’t miss this! Michael Laskow – (Moderator) Inon Zur – Composer: Prince of Persia, EverQuest, Crysis, Fallout 3, Dragon Age: Origins, and much, much more! Sascha Dikiciyan – Composer/co-composer: James Bond: Tomorrow Never Dies, Quake III – Arena, Dark Messiah, Splinter Cell 4, Beowulf, Haze, Hellgate: London, and Mortal Kombat vs DC, plus much more! Bob Rice – CEO of Four Bars Intertainment. Leading agent for top Video Game Composers.
6:10pm – 7:pm:	Song Construction – Why it Matters and Getting It Right! – Grand Ballroom – Ralph Murphy, Hit Songwriter/Producer, ASCAP Vice- President, and legendary analyst of why some songs are hits and others aren’t, will improve your songs and your odds in this single session!
7:15pm – 8:30pm:	Dinner – By now, you should have tons of new friends to dine with. And in case you haven’t noticed, the Westin’s Lobby Bar rocks when TAXI’s members come to town.
8:30pm – 11:30pm:	Open Mic - Grand Ballroom – Names are drawn at random to play in front of your fellow members and their guests. Members only on this stage – guests can accompany you. One song per performer, please. 2nd Stage Open Mic in the 200-Seat Theatre
Sunday, November 8th
9:30am – 11:15am:	Film & TV/Publisher Pitch/Q&A Panel - Grand Ballroom – Your randomly selected songs get played and your questions get answered. Lots and lots of members have had Publishing deals and Film/TV placements happen as a result of this panel! Michael Laskow (Moderator) Ted Lowe – President, ChoiceTracks Marina Mena – Dir. Film & TV Music, FirstCom/Universal Aaron Davis – V.P., Music Licensing, MusicBox Dave Trotter – Executive Producer/Creative Director, Studio 51 Robert Case – President, New Pants Music Publishing
11:15am – 12:30pm:	Hit Songwriters and Composers Q&A Panel – Grand Ballroom – The world’s best songwriters and composers share their very best songwriting tips and techniques, along with the career strategies that helped them develop successful careers doing what they love. Michael Laskow (Moderator) Andy Goldmark – Hit Songwriter of such hits as Michael Bolton’s “Love Is A Wonderful Thing” and “Soul Provider,” Jennifer Paige’s “Crush,” “You Should Be Mine” by Jeffrey Osborne, and many, many more. Adam Watts and Andy Dodd – Mega-Hit Songwriters/Producers with 45 Million CDs sold, including Jesse McCartney, Kelly Clarkson, High School Musical I, II, and III, Camp Rock, Hannah Montana, Billy Ray Cyrus, Jeremy Camp and more. Danny Wells – BMI Million-Air Award Winning Hit Songwriter, with cuts and hits by George Strait, Collin Raye, including “These Days” by Rascall Flatts and many more. Steve Dorff – Multi-Award-Winning Hit Songwriter and Composer with Grammy and Emmy nominations. Fifteen Top 10 hits such as Kenny Roger’s “Through the Years,” Anne Murray’s “I Just Fall in Love Again,” and many more. Film/TV composing credits including “Every Which Way But Loose,” “Murder She Wrote,” and “Murphy Brown.”
12:30pm – 2:00pm:	Lunch – No Mentor Lunch today, you’re on your own.
2:00pm – 3:15pm:	Performance and Vocal Makeover with Kara DioGuardi – Grand Ballroom – Mega-Hit Songwriter, Producer, Warner Bros. Records V.P. of A&R, and American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi will do live song, vocal, and performance makeovers for TAXI members who will join her on stage. Some performers will be drawn randomly for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (TAXI members only, please).
3:30pm – 4:30pm:	Marketing Your Music Online – Grand Ballroom – Not selling as much of your music as you thought you would? This is the panel for you. Top experts on using the Internet to market and sell your music. Dan Kimpel (Moderator) Tony van Veen – CEO, Discmakers and CD Baby Ariel Hyatt – President, Ariel Publicity Debra Russell – Life Coach, marketing specialist Bob Baker – Author, Guerilla Music Marketing Handbook
4:30pm – 6:00pm:	Producers Looking for Hits/Pitch Panel – These Top Producers have all run listings and/or worked with songs and artists from TAXI. They’re looking for more great material and they’ll listen to randomly selected songs and answer questions on this extremely popular panel. Michael Laskow (Moderator) Michael Lloyd – Legendary producer with more than 100 Gold & Platinum records. Denny Diante – Mega-producer/arranger for Paul Anka, Barbra Streisand, Henry Mancini, Elton John, B.B. King, Neil Diamond and many more. Rob Chiarelli – Mixer, engineer and producer with 100 Gold & Platinum credits. Ron Harris – Producer whose credits include Christina Aguilera, Hoku, Christopher Williams and Adina Howard. Beau Dozier – Producer for Joss Stone, Avant, JoJo, B2K and more.

“Will I be able to get my music heard by Film and TV Licensing people at your convention?” That’s been the number one question hitting my inbox by FAR this week. The best way for me to answer it is to simply post the schedule here.

How to Choose the Right Music Licensing Companies

It seems like so many songwriters and artists have given up on the dream of getting a record deal with major record label. Flying around on private jets and trashing hotel rooms is a dream now long forgotten. Film and TV placements are the new “record deal.”

Most musicians don’t know how to choose the right music licensing company or companies, because they haven’t done their homework yet. They haven’t learned how to know which company has the best chance of getting them a film or TV placement period, and they often have no idea which company has the best track record for making the most money for the songwriters ad artists they work with.

Truth be told, it’s not all that hard to set up a web page that looks great, add a database that hosts music, post up a couple of success stories (true or not), and bammo, you’re in business as a music licensing company! Doesn’t matter if you’re in the cow pastures of Wisconsin, the heart of Hollywood, or the plains of Africa. Nobody does due diligence any more. “If they’ve got a cool web page, they must be real!” Uh-huh!

Things to watch out for:

Open submissions — Not ALL companies that allow any old Tom, Dick or Harry to submit to them are schlock shops, but many are. Accepting music from any and everybody seems appealing at first, but it also means that the music supervisors and music editors are going to hear a lot of mediocre music (at best), and quickly leave the site with nothing in hand.

Rating and filtering by fans and competing musicians — Music supervisors want filtered music. They want only the very best music. In many cases (but not necessarily all), music that has been selected or filtered by competing songwriters or artists doesn’t stand up to the quality of music that has been pre-screened by real music industry professionals. Why? Two reasons: The musicians doing the filtering have never worked at a music supervision company, a film company, a TV production company, a record company, or a Film or TV publishing company. They simply don’t know how high the bar is set. They also may not know that just because they personally like a particular song or instrumental track, it doesn’t mean that it will work well for TV or film music companies.

The second reason is that some less than ethical people will “vote down” the competition. It’s become somewhat common for musicians who want their music to rise will ask fans, friends and family members to visit the music web sites that have “contests,” to give them high scores and give the competition low scores.

Companies that are too quick to accept music into their catalogs – There are companies who will sign almost anything. even though the deals are often non-exclusive, it can be a sign that the company is just trying to fatten the catalog or music library for a later sale, and is more interested in quantity, not quality.

Companies that don’t have solid, long-term relationships with the industry — Music supervisors have go-to people that they’ve worked with for years. They trust their ears. They know they can rely on them for great music. If you can’t find solid evidence that those relationships exists at te company you’re about to sign with, you might want to keep looking and find a company that does!

If you’d like to lean more about how to get started licensing your music through production music libraries and how to pick the right film & TV licensing companies for your music, watch this series of short videos I did with Matt Hirt. Matt is a long-time TAXI member, and through diligent work, persistence and getting his music picked up by the best music licensing companies (mostly through TAXI, if I can be so immodest)  he’s created an income that any songwriter, artist or composer would be happy to have.

Watch the video. I promise you’ll learn just about everything you need to know about music licensing in a very short time.

Enjoy!

Michael

Film and TV Music Licensing Opportunities For Independent Musicians

Running opportunities for Film and TV placements in our Music Industry Listings back in 1992 made me the laughing stock of the music business. It was unheard of for Indie artists and songwriters to get their songs placed in network TV shows or better yet, feature films put out by major Hollywood studios back then.

Nobody seemed to know much about Production Music Libraries (which are Film & TV music publishers) – what they did, how they worked, or what kind of music they needed to license to TV or Film productions. I knew because at one point in my career I managed the largest audio post-production studio on the planet, and we used tracks from the best Production Music Libraries every day.

We used them for background music on TV shows and commercials. We used library tracks under voiceovers for radio spots. We licensed music from Production Music Libraries for Industrial Videos… you know, those cheesy videos that widget manufacturers and big pharmaceutical companies put out.

The point is, it just wasn’t cool to license your music for anything but records. Indie musicians and major label artists all turned up their noses at the very thought of having their music in a TV show or movie.

Funny how all that’s changed! Now, even the Rolling Stones and the Beatles will license their music for film, TV and video game projects. Major labels are more than happy to license music from their acts for TV shows, simply to get some exposure.

And who do you think was one of the earliest pioneers of helping Indie artists, bands and composers license their music? Yes, TAXI, the company that everybody in the music business laughed at. Trust me, they are definitely not laughing any more.

As a matter of fact, hundreds of companies have tried to imitate what TAXI does, but they all lack one very critical element – human ears. TAXI filters the music companies ask us to find. We use industry experts under our roof to find the very best. While the music supervisors like using music from Independent artists and songwriters, they don’t want to search a database full of less than wonderful music.

It takes more than a website and a database full of mediocre music to get the job done well.

That’s exactly why I created TAXI, and that’s why we are still the world’s leading independent A&R company. People from the TV, Film and Music industries don’t have the time to filter. We do it for them. We give them what they ask for. We give them what they need. We give them top notch music from the very best Indie artists, songwriters and composers.

The irony in all of this was best demonstrated when I asked an A&R person from Interscope Records this question during our annual, members-only convention, the Road Rally, last year, “What do you think is the best thing the people in this audience can do to get on your radar? Where do they start getting your attention so you’ll sign them to a record deal?”

The answer he offered up? “The best thing you can do is try to get your music placed on a TV show or in a movie!”

Wow, seventeen years later and TAXI is finally cool. That A&R person was right of course. Getting your music placed in TV shows and Films is just as much about the exposure as it is about the money. And if you do it persistently, and for a period of years, you’ll be able to turn it into a full-time gig because the money can really add up over time.

More specifics about how to make money by placing your music in Films and TV shows in a future blog!

My staff and I often get asked if there are Film and TV licensing opportunities for songwriters and artists who make Christian music. The answer is “yes,” though maybe not as frequently as secular music.

But fear not! Because the overall market is smaller, the number of people producing Christian Music is also smaller. It’s proportionate. You could end up being a bigger fish in a smaller pond!

But there’s an often overlooked aspect to all this. Most artists and songwriters also do mixes without vocals as a matter of course these days. If your Christian lyrics and vocals are subtracted, guess what? You’ve got yourself an instrumental track that could be licensed in any TV Show or Movie, religious or secular!

I just saw an article on TAXI as it relates to the Christian music Industry from a musician and author named Abbie Stancato, who’s doing a series of articles on the music business for a site called, Everyday Christian, called, “So You Wanna Be a Star?”

Check it out. Mikey likes it!

Giving Your Tracks the Right Title Can Get Your Music in More Films and TV Shows

You might think that writing great songs and instrumentals is the best way to license more of your music. You could be right, but here’s a really simple tip that I’ll bet you never thought of — give your songs and tracks better titles that make them easier to find.

Imagine that you’re a music supervisor searching for music to license for a Television Show or Movie. As you type in your database query, “uptempo, male, country, instrumental,” trying to find the perfect track for a rodeo scene, the database spits back 231 options with titles like, Country Instrumental, Male Country Instrumental, Country Kicker, Texas Hold ‘em, and so on…

If you had titled your track, Rodeo Rider or Rodeo Ruckus, the music supervisor’s eyes would be much more quickly drawn to your track than the others because the title is specific and conjures up a visual image. Remember, music supervisors may be music people, but they work in an industry of visually oriented people. Also noteworthy is that a good portion of the music selected for Films and TV Shows is actually temped in by video editors — most definitely PICTURE people.

Here’s a great exercise to help you learn how to choose better titles. Watch a TV show or movie and take notes about the types of scenes you see: a break up scene, a car chase, or a crime scene investigation. Next to each of them write down where they each took place: a beach breakup scene, a San Francisco car chase, and a crime scene investigation lab. Get the idea?

Your titles? Beach Break Up, San Fran Car Chase, CSI Lab.

Make it easy for picture people to SEE where they should be using your music and I can almost promise you that more of them will!