Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Rainbow That Ruled The World

For some reason concerts lead me to wanna write in this blog. I guess being there and watching the musicians play on stage super loud inspires me to want to focus on nothing else in life than music. The show was actually Headlined by Iron Maiden, with Dream Theater acting as the opener in a place called Bristow, VA (although some websites said the concert was in Washington, DC). It was a a fantastic show. Iron Maiden wasn't the highlight for me though. Probably because they had THREE guitarists. Is that really necessary? The world wonders... Dream Theater's hour or so of playing was dampened only by the very heavy rain showers that consumed our pockets. My ticket got soaked, which was quite unfortunate. There was a rainbow that unveiled itself during Pull Me Under, which was kinda cool.

On the car ride home from DC, I spent hours focused on reworking and mastering the songs I've been working on recently. Another thing I did was research the idea of submitting my music as production music (tv shows, commercials, movies, ect.).
Many people that listen to my music say things like "wow that sounds like that could be in a video game!" or "I feel like I'm in a movie." So I figured I should start really considering that as my main focus instead of writing full blown epic songs that no one will really end up hearing. Before I go to far, I'm going to lay out a PRO/CON list of choosing production music over trying to make it as an independent electronic artist. Here goes:

Pros of becoming a touring electronica artist signed to an independent record label:
-Possibility of making a good amount of money
-Touring around the US or world if things work out to their potential
-A record label behind me to help promote my music
-The ability to play my music live in front of other people
-I would retain 100% of the rights to that song and also make a larger percentage of the revenue

Cons of becoming a touring electronica artist signed to an independent record label:
-Always out doing live shows, promotional stuff, and basically just being super busy
-Relearning all my music live and teaching it to other musicians who would play live with me
-Being able to rely only on my Macbook laptop to run my sounds through live (not a great idea)
-The music biz
-Depending on the label, I could have complete freedom over my music or I could be molded to fit their style, which would not be good or acceptable
-Inability to have any kind of family life and only live at home for brief periods at time
-Instrumental music is extremely hard to market and not usually too successful

Pros of creating production music from home or at an advertisement firm:
-Home: I could be at home all the time and do what I love and make a good amount of money from it
-Advertisement firm: I would be working with other people but doing something I love and still have a life outside of work
-If something of mine is used repeatedly in a tv show or video game, I not only would receive the money from the production music library for buying my song, but also the royalties from the per-use basis
-The style of music I write well is music you would hear in a video game or movie score (or so I'm told at least)
-I could live a normal life and have a family in the future while still making a good amount of money possibly by doing something I love, which is writing and arranging instrumental songs.
-I recently purchased something called "Writing and Recording Production Music" and have been reading it front and back since I got it. Apparently the chances I'll make money and a living off of it are MUCH higher than attempting to make it as a label-signed artist. Included was also a 10 page list of production libraries I could submit my music to.

Cons of creating production music from home or at an advertisement firm:
-If a production music library purchases a song of mine that's 5 minutes long, with a great number of cool parts and a song I consider to be amazing all the way through, may see it's life span decrease to around 30 seconds
-I would no longer hold the rights to my songs and only receive 50% of the revenue that each one makes
-I would have no chance to play my music live or go out on tour (which might actually fall under a pro because of the difficulty of recreating electronic music live)

Just from writing out that list, I think I've decided to pursue a career in production music, whether that means I'll be submitting my stuff to production libraries and hope it gets heard by the right people (while still making money for selling the rights to the song), or eventually getting a job at an advertisement firm for something more steady, where I can still just work on writing and arranging music.

It's crazy how one concert can make you question the rest of your life and your career choice. Thank you Dream Theater and that technicolor rainbow!