5 posts tagged “crucial music”
I got an email yesterday from my publisher, Tanvi Patel at Crucial Music, that my song Fade Away (alt. title Change your Mind), is going to be on an episode of ABC's new show, Cupid! The episode, entitled "Live and Let Spy", airs in the United States on Tuesday, April 7th, on ABC at 10:00 p.m./9:00 p.m. Central. Excellent!
If you're a creator of broadcast-quality music, be sure to visit Crucial's website, and submit your music. It's free, and before you know it, your songs could be on TV or in films.
Don't forget to add me on myspace: www.myspace.com/freddylitwiniuk
And follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/freddymusic
And check out my website: www.freddynet.com
I'm really excited, because I got a really cool email the other day from my publisher Tanvi Patel at Crucial Music. She told me that my song 'Still Believe' is going to be used in a television show called Kyle XY, which airs on the ABC Family network. We don't get that network here in Canada, so I had to look up the show to find out more about it. This is the synopsis from Wikipedia:
Kyle XY is an American drama television series filmed in the Vancouver, British Columbia area. The show centers around a boy named Kyle (Matt Dallas), who wakes up in the forest outside of Seattle, Washington with no memory
of his life up until that point. The series follows Kyle as he tries to
understand the mysteries of who he is and why he has no memory of being
a child. He is sometimes shown with his shirt partially off and no belly button can be seen.
It turns out that the show is rated first or second on ABC Family in terms of viewership; millions of people tune in to watch, not just in the U.S., but around the globe. Sadly, it seems that Canada is one of the few countries that doesn't get the show, so I'll have to watch it online.
About the song: Crucial changes the names of the songs they publish. This ensures that they only get paid for the placements they get for a given song. That means, when the song is used under its original title, be it on radio, on TV, sold on a album or as an mp3, the artist retains full rights and ownership in the song. As you can see, this is good for the artist, so if you are a creator of music, I highly recommend that you go to Crucial's website and submit your brodcast-quality music for consideration. You never know what kind of music will be suitable for television. Crucial has placed my songs multiple times, and I've been very happy with them.
The only problem with changing the names of songs, is that sometimes I forget the original title! This time around, I Twittered about the placement and had it on my Facebook status, so many people were asking me what song was being used, and I couldn't tell them. I had to go back to my publishing contracts and look it up. The original title of the song is 'Thinking It Over', and it's the 10th track on my first album Things You Never Thought I'd Say. I've posted it below so you can listen if you like. If you're in an area where 'Kyle XY' is broadcast, be sure to tune in and watch.
I'm very excited, because I've had one of my songs placed in a major motion picture! Well, the placement actually happened quite awhile ago, but the movie has been released, and I was able to watch it and hear my tune. You know how, at the end of certain movies, there are brief epilogues
that tell you what happened to the characters after the end of the
movie? That's when my song "A Moment Away (Patiently Waiting)" plays! The movie is called Wieners, and stars Kenan Thompson and Darrell Hammond of Saturday Night Live, as well as Kyle Gass of Tenacious D, and Jenny McCarthy. Rotten Tomatoes sums up the plot as follows:
Kenan
Thompson stars as Wyatt, a man with a home-made wiener wagon that comes
in handy when he and Ben (Zachary Levi of television's CHUCK) decide
the only thing that will cheer up their depressed friend Joel (Fran
Kranz, THE TV SET) after being humiliated on Dr. Dwayne's talk show is
to take Joel on a cross-country drive and give that pompous windbag the
beating of his life. Wyatt kills two birds with one stone, handing free
hot dogs out to the public along the way in hopes that the stunt will
land him his dream job at Oscar Meyer. Throughout their journey the
three dudes encounter a cross section of freaks, weirdos, and losers.
Saturday Night Live's Darrell Hammond co-stars as Dr. Dwayne, along
with Jenny McCarthy, comedian Andy Milonakis, and Joel Moore (GRANDMA'S
BOY).
Sounds great, hey? :)
If you get a chance to check it out, drop me a line and let me know what you thought of the movie. Whatever you thought, tell all your friends that it's a great movie, and they should watch it, and then go out and buy both of my albums! And below is a link so you can hear the song if you wish. It's called "A Moment Away", but for the purposes of the placement the title was changed to "Patiently Waiting". It's something my publisher Crucial Music ( thanks for the placement!) does, and if anyone wants to know why, send me an email and I'll explain. It was super cool to see my song in the credits, "performed by Freddy"! In the future, I'll post this info on my website, but I'm excited, and I wanted to get the word out right away!
Love,
Freddy
Awhile back, an old friend of mine wrote to me and asked for advice on promoting his band. I wrote him a long email, which appears below, detailing all (or almost all) of the main things I do to promote my music. I'm always looking for new and different ways to spread the word about my stuff, but I don't ignore the traditional methods such as through entertainment lawyers, managers, agents, and personal contact.
I'd like to hear what some of you have been doing to promote your music, and share ideas. Teach me a new trick! And if any non-musicians happen to read this, and think they have a great way to promote music and get it heard, please feel free to comment.
And here's that email which outlines what I already do:
I've been a member of TAXI for a few years now, and I've made some really good contacts through them. If you're not familiar with them, they do independent A&R, running music industry listings which you can submit to. They pre-screen your music, and if they deem it worthy, they forward it on. You almost always get a critique of your music with each submission. Some people get critiques that don't say what they wish they did, and which aren't sugar-coated. You can choose to ignore the critiques, but they can be very constructive.
Through them, I signed a few publishing deals with some American companies that specialize in film/TV music. One of those companies, Crucial Music, has gotten me a few choice placements. They accept unsolicited material through their website, www.crucialmusic.com, and they are always looking for new stuff. The deal is non-exclusive, and binding for 3 years, but you keep ownership of all your stuff, and they only get royalties on the placements they get for you.
You could try some radio promotion - I know a good company.
I also had some success at garageband.com. They have an ongoing chart and contest, and one of my songs has placed particularly high, and from that I've had interest from entertainment lawyers, and music supervisors. Some people have been signed from that site. They also hook you up with iLike.com, which is a social networking music site where I've gained new fans.
I've also made my music safe for podcasts, so that podcasters can play it without fear. There's good promo there, and I can point you in the direction of a couple of good ones.
I also have my music up on Last.fm, which is a cool site.
Sonicbids has some cool listings, and you can set up a good electronic press kit. I've had some success there with Coca-cola myTracks, and song contests and things.
Myspace feels like it has reached saturation. So many bands, all with a kajillion friends, too much noise, not enough action.
SonyBMG UK has done away with accepting physical demos, and has setup a blog at http://ar.sony.vox.com/. Here I've had unprecedented access to real A&R staff. Create a blog and share your stuff - ask them to listen, and they will. Mine's at freddynet.vox.com.
Oh, and if you join TAXI, they give a free conference in L.A. every fall, and that's a great thing to go to if you can swing it. That's really about the people you can meet there.
Of course, so much of this stuff costs money, but at least it's a tax writeoff. Hopefully this helps!
The weather has shown marked improvement here, and I am told that by week's end our temperatures will be as high as 25 degrees (Celsius, that is, in case any Americans are reading). To celebrate, I've decided to post a new song. Normally I celebrate things with a drink or 5, but I have been living clean for the entire month of May - no junk food, no booze, no fun. I did this partly to get ready for the summer's hedonism, but also because I want to look my best for my next photoshoot, scheduled for Monday, June 4. The photos from that shoot will be used in the artwork of my new album, as well as in all press materials and on the web, so obviously I want them to be the best they can be. And then I can go back to living poorly!
About the song: I'm posting the first tune from my first album, Things You Never Thought I'd Say, called A Moment Away. I have been working with a publisher in L.A. called Crucial Music, and they have placed this song in film and television a few times. For those of you who haven't done any non-exclusive publishing deals, it is standard industry practice for the publisher to rename the song, so that they only collect royalties on the placements they get for you. In this case, they renamed the song 'Patiently Waiting'. It's the same song, but when the song is used under the original title, I get all royalties - writer's and publisher's shares. When the song is used under Crucial's title, I get the writer's share and they get the publisher's share - effectively a 50/50 split.
One of the placements Crucial found for this song was in the ABC fish-out-of-water television show Men In Trees, starring Anne Heche as Marin Frist, a New York author living in Elmo, Alaska. ABC bills the show as a sort of Northern Exposure meets Sex and the City. The song was featured in the episode 'The Darkest Day', which originally aired on ABC on January 11, 2007. The other cool placement for this song is in the upcoming Sony Pictures feature-length comedy release, Wieners.
Getting your music placed in film and television is a great way for independent artists to make money off of their music. If you're interested in exploring this avenue, I encourage you to go to Crucial Music' website and submit your music. They accept unsolicited submissions, and have great contacts that they are always expanding; you've nothing to lose. Or check out their MySpace page, and send them a link to your MySpace or Vox or whatever. I'm not sure if it will help or hurt you to tell them that Freddy Litwiniuk sent you!
And finally, the song:
