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Not strictly a music library but if you are a composer and/or songwriter, please leave your comments and experiences with this company. We want to hear the good as well as the bad! We make no guarantee of accuracy. Check with the company for all details. Please contact us for any corrections. |
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| URL: | http://www.thecomposercollective.com/ |
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Now TCC is pay to play…subscription service for writing opportunities. Taxi model for composers doesn’t sit too well with me. Any experience here with the new TeamScore thing?
[Removed by moderator, hearsay. Personal experiences only please!]
I was on one project for them that happened just as they transitioned to TeamScore/subscription model (I did not have to pay a monthly fee, or however the pricing works now). I got one cue approved. It was about a minute long, was paid $18.00 via PayPal. I asked for a copy of the cue sheet and have still not received one, even after following up at very liberal intervals. They claimed that the publishing belonged to them, but — to put it generously and giving them the benefit of the doubt — I mentioned that I didn’t remember ever signing a contract and I asked to see a copy of said contract. After receiving a particularly self-righteous email from someone over there who was offended that I would even ask, they have yet to produce one, even after saying they would send it along. Disappointing. I will never work with them again.
We are currently seeking the right person for the position of Vice-President of The Composer Collective. Please send resume, and an explanation of why you should be vice-president of the company, to:
[email protected]
Vice President needs to be as competent, experienced, and responsible as the CEO of the company, and in the CEO’s absence is to behave as acting CEO, making important executive decisions.
Musical Mastery is required of this position, as CEO and VP have executive creative authority and are responsible for everything that The Composer Collective works on.
How much does it pay Matt?
First off, I am a “retired” media composer with over 40 years in many phases of the media music business -I am NOT looking for gigs ( the only recordings I do these days are my own jazz projects or perhaps some work on friends projects ) and I sincerely feel the pain emanating from many of the posts I’ve been reading here.
We all know the “scoring process” has changed greatly -due to both the affordability of pro level gear now common to project studios -and ( more importantly on the economic level ) the
huge oversupply of “composers” in relation to the amount of viable paid work available. This make what was always a tenuous way of making a living even more harder to break into.
With the preceding as a preface, I have a couple comments regarding the use of music in contemporary film and the proper background to prepare for working in the industry.
1. The dramatic use of music is not well understood by many young composers. “Scoring”
( in the accepted classic sense ) involves much more than a collection of drones and assorted
loops mixed and matched to picture in a DAW of some sort. While what I’ve just described is a valid tool for supporting chase and /or battle scenes, scoring involves supporting the picture in a psychological and /or atmospheric sense , occasionally to suggest an unseen factor that may be present in a situation. All of this requires of the composer an understanding of the various facets of drama if for no other reason than to be able to discuss the music with the director IN HIS TERMS -not musical ones.
2. The availability of excellent samples these days does not mean the composer can ignore ( or not learn ) the basics of legitimate acoustic orchestration .
3. Finally, It seems I see fewer and fewer younger talents that can effectively work in a wide variety of musical styles. both historically and musicologically. A good film composer can
write effective music to fit any era or pictorial requirement. The more flexible your “range” is, the more work you’ll get.
I’ll retire from bloviating on the film music craft on this note:
ALWAYS ..protect your intellectual rights as the creator of music. There will be times where it
may be necessary to sign away all or some portion of them, but be sure you’re well compensated in those cases. All these discussions of $25 per minute , retitling, and unlimited
rewrites make my skin itch.
As an example, here’s what was required from, and what a composer received on the last TV series I worked on prior to retirement in the early 90s:
Assignment: compose /orchestrate /produce approx. 20 min. of music for a half hour show ( using a 22 pc acoustic orchestra plus electronics and specialist players as needed )
and deliver a polaroid of the score for producer approval within five working days of spotting the show ( no music editor -the composer also had to do his own breakdowns ) After the review, you had 1or2 days to do any necessary rewrites or fixes prior to recording the final product.
For this, you were paid $3500 per show -plus you kept your composers performance rights.
good luck to all you young talent out there ..you’ll need it!
Thanks for the pep talk Phil! Now I’m gonna go slit my throat.
Other John :
If your reply was veiled sarcasm, I’m laughing with you …
If I we’re trying to start out today, I’d probably go into something easy and honest ..like
credit default swaps or junk bonds….
Anyway you wanna cut it,film composition is a crappy, cutthroat business with NO assurne that talent will automatically breed sucess.
You have to REALLY REALLY want to do this to last through the baptism by fire process.
I agree Phil. I’ve been in the business a long time as well.
Yep, scoring for film is totally different than having a random library track inserted into a scene. It takes much more knowledge and experience.
The whole “library cue score” concept is foreign to my experience ( With the exception in the past I’ve given say, a film editor, some random old music I had lying about to do a real quick and dirty job and leave me a couple hundred bucks and a couple bottles of single malt in brown paper bag in a remote phone booth )
Actually , the only time library music ever used to come up in a scoring job was for some source music -and usually it was more cost effective to just have the rhythm section jam something in the desired style at the end of the date as opposed to spending the time to search for a piece ..
” okay guys ..enuff of the cocktail music ..now, give us a quick minute twenty of
Holiday Inn cover band music sorta James Taylorish ..cool ? ..rolling “