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On the (hopefully) humorous side .. Back when MP3.com just got started I joined early. Got free bling from them multiple times and a few checks (yes physical checks).
I mention they were physical checks because the first one I received cost them more to mail it to me than the check was worth to me. Obviously not a good business model. Then the next check doubled (so was worth more than the postage anyway). Then the next month it doubled again and more free stuff. And again ..
I told my wife "If this keeps doubling every month you won't be laughing at those checks" /The checks stopped coming soon after. //At least I didn't actually 'lose' any money <shrug>
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome Make your sound your own!
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We get about $80-100 every 2-3 years from CDBaby for digitial distribution of a CD we released in 2003 during our bluegrass days. The album featured a Grammy nominated friend and that contributed to good CD sales for a couple of years. We donated all the proceeds in honor of him - he passed too early and we continue to donate the digital payments.
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Not yet, Bob, but I consider I am still in a learning phase and still trying to find my own "sweet spot" as an artist.
BIAB is helping me with that as it is giving me the opportunity to create hundreds of worktapes with every idea that pops into my head and the ammunition for mixes on stuff I think deserves a production.
SongTradr gives me lots of ideas and impetus for taking a whack at song concepts I would not have even thought of until I looked at the wanted listings. It is not taking skin off of my back because I just keep adding stuff to my catalog. I have had quite a few "final selections" from stuff I wrote four months ago, where I saw the posting and just hit click. After a while I will be able to go click click click all day long. It costs about 20 cents to submit a song.
I don't need them for Spotify because I have my own outlets for digital and am actually doing ok on Spotify with my classical and "relaxation" stuff.
Now, is it legit? I have watched videos of the staff in their office, and their creative director or A&R lady (the one who posts opps and makes final selections, supposedly) seems legit.
But quite honestly, they are pulling some "amazing opps" from the same posting boards everyone else is--so folks have to realize EVERY licensing company is vying for the same opps, and SongTradr is just one.
Bud and Janice are lucky and blessed to be with an outfit like Crucial for their genre, but for people in super packed genres (singer-songwriter, pop, EDM, rock, film scoring) there about 2.5 million artists with home studios in the world (at least) doing what we do.
I think I got it from you Bob that about 20,000 new songs are dropped to Spotify EACH Day, like 5,000 new books are added to Kindle EACH Day.
I guarantee you that every person dropping those 20,000 Spotify songs per day is chasing sync.
So I think it is safe to roughly quesstimate that if you see a SongTradr opp and submit for it, you have 20,000 competitors coming from somewhere if is gets down to the music supervisor level.
Where does that leave us?
I can only say where it leaves me.
I just try and keep writing and mixing better songs every day and not even think about the rest of it or keeping up with the Jones.
Your brain would cave it.
I just keep hitting click and then go back to the screen to see how my new mix is coming along. It is the only way I can stay focused and happy.
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David, If we could create music "on demand" and at that were prolific in many genres and were we something other than rhythm players we might well follow your path. The Crucial think was a fluke...they are big players and for the hell of it I listened to their bluegrass stuff and realized they were IMO lacking. So we slipped in.
I admire you ability to be creative in so many directions.
Bud
Our albums and singles are on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Pandora and more. If interested search on Janice Merritt. Thanks! Our Videos
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Not yet, Bob, but I consider I am still in a learning phase and still trying to find my own "sweet spot" as an artist.
BIAB is helping me with that as it is giving me the opportunity to create hundreds of worktapes with every idea that pops into my head and the ammunition for mixes on stuff I think deserves a production.
SongTradr gives me lots of ideas and impetus for taking a whack at song concepts I would not have even thought of until I looked at the wanted listings. It is not taking skin off of my back because I just keep adding stuff to my catalog. I have had quite a few "final selections" from stuff I wrote four months ago, where I saw the posting and just hit click. After a while I will be able to go click click click all day long. It costs about 20 cents to submit a song.
I don't need them for Spotify because I have my own outlets for digital and am actually doing ok on Spotify with my classical and "relaxation" stuff.
Now, is it legit? I have watched videos of the staff in their office, and their creative director or A&R lady (the one who posts opps and makes final selections, supposedly) seems legit.
But quite honestly, they are pulling some "amazing opps" from the same posting boards everyone else is--so folks have to realize EVERY licensing company is vying for the same opps, and SongTradr is just one.
Bud and Janice are lucky and blessed to be with an outfit like Crucial for their genre, but for people in super packed genres (singer-songwriter, pop, EDM, rock, film scoring) there about 2.5 million artists with home studios in the world (at least) doing what we do.
I think I got it from you Bob that about 20,000 new songs are dropped to Spotify EACH Day, like 5,000 new books are added to Kindle EACH Day.
I guarantee you that every person dropping those 20,000 Spotify songs per day is chasing sync.
So I think it is safe to roughly quesstimate that if you see a SongTradr opp and submit for it, you have 20,000 competitors coming from somewhere if is gets down to the music supervisor level.
Where does that leave us?
I can only say where it leaves me.
I just try and keep writing and mixing better songs every day and not even think about the rest of it or keeping up with the Jones.
Your brain would cave it.
I just keep hitting click and then go back to the screen to see how my new mix is coming along. It is the only way I can stay focused and happy.
So, that's a total of $13.98 to Joanne's account. Not very impressive. I only posed the question because I too have submitted material to ST. So I have some skin in the game. "Your brain would cave it." Could you clarify that statement? It doesn't make sense. Regards, Bob
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I like ST, I had The Brown Arrow, make a shortlist today, but, did not make final selction, and I had Hwy 49 Blues get final selection and sent to the music Supervisor, if an a--hole isn't the supervisor, i should get selected, HA. It is fun to submit and see what happens. Most of mine just get rejected. It is fun to see congratulations! every now and then. Cliff
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After reading prior posts on this subject, I really dont try to write to fit the submission, if I have a song that I think may fit i will submit it, not very many genres that i submit to. I am not in the todays pop world at all. My stuff is fairly old school, not a lot of requests for that style, all that being said, this month I have used over half of my credits for a change. Last month, I may have submitted 2 songs. Everyone, let us know how it is going with you on these submissions. Good info here. Cliff
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Dear Bob,
I extend my most heartfelt and deepest apologies and beg your kindness and forgiveness for this typo when I meant to say your brain would cave in, not cave it.
My meaning was that I spend zero time thinking about anything negative or comparing my "success" (or lack thereof) in any field to what anyone else is doing, or what is happening out there. I am very methodical in what I do, and just stay focused on my "to do" lists, try and not second guess myself and just keep plugging away. I learned a lot from the book publishing world where I got through all the crazy hoops you had to jump through to get successfully published before Kindle came along and burned the industry to the ground. What I learned was this: most people in the industry (I think) aren't really reading anything, and most of the market is run by hype. I won't get into specifics but it is pretty shallow out there, in my opinion. But if I sat around thinking about that too much, I would get nothing done.
If you have skin in the game, I see 2 costs.
1. Opportunity costs. It takes a lot of time to write, post and upload a song. If you ever come to the conclusion that it is not for real, I would stop. I do not sense an opportunity cost at this point because I would be writing anyway and their wanted sections give me some good ideas.
2.) 4.99 a month. I don't see this as a lot, and the opportunity costs far outweigh it.
As I stated and I think said clearly, the Catch-22 in all of this is you never know how many other Song Tradrs and Taxis are pitching their stuff to the same opps even if you do make final selection. They all draw from the same openings, and all of the A&R people all know the same crowd.
So the competition is fierce and the odds are in no one's favor.
I just do it because I think it is fun and relaxing when I look at the headaches of my day job.
Hope this answers your questions and is useful.
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"Dear Bob,
I extend my most heartfelt and deepest apologies and beg your kindness and forgiveness for this typo when I meant to say your brain would cave in, not cave it."
Cute.
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RIding Hwy 49 got shortlisted again today, it is at the music supervisor on one listing. Lots of fun this stuff. They have just posted a Gram Parson alt, I was a big Gram Parsons fan, have done several of his covers, but, really never wrote anything similiar to his style of the song they want, it is an odd song and not one of his better ones. Why would anyone want that style that knows Gram Parson songs? Oh Well CLiff
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Weird scenes inside the goldmine Clifton.  Hey, come to think of it, I wish they would beg for a Jim Morrison alt. I would mojo the you know what out of them brother.
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Weird scenes inside the goldmine Clifton.  Hey, come to think of it, I wish they would beg for a Jim Morrison alt. I would mojo the you know what out of them brother. Ha David, I only like one of his songs, and i cant think of the name of it, but, would probably send something in if they asked for an alt. Cliff
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So David's B.S. notwithstanding  . that's $13.98 for Joanne. Still not impressed.
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Yeah, on the money side of this, I havent seen any. CLiff
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Well Bob, maybe not a lot of money being seen by us here but we're having fun making music and there is the possibility of recouping some of the expenses through licensing using Songtradr. I don't think any of us are purely in it for the money and if you are then you are in the wrong business and should just stop. We make music because we love to and if we can make a little cash off of it why not?
I'm probably one of the few people on this forum that makes a living off of playing music but very... VERY little of that comes from songwriting and recording. What little extra money I make performing usually goes right back into my art so I can get better tools and skills to get better at recording and producing. Maybe one day I'll make that next hit song or get a $50k licensing deal (which would be great) but that's not why I make music. I do it because I love it.
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Well said Samuel! I also do it because I love it. It sure beats watching TV in the evenings. That said, I am not about to give up my "real" job (I write the specifications and document processes for custom built financial software projects).
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RIding Hwy 49 got shortlisted again today, it is at the music supervisor on one listing. Lots of fun this stuff. They have just posted a Gram Parson alt, I was a big Gram Parsons fan, have done several of his covers, but, really never wrote anything similiar to his style of the song they want, it is an odd song and not one of his better ones. Why would anyone want that style that knows Gram Parson songs? Oh Well CLiff Congratulations on your shortlist. I'm a big fan of Gram Parsons music too. Relative to this discussion, I have written songs similar to his style and actually sold an original recording to be included in a Gram Parsons documentary. While I can't pitch that particular song, I may have another one I can. Encouragement to the forum not to quit writing, that song collected dust for 44 years before it was 'discovered'. The record company that purchased the rights has received 6 Grammy nominations over the years. And, I've netted more in royalties from that song than the entire album it was released on grossed....
BIAB 2025:RB 2025, Latest builds: Dell Optiplex 7040 Desktop; Windows-10-64 bit, Intel Core i7-6700 3.4GHz CPU and 16 GB Ram Memory.
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Well Bob, maybe not a lot of money being seen by us here but we're having fun making music and there is the possibility of recouping some of the expenses through licensing using Songtradr. I don't think any of us are purely in it for the money and if you are then you are in the wrong business and should just stop. We make music because we love to and if we can make a little cash off of it why not?
I'm probably one of the few people on this forum that makes a living off of playing music but very... VERY little of that comes from songwriting and recording. What little extra money I make performing usually goes right back into my art so I can get better tools and skills to get better at recording and producing. Maybe one day I'll make that next hit song or get a $50k licensing deal (which would be great) but that's not why I make music. I do it because I love it. Well, Sammy, you don't know me at all. Judging by your videos, though, I was making money playing music before you were even born. In New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Miami...you've heard of these places, right? I've paid more dues than you could even imagine, so have a little respect. Regards, Bob
Last edited by 90 dB; 08/17/18 02:28 AM.
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Recording, Mixing, Performance and Production
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RIding Hwy 49 got shortlisted again today, it is at the music supervisor on one listing. Lots of fun this stuff. They have just posted a Gram Parson alt, I was a big Gram Parsons fan, have done several of his covers, but, really never wrote anything similiar to his style of the song they want, it is an odd song and not one of his better ones. Why would anyone want that style that knows Gram Parson songs? Oh Well CLiff Congratulations on your shortlist. I'm a big fan of Gram Parsons music too. Relative to this discussion, I have written songs similar to his style and actually sold an original recording to be included in a Gram Parsons documentary. While I can't pitch that particular song, I may have another one I can. Encouragement to the forum not to quit writing, that song collected dust for 44 years before it was 'discovered'. The record company that purchased the rights has received 6 Grammy nominations over the years. And, I've netted more in royalties from that song than the entire album it was released on grossed.... Charlie that is great, when is the doc coming out, I would love to see it and sure would like to your song!!!! Cliff Yeah, I like Gram, with Emmy lou and with the Flying burrito bros and the submarine band, he brought country around the rock world. My favorite song of his is the return of the grievous angel, I have a song with that in it. Thanks for the info Charlie Cliff
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The documentary is an audio and booklet release in vinyl and cd media and was released back in 2016. I'm unsure if it's allowed to pitch commercially released material but the record company and apparently a private individual that purchased a copy of the documentary each released a YouTube copy of my song used in the documentary. Since that has nothing to do with me and YouTube links are allowed, here is the link to my song - I Saw Her Cry
Last edited by Charlie Fogle; 08/18/18 02:41 PM.
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