jamesg1213
The only experience I've had is with Pump Audio. Got some tunes accepted, sent them the tracks..never heard another word from them. That was approx 5 years ago. Don't know what conclusions can be drawn from that.

craigb
I tried to have a music library once but, every time I began to play a sample, some crusty old lady with weird glasses would run up and say "Shh!" 

jamesg1213
The only experience I've had is with Pump Audio. Got some tunes accepted, sent them the tracks..never heard another word from them. That was approx 5 years ago. Don't know what conclusions can be drawn from that.

bapu

kev11111111111111

Jeff Evans
Another option is to join TAXI in the US and get them to send your stuff to the US based libraries. There are many more of them over there you know.
 
Have you contacted QUEST in the UK as well. I believe they are pretty good.
 
http://www.qwpm.co.uk/
 
 

Hey Jeff
 
I've heard of Taxi but I feel a bit uncomfortable about paying for their services to be honest. I heard they do advertise gigs and jobs but you have to pay to go for each one (as well as the membership)....it just doesnt seem that fair :( Have you worked with them and had results ?
 
I'll check out QUEST now !!!!!! Thanks ever so much for the pointer :)
 
Kev
 

Herb (guitarhacker) is a TAXI member.

Guitarhacker
Actually, I was a TAXI member but currently I am not. I'm currently not affiliated with any membership organizations at all...... that's always subject to change but currently.... nope.
 
I don't have a problem paying a submittal fee..... as it keeps everybody and their brother from sending every song they ever wrote to a listing whether it fits the listing or not.  $6 to submit to FMJ is not bad.  $5 to submit to Taxi once you're a member is not bad. That membership fee at TAXI is the killer.  Taxi says that 90% of their rejections come from people submitting songs that do not fit the listing. Sending a vocal tune to an instrumental listing or sending a metal rock tune to a bluegrass listing, and yeah it happens all the time. Imagine what it would be like if there were no submittal fee.
 
In my last year of membership with Taxi, I submitted a number of tunes and not a single one was forwarded, and that was with paying attention to the details of the specs and genre, and everything else. The year before that had a number of tunes forwarded.....I submitted 5 to one listing in particular and had ALL 5 forwarded. And I heard exactly nothing from the other end.....
 
As far as people on the other end getting back to you...... Hey, this is the music business.  Yes, projects often take a long time to get ready. For any given listing call that a producer gives..... for example, the one where I submitted 41 cues to the huge TV show..... I would wager they get thousands upon thousands of cues submitted for that one listing. The job of screening them goes to some lower level staffers. They decide the ones that might work and ones that might not fit exactly. There is no way on this green earth that they are going to send regrets to each and every writer or publisher who gets turned down.  No one has the time for that. So as the songwriter, setting in your studio..... you hear..... crickets from the other end.
 
Even taxi and FMJ tell you they don't review the songs for feedback in most cases. You can get that as an additional service. NSAI, on the other hand exists for that specific purpose of feedback and critiques,  BUT, they are not primarily in the referral business unless the song is really, really outstanding and grabs the staff in a certain way. I had a tune classified as ready to pitch.... then .... I got no help what so ever in referrals to a publisher who might actually be  interested in the "ready to pitch" song. Why would I want to be a member if they're not going to at least give me a name and tell the guy to expect a call from me about a really good song I wrote?
 
It's a rare thing in my experience to actually get a rejection letter from anyone in this biz. It's even rarer to get notice that your stuff is being used. Very often, the only way you find that out is when the mail carrier delivers your PRO statement and royalty check, or the publisher notifies you that your song is on hold or was cut for a certain project where some fairly decent money is involved...... no one's calling you to tell you that your song just made you $5 for a 5 second source cue in a tv show on cable.
 
 
later....

Guitarhacker
Actually, I was a TAXI member but currently I am not. I'm currently not affiliated with any membership organizations at all...... that's always subject to change but currently.... nope.
 
I don't have a problem paying a submittal fee..... as it keeps everybody and their brother from sending every song they ever wrote to a listing whether it fits the listing or not.  $6 to submit to FMJ is not bad.  $5 to submit to Taxi once you're a member is not bad. That membership fee at TAXI is the killer.  Taxi says that 90% of their rejections come from people submitting songs that do not fit the listing. Sending a vocal tune to an instrumental listing or sending a metal rock tune to a bluegrass listing, and yeah it happens all the time. Imagine what it would be like if there were no submittal fee.
 
In my last year of membership with Taxi, I submitted a number of tunes and not a single one was forwarded, and that was with paying attention to the details of the specs and genre, and everything else. The year before that had a number of tunes forwarded.....I submitted 5 to one listing in particular and had ALL 5 forwarded. And I heard exactly nothing from the other end.....
 
As far as people on the other end getting back to you...... Hey, this is the music business.  Yes, projects often take a long time to get ready. For any given listing call that a producer gives..... for example, the one where I submitted 41 cues to the huge TV show..... I would wager they get thousands upon thousands of cues submitted for that one listing. The job of screening them goes to some lower level staffers. They decide the ones that might work and ones that might not fit exactly. There is no way on this green earth that they are going to send regrets to each and every writer or publisher who gets turned down.  No one has the time for that. So as the songwriter, setting in your studio..... you hear..... crickets from the other end.
 
Even taxi and FMJ tell you they don't review the songs for feedback in most cases. You can get that as an additional service. NSAI, on the other hand exists for that specific purpose of feedback and critiques,  BUT, they are not primarily in the referral business unless the song is really, really outstanding and grabs the staff in a certain way. I had a tune classified as ready to pitch.... then .... I got no help what so ever in referrals to a publisher who might actually be  interested in the "ready to pitch" song. Why would I want to be a member if they're not going to at least give me a name and tell the guy to expect a call from me about a really good song I wrote?
 
It's a rare thing in my experience to actually get a rejection letter from anyone in this biz. It's even rarer to get notice that your stuff is being used. Very often, the only way you find that out is when the mail carrier delivers your PRO statement and royalty check, or the publisher notifies you that your song is on hold or was cut for a certain project where some fairly decent money is involved...... no one's calling you to tell you that your song just made you $5 for a 5 second source cue in a tv show on cable.
 
 
later....

Jeff Evans
Yes I am a library writer for the Castle EMI Music library here in Australia. One of my first gigs was to combine traditional Aboriginal music with modern contemporary feels and grooves. That worked very well for me because it was something that literally no one had done before so it was highly original. It is not so easy now though because they are very protective of their music. But I do have a whole swag of didge playing, vocal phrases and things which are not copyrighted.
 
I also have done an ambient album for a library in the US. Yes you are right though, the more tracks you do the more royalties you earn. Funny enough too some of the most simple and unsuspecting tracks have earned me the most royalties too even more in some cases than the mega productions I have done. So it is hard to sometimes tell what you think will really work for you.
 
And I did not mean to say all the music in the Songs forum here is bad. Some of it is very worthy of library production but only a very few cases though.
 
You will always get feedback from the libraries themselves. All you have to do is find the name of the person in charge of listening to and hiring composers and send him or her some stuff. They will always give you free feedback. They know a lot usually about what works and what doesn't etc..
 
I actually asked the library nicely and they supplied me with a copy of the whole library on CD's up to their latest. (more than 100) That was an amazing learning curve for me. But they dont distribute the music that way any more now. There are still many ways to listen to the other writers though especially in the genre you are doing. Just ask them and they will more than likely let you in and audition all the music in there as if you were a video production house etc.

Jeff Evans
Sometimes simplicity is the key to good music for television. One thing that is apparent to me when I listen to a lot of music for TV is how simple it can be. (in terms of track count I am meaning more so here) It almost sounds as though there is not quite enough  going on but what it does is create a strong sense of clarity.
 
A lesser number of tracks can still interact in a complex way to form a more complex piece but the complexity is in how the parts are interacting.
 
There is a car ad on here at the moment that has only got three main elements in it. A simple straight rock beat, (mainly kick on all 4) a dub step bass drop type very distorted wobble bass line and a catchy vocal. That is it. You could probably do it on 5 or 6 tracks at the most. Yet they are flogging it. The composer would be doing really well out of it.
 
Even an action trailer type cue or 'Game of Thrones' type cue could effectively be the cinematic drum groove, a string riff and a brass melody line. Big dense huge track count pieces can get lost too. On a small TV you wont hear most of it. That is why the simple things will sometimes cut through so well. I am telling you stuff that you already know I am sure.
 
There is an art to it. When I listen to British themes for various things they often sound like smaller ensembles to me. Those classy grooves in 'The Mentalist' for example are very sparse but very interesting though.
 
You have got to resist the temptation to do album pieces but do music for television instead. It is a different gig and not for everybody. Not everybody gets it. It took me a while. I have not been doing it for a while but want to get back into it. Our conversation is inspiring me to do so.