soundtrax for movies

[MASTON]

OK,

suppose you're making a low-budget movie and need soundtrax - where would you look ????

dont you think a site that matches film-makers that are looking for reasonably priced original music with artists offering reasonably priced original music, would be useful and popular....

I'm seriously thinking of making such a site...

something like

soundtraxforfilms.com

whatcha think..

am I being outrageously naive

I dont care, Im doing it anyway!!!

Maston

[Stealthtech]

Good Luck !

[MASTON]

come on, i need more than that...

do you mean Good Luck sucker, or yeah go for it- who dares wins....

[Abyyss]

Go for it.

I'm sure there's some people who'd be interested around here.

[gec]

It's not the product/idea/invention that will make it work. You need to devise a business system around it to make it fly. That is where your area of focus should be

[brandon.w]

I think it would be extremly usefull, especially with the uprising of home-made short films on the internet. if you ever get it running look into placing ads on mp3.com and all those short film sites. heh, and if you want your ads/graphics to be extra cool, I'm a "reasonably priced" graphic designer. but yes, do it right and it would be wonderful.

[MASTON]

OK,

thanks chaps, that's all the encouragement I need...

gec...
"You need to devise a business system around it to make it fly. That is where your area of focus should be"
can u elaborate, I'm not really all that business minded...

brandon.w - thanks fpr the offer on the design but I'm also a grafix designer, currently setting up a web design business..like to see some of your stuff though, maybe we could trade/inspire each other....I'll send u a link to my site when its up if u're interested...

cool bananas

[gec]

Alright let me put it to you this way.... You have McDonalds in the UK correct?

Could you go into your kitchen right now and make a better more tastier hamburger than McDonalds?






You answered YES you could















SO why haven't you sold a Billion of them.....


Because its not the product or the idea its the system that makes it possible.

If I go into MCDonalds in the U.K. the U.S. or Japan the Big mac will taste exactly the same. When I stand at the register to my left will be the french fries...in front of me will be the soda machine and just to the left of that will be the chute that they place the sandwiches on.... ITs a system looks/tastes and is set up the same way every where you go......BUT


this is important so listen to what I'm about to say


McDonald's founder was not in the hamburger business, He was in the Real Estate Business.......


Prime Real Estae with High traffic yields customers no matter what business you run. If 50k people drive by per week you can expect a percentage of them to stop there to see what you're about...

Apply the same thinking to Internet Trafic and your potential site and you will be a very wealthy person for making it work

[brandon.w]

::unsettled:: you make good points...but I think I got frostbite!. what about passion for what you're doing and really good ideas that will better our enviroment/society? I say less McDollands, and more indiesoundtracks.com(s)!!

MASTON- yeah! I'd love to see your stuff!...I'm working on my graphics site too (hah!) when I finally get it up I'll give you a link as well...my email is product8394@email.com

[Abyyss]

Originally posted by gec
Alright let me put it to you this way.... You have McDonalds in the UK correct?

Hey! We're a bit out of it, but we're not that bad!

[Brad]

Originally posted by brandon.w
::unsettled:: you make good points...but I think I got frostbite!. what about passion for what you're doing and really good ideas that will better our enviroment/society? I say less McDollands, and more indiesoundtracks.com(s)!!
[/email]

I think the info that gec shared is some of the best advice I have ever seen here! What about passion? That is wonderful, but it will get you nowhere fast if nobody ever knows about it.

I have a good example, not related to music. My girlfriend came up with a great idea for a product line. She did all kinds of research and eventually got her business going. The potential for profit was amazing (I know that is not everyone's goal). Business was okay at the start because she had a lot of good search engine hits. But she stopped there with the advertising. No advertising at all, really. By the time the business was ready to fold, she was too burned out to even consider the work it would take to launch a decent advertising campaign. So, the business tanked.

Now, onto the idea in question - I am not trying to be discouraging - and I don't know, there may be a niche waiting for you in the UK. I know that such services/websites exist already in the US, usually based in N.Y. and L.A. The problem that I think most of these places run into is trying to make cash to maintain their business. The truth is (at least in the big entertainment meccas) that there are plenty of people, whether they are film composers or artists trying to get their material heard, who will agree to supply music to indie films for FREE so that they may build a reel and/or get credits under their belt. Indie budgets are low to begin with, so if an indie filmaker can get freebies (usually deferred payment is promised if the movie goes somewhere) why would they spend what little money they had on music? A lot of them do not. They just don't have to. The catch 22 is that when you go above the indie line in film making, they usually have the budgets to afford and established composer for score and the money to throw at established artists for the use of their songs.

But like I said, I know nothing about the indie film biz in England. There might be something there for you. But don't be surprised if you get a response from filmakers like "Why would I pay even a reasonable fee for something I can get for free?"

Good luck!

Brad

[brandon.w]

yeah, but his website could bring the composers and film makers together even if their scoring the film for free. that by itself would be very much worth persuing, in my opinion.

[brandon.w]

they're*...

[Brad]

Originally posted by brandon.w
yeah, but his website could bring the composers and film makers together even if their scoring the film for free. that by itself would be very much worth persuing, in my opinion.

I agree that it is worth pursuing, I am pointing out that is has been and is still being pursued by other companies and organizations. The webites that do this often do it *in addition* to whatever it is they do to pay the bills. I think a website dedicated soley to this purpose would not be able to afford the overhead of maintaining a viable web presence.

Charge a membership fee? Good luck getting people to join.

Banner ads? Awfully small audience cross section. Again, good luck.

The wheel is out there already. Reinventing it is the problem.

Brad

[MASTON]

woah, this one's running without me, thought it'd stopped..

anyway, good,

now let's see

Originally I wasn't thinking of making any money (but I am now), but just creating an avenue by which I can get MY songs out, and hence other artist too...., so, whatever, I'll give it a shiot anyway if I can get round to it.....


that's not to say I'm adverse to making a few bob...

gec, you said:


"It's not the product/idea/invention that will make it work. You need to devise a business system around it to make it fly. That is where your area of focus should be"

so what IS a business system, what do I have to DO. Im not really bizness minded. Talk to me....

brad:any ideas on re-inventing that wheel?!?!

cheers

Maston



brandon.w (my design site: http://www.venus-designs.co.uk , a work in progress, let us know what u think, my personal e-mails masten7@hotmail.com)

[PhilMckracken]

I think there is such a site already, however, it is a good idea, particularly if you can do it by category. Then students and other low budget filmmakers would be able to easily match thier mood with the music. Also, you should consider how you want to deal with the licensing issues. This will be part of the draw. There should be flat rate licensing to members for use or all music on the site however, if the film is bought out or become a commercial success, there should be some royalty rate that applies.

The point is, you must charge both the musicians and the users to be on the site. They will be free to post thier music or pick from th posted music and you will be the licesning agent.

I can see many possibilities.

Again (I am getting tired of saying this however there appears to be a need) I am an attorney with lots of experience in the music field and I am a musician myself with a studio and etc.

I am glad to help whomever I can with information. I can be e-mailed at JWLAWPI@AOL.COM or JWEINSTEIN8@RR.NYC.

Godd Luck (Sucker! {just kidding})

[MASTON]

Hey, Phil, thanks for that,

That's well solid, useable advice.
I've got the project on the backburner, currently working on the graphics for the interface.
I'll let u know how it goes

cheers

Masten

[MASTON]

OK, got some of the home page interface done (ill post it when it's complete), and started thinking about next step.

I'm figuring about 1 Mb for each mp3 (using approx. 25 kb/s sample rate). So where am I gonna get the space. Pay for it???

I'm figuring just to get a few songs up there by a few artists would be a start.

Know anywhere I can get say 50-100 Mb free space.

Or maybe I can just put links up to each artists' songs...(hence solving space issue)

shooting in the dark here, whaddya think...

Masten

[Abyyss]

If you search the net for free webspace you'll come with spaces oof anything from 10MB to 150MB, but the ones with more spce won't be as good and will take long time to load, but it's a start.

[Dinsdale]

3 or 4 years ago I did independent web design/development, and I started out hosting my site for free at hypermart.net. It was the best out there for free business hosting. It's no longer free, but it's pretty damn cheap...you may want to check them out and see if they have any good deals. I just looked at their main page, and they had 75mb of space for $10/month.