Hi - my name's Tab, and I have a way of getting your music straight to potential games developers and over 500 other companies who use music...! Games companies are like record companies - they receive hundreds of demo tunes every day - they probably listen to 1 in a 1000. The larger companies have music programmers working full time for them, so why would they spend their precious time listening to your tunes, just in case something 'special' catches their attention? The smaller companies advertise on this site for minimal money and probably no royalties after that - even if the games sell well. You'll know that a lot of games music also comes from 'proper' recording artists and other 'unknown' producers. These unknown tracks have more than likely come from a music library, and are known as 'production' tunes. Production music is usually collected by a professional agency such as the MCPS (in the UK), and they make sure the producer gets their share of royalties from all use of the tune, and sales of the game (or film or ad or tv show etc.). This is where I come in - I own a small production music library (www.makin-trax.co.uk) which will be online in a couple of months. I have a list of over 500 companies that all need music, ranging from tv & radio ads and programmes to films and GAMES, with more being added once the site is running. I'm looking for all styles of music to add to the catalogue of tunes already submitted by various recording artists, composers and dj's. All submitted tracks are listened to. If they're good enough to use in clients productions, you'll get a contract for each track with a 70\30 split in your favour (all other music libraries only offer the artist 50%) and your tracks get registered with the MCPS and uploaded to the site. The tracks can be any style, any speed, but for legal reasons musn't contain samples of other peoples music, unless it's from a legal sample cd. In brief... If a 'user' thinks your tune will fit their production, they'll download it, fill in an MCPS form (or equivalent in their country) and once the production is finished the MCPS (or appointed agent if non-UK) collects the pre-set royalty amount (check out www.mcps.co.uk and look at the production music rate card for current figures). The MCPS takes their small fee per use, and sends the remaining royalties to my company. My company takes the 30% fee and sends the relevant artist(s) a cheque. You are still free to 'release' the track as a commercial recording, or send us an already released track (as long as you own it), as the contracts only deal with the 'production music' version. This version has to be renamed to avoid mix-ups at the MCPS, but the writers still get full credits. The tracks need to be in the following format : DEMOS - wav, aif, mp3, any length (under 15mb if emailing), any quality FULL SUBMISSIONS - full stereo 16bit 44.1Khz wav \ aif \ 320 kbs mp3 3 minutes, 1 minute, 40 second, 30 second edits Stings up to 15 seconds (a sting would be the catchy part, like in the Pentium advert) Loops of 4, 8 or 16 bars of the track(s) (running for 30 seconds each loop) Please write the bpm of the track (if it changes like in a film score, let me know the bpms of each change - eg intro 60bpm, speeds up to 150bpm before the breakdown, which is at 98bpm etc.) I also need to know the main instrument(s)(eg piano, string, synth, bass, drums etc.) Finally... I have contacts at various game companies, and I WILL try to push your music to them if you specifically ask me, but I can't promise they'll use it - it has to fit in with their requirements at the time, which they'll only let me know if they're after a specially written track - these 'bespoke' tunes are usually bought outright by the larger game & film companies, but you can usually get a lot of money for them, depending on their budget for the production. If they request a one-off or a 'buy-out', I'll contact all artists who let me know they're up for it. My email address for demos up to 15mb, is ad_mc@btinternet.com or you can mail a link to a host site if your compositions are available online or the address for cd's is Makin' Trax 7 Sheppey Road Dagenham Essex RM9 4LJ England UK I've removed the office telephone number as I don't have enough time to phone anyone back at the moment, but it is on my contracts etc. If you want to contact me, please email \ pm me & I'll answer you soon as possible, or reply to this thread if you have any questions I haven't answered. I can't promise anything will happen with your tunes, but if you don't try you'll never know ! Thanks for your time, and I hope to hear what you can do soon - Tab. [Edited by - UKTab on October 20, 2005 1:17:36 PM]

Thanks to everyone who's replied to this thread - I've received some great tunes in all styles.

If anyone else would like the chance of getting their music to someone who will do something positive with it, just email or post demos \ finished tracks to the address above.

Thank you - UKTab.

Thumbs up...

I think I'm misreading this. So you want part of our tracks or all of them? I've got a few that I'd submit but I'm not sure what you're asking exactly.

All tracks that are submitted & accepted, will have relevant contracts drawn up for their use as production music (music used in games, films, radio, tv etc).

The contracts allow me to make the tracks available for download by production companies, but only in the form of production music - this lets you release the original tracks on cd, vinyl etc. for sale to the public.

The tracks must be a minimum of 3 minutes long, and be in full wav \ aif or equivalent format - demos can be mp3 quality, as long as it's 128 kbs or over - I need to check the production, and it's hard at rates less than that.

As well as the 3 minute version, track needs to be edited into timed edits...
1 minute, 40 seconds and 30 seconds. If there is a bit of the song that 'stands out', this should be made available too, and is known as a 'sting' (like the 4 notes that everyone knows from the pentium advert).

These edits (apart from the sting) must be exactly 3 mins \ 1 min \ 40 sec \ 30 sec because this is how long most productions are (and hence why they like standard length tunes!).

Games companies will usually use the longer versions and create their own edits in-house, as they sometimes need to merge different tracks within the gameplay.

I also need 3 or more loops of music from the track, 30 seconds each, made fom any part of the track that sounds good when it's looped!!!

If the loops run over 30 seconds, just fade the last 2 seconds so that it fits exactly into 30 - it doesn't matter if these loops don't end on a beat or at the end of a loop, they're just 'tools' to help the companies.

All styles are needed, as productions such as games, use ALL styles - remember Interstate 76 - they needed funky 70's tracks, horror games need atmospheric music and psycho-style 'hits', midnight club uses hip hop, breakbeat & drum n bass, space games and war games need orchestral 'anthems' to run under the filmatic intros \ cut-scenes \ battle scenes.

No matter what style(s) you make, there's someone that will have a need for that style - the more tunes you make, the more chance you have of 1 of yours being used.

Hope that helped make things clearer.

[Edited by - UKTab on September 30, 2005 3:18:08 AM]

How does your company stand out from other publication/representation services that are already well established in film/TV/game licensing, such as BMI or ASCAP?

Hi Krikkit.

BMI and ASCAP are royalty collection agencies - in effect they 'work' for music libraries, publishing companies and recording artists. In the UK we have the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society. All of these agencies are the bodies that libraries like mine register with, on behalf of our writers \ recording artists \ composers \ producers etc., and they do the chasing that we don't have time or resources to do.

Artists can deal direct with these agencies, but most of them find it's easier to let a company do the boring stuff like drawing up contracts and working out royalty statements, and large companies will normally only deal with other companies, rather than the artist.

Also, you have to either have a commercially recorded \ released tune that's available for sale to the public, or performed in a venue that can be licensed by one of these agencies, or have a tune already broadcast in a film or on tv \ radio \ internet, or have a tune that is published and also available for sale or rental.

I had none of these factors when I started making music, so couldn't join as an artist. I didn't have a publisher and didn't own a publishing company, so still couldn't join (my publisher was a member and took 40% of my royalties after these agency fees).

My music career developed into writing production music, but the other libraries took 50% of all my royalties, and my publisher took another 30% from what's left - so I decided to start my own library, offering a 70\30 deal for all artists, and acting as a publisher if you don't have one, with no deduction from your royalties. If you already have a publisher \ record company who owns the rights to any tracks you send in, I'll deal with them directly.

Submitting your tracks to a music library is a way of getting these agencies to collect your royalties, without having to fit into their eligible 'categories', and some of them charge you for joining.

I hope that answered your question - Tab!

Hi all - and Tab - this is EXACTLY what I've been looking/waiting for :)

All of the music I have written so far is arranged purely for performance, rather than accompaniment - but I'll probably send it to you anyway :) (A couple of peices I have are soo lacking on the instrumentation side that they might not be worth it atm though).

Most of the music I write is celtic type music (tunes) using orchestral instruments with a few synths thrown in, and I don't know how 'marketable' they'll be - however - I do have a couple of peices that should be 'exactly' the sort of thing you're looking for...

(Orchestral peices written for film etc. (including a theme tune for a project that never took off) - though the 'main' peice of film music I have is also currently arranged for performance - (though it's very modular, and easy to re-arrange) - I am currently in negotiations to use it (on a non-for-profit-basis) for a Star Wars Fan Film - (it was inspired by a John Williams peice - (Duel of the Fates) so I thought it'd only be fitting) - but if a paid solution turns up thats incompatable with that, then so-be-it :) ).

Anyway - I'll probably email you the theme tune (since it's pretty short - (under 4min) - and a demo of Excalibur - (the film peice) soon - (they're on my web-site - (Excalibur and In The Beginning)). Before then though - I might call and have a chat first :)

(Note: all the music (i.e melodies/harmonies etc.) I write is of a pretty high minimum quality - but the instrumentation and the overall arrangements tend to be the weak-points). (Instrumentation is mainly a matter of (lack of) money though :-/ ).

(I would have replied sooner - but I'm pretty busy (on a work placement) atm. (I'd much rather be writing music instead :) )).

Well - you'll be hearing from me (hopefully tomorrow) :)

Darren Tomlyn
Composer/Tune-writer & Fiddle-Player
http://www.ic-musicmedia.com/DarrenTomlyn

Ok then I guess I'm going to submit a track. I'm interested in seeing how this goes ;)

If you ring & the answerphone cuts in, please leave a message & a number. I'm usually in the studio in the daytime & listen to my messages when I get back. Also, let me know what country you're in so I don't ring back when you're asleep...

Tab !!!