Recording - October 2009 - 43

Continued from page 41 pitched at the right genre? Richard: Oh, less than 50%. I think it’s the toughest part of doing screening. You get to listen to a lot of music—and everybody that does screening at TAXI is super-dedicated to what they do—and it’s actually not that easy. I mean, it’s a really tough gig, because you are always looking to be positive; you’re always looking to find the goods, and there is a lot of good stuff in there. But the hardest part is when you hear a good song—a great song, even—that’s Country, and what they are asking for is Indy Rock music. I don’t understand. It’s really hard to respond to that, because you can still critique it—and we are asked to critique it still—and go through the process and say like, “This is where I think it needs to be improved,” or “Look at this or look at that,” or “It’s really good, and these are the good bits about it,” but you can’t forward it. It’s just because the bar is set pretty high. I always put in my last comments that you have to read the listings carefully. You have to read what comes out and make sure that what you’re doing is exactly fitting it. Sometimes it can be Hot AC, or this that and the other. There are so many bloody categories these days, you know what I mean? But, thankfully, most of the listings come out with an artist attached to it—Sarah Bareilles or whatever it is—it’s got to be that. You have to pay attention to that or you’re just wasting money. If you want to get it critiqued, send it in for a custom critique, because that service is there, or you are just wasting your time and money, really. You might as well wait, but I know it’s difficult, because when you’re starting off you want so much to get there and arrive. But when you’ve arrived, guess what, there’s more work, and there’s more of the same thing. I have to deal with the same thing in my day-to-day life. When a label asks for a particular type of music, I have to supply a particular type of music. You know you have to learn that. So, read TAXI’s listings and make sure that what you do sounds like what’s out there and what they’re asking for. And the interesting thing about this is—at least with TAXI—it’s low risk, because you’re just going to get a critique and a return; it’s not forwarded. But if you submit something that’s off the mark to a client in the industry more than once, you’re dead. That’s it; you’ll never work for them again. You can’t keep sending stuff in that’s not right, so you have to learn that pretty damn quickly, and, frankly, TAXI would be a good place to learn it because there’s no risk there, apart from the fact that you lost five bucks and a little bit of ego. But you can’t do that in the real world. Just read the listings. It’s really pretty simple. But a lot of our members say, “I don’t like the fact that the industry—and TAXI as an extension of the industry—is trying to force us into pigeon holes. Why do we have to give you what they’re asking for? Why are they asking for something specific? Why can’t I just do what I do and have [the industry] guys love it?” Richard: Well, yeah, that would be nice, but it’s not real and it doesn’t exist. But you can grab your guitar and go out and start playing the streets and a bunch of bars and everything else… you can play whatever music you want. And if it appeals to somebody, they might buy your CD and you’re making money. But if you When I’ve got a major corporation expecting things from me by March 31. If I don’t turn those in by March 31, I don’t get my wire transfer. If I don’t get my wire transfer, I lose my building. This is a business for me, and if people aren’t going to play by the rules and be good business people, there’s a limit to how much we can work together. Can the really good guys who are reliable, and have been doing Film and TV tracks for seven, eight, or ten years make $100,000 a year? Daniel: I’ve got guys who are in that situation who mysteriously decided to do something else, which is strange because they’re cashing $40-50,000 worth of royalties every year. It boggles my mind that you wouldn’t continue to build that. But they decided that they didn’t want to keep doing it. But the really good ones, I hire. I’ve got guys on staff, and they’re extraordinary people. Aside from being really talented, they are people I want to be around every day. And they’re making great livings, even by L.A. standards. But they’re in Milwaukee, where it’s effectively twice as much money. We’ve been working on this new deal for five years—it’s only six months old—and I’ve been telling them often as we were building toward it, when we were frustrated and I wasn’t paying the bills and I was taking out loans to pay the bills, but still believing in the dream I kept telling them, “If you guys aren’t making six figures a year on royalties from this stuff, I’ll be shocked.” Because the material is that good and there’s that quantity and I’ve got the track record to kind of know what an average track might generate per year with the distributors that we’ve got. But I kept telling them if they’re not making six figures a year, just in mailbox money, I’d be absolutely shocked. So, yes, there’s that kind of money available, there’s no question. If you’re serious about it and you’re gonna do it. Many of the people on our forum talk about the five-year plan. I think it’s conceivable to make a few hundred, a couple thousand, a few thousand, maybe, if you’re lucky in the first year or two. It is a ramp-up, but it’s a cumulative ramp. So after 10 years that you keep getting better and more productive and learn more about what the market needs, I absolutely have seen so many cases of guys that make $100,000. Jim Long has introduced me to guys who’ve made a quarter of a million bucks a year doing it—doing what they love. I mean, that’s lawyer money for making music. Daniel: Yeah, it’s ridiculous. Don’t give the secret away. I’m not that embarrassed telling anybody here, but I just passed $1.2 million in ASCAP royalties. That’s spread over a period of time. That’s not each year. But I am Continued on page 45 “If you guys aren’t making six-figures a year on royalties from this stuff, I’ll be shocked.” – Daniel Holter are into the commercial end of the business… I remember being in the audience here when I was a TAXI member and listening to what a panelist described as “commercial music.” Music only becomes commercial when everybody decides to go out and buy it. And the two aren’t mutually exclusive. You could be doing film and TV stuff out of a bedroom by day, and still play live shows whenever you want! Daniel, let’s talk about being professional. How important is it to give you [in your role as a publisher] what you ask for and deliver it on time and be able to do remixes or go back and re-track something or remix it to your standards or specs? Daniel: It depends on how often you want to work with me. I’ve got people who are incredibly talented and I’ll never work with them again, because they are a total pain in the ass. I don’t care how much money I can make with them. I am in a bit of a fortunate situation where it’s not… If it’s just going to be that big of a pain, I don’t want to deal with it, you know? And it could be a hassle or the guy could be a jerk, one of the two. But there are also people that are total pains who are so good, and they are a pain where it’s like I’ve got to tell them it’s due September, and I know I’m gonna get it in December. But they’re also not getting calls from me for those two months. They get two calls a year, because I know it’s got to be perfect, and I’m just going to allow for it in my schedule and say I need it three months before, and he’s going to turn it in three months later, which is part of the working order when I’m working with that guy. But I don’t work with him very often at all. There are guys like that who call and say, “How come you don’t call me more often?”

Recording - October 2009

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