Dealing with Rejection

I recently applied to Artlist to become one of their rostered artists.

Before I got into trailer music the majority of my work was writing cinematic music for TV ads. I composed music for awesome products and brands like Scrabble, Unilever, and LinkedIn.

As my career in trailer music grew I left this style of writing behind…in public. I have been writing that music for fun for the last 5 or so years.

All that time that music has been sitting on my hard drive, occasionally making appearances in my YouTube videos.

So I decided to do something about it. I created another moniker for that music, Cinemalism, and decided to pitch that artist (and albums) to Artlist. I really like the company and the nature of the work would suit me as a side project.

So I filled in their application form and waited…

Today I got an email telling me that my application was not successful.

I am no stranger to rejection but it still hurts and completely took the wind out of my sails.

But I am not one to take no for an answer

It’s funny because when I got the email I decided to start going through some of my old things to give/throw away and stumbled upon a box filled with some of my old PC games.

After a while I realised I was getting a reminder. I would not have given up on these games when I failed a mission. I would have carried on and enjoyed the process.

That’s what you/I do when your attempts to reach a publisher/library fail. We keep playing the game.

It sucks and it hurts and you want to give up, but you mustn’t. You must continue with focus and persistence.

Regarding my music - I am not 100% sure as to the direction this will take but I am going to keep producing and start making it a part of my plan to share these tracks too. We will see what comes next as I carry on carrying on.  

🎧 I’m Listening To…

Nico Muhly’s Mothertongue. When I first heard this (12 years ago) it almost blew my mind; the worlds of modern classical, sound design, film score, and electronica meeting in a beautiful chaotic thing. I come back to this because it seems to be one of those pieces of music that comes the closest to how my mind sounds. I find it calms me. I especially love what happens at the 4-minute mark.

---

🤔 I’m Pondering…

John Warner’s article building a creative practice. It speaks to me on so many levels but the one that resonates the loudest is when he talks about a creative practice being the backbone of creativity and inspiration.

---

📖 I’m Reading…

The Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb. This is the second book of the Farseer Trilogy and so far it has me completely gripped. The second book always has the advantage of the reader knowing the characters but it has the disadvantage of having to live up to the first book - so far it is! If you like fantasy fiction then these books are right up your street.

---

📺 I’m Watching…

The Witcher: Season 3. Henry Cavill featured in last week’s newsletter as himself and this week he appears as Geralt of Rivia. Love this show and its whole aesthetic sits so well with the world of cinematic trailer music.

---

❝ Quote of the week:

“Rejection is nothing more than a step in the pursuit of success” - Bo Bennett

---

Want to learn more from me? Check out my online video courses

The Ultimate Trailer Music Bundle → Learn everything there is to learn about Trailer Music

The Trailer Music Course → The perfect course to get you started writing trailer music

Trailer Music for Beginners → Learn to create trailer music with nothing but FREE samples