Remember to keep a list of your credits (i.e your successful placements)…this will help you open more doors and will ultimately lead to more placements.

I hope that helps! Remember to post your comments and questions.

Brian

Anyway…so the guy is working with a film editor in Wilmington, NC and wants to use 8 seconds of one of my tracks and 6 seconds or so of another. I worked out a deal with him and pocketed $300…which is about $21.42 per second.

I thought I’d describe how I did this in case it helps any of you musicians out there.
It started two years ago…I submitted my music to a couple of guys in Wilmington, NC who were making an independent film called Half-Empty. I honestly can’t remember if I sought them out or they sought me out first…but I do remember getting an email from them saying they liked my music. In response to that, I sent them a couple of CDs of my songs–including instrumental versions of each track from my last album.

Apparently, those discs are still hanging around the editor’s studio…and when one of his friends came in to put together a video project for the company he worked for, he took a listen and liked a couple of the instrumental tracks for the project. He gave me a call and I agreed to the terms and to put together the licenses for him.
I think this kind of thing happens a good bit–where your music gets used a few years after you submitted it…and it gets used for something you didn’t even submit for. Here’s what I recommend for those of you who want to replicate this…or who want to get into the world of licensing:

1. Make sure you are satisfied with your songs and recordings. If you are wondering if you should replay that last bar of the solo, or re-sing that background vocal track–DO!!

2. After you are satisfied with your mixes, make sure you spend another few minutes on each track to create an instrumental mix. By this I mean just mute all the vocals and background vox and run down the mix again with the same mixer and FX settings. This will be used by directors a lot more than your vox mixes because the vox in the vox mixes tend to interfere with the dialog in a tv show or film. Even if your lyrical content happens to match the action on screen, the editor may still edit in the instrumental version when the characters are speaking to make room for the dialog.

3. Make mp3′s of your instrumental tracks, just like you do of the versions you intend to put on your CD. Emailing mp3′s is how you’ll get a lot of your gigs…and if you have them at the ready, you’re more likely to submit them–especially to those opportunities that pop up at the last minute. Also, you’ll be surprised (and horrified) by how many times they just use your low fidelity mp3 in the actual tv show!

4. Make sure you title and tag all your mp3 files. Include your name, email, and website in the tags. Include your artist/band name in the file name. This ensures that whoever ends up with your track can contact you. If you have a lot of files to tag at one time, use STAMP ID3 tag editor.

5. Do some reading to understand how licensing works. You should know what a master use license is, what a synchronization license is, what the responsibilities are of each person you may encounter are (director, editor, music supervisor).

6. Get your business self together: i.e. make a plan for what music you’re willing to give away and for how much. For example, will you allow your music to be used in commercials? Will you let an indie filmmaker use your music in a feature at film festivals for free? Will you let a political party use a song? How much will you let your best song be licensed for in a tv series? Will you let MTV use your song in a reality show for free? You don’t have to have all the answers together before you start pitching, but you need to have a basic licensing strategy that you can communicate when opportunities arrive…and you need to make sure you can talk intelligently when someone calls to work out a deal. Also, you should be prepared to educate film guys a bit about how a licensing deal works. It’s been my experience that the first opportunities you’ll run across are going to be from indie (maybe even local) filmmakers who don’t have much experience in how to legally license music. I license my songs for free via a Creative Commons license–anyone can use them for free as long as they aren’t making money on them. If they want to make money on their creation with my music in it, they need to approach me for the sync and master licenses.

Another thing you should put together is a basic sync and master use contract template. While each deal is different and you’ll definitely need a lawyer before signing a contract someone else develops, you’ll also need a couple of basic contract templates (one for master use, one for synchronization) that you can customize to handle the small deals. I got mine out of a book and tweaked it to fit my needs.

7. When someone is interested in your music, follow up with them to send them all of your tracks. Who knows, if your CD is in their studio and it’s labeled and it sounds good–it’s much more likely to be used.

That’s basically what I’d recommend to do to get prepared for tv/film licensing…of course, I didn’t describe where to look for opportunities…but you need to get the above things in place first. Maybe in an upcoming post I’ll describe where to look for licensing opportunities.

That’s all for now…email me if you have any questions.

I’m currently fascinated with this idea for several reasons. First, I’ve had a tendency to create a bunch of music before packaging it and letting everyone hear it….that’s the traditional model of how songs have been released, really. It tends to take a long time between releases…(Just think of how long it is between U2 albums.) I think this model is dying. Indie artists like me should be the first ones to kill it! (Where’s my knife?) The delay between when a songwriter has an initial idea and when he or she gets real feedback on that idea from their fans is way too long…especially for me…especially these days when I’m juggling complicated work life, home life, and music. In addition, I find that when I do put out a batch of new songs, the ones you (my audience) choose as your favorites often surprise me. I want to get your feedback sooner.

Secondly, I want to let you into my creative process in the hopes you will support what I’m doing…by that I mean, I want you listen to it as it develops…to think about where it’s going before it gets there…to tell your friends about the music we create together…and, of course, I wouldn’t mind if you buy some of my music when it’s done…

Finally, I think this idea is interesting because I believe it is the next step in interactive music. Artists that have tried to let their fans into the creative process up until now have mostly still held too tight a control on what they let the audience do. For example, they’ll release individual tracks from the master tape and let the audience mix it. This means, the song is written, the tracks are recorded, and the tracks are often submixed, and then they are given to the audience to twist a few knobs with. Or….like Weezer did, they’ll let the audience put together the recorded tracks into a song…i.e. a very light-weight remix. Or even, they’ll supply the music and let the audience write the lyrics. That’s better, but still pretty tightly controlled. What I want to do is to let you help me decided what is good, bad, and mediocre about what I’m doing as I’m doing it. I’ll be doing all the work, but you’ll be providing your opinions. And when you see a spot where there’s a hair out-of-place, I’ll get out the razor. (Where IS my knife??)

I won’t be asking you to join the band (yet)…but I will think of you as an outside producer…one who will help shape what comes out of me with your opinions…kind of like my very own 5th Beatle. In fact, that’s what I’ll call this…The 5th Beatle Project!

In case you missed my first survey, you can take it now. Here the results so far. I find them very interesting…I’m interested to see what the first song will be.

I hope you’ll join my mailing list or fan me on Facebook or follow me on Twitter…or do all three…so you can be a part of this project. My next set of funk and roll depends on YOU!

Wanna play?

Please join my mailing list so I can keep you up-to-date with my progress. In my next post, you can pick which song idea I work on first…

Brian

January is a time everyone makes resolutions and BIG PLANS for the new year. I do, do you? I’m sure I’m not the only one who starts out the year with BIG PLANS…I mean, every January the gym parking lot is so full of “resolutioners” that you have to show up 20 minutes early for the class you always attend to make sure you can even get in. All year, the class is empty, and in January…boom, there are no seats. The funny thing is…by mid February, it’s empty again.

My music plans are no exception to this annual ritual…every year, I think about what I want to accomplish…and I dream up a giant list…and, like those January fitness resolutioners, by mid-February my grand list of plans settles into something much more workable…and by late August, I’m doing something that wasn’t even on my original list…but this year, I’m doing something differently. This year, I’m gonna ask you for your help in choosing what music I write next. If people take me up on it, I may even ask for your help as I’m putting the songs together. I want to try to this because I want to know what you guys want to hear me create…There are always several directions I can go with a song, but I’m curious to what we can create together…

Will you help me? All I ask is that you take this 8-question survey to point me in the right direction:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2DGL9RD

Thanks,

Brian

P.S. Please forward this to anyone else you know who is a musician, loves music, or knows me. The more opinions I can get, the more confident I can be that I’m giving everyone what they want to hear. Thanks!

Brian

The 1999 album made such a deep impression on me, I distinctly remember not wanting to see the Purple Rain movie a year or two later because I didn’t want it to be a let down. I didn’t see how Prince could get any better musically than 1999…little did I know…

Prince has continued to fascinate and frustrate me through the years…and I still pay attention to everything he releases…which is A LOT!! Now that I have a musical influences portion of my website, I wanted to make sure I included a section for Prince. I hope you find it useful. If you’re a musician, I hope you take some time to read through some of the lyrics…or use it to help you play a Prince song live. You will be surprised by what you find. If you’re a fan, I hope you find a track or two you don’t have. In case you want to buy some Prince music, I’ve actually included an Amazon link for each album on my Prince Discography page…and an iTunes link for each song on each song’s lyric page. In fact, I have a list of lyrics arranged by album, and a list of lyrics arranged alphabetically. I’ve worked hard to include every song lyric and every album, single, B-side, and remix. I don’t yet have all of his side projects listed, but if you like what I’ve done, let me know…and I may end up adding bands like The Time, The Family, Vanity 6, etc. later. It was actually a really interesting experiment putting this together…and I learned a few things in the process, including:

1. The volume of Prince’s work is staggering. I mean, I knew this before…but it was a HUGE job to merely put all this on the Web—and I can’t even imagine how much work it was to create these songs. Good thing I’m a Word macro wiz and didn’t have to do this all by hand. The sheer volume of his musical output is inescapable. I created an HTML file for each song lyric and there are HUNDREDS. There are more songs than there are in the Beatles catalog…and they have 4 guys who wrote. (Yes, I know I counted Ringo.) Every time Prince releases a single, he adds a couple of new tracks to it…usually in addition to adding remixes of the single itself. Prince even changed his name to an unpronounceable, untypable symbol in part because his record company would keep up with his songwriting output. Think about this…a few years ago, I figured out that Prince RELEASED on average a song every 2 weeks for over 20 years…I’m talking about recording, mixed, and released tracks…that’s on top of touring, movies, videos, directing side projects, marketing etc. And that doesn’t even include what he’s got still in his vaults. That’s about double what most professional Nashville staff songwriters are required to turn in each year…and that’s all they do…and only a few of those songs even get demo’d. Unbelievable!

2. Did I talk about the volume of work, yet??? I have to re-iterate this. Not only are there tons of songs, nearly early all of these songs are written solely by Prince. He co-writes on occasion, but mostly the songs are solo-writes. In addition, I was constantly reminded as I was reading album credits that he played virtually of the instruments on each track as well. For his first four or five albums, he played everything…and still mostly does. A lot of Prince’s albums just provide credits for the instruments he didn’t play…I guess it’s just easier to say “Prince: the rest” than it is to keep track of everything he played. I don’t know whether to think of this as genius, drive, or obsession…but my guess is it’s a heavy dose of all three. No one is even in the same league…I think when he burps a triple disc comes out.

3. There are different eras of his work which are reflected in his lyrics. I saw this before on an album-by-album basis…but mining through his entire body of work provided me with another level of insight. Read through some of the lyrics to see what I mean. Every few albums his band has completely changed…which he can do almost as fast as he changes hair styles…but on top of that, you can see himself Prince…the lyrics show him maturing as a person, exploring new ground as an artist, and growing spiritually.

4. The lyrics are a lot better than I thought. I used to think they were spotty with some being a lot better than others. Reading through them helps cut through the distraction of some of the funny vocal effects…and makes you pay more attention to what he’s talking about. I was really impressed with how each song holds together under intense scrutiny. My general impression before this is that Prince should spend a little more time crafting each song…that he seemed to put more focused in his early work…but after putting this together, I think that I’m being too hard on him. Maybe I should look instead at myself…maybe he’s doing great…and maybe I should give up my “Masterpiece myth”…and spend less time crafting each note and word in favor of creating music a little faster. Maybe all of us songwriters should.

Anyway, instead of holding your attention here any longer, I’ll stop blogging and let you check out my new Prince site. Please let me know what you think! And don’t forget to pick up a few tracks for yourself.

Brian

I’m still blown away with the Beatles remasters. I put Sgt. Pepper’s on in my car on the way into work. Every sound on every song sounds better. I can hear each reverb trail on each vocal track. I can hear each string on some of the guitar parts. The “outside” instruments especially sound amazing: the horns on “Good Morning Good Morning”, for example…the woodwinds on “When I’m Sixty-Four”…and the strings…ah, the glorious strings…I’ll get to them in a minute.

If you twisted my arm, I’d have to say that the most dramatic improvement to a song is to “Within You, Without You”…although literally EVERY SOUND on EVERY SONG is better. On “Within You, Without You”, the Indian instrumentation (both the stringed instruments and the percussion) sounded like they were in the car with me. George’s vocals are so clear that I noticed things I hadn’t known were there.

As each song rolled by, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. How can the remastering process make the disc sound THAT much better???

This post is not intended to be a full review, but I can’t let this brief summary of Sgt. Pepper’s go unmentioned without commenting on “A Day in the Life”. The symphony ascension sections actually made me forget what I was doing. Literally! My body seemed to react palpably to the tension as the orchestra swirled. The skin on my arm tightened as Mal Evans faintly counted out the measures…I moved up to the edge of my car seat, edging closer to the steering wheel and squinting every muscle in my face as the drama built to a swirling, chaotic crescendo. As the song ended with that famous chord on those grand pianos, I kind of snapped out my trance…and found I had exited the highway! I looked down the road each way and I had no clue where I was. You know THAT’S a real recording accomplishment if you make a man forget how to drive to work. I shook my head and thought my best bet at figuring out what happened would be to get back on I-77 and look for the next sign. As it turns out, I had exited the highway 10 exits too early! The orchestra sounded so alive that it increased the tension of that section to the point where my body actually tensed up. Unbelievable.

There was actually one tiny moment that I would have changed had I been in the remastering session. (A man can dream, can’t he???) On “Good Morning Good Morning”, there was a washed out, dull sounding “Sploosh” cymbal crash that ends the lines like: “Nothing to do to save his life call his wife in…Sploosh”. The remastered version made this sound too clean and precise for my taste which doesn’t seem to match the feeling that the line gives me…I guess I’m saying the prosody is off a bit. I would’ve changed the engineer’s “motivation” on that sound…but it’s a real nitpick…

In all, I’m still COMPLETELY dumbfounded with what they’ve done…yet again. The remasters sound better than I imagined they could have. I’ve fallen in love with the recordings all over again…and I still haven’t even watched the movie that comes with it…or listened to the other 14 remasters…I’m drooling.

If you want to pick up a copy, good luck! You may have to travel to a store or two. Hopefully, everyone will restock soon!

On this day, believe it or not, I’ve been married 9 years!

9 years on 9/9/09! I’m not into numerology, but I’m sure that means something important.

Tracey got out of the house early (7:30) to wait in line for a horse at Adopt-a-Horse. Today’s the day when ladies line up early (some even camp out overnight) to sign up to adopt a horse at the Anne Springs Greenway. First come, first serve…apparently, the “good” horses and time slots go fast. Today was cloudy and raining, a terrible day to wait outside in the rain…but apparently there was a full crowd of anxious women jostling for their spot in line. In my quest to be the perfect husband, I drove Devin in to day care; stopped by Starbucks to pick up a half-calf latte; delayed my 1 hour commute to Columbia; and drove to the Greenway…where I walked through the muddy, gravel road in the rain to deliver Tracey a second cup of coffee. It is our anniversary, after all. I didn’t say a word, just tapped her on the shoulder and handed her the coffee, and gave her a kiss before leaving. The horse ladies were quite impressed with me. I think the entire shed of women swooned in a collective “awww”. As I left, Tracey told them not to be impressed…it was our anniversary and I don’t normally act that way.

Number 9…Number 9…Number 9…

I went out at lunch today to pick up a couple of the REMASTERED Beatles CDs that were released today. (In case you aren’t in the know, today is the day they are re-releasing the entire Beatles catalog after having re-mastered every disc…they wanted to release the 15 re-mastered discs on 9/9/09.)

The Best Buy Beatles section was decimated…a couple of highly focused music addicts were jostling for position on the “B” aisle, looking through what was left. I positioned myself strategically to see if I could pick up The White Album and Revolver. NONE of the 15-disc serial box sets were left…and several of the albums had already sold out. I couldn’t find the re-mastered Revolver, except for the version with a t-shirt that cost $10 more…so I bought Sgt. Pepper’s. I know I should feel sick to my stomach that I’m buying the same music in yet ANOTHER format…and I should be upset with the box store twats that they don’t have enough items in stock for the rush…but I don’t. I really don’t…I’m just excited to get my hands on some “new” Beatles recordings. I can’t wait to hear what they’ve done. The sticker on the jewel box says that there’s a multi-media documentary on each disc. I usually hate those things, but I’m anxious to see if they have some “making of the recording” documentary stuff that I haven’t seen.

The Best Buy manager said that 40 people were lined up this morning, waiting the doors to open. He had already called the other Best Buy stores and they had the same problems. He seemed apologetic and friendly. I was very appreciative and felt an urge to befriend him…kinda like a girl I knew who wrote the postman a thank-you letter for delivering her college acceptance letter. Hmmm…I wonder what band will be #1 on the charts next week!!!

On the way back to work, I called my friend (and music historian) Bill. I haven’t talked to him in FAR too long, but we didn’t really catch up…we just talked about the CDs. He was just returning from the UPS store…the new CD player he bought just for this re-release was broken and he had to ship it back. We made tentative plans for a Beatles “listening session”…which means, drinking beer and listening to rock and roll…really loud. I can’t wait.

It’s late in the afternoon now and I’m finally listening to the re-mastered version of the Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band on my headphones. The sound is amazing–even on these ratty old headphones. I can’t wait to listen to the full disc on large speakers turned up loud.

The first thing I noticed was the clarity and spacial presence of the crowd noise that opens the disc as the “band” tunes up. Then, as the music kicks in, each instrument seems more defined and clearer. The guitars sound like they are in the room with me. The vocal layers are more distinguishable. The bass is perfect, but very thin on the computer headphones…having been in a couple of mastering sessions, I know that’s because of my headphones…it doesn’t sound bad…just like the low end is waiting on me to put the disc on a home stereo and blast it through the speakers. I found myself sitting on the edge of my seat, hoping John, Paul, George, and Ringo wouldn’t mess up. I’m hearing details that weren’t prominent in the old version…each subtle hand movement and breath is clear, and I got nervous that I would hear little flaws that may mess up this beautiful recording. To my amazement, even in the tiniest details, there is music. Glorious musicianship and clarity…even in how each glissando in the last note of background vocal phrases fades out…how each instrument is perfectly tuned to the voices. I find the vocals and the bass particularly amazing.

I’m humbled.

9/9/09.

What a beautiful, intimidating day!

If you want to read the
press releases related to my music activities, you can do that as
well. Believe me–these descriptions are not as exciting as venturing
into some seedy club late on a SCHOOL NITE…but for those of you who
like the experience of being there without actually being there, HERE’s to ya:

One-Way Ticket Shows

• SK NetCafe Gig January
  22, 2005 in Charlotte, NC
• NoDa Gallery Crawl at Wine Up!
  August 21, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• WBZK 980 AM Charlotte Japanese
  Radio Show July 25, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• NoDa Gallery Crawl at Wine Up!
  June 8, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• Border’s Songwriter
  Showcase May 22, 2004 at Border’s Stonecrest in Charlotte, NC
• Scorcher’s Gig May 19,
  2004 in Mooresville, NC
• The Cotton Gin Tavern Gig
  April 24, 2004 in York, SC
• Funk and Roll Show Returns to
  Wine Up! April 2, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• Music Trip to Los Angeles
  March 28-April 1, 2004 in Hollywood, CA
• NoDa Gallery Crawl at Wine Up!
  February 6, 2004 in Charlotte, NC
• Tosco House Party Open
  Mic January 6, 2003 (Evening Muse) in Charlotte, NC
• Border’s Songwriter
  Showcase December 27, 2003 (Borders Stonecrest in Charlotte, NC)
• Barbara Cloyd’s
  Songwriter Search Workshop September 19-21, 2003 in Brisol, TN
• Earth Day April 20, 2003 (Nature
  Center) in Charlotte, NC
• Songfinisher’s Showcase
  March 27, 2003 (Evening Muse) in Charlotte, NC

The Smashing of Pictures Shows (excerpts)

• Route One Music
  Conference (Carey Street Cafe) in Richmond, Virginia
• Songwriter’s Nite
  June 20, 1996 (Double Door Inn) in Charlotte, NC
• Cobblestone Brewery
  July 25, 1996 in Richmond Virginia
• Lambdapolluza Sept. 28,
  1996 at Washington and Lee University
• The Cellar,
  Oct. 5, 1996 at the University of Richmond

Listen to Brian’s new
CD!

Anyway, when I heard that John was playing in the area, I knew it would be a fitting (and symbolic) end to the indie artist research I’d been doing to venture out to his show.  Besides, I thought…it’d be great to be a fly on the wall to see how he works a room.

So at 8:30, after having secured my little one tightly beneath his favorite animal blanket, with his red stuffed snake appropriately curled around his head…and having kissed my lovely T as she was making her Facebook rounds, I ducked out of the house to drive down for the show.  John was playing at The Money in Rock Hill.  It’s a small live music venue directly across from Winthrop University.  Despite a stop at the ATM and a bone-headed missing of the exit, I arrived at the club SUPER early.  So early, in fact, that there were only 3 cars in the parking lot.

As I pulled into a parking space, I noticed a young lady in a wheel chair on the sidewalk where people enter the club.  I asked her if the place was open yet…She responded that she doesn’t know because she couldn’t get up the steep slope to the metal door to get in.  As it turns out, her name was Iris, and she’d driven down from Raleigh for both Taglieri shows (plus a Jason Mraz show…and probably a few others that I can’t remember right now).  She’s a real live music demon, a real rock chick.

Besides Cindy the bartender/owner and the doorman, Iris and I were the only people in the club for 10-15 minutes until the performers starting showing up to set up.  I didn’t mind being so early because I was hoping it’d mean I’d get a chance to introduce myself to John.  Besides, Cindy the bartender kept us well stocked with samples of her original (and delicious) drink specials as John came over to speak to Iris.  They were talking about escapades on the Rock Boat, which I was familiar with because of my research.  (John bought a ticket to the Rock Boat cruise because he felt his music was similar to the bands that perform on it.  He used the opportunity to hand out CD samplers and play his guitar in the boat’s lobby, meeting tons of folks and making new fans.  He goes every year now…as it turns out a couple of the folks at the show had been on Rock Boat.)

John used the pre-show time to take pics and videos of those of us who were there early. I’m sure they were up on his website by the next morning.   He also set up his new Mac laptop to webcast the show.  He also set up his merch suitcase on the doorman’s desk….right next to his mailing list clipboard.  He definitely had the event covered.

He ran out for a brief bite to eat, bringing back a Big Mac, which he unwrapped on the bar beside me.  As he ate, he repeatedly made a point of saying he hasn’t eaten fast food in a year…but he didn’t have time for anything else tonite.  He said, “You might not know this about me, but I used to weigh a lot more than I do now…I had to quit eating fast food when I woke up one day and couldn’t see my feet.”  I replied, “Actually, I know a lot more about you than you think…”

John stopped mid-bite and looked at me quizzingly.

I continued, “I just did a speech at NSAI about indie artist success stories and…”

John interjected, “That was you??? I heard about that from Cate Cloer…thanks!!!”  He ran off to find a napkin to wipe the Special Sauce from his hands so he could shake mine.  (Can you believe how news travels in the Web 2.0 world???)  We chatted music marketing for a brief few minutes, and I found John to be just as genuine and insightful as he is in the variety of interviews and podcasts I’ve heard him in.  He’s authentic, passionate, and fun to be around.

When the show started, John traded songs with his opening act from bar stools. They sometimes played and sang together; sometimes they took turns trading songs.  The small (but devoted) fans knew songs from both performers, occasionally yelling out requests.  John even took requests from the people in Cyberspace watching via the webcast.  Pretty cool.  John had some really tasty guitar licks and did a nice “mashup” of Oasis and Aerosmith.  If you want to see the show, I’m betting you can find it on the www.johntaglieri.com website.  He has really jumped in to make the transition to Web 2.0, recording and distributing everything he does….I’m betting if he breathes, it gets tweeted somewhere.  The Money Show has got to be there somewhere.

Unfortunately, after an hour or so of music, the long day and the drink specials started to wear on me…as did the thought that 5:55 a.m. comes VERY early…so I wrote John a brief note to apologize, bought up his CD collection (4 CDs) and ducked out around midnight.  I regret not staying until the end…but my carriage was changing back into a pumpkin…it’s times like these that having a day job really puts a cramp in my style.

When I got home, everyone was sleeping except for the dogs…Scout, our 60 pound, Lab/Sheppard cross made sure to give me a cold nose rocket up the backside when I stepped out of the bathroom in my boxers.  I guess he wanted to make sure that I knew he couldn’t sleep until I was home from my night out.

If you get a chance, make sure to check out John’s music (www.johntaglieri.com)…also, if you’re a musician, check out my Indie Music Success Stories video.