JINGLE BELLS
Aug 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Steve Pageot
Due to my father's experience as a gigging bass player in Montreal, I started training to play music at the age of 3. I began with guitar, and at 13, I entered a high school called Pierre-Laporte, where I picked up the flute and studied classical music. At 17, I won the most prestigious classical music award from the Canadian Music Competition. When I turned 21, I put a recording studio together in my parents' house. There, I learned how to engineer and soon began producing local acts for $80 a track.
In 1997, I finally moved to New York with $400 and got signed by producer Ron Lawrence, who worked for P.Diddy. My first project, “War Iz On” by Krayzie Bone, went Platinum. One project led to another, and in 2004, I won a Grammy Award for a song I engineered: “Wonderful” by Aretha Franklin. At the same time, I was fascinated by the world of commercial jingles. It wasn't easy to enter into it, but one day, I got my foot in the door. Now, I can tell you how to crack it open, as well.
Who do I pitch to get commercial work, and how do I put a package together?
Read industry magazines (such as Pro Sound News or Billboard) that give details about commercials currently running on the air. The credits will indicate the name of the jingle house that produced the commercial, the name of the composer and the location of the company. Then, get on the phone and ask to speak to one of the producers or composers to set up a meeting. Most of the time, they will ask you to send a package so that they can audition your reel.
I got in through a friend who introduced me to someone who was working for Arista. I told the woman that I produce records and compose my own music. She was like, “Really? I have a friend who lives in my building, and he's looking for composers because he has too much work.” Just put yourself out there, and value those chance meetings. Networking is not just a buzzword; it actually gets you places.
If you are starting out, find a composer who is working for a jingle house and submit your work to him or her. My suggestion is to have a catalog of tracks in different genres to better your chances of getting work. A composer might call you at 10 a.m. and say, “I need a hip-hop track that sounds like this song, and I need it by 1 p.m. Can you do it?” The worst answer you can give is, “I don't know.” Once you've established yourself as a commercial-music producer, build a solid relationship with an agency that works with various clients (such as BMW or McDonald's).
The best way to present your material is in snippets. Ten is a good number if each is just one minute long. But it's preferable to send your snippets in jingle format, which is 15 or 30 seconds. Be sure to put your best work in the beginning. Also, include a biography and a discography, and make your package look presentable. I've seen demos thrown into the garbage because the package was not up to par — it's a cold world out there.
What's important in satisfying a producer's requirements and meeting a deadline?
Oftentimes, a producer will only give you one day to come up with an initial version for a commercial. Right away, you'll need to know if the producer needs theme music, background music, a promo for an upcoming show or whatever. If it's a promo situation, the producer might say, “We're doing a promo called Big in '05 for VH1, and we want the track to sound like ‘Snake’ by R. Kelly.” You need to analyze every element of the original version and come up with your track based on the feel of the original. You might find out which key the song is in and compose around the chord structure of that song. So if the first measure is a Dmin9, try changing it to an Fmaj7. A Dmin9 chord has the following notes: D, F, A, C, E. And an Fmaj7 has the following notes: F, A, C, E. The difference is that you're not playing the root note, D, in the Fmaj7. This is called chord substitution.
Once the producer gets your track for the first review, he or she will sit with staff members to analyze the music to see if it goes with the picture. The producer could call you back and say, “We like the track, but what's that sound in the background?” Your work is never done until the producer tells you it's a go.
How do I ensure a fair deal for my work?
The way that you get paid depends on the amount of work you have done in the past. In the beginning, you can get from $500 to $2,000. Once you build your résumé, you can make anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000. Some spots might get you as much as $80,000. If you're a hired musician, it's a straight-up hourly fee. Check out your local American Federation of Musicians union (www.afm.org) for charts. If composers are giving you work that they have contracted, they will give you whatever they feel like, especially if they know that you have no knowledge about the commercial-music world. Also, try to limit how much you do as “work for hire,” because you'll never see any residuals. Unless you're dealing directly with the commercial producer, you won't know if you're getting a fair deal. So do your homework, and learn to negotiate.
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