Who'll help me to Earn my First $ with my productions?

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Hi.
First, I'm French. So sorry for the approximative english...
The facts :
I'm 45. It's been a while I play keyboards... I have a degree in Contrapoint, one in Harmony( what we call "First price" in France (16/20 min). I've play all music for fun: folk when young, progressive rock when teen, Jazz after.
I've wrote (and played) the exact note-for-note sheet music from all the greatests Jazz Pianists : Tatum, Peterson, Powell etc. What helped me to learn improvisation and composition.
My masters are : Chopin, Keith Emerson, Oscar Peterson, Donald Fagen, Quincy Jones. But I'm a very great fan of James Brown, good funk in general and EWF. I've played a lot of African Music, here and in Africa and love also the early Youssou'n dour and especially "m'ballach" Senegal music.(the snare is on the first time...), and Zairian Music (Rumba)...
I'm creating instrumental music : Latin : bossa, samba. Funk. And Shuffle (like AL Jarreau..breakin away for example) and never found a drummer in France for that stuff... For the essentiel, after reading a few posts here, I'm in the same position than everybody here : hearing only ... shit (sorry) from TV and radio. And what comes from today's Jazz give me headaches, as all that comes now isnt Jazz, even if it's "improvisation". (I think Jazz is, before all, a style of music. With idioms that are not in what I hear...).
I've already work in real studio on a few album(arranger, composer, keyboards) for a few people.
So Year after year, i've spent all my money in gear, and get quite a nice Home-Studio now. So I've composed, mixed, mastered, burned. And now in 5.1 since a couple of weeks.
So I can produce in whatever format you want.
Moreover, I've got recently plenty of money. Well : parents house in legacy...
But the problem is : since I've began to produce, I've never earn even one dollar( euro...) with my music. Don't know how.
I have a few friends in jazz music, but they are starving. And I'm not producing so called "Jazz" . Even if, sometimes, it sounds like Oscar Peterson playing bossa with symphonic... It's instrumental music with solos. I dont want to be labelled "Jazz".
My idea was to find some job in TV, Ads, and Movies (often people hearing my music talk about a movie theme...).
But how ? Should I send a demo to CNN ? I imagine that no. How people working for example National Geographic, creating movies about animals, or science, do they meet musicians?
Someone can give me tracks ?
Thanks folks.
 
Writing music for TV can be very lucrative but it is also very hard to get into. By far the best way is to know someone in advertising and ask them to get you an interview with some of the creatives. Failing that you need to have a showreel CD with no more than ten 30 second pieces on, and you need to fix up meetings with all the TV departments in all the ad agencies you can think of. Ideally this showreel should be on VHS or U-Matic and should consist of completed work you have already done for TV. Whatever you do, don't mail this showreel but make appointments to see people and take the CD with you as they'll just throw away unsolicited stuff, especially if they don't recognise any of the music (this is true of Record Companies too).

As far as documentaries and drama goes I have found that a good way in is via Library Music. Basically you write a bunch of stuff that gets published by a Music Library and then these tracks are put onto CDs and promoted by the company, ending up with individual tracks being 'rented out' to anyone who needs them using a pay scale of licences. This could be Film, TV Drama, commercials, Trade Shows, anything really.

Get yourself some stationary printed and make everything look professional. Start the way you mean to carry on. Study the television and make mental notes as to what is happening musically in your favourite shows/adverts/movies. This is the best way to learn.

As I said before, it's very hard to get into but great fun. You can check out my website to see some of the stuff I've done if you like as this may give you some idea of what it's all about.

Hope this helps!
 
Good suggestions Commander....and nice website too.

I'd also mentiion that you might try local video production and wedding photograher/video people with the concept of putting original music to their work. It won't pay much but it'll help you in learning the process of working with other media.
 
This is a good advice, indeed. More easy to reach at the beginning. As i'm beginning, (after 20 years of music.)
I'm coming back from Commander's site : simply great ! Very nice music and ...mixing. (I'm preparing mine ... and would like to know what is the way used to hear your musics without having a popup ? Flash doesn't...)
I'm envious of your site and your success... :rolleyes:
 
Hmmm

If you can write like AL Jarreau I don't see a problem.
Getting a writing gig as an unknown that would be a problem.
Solution ....get known

Write 30 songs and record the best 10. This is world beat music which is one of the most sought after products in the world. I spend most of my summer as a production manager for world beat festivals. Find the players!!! If you cant record your tracks to pro tools with a click and find them somewhere else....you send me 10 killer tracks and I will get drums and percussion on them....thats easy.
Get the product pressed, ship of to the proper radio stations throughout the world, get a good agent and start working. You have to tour
http://www.lesyeuxnoirs.net/intro.html.......these folks are from France and they are making great money

This is all possible assuming you have the skills you say you do
 
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