coping with rejection/dissappointement in the music industry!

[sudeep]

hey guys,

 

rejection/dissappointment is part and parcel of life especially in the music industry. Just wondering how you all deal with it specifically referring to your playing/writing/performing.

 

how do you let it NOT get to you and question your own talents ie. do you really have what it takes!

[Prague]

Originally posted by sudeep:

do you really have what it takes!

To do what? I guess this makes a difference.

 

I'm in it to be able to play (not loop/sequence, etc.).

[cnegrad]

One simply has to understand that the nature of the recording industry is such that even if you have the total package (talent, looks, charisma, business chops, etc.), it's still not enough to "make it", and it's absolutely no reflection on you. And even if you do "make it"; then you're probably stuck with a contract that's weighed so heavily in the label's favor that you're probably screwed anyway.

[Tusker]

I just try to remember that time and chance happen to us all ... and that this is particularly true in the performing arts. Fame is often fleeting. Success often illusory. It's just the way things are.

 

We don't have to let this stop us from making meaningful music ... if that's what we love to do. Best,

 

Jerry

[cnegrad]

Everyone's definition of "success" is different. My definition doesn't include fame and fortune. It does include a relationship with God, a loving family, great friends, and time to exercise my creative talents in a way that allows me to grow.

[ELP71]

Cnegrad is right on the money. Its all about your definition of 'success'. 'Success' is too often defined by external perception rather than internal.

[Dave Horne]

You have to be happy with your own musical worth, everything else is secondary.

[Les Mizzell]

how do you let it NOT get to you and question your own talents ie. do you really have what it takes!

Fire up "Half Life" and kill something?

 

I've certainly had my share. It's hard to not let it get to you at times.

 

Example - an ad agency was preparing to present a campaign to a potential large client. They asked me to spec out a score for TV and radio spots they were putting together to present with the understanding that I would have the job if they got the account. I dropped everything I was doing and spent 4 18 hours days working on all the material they wanted.

 

I didn't hear anything back from them.

 

One night, my wife and I are watching TV and low and behold, a commercial for the client comes on and the music on it sounds almost EXACTLY like what I had composed. So, I called them the next morning. They didn't want to talk to me. Finally, and since I was starting to get more than just a little upset, the creative that asked me to score the stuff in the first place admitted, "The client thought it would be more prestigious to get somebody from New York to score the real spots. Sorry, we had to do what the client wanted".

 

WTF? I mean, Betty Sue in her living room could care less who scored a TV spot. This would have been one of the largest campaigns I'd ever worked on and prejudice against a local composer verses somebody from a bigger city costs me the job. The "big city" music didn't work as well as mine either, I thought. Then I found out how much they paid the guy, and they hadn't even THANKED me for helping them get the @#$@!!! account to start with. I could have taken the next six months off!!!

 

I never worked for that particular client again.

[Garrafon]

Smile and enjoy each and every moment of your life. Life is as valuable and enjoyable as YOU make it, and it is NOT dependent upon the views, opinions, etc. of others.

[DafDuc]

Wow, Les, that sucks. Weasels...

 

I get my jollies knowing people are singing and appreciating the church songs I've written. Two of my former parishes still use my psalm and mass settings, and we use my stuff pretty regularly on my current gig (well duh, it's ME choosing the music) - but I can tell when people are choosing to sing or not, and there are a few of my pieces they seem to really have taken a shine to.

 

I spent some time a few years ago really worrying about getting published - then it happened, the creative process suffered (rewrite by committee) and the money was negligible. So I had the "come to Jesus" talk with myself then - why am I here? For ministry, or for self-gratification? I don't worry about the stardom bit anymore.

 

I also enjoy collaborative stuff, especially participating in comp discs like the ones we do here at KC.

 

Daf

[BluesKeys]

I would have to say, that you need to be thick skinned, and have a good feeling about yourself. I know there are many players out there that can blow me away yet I still get work because of my attitude and my work ethic.

 

I was just involved in an audition for a band that I thought went very well since I only had the material for two days prior. But they hired a keys player the bass player knew. I hope it works out for them and asked them to call me if it doesn't.

[Dick Ward MP Hall of Fame]

The question is, what am I gonna do if I'm ever handed success?

[Les Mizzell]

Wow, Les, that sucks. Weasels...

This was the trigger for me to get OUT of working for ad agencies. It's a sad situation in this town anyway.

 

1. Forget residuals

2. Forget royalties

3. Forget any "per market" license

4. Forget creativity. The last year of my commercial scoring life was dictated by "Write something that sounds just like [insert hit song here] but not close enough to get us sued".

 

About the most you could EVER get for any commercial was $500, and they'd run it for 10 years and sell it into other markets and you'd never see another dime. If you didn't sign their "work for hire" agreement (meaning they owned it for all time and could do anything with it they wanted and you had no further claim on it) they'd find somebody else that would.

 

Now, there's almost ZERO original music being done in this market. It's all library, or the video editor tells the client "Hey, I've got Garageband - we can do our own"!

 

I *love* seeing spots from competing clients that have the same music, or I recognize the same Garageband bass loop. Heh...

 

Had to get out. It wasn't worth the trouble anymore. Now I concentrate on long-form work where I know I'm going to have enough control over the final product to make it interesting.

[ksoper]

This is as close enough to a thread topic I was going to start soon anyway, so, here goes.

 

The real source of my frustration as a musical professional is that my boss, the artist, has absolutely no idea if his band is any good, and really doesn't care one way or the other. Not only that, he wouldn't know what a good track sounds like anyway. He does realize that his musical education is severely limited, but the guy he relies on to tell him what "good" is--his producer--also suffers from musical retardation.

 

We wanted to try flying tracks at the show to augment the background vocals. On the hard disk player were some bgs, percussion loops, fiddle, steel, some string pads, some organ. While I had no intention of using the machine to replace a musician, I was ok with a little vocal help. But learning to use the machine on stage gave me the opportunity to solo the parts and scrutinize them.

 

The artist's producer, an old country drummer who hits too hard and plays too many cymbal crashes, does pre-production at his home. He also fancies himself something of a keyboard player. On one of the tunes, the producer sequenced a clav track and quantized the dog snot out of it. He had to--he's not a keyboard player and had no prayer of making a clav track sound good. But it sounded like mechanized crap--a crappy sample played poorly, then quantized. You get the picture. But this is the track that they kept, the one that both the producer and artist sat around and agreed upon, and it appears on a Top 5 country cd.

 

Now, this is not to take away from the keyboard tracks that were actually played by the session guy. I have an issue with the sound of those keyboard tracks--too much processing--but the playing is fine.

 

And the thing is, there's always been a stigma with country artists using their road bands in the studio. Years ago when bands were "my cousin and a couple of his buddies from back home," I can understand not wanting to take them in the studio. But in this particular situation the "artist" has a band of highly educated and experienced players, each of whom are noted instrumental artists in their own right.

 

That's not good enough, because the "producer" has the final say, and the artist, as noted above, doesn't know enough to make a competant musical decision.

 

So that disappoints me. Yeah--I'd love to have a shot at playing on the master.

 

How do I deal with it? Well, at home in my little studio, I work on my own projects with gifted musicians. After examining the soloed parts of the "hits," I learned that the parts I play on the few sessions I get are good parts, my sounds are equal to or better than the sounds on the records, and my performances are precise. So call it a personal victory.

 

k.

[Blue JC]

For me, it's as simple as: when I play good, I feel good - when I play bad, I feel bad.

 

Sure, I'd love to play every gig to packed houses and have people lining up around the block to buy my tunes and my arrangements. But I can get just as much musical satisfaction playing for five people who braved a snow storm to come out and hear us or to hear one of my songs or arrangements played in a rehearsal hall by a good group of musicians.

 

Some of my favorite musical memories are of playing for small houses where we just let it go as far outside as we could and everything was clicking. It's almost better than sex.

[cnegrad]

k,

 

Yeah, this is kind of a spin off into two or three other threads, isn't it? One is the whole subject of "These Days, Anyone & Their Pet Monkey Is Calling Themselves A Producer". Another is the whole subject of "the game of musician politics". And then there's the whole topic of "recording band vs. live touring band"...

[Michelle ggurl]

All of this makes me want to crawl into a hole and die. Yeah, yeah, I know personal satisfaction and all that ... and I *do* play because I enjoy it ... but sometimes the politics and gatekeepers and no-talents (including myself when in situations where my limitations really ... um, "shine") you have to contend with are just too much.

 

Even when I can shut that out, I am always striving to be a better musician and right now I'm in a place where I'm really dissatisfied with my playing. So uh ... yeah.

 

Still, I feel great after a workout on the keys, after I make another little baby step toward grasping another musical skill, or when someone tells me, "I've been listening to your CD for 4 days straight ... I can't get enough of it," or "my husband puts it on every morning while he gets ready for work." Then, I know what I did touched some people and made their lives a little bit better -- maybe just for a little while -- and then I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to have done that.

 

Then I come back around and want MORE. You know what I mean ... and then I feel like a piece of crap. And then it starts all over again. Maybe I should get checked out for bi-polar disorder ... Of course, I'm making light of it, but really, I have to watch the frustration. That's probably the hardest thing to keep in check.

[Bartolomeo]

I didn't end up playing church gigs by accident. I play every Sunday morning now, and there is always an appreciative and sober crowd. The money isn't great but it more than covers costs at this point, and I have a day job. It took some time to find a church that really valued music but I feel I've found that now, and I get along well with the leadership there.

 

I don't record and any arranging or composition I do is not for publication, just for me and whoever I'm playing with.

 

I believe that the MI as we know it is dying; there aren't the opportunities that were once present. The rejection that comes from that quarter is not based on artistic factors but rather whether your music fits the mold, and various intangible things like luck. Here on the corner almost everyone in the biz is either composing and producing music for radio or TV or is out there playing live gigs for smaller crowds.

 

My latest gig is accompanying a bunch of cello students at various levels of experience, some quite good. It's a paying gig with a paid rehearsal, everyone's sober, and they supply the piano. I just have to show up and sightread, and make the kids sound good.

 

Some of the best gigs are in places where you'd never expect them. It's not bright lights with an audience of thousands, but so what. They come, they listen to the music, they like it, I get paid.