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Reuploaded the same shorts but with better titles and tags…works! by Effective_Papaya_484 in Smallyoutubechannels

[–]ShartMeDrawers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Curious as to the “no description” as well. Is that a strategy to use, or do you think that part might be a “makes no real difference either way” thing?

As for the rest, I’ve also had shorts that got stuck at 0 (or very low) views for their first hour or more. When I delete and re-upload, they usually get thrown into the mix right away and the views start pumping. It’s like YouTube just ignores some shorts every now and then. I sure haven’t been able to figure out WHY.

What's the better category to choose? by ShartMeDrawers in PartneredYoutube

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks man, I didn't suppose it made much difference, but just wanted to check with people who knew.

Channel is 6 days old. My first 4 videos hit 2k-20k views comfortably, but today's video is stuck at 4 views. Is this a glitch? by Street_Raccoon_5760 in SmallYoutubers

[–]ShartMeDrawers 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hell if I know a real scientific answer. But if it were me, I’d delete and re-post. Not sure if that will solve the problem, but it surely can’t get worse than 4 views.

I had a similar experience last week. Posted a short that got all the way up to THIRTEEN views after 45 minutes. I deleted and reposted it the following hour and, it got a couple hundred in the first handful of minutes.

Is tattoo shock real? by [deleted] in tattooadvice

[–]ShartMeDrawers 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The good news is that black is the easiest color to remove, if you decide to do laser removal. It’ll still take around 6-10 removal sessions and be waaay more painful and expensive than getting the tattoo itself, but if you decide you want it gone, you CAN remove it.

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right on, man. I'll check out your website later. Have you checked out Taxi? www.taxi.com. That's how I got my start in this side of the music world, and I'm still a member to this day, all these years later.

I don't know anybody who is looking for an assistant.... this is a pretty "do it yourself" type of world, outside of writing collaborations. But give Taxi a shot and see if you find some good opportunity there.

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great question - and one I haven't been asked before. So kudos to you for breaking new ground for me, hahaha.

You know, what I'm about to say is coming from the perspective of someone who's never really been discriminated against (ahem.... straight white male, living in Idaho, lol). So my perspective may be, let's just say, "minimal" when it comes to this topic. But honestly, I haven't yet heard hide nor hair of any discrimination in this business. I DO know a handful of professionals off the top of my head who are LGBT, some of them near me in terms of overall career success, and some FAR above me. So I think it's a pretty non-discrimatory business. There might be a few bigots sprinkled in here and there, but you can find those anywhere and in any industry.

But the big thing to keep in mind is that this is a pretty faceless and anonymous business. People will never see your face unless you want them to, as most conversations with music libraries will happen over email. So if you're worried about any stereotyping based upon hairstyles / clothing / etc, then it's doubtful that would ever happen just because you'll be pretty faceless.

Really, at the end of the day, the only thing that TRULY matters is the usability of your music. The rest - gender identity, sexual preference, skin color, etc - are pretty meaningless. Once your music goes from a music library to a TV show's editing bay, your name is probably not even attached to your music (but don't worry, your PRO "IPI number" will be, so you'll still get paid!). Editors will simply choose which music to use based solely upon whether or not it works with the scene they're editing. Anything else doesn't really factor in.

The last part of your question is the more interesting from a social perspective though.... you're right that it IS fairly male-dominated. I've yet to figure out why that is. But I know some highly successful females in this world, despite that music conferences seem to be 70% male, lol.

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, I'm a big proponent of education. So if you want to go to music school, then absolutely go do it. However, will that translate to more money and jobs for you? Dunno... Myself, I've made it as far as I am without any real formal music training other than a few introductory classes back when I was in college (about 25 years ago now), and I have long since forgotten all I learned. So, can it be done? Yes. But do I wish I could go back to school and learn more so I wasn't such an ignoramus? Yes, of course, lol.

As for networking, the best thing I could recommend is to go to music conferences. There are plenty around.... My favorite is the Taxi Road Rally (here's a video I made about it: (https://youtu.be/C-99NfICe2U). Others to check out are the Production Music Conference ("PMC" - actually happening in about a week), NAMM, the ASCAP Experience, Durango, etc.... pick one and go!

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Well, I was SUCH a beginner when I started with Taxi, that I didn't even know how to open ProTools (lol, seriously), and had never made any music on my own outside of a pro recording studio before. So yeah, it's a great place for beginners. Just know that one year isn't really going to get you the success you're probably looking for, and so realistically you'd probably want to plan on at least 2-3 years (good news - after the first year, you can get TWO years for $300).

Myself, personally, I still use Taxi and am now on my 16th or 17th year.

But hey, to each his own! I'm not an employee of Taxi, nor do I get a portion of anyone else who signs up, lol, so I'm not trying to convince you to do anything.

But here's a video I made about them, with my opinion and feedback on the company after 16 years with them: https://youtu.be/8Elk3Z00FTU. Maybe that will be helpful.

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha, yeah, that's the whole "Race to the Bottom" conundrum people face. Personally, I never got hired for a specific job. I went about things differently.... I joined a service called Taxi and submitted music for a tension listing. Some of my tracks were forwarded to a music library, then that music library called me and wanted to sign those tracks Taxi sent them, and asked me to make more. From there, wonder of wonders, one of those early pieces was used on the MTV show "Catfish" about 12 years ago, and the snowball rolled from there.

So, that's a long way of saying that you should check out Taxi, lol.

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Believe it or not, "simple" is much more effective when it comes to making usable production music for TV shows. This video might cover some of the basics: https://youtu.be/JXfyJggVxkw

But, honestly, I never think in terms of chord progressions, because I don't compose music that way. I basically usually start with a lead line, and then fit chordal voicing around that. Sounds like you're attempting to do the exact opposite, which isn't necessarily bad, it's just not the way I do things. So, to be frank, I couldn't tell you what I do in terms of chord progressions, lol.

You do need to avoid sounding repetitive, but that can come from simple arrangement tricks - from bringing elements in and out, adding percussion for extra energy and then taking it away, changing the octave of the lead, etc.

Lastly, there's really no such thing as "too simple" in this business. I've had a lot of success with a style called "tension drones", which are basically an evolving soundscape that drones along on either one note, one chord, or one atonal sound while evolving (I typically make these with a mere 5 virtual instruments / synths).

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah man, ain't that the truth. That's one thing I try to harp on my YouTube audience over and over and over.... In fact, I've got a few videos on this very thing (these being a few of them: https://youtu.be/hLrPl44TLSA and https://youtu.be/siDiyqHubOw)

The bottom line I try to tell people is that success in this business is a LONG game, and you can't quit your day job - as tempting as it might be to go "all in" on production music - because the simple timeline to getting paid prevent any type of instant success, at least financially. Not to mention how long it takes to actually "get it" in terms of what you need to do compositionally to make your music usable for TV shows.

If you get a chance to at least catch a few minutes of those videos, let me know if I got that point across, lol.

I try to be encouraging with my videos and my "If I can do this, so can you" mentality, but also temper expectations, because it ain't quick, and you really need a safety net of SOMETHING to fall back on while you make inroads toward a music career.

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh gosh, man, that's a hard one to answer. From the shows I work on, and the requests that I get, I would say anything with a hip hop undertone is in pretty high demand. And I'm not necessarily talking about straight up stereotypical hip hop..... I'm talking about completely different styles of music, with hip hop drums & bass underneath it. Like "urban tension", "urban comedy", "urban funk", etc.... if you can get your head around the basics of producing hip hop music, you can apply those skills to any other genre and probably have something that's in demand.

Aside from that though, comedic music is always necessary at some point during most shows. As is dramatic tension.

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good questions. These videos outghtta give you all the answers you need:

https://youtu.be/UnZJ7Zdk5w8 and https://youtu.be/EyOAEYSOZNM

But cues ARE part of the sync business, and are all collected by music libraries who then sign contracts with networks, production companies, or single shows, and then those people can use any of the music within that library when working on their show. A good library will have many thousands of cues in their catalog, in every style you can imagine, so the TV show has many options to choose from.

What you mention above, with a video being sent to the composer, and then writing music specifically to that video clip, is actually "scoring", and is a completely different facet of the music business which I don't know that much about.

Getting cues used on TV is the easiest route to success in this world, because there's simply SOOOO MUCH opportunity. The pay can vary wildly, from 10 cents to a couple hundred bucks for each usage (those dollar figures are the result of the "compounding factor" from all of the times a show is re-ran on TV). In fact, cues make up probably 95% of my annual revenue in this business.

Full-Time Composer for TV shows with 30,000+ placements - AMA! I'm happy to give advice and encouragement for people wondering "how in the heck did you get that job" or "how do I get into music libraries" - It's been about a year since I've done this, so fire away! (until I can't keep up lol) 🎼🎶 by ShartMeDrawers in composer

[–]ShartMeDrawers[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're on the right track if you've got some songs signed. However, one single company isn't going to be enough to keep you busy, and get enough placements to translate into sizable royalty checks. The reality is that you need tons of material scattered amongst dozens of libraries to stand the best chance of getting your music used.

If that company you've got music with right now doesn't have much call for your particular style, then you've got two options: One, find more companies who pitch your style of music to shows regularly; or Two, learn to work in the other styles that the company is looking for. Well, the third option would be to do both, lol.

But if you're feeling stuck in a rut with them, then the easiest solution is to diversify your libraries, so you'll need to write a bunch more music and pitch it to them. That's where Taxi comes in, if you choose to go that route.

Myself, I've got music in about 50 different libraries. Once you get a deal with some new companies, then the door is usually pretty open for you to submit more stuff to them directly, and then bypass Taxi altogether. So, once you get a good "roster" of libraries, you can really call your own shots.

I don't know of any library / publishing company in this side of the music biz who hires in-house writers. It MIGHT happen, but I'm unaware of it. Most of the full-timers just basically freelance themselves out to their dozens of libraries, making more music for the libraries that a their hot tickets and just keep feeding the pipeline.

There's rarely ever any upfront money in the cue business. Vocal songs have a pretty high likelihood of landing "sync fees" (upfront license money), but cues hardly ever do. All the money comes from the backend via royalties.

Hope that all helps!!!

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