Recording - June 2013 - 52

Continued from page 51
result of connections, deals, and relationships
made through TAXI. Dean is founder of Retro
Media Collective, continues to work with multiple indie artists, and writes the weekly music
production blog: TheBellyOfTheBeat.com.
Dean, could you have accomplished what you’ve
done in this business if you hadn’t learn about the
business aspects of the industry? You’re pretty
business-savvy. All you guys are pretty businesssavvy, actually. But you are just such a
down-to-Earth guy, and I, frankly, wouldn’t peg
you as a guy that would be business-savvy. You
appear to be more of a creative type. How did you
learn the business side, and at what point did you
learn how important it was?
Dean: Well… TAXI. I learned a lot of business
from TAXI, from the [TAXI] Forums, from these
guys, and what they would talk about, and
about what you would write in the newsletters.
I wasn’t looking for that answer, but thank you.

Dean: Like many people in this room, it’s like,
“Man, I just want to write a song, and if somebody says it’s great, then I make a million bucks,
and they’ll find me singing in a club in Seattle or
whatever.” But it didn’t really ever work out that
way. I had to learn some other things, and business was one of them—all aspects of business.
So I’m always listening, always learning, always
reading. You send out great stuff all the time.
You send out book recommendations and I read
the books. I learn.
My brother also said something to me that really
helped me in all business. He said,
“Relationships, relationships, relationships, relationships.” If people like you, if you are likable,
if you are professional, the business is gonna

“We all have to be open-minded
about being non-defensive.”
—Dave Walton
happen. And you also have to have discipline.
Through discipline and relationships, doors will
open and good stuff will happen. Now, as I’ve
evolved through that, there are deeper aspects of
the business that I’m having to learn. Just
because maybe you make $40,000 on a project,
now you’ve got to figure out how to get that
money. It doesn’t always just come to you like
maybe you think it would.
Like right after the phone call a delivery guy shows
up with a white hat and a check for $40K, right?
Dean: Or, one of the things I’m trying to
understand is I was making a big chunk of
money from Muzak—all of those things were
through TAXI. And now there are lawsuits, the
52

United States against the performing rights
agency, against Muzak, against DMX. And they
are withholding a certain amount of money
until they figure out what the new royalty rates
are gonna be. So I’m trying to make myself
aware of that, and what I can do? Can I do anything to move those processes? You know, it’s
good to educate yourself on every aspect of the
business that you possibly can, and keep learnin’
and keep growin’. These guys [Dean’s fellow
panelists] are great…
Most of the people that have had success like
these guys have dealt with a lot of different business aspects. I have learned so much. Matt and
Mazz are incredibly articulate on the Forum
about different aspects of the business. I go to
these guys and learn, you know?
How many of you have ever made a penny on film
and TV—placing your music in film and TV—
before you joined TAXI? I thought you had, Matt.
Didn’t you get one placement through Mark
Ferrari?
Matt: I’ve had a lot of placements where the
deal didn’t come through TAXI, but it was after I
joined TAXI, and after I wrote music to TAXI listings. I then found other ways to… I think it
was— a shout out to John Braheny—at the LA
Songwriters Expo. That was the first time that I
connected with somebody. But I was already a
TAXI member, and the music that I wrote was
because of listings. That was a great motivator
because I could actually see a target. I could write
for this, as opposed to just, “Uhhh, what am I
gonna write today?”
That’s exactly why I asked that question. It points
out targets. It’s so much easier to accomplish anything in life if you can see it in front of you and
know when you have to hand it in. We all crammed
for homework, for tests. We’ve all done that, and
that’s what TAXI’s listings are. It’s a test on Wednesday at six o’clock, and you better be ready for it. Or
it’s a paper you’ve got to turn in. It just gives you so
much structure. So it’s interesting to me that none
of you guys had ever made money before you had
that structure in the form of TAXI listings.
All right, I’ve got one more question for each of
you. Let’s start with Matt on this one. Fill in the
blank: If there’s one thing that the people in this
ballroom can do to dramatically increase their odds
of making money with their music, what do you
think that is, Matt?
Matt: Find a niche. Don’t be like everybody else,
find a niche. And that ties in with my montage,
which was all Chinese music. You know, I’ve
been doing world music and Latin music from
the beginning. That was kind of how I got in.

Once I was in, I started branching out and doing
everything else. But to get in with a new company or a bigger company, or just get in the
music business, period, find a niche that not
everybody else is doing, too. I just did this Chinese stuff that I played—I started working on
this in June—and we’ve been getting great
response from some of the really big companies
with it, because there’s nobody else that’s doing
it with like authentic instruments and real Chinese lyrics, vocals and samples. So that’s a niche.
And the response, even after all my success and
all my credits, people take me more seriously
when I give them a little package product, than
when I just say, “I’m a composer. I write everything. I’ve got all these credits.” They say, “That’s
real impressive, but we don’t really know what
to do with you.” So find a niche, focus on it initially, and then you can branch out and do
everything else later.
Great advice.
John, fill in the blank. If there’s one thing the folks
behind me could do that could dramatically
increase their odds of making more money with
their music, what do you think it is?
John: Do something on your career every day.
Every day, even if it’s reading a chapter in a
book, or learning something about licensing, or
writing four bars of a Dramedy cue or
something—just every day, some little thing or
big thing. Don’t wait until the end of the week
and then pile it all in there, because if it doesn’t
come out right, you’re gonna be disappointed.
But if you are constantly, steadily working on it,

“Find a niche, focus on it initially, and
then you can branch out and do
everything else later.”
—Matt Hirt
then it grows and improves incrementally. And
over time, those failures don’t mean as much
because they are just absorbed into the larger
picture of your career. So every day, do
something.
Dave, it’s your turn, right? Fill in the blank. What is
the one thing you recommend they do to increase
their odds of making money?
Dave: Be willing to be open-minded to change your
own perspective about music. If the piano sample
that you’ve been using for five years… You know,
that may be the only piano sample that you’re
hearing, so it sounds pretty good, but compared to
where things need to be? Quite a bit people write
Continued on page 55

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