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OCTOBER 2009 TAXI Road Rally 2008 Connecting the Dots to Build Your Success Panel Part 3, moderated by Michael Laskow Daniel Holter – Producer, composer, and owner of Burst Records in Milwaukee. Daniel has thousands of songs licensed every year on virtually all of the top shows and produces commercial music for such varied clients as Goldman Sachs, GM, Microsoft, GE, and Gatorade. He’s created several production music libraries which caught the ears of Extreme Music and Sony/ATV Music Publishing and resulted in a really sweet deal. Daniel also had the lead single on Columbia Recording artist Emma Roberts with his song, “I Wanna Be,” as a result of a deal he made through a TAXI listing. Daniel Holter Dean Krippaehne Richard Harris Dean Krippaehne – Producer/songwriter/musician. Dean currently has more than 100 songs in several production music libraries. His recent placements include the ABC soap, One Life to Live, and ABC Family’s Lincoln Heights. 2008 has also brought Dean a Billboard Top 10 album and two gold records in Europe. His cuts include Stefanie Heinzmann, American Idol’s Sarah Burgess and America’s Got Talent’s Sarah Lenore, among many others. Virtually all of Dean’s deals have been the result of connections he has made through TAXI. Richard Harris – Songwriter/producer, signed to Peer Music Publishing. He is originally from the U.K., and is currently writing songs for artists on Atlantic, Universal, Motown and EMI Records. He has had great success with TV placements and commercials. Recent placements include One Tree Hill, The Closer, and Cold Case. Richard has also been a TAXI member and recently joined our A&R team. Michael: Richard, so many people seem to have gear phobia. I think they’d embrace the technology because it makes it so much easier to crank out so much more music from your home studio. What’s your take on it? Richard: Yeah, it’s certainly a lot easier. You only have to look at technology in the last 10 years—it’s come leaps and bounds. We are lucky enough now that we can work at home, and what we can do in the box now is just phenomenal. I mean the point where you would have to go to a studio and book session musicians, and da-da-da. Plus the cost of putting together a track, and the time restraints these days just don’t exist. The technology side of it is fun. It’s playing with toys, really. I’m on gear forums and blogs all the time looking at new gear—microphones and all that stuff. You kinda have to fall in love with all that geeky side of it. Technology is playing games. I mean that’s really what it is, the set-top video game that makes music. And once you’ve learned how to do it, it makes your song sound better, and you can make songs all day long. Daniel started his commercial music career in ’93 working for a radio commercial production firm. He started his own production company in ’94, creating music for commercial clients. He then started his own production music library. His first break was partnering with a small, L.A.-based library, which blossomed into a bigger deal with a larger national company. In 2001 he purchased an old building for $200k with an SBA loan, and another $250k he borrowed from the local bank. He built a state-of-the-art studio where he could record his own music and start producing other artists for a record label he wanted to start. He started working with a very good friend, a composer/producer, and a few parttime freelancers who received some production money and the writer’s share of the public performance royalties. He now has almost 20 composers worldwide writing commercial tracks from Country to Funk to heavy metal. Revenues have been increasing 16% a year. Daniel recently signed a deal with a major publisher/music library. I can’t tell you the exact numbers, out of respect for his privacy, but it’s in the multiple six figures per year to produce 15 CDs per year. They gave him another chunk of multiple six figures cash upfront for a 50% interest in his existing catalog of 500 tracks. Sales from that are likely to hit $1 million a year by the end of the first year. He’s got no responsibility to distribute or market the music. That’s handled by the publisher and the library, leaving Daniel’s hands free to concentrate on the creative side. [Applause] True story? Daniel: Yeah, true. Well, fingers-crossed it’s a true story. It’s all projections. Congratulations Daniel! I’m sure your story will inspire some people here today. Richard, now you’ve seen TAXI from the member perspective and now the screeners’ perspective. What percentage of the music that you hear when you’re screening at TAXI—and I need you to be honest about this—what percentage of it is Continued on page 43 41

Recording - October 2009

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