This article really applies to just about any business today. You know the old catch 22, especially when you got out of school and went looking for your first job. The guy interviewing says you need to have 2 years experience for the position, but you can’t get experience until somebody hires you but nobody will hire you because you don’t have experience, and so on.
I went through it when I graduated college in 1981. It took me over a year and a second major to find my first job and I almost didn’t get that one. This was during the Carter administration when interest rates were out of control and nobody was investing in new business. And every interview was the same thing. No experience.
If you’re thinking of getting into the royalty free music business and actually composing scores for people who have real money to spend, they’re going to want to know what you’ve done. They’re going to want to see your portfolio. They’re going to want to see finished videos before they hand over their hard earned money. What do you do if you’re just starting out and have nothing to show them?
I’m going to give you a few suggestions on getting past that hurdle. Any of these can help land you your first paying gig.
At the top of your to-do list should be taking your first job pro bono. You heard me. Offer to do a custom score for somebody in exchange for a testimonial and the right to include the score in your portfolio. The people who will be most open to this arrangement are usually the ones who don’t have the fee to pay you anyway. So why not help out two people in the process, you and the person in need of the music. In the long run, it’s going to be the best thing you ever did. Just make sure the work you do is the best work you can do. It’s going to be what’s going to open the doors for the rest of your career.
Another thing you can do is download royalty free or public domain videos. Just go to the Library of Congress. You’ll find plenty of these.
After you’ve downloaded one of these videos, treat it like a customer’s video. Write a score to it. Now, a lot of videos have no music and are easy to score for. Others already have a full soundtrack so what you’re going to have to do is bring the video into a video editor like Camtasia. Separate the video into a video track and sound track. After you have done this, you will have a plain video track with no sound. Yes, that includes any dialogue was well. So you’re going to have to avoid videos that have dialogue especially if that dialogue is important to the emotional impact the video has.
Once the tracks are separated, you simply take the video and import it into your digital audio workstation (DAW) to work on. You would then start scoring it like you would a customer’s video.
Now, here’s a tip. If the original video came with a musical soundtrack, listen to it. More likely than not, the soundtrack will have fit the video quite nicely. Don’t copy it, because that’s plagiarism, even if the video itself is in the public domain. But emulate the kind of music found in the video. If you do that, you’re likely to come up with something that fits the video just like the original music did.
Another thing you can do is look for an internship scoring. You won’t get paid for doing this but you will get a lot of experience. If you manage to get any jobs to work on, ask your boss if you can add the video to your portfolio. In most cases, they won’t have any problem with this unless the project is for some big client who is asking for certain special accommodations. Usually in the case of an internship, you’re going to find at least one job that you’ll be able to use in your portfolio.
If all else fails, you can try this. It’s a little off the wall but it might get you the work you need. Run a contest on your site. I’m assuming that if you’re starting a royalty free music business that you have your own site. If not, you need to make one as soon as possible.
Why?
Because today, a web presence isn’t just helpful but critical. Almost everything is done online today. People are walking about with their smart phones and what-have-you and are constantly plugged into the WWW. If you think you can get by without a web presence, you’re in for a rude awakening.
But I digress.
Anyway, set up your site and run a contest. Tell all your readers of your blog (yes, make a blog like this one) that the winner gets a free custom score for their video. Have them post their videos on your blog. That means you’re going to have to allow comments. And you’ll probably get a lot of them including a lot of junk too. it comes with the territory.
After going through all the videos, or as many as you decide to go through, announce that you’ve decided there are going to be first, second and third place winners. This will give everybody more hope AND give you more material for your portfolio. Pick the three videos, score them, post them on your site under a section called “My Work” and that way anybody wanting a custom score will be able to see what you’ve already done. Just make sure you put your best foot forward.
Just so you know, the above suggestions are by no means all inclusive. There are many more things you can do to get past that first hurdle of having work to show prospective clients. Once you’ve gotten that first job, through whatever means, you’ll find (as long as the work is good) that you’ll get more jobs for a long time to come.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim