AudioSparx
If you find this information helpful, please consider donating.
| If you are a composer and/or songwriter, please leave your comments and experiences with this company. We want to hear the good as well as the bad! Please rate, from 1 to 10, by clicking on one of the stars. Below is some general information but we make no guarantee of accuracy. Check with the company for all details. Please contact us for any corrections. | ||
| URL: | http://www.audiosparx.com | |
|---|---|---|
| Accepting Submissions: | Yes | |
| Submit Via Uploads: | Yes | |
| Submit Via Mail: | Unknown | |
| Submissions Reviewed: | No | |
| Types Accepted: |
|
|
| Charge For Submissions: | No | |
| Up Front Money: | ||
| Royalty Free: (non-broadcast use) |
Yes | |
| Exclusivity: (Exclusive, Non, Semi) (Semi = Free to place on own but not with another library) |
Non-Exclusive | |
| Re-Title: | Yes | |
| Set Own Price: | Yes | |
| Contract Length: | None | |
| Payment Schedule: | Quarterly | |
| License Fee Split: (writer/library) |
40/60 | |
| PRO Split Based on 100%: (writer/library writer/library/publisher or writer) |
50/50 | |
| Requires Licensee To File Cue Sheet: | Yes | |
| Notes: | ||
Did you find this information helpful? If you did, please consider donating.
Categories: Music Libraries A to A | 
Tags: | 
155 Comments »
David, what you describe is what occasionally happens: someone comes on line and gets a sale in the first hour or the first day, or during the first week. Many new artists upload four or five tracks at a time and get them 100% client-ready, then begin to upload the next five, etc. With 20 super tracks, we are excited to feature them as a Hot New Artist to see what happens. That’s how it worked with Erwin (50 Styles) and a few others, and the clients keep stepping up.
We are frequently amazed at what happens here at AudioSparx; someone will have no sales for weeks or months and then sell two or three on the same day, licensed by clients from Los Angeles, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Saudi Arabia, etc. Often perhaps one keyword brought the music up, or someone needed a 1960s track, or “chase or pursuit,” whatever, and the client selected their particular music.
Today if your track gets licensed, it was a winner over 99,000 other tracks, but it DOES happen every day.
Don’t give up, keep composing great music and think positively.
Barbie
Artist Liaison
[Reply]
Hi Barb,
Don’t worry, I’m not getting depressed. When I released my first library CD it took 2 years before I made any royalties – and then it was just £30! 12 Years later and I still make money from something on that CD every quarter.
Understanding the process is just important to me to determine whether writing tracks especially for AudioSparx is worth the investment of my time – because that is what I would have to do to get to 20 tracks and kick off the process of building a partnership with you. The hurdle for me to gain this confidence has been getting an understanding of how to sell anything if you can’t get your track to appear in the first 50 unles you get a lucky break on an obscure keyword.
I guess we’re not going to agree about the search engine – but maybe we can agree that ( assuming all other things are equal) having a lot of tracks uploaded ( at least 20 – and preferably over 40) as the associated promotional opportunities that opens up, significantly shortens your odds of being successful?
D.
[Reply]
I’ve had a number of tracks with AudioSparx for a few years (nearly three, I think). Total revenues from them is maybe a few hundred dollars or something like that over that time. I have about 130 tracks listed with them. So, not many sales.
I have generated much more money using the same tracks in other, much more selective libraries (i.e. ones that reject most submissions).
I don’t know how AudioSparx works but it clearly does not for me!
rgames
[Reply]
Dear Richard,
As several of our best sellers have stated on this site, you just can’t dump your music at AudioSparx, do zero configurations, use minimal descriptions, minimal keywords, and expect us to have some roaring success in your behalf.
In three years on our site, you never read a communiqué wherein we have explained over and over how to be a success in licensing your music. It looks like you have some super tracks at AudioSparx, but you put up 134 tracks and did ZERO configurations, so it’s not surprising you earned only a tiny bit of money. It appears that your music never came up in front of our clients. Using the HyperSearch, as many buyers do, with ZERO configurations you can expect to earn ZERO $$$.
I did a quick Batch Edit, and here is what’s missing from most of your 134 tracks:
Tempo field is not set / Format field is not set / Vocals field is not set / No instruments configured / Less than 3 moods configured / Less than 3 styles configured
In addition, you never wrote any biography, so our clients haven’t a clue whether you’re in a garage band or a Classical composer. And just last month we warned about jamming words together in your titles. It makes our computer scanner skip over your titles, since they are not Standard English, plus many of your titles make no sense to our clients.
Our buyers are in a hurry, and we doubt they would even waste their time listening to some of these titles: EPICMOODS3 V4, FIRSTHAND ACT1 CUE1 REV3, SKIP 30SECSPOT REV2, BIGGER CUE4REV2, etc.
Richard, obviously we hope you will return to AudioSparx and address all these issues. We do not have staff to listen to and configure all of your music for you, and must rely on composers to bring us polished, 100% client-ready tracks — otherwise you’re just taking up our valuable real estate and losing out on sales for your GREAT music!!!
Regards,
Barbie
Artist Liaison
[Reply]
HA!
Metadata is key my friends.
[Reply]
Denis W, June 1st, 2010 at 4:26 pm Reply:
It certainly is. I hate doing it but it works. Does it take time to do this on Audiosparx? Absolutely, but it gets results. I have followed Barbie’s advice and just noticed today my play rate trebled in 24 hours, I kid you not. The good thing about this site is that you can check your stats on a daily basis to see what is happening. The other thing is, I have a database of keywords now for different genres that I can paste in wherever I want. Good descriptions/ alt versions are important too. I know it is boring and tiring work but it seems to be a requirement for selling music these days.
[Reply]
Yes – I quit adding detailed info to my tracks because it wasn’t clear that it was doing anything and it was taking a lot of time to add all that info.
Perhaps I’ll go back and update the track info and see if I have any more luck on that site.
[Reply]
I’ve just joined audiosparx and am in the process of uploading and configuring my initial catalog. Barbie has been very helpful, friendly and quick to respond to emails. I feel like I’m being personally looked after, which is a great introduction to this library. I’m expecting good things from here.
[Reply]
Incredibly fiddly and tedious upload and description process.
[Reply]
K.O., June 7th, 2010 at 4:20 am Reply:
I actually like that U have the control to describe Ur works exactly how U want to..
Once U get the hang of it.. it’s really not that tedious I find..
Especially when U can batch edit & load from a previous track template.. then modify from there if necessary..
I’m still tryna figure out how some composers get so much success here but the help response I get from Barbie so far is really great..
I’m still learning..
K
[Reply]
John (the other John), June 7th, 2010 at 4:21 am Reply:
I find it rather enjoyable.
[Reply]
K.O., June 7th, 2010 at 4:50 am Reply:
Yes it is.. & I think that the more we do this, the better we become at it which also helps us to become better writers in terms of writing for imaginary or even actual Tv/Film scenes..
Describing our own works forces us to use our imagination & creativity..
Ever since I started all these descriptions on ASPX I’ve been writing songs with story lines behind them without even trying to do so =)
[Reply]
Denis W, June 7th, 2010 at 8:36 am Reply:
It is tedious but you enter a lot more info on this site than any other. I think for good reason , there are a lot more tracks on there so metadata/cross referencing and alt versions are really important.
[Reply]
We at AudioSparx believe that describing your music to a client makes it more accessible and quickly tells him if it’s what he’s looking for. As K.O. pointed out, we believe it also steps up your compositional skills because before you write anything you should always ask yourself: What market am I shooting for with this idea, will it be a Dramatic / Corporate track (inspirational, team work, motivational, branding, commercial) or is this idea more Dramatic / Romantic (Romantic Comedy, Epic, Passion or Breakup), etc.
A good song tells a story so it’s super to begin composing with your goal in place so you can write a winning story that a client will want to license, no matter what genre the music is in. And a big reminder: if you have super music that has never sold, please listen anew and give that great song a trendy title. A composer on our site recently re-titled a non-seller track, and indicated it sounded like Sade, and we sold it twice in two days. (If your music sounds like someone famous, be sure to note that in description or keywords so it will come up on “Sade” or “U2” or other sound alike searches.)
Great success stories can result for those composers who review their titles, descriptions and be sure they offer appeal to music supervisors and are relevant to 2010 trends in TV, Film and Commercial productions, etc.
Barbie
Artist Liaison
[Reply]
Boz, June 17th, 2010 at 9:15 pm Reply:
I came upon a site in the style of the audiosparx.com family of libraries. In other words the site looks exactly like audiosparx!
Is anybody familiar with designermusic.net?
I was able to log into the site using my audiosparx info, but was not able to view or manage my tracks. There is also no reporting info available on audiosparx in the manner that there is for the other affiliates.
Boz
[Reply]
Hi Boz, designermusic.net is an affiliate of our customlabelmusic.com site. It has a lot of the music tracks that are available on AudioSparx.com, but it is not for commercial-use licensing for production use. The customlablemusic.com site exists to provide a service for clients that want to design their own music CDs for ordering in bulk (minimum order 100 CDs), for use for corporate promotions purposes, or in-store sales, or other various promotional needs. Any of the affiliate sites are actually the same exact web site as customlabelmusic.com, but just simply run under a different domain name and with different header and footer artwork.
Lee Johnson
lee@audiosparx.com
[Reply]
I have a track on audiosparx. It’s been there for probably 4 or 5 years now. Problem is I didn’t put it there, I don’t have an account there and I asked for it to be taken off but never was despite several contacts. I believe it was forwarded by a Taxi submission but why did these people have the right to put my name and a track of my music for sale on their website WITHOUT my permission?
[Reply]
Hi Chuck,
Please send us a private email at barb@audiosparx.com and we will investigate and certainly remove the track. Occasionally record companies will put a number of their artists’ music on our site. Provide me the track name and catalog ID if you have that and I will work with you to remove the music.
Thanks,
Barbie
http://www.audiosparx.com/
[Reply]
This is a good site but I too am trying to figure out how to get better sales. I know my music is not the best but it darn sure aint the worst…guess i gotta make more dramatic tracks
[Reply]
John (the other John), July 6th, 2010 at 2:30 pm Reply:
Here’s one of the reasons: “404,000+ Production Music Tracks” (and growing every day). A lot of competition to say the least – and that’s just to be heard.
It may take awhile to be discovered buried deep in the abyss of tracks.
Yes, I agree; I like everything about this company – especially Barbie.
I just joined a short while back. I’m not expecting any miracles. I’m in for the long ride. Very hopeful.
[Reply]
Matt, July 6th, 2010 at 3:37 pm Reply:
Barbie is fantastic. I however won’t upload anymore until they start implementing some quality control. Too many mediocre, dated tracks that make it harder for customers to find the good stuff. Their time consuming uploading / tagging process would be worth it if the sales were pretty decent. Unfortunately, compared to some other sites I’ve uploaded to, I can’t say that it is.
[Reply]
Do You mean ‘Saint Barbie’ ? She is the most awesome representative of any music library ever in our opinion. Yes there are a lot of tracks but with the new push on exclusive tracks you can narrow down the completion somewhat.
[Reply]
“Saint Barbie”? – I’m taking so much kidding over that one that my halo’s wobbling… LOL.
To Matt, we always urge our composers to delete their lame tracks and upload only their best music. Cleanup is a major and continuing process here, but with such a large library it may not be readily apparent. We often advise individual composers to rework or remove older, unsold tracks and offer tips about how to step up their game.
Quality has greatly improved since we set up our “new artist application” in February. This allows us to only accept the most compelling artists. Many of our long time and current composers are now bringing us their very best music, much of it now coming on line on an “exclusive” basis.
Regards,
Barbie
PS If your music is really great, the more tracks you have online the better your chances are for increasing your earnings capability. If a client likes your music they will return to check out your most recent tracks when they have new projects.
[Reply]
Barbie,
Interesting to learn about this new trend that some of your [best] music is now coming online on an “exclusive” basis!
Can you elaborate a bit on how exclusive track placement works? For example, will exclusivity prevent re-titling? Will exclusive tracks change the writer/library split?
Is there anything else you can share about the benefits of this new exclusive option and how this would be screened and managed by Audiosparx?
Thanks so much!
[Reply]
Hi Michael,
The issues you have raised are rapidly evolving. AudioSparx has enjoyed 14 years in the business and has always had clients from around the world of every persuasion licensing our composers’ music. While we have historically been a non-exclusive library, earlier this year we sensed the trend toward “exclusivity” and began highlighting and encouraging our composers who were pulling out of the one-price-fits-all libraries to indicate that AudioSparx offers much of their music, if not all of it, exclusively.
With the recent announcement by several major industry studios and broadcasters to use only “exclusive libraries,” AudioSparx has become a hybrid site, offering both exclusive and non-exclusive music side-by-side. Our new business model should meet larger clients’ needs for exclusive tracks in certain situations without creating any issues for our smaller clients for whom exclusivity is not an issue.
For this reason and others, we are welcoming any tracks our composers wish to place exclusively on our site. This still allows composers to sell the same track they upload exclusively with us on iTunes or other digital download websites. Our composers also can continue licensing a track directly for commercial use through their own efforts, but NOT on other commercial licensing sites. Otherwise, it could not be considered “exclusive” at AudioSparx.
Re-titling issues are eliminated by our requirement that there be only ONE sole publisher involved with an exclusive track, meaning that either the composer retains publishing administration rights or assigns it to AudioSparx exclusively.
We plan to highlight our rapidly growing composers’ exclusive tracks in future advertising and marketing efforts, and have no plans to change the current commission fee structure for either type of music. For our artist community following this thread, please visit our KB at AudioSparx.com and search for “KB2017.” The article, entitled “Guidelines and Advantages of Working Exclusively with AudioSparx,” addresses in depth all issues and the many advantages for participating.
As always, AudioSparx tries to be nimble and step up to industry trends so our composers aren’t blind-sided and left out in the cold.
Regards,
Barbie
Artist Liaison and Creative Director
http://www.audiosparx.com/
[Reply]
Anyone notice that Audiosparx are now showing ads for other music websites such as Pond5 on their website? Thought it was rather odd for a website that sells your music for a certain price to be encouraging people to possibly buy the exact same track for cheaper on another website? (“Stock Music & SFX from just $2″….or in other words “We might be cheaper, don’t buy your music on this website!”)
Just an observation…
Also, I don’t know many other music libraries that advertise other libraries directly on their website…
[Reply]
I’ve been with audiosparx for 4 years now.Although I haven’t made much,I know it’s down to myself really ,and not the website (personal issues)However the potential to do well I know is definately there!
It is now more ideal and is being well promoted ,to have exclusive material to Audiosparx,simply being, not being able to find that particular music or artist anywhere else! This will work well with everyone invovled.Very motivating for me.I will have to take off some of my earlier tracks ,to either update them or just delete.By stating the obvious,it is the finer adjustments to the sounds ,and desciptions,that will add seriousness and proffesional quality to an individuals page.
Cheers Dee.
[Reply]
KO, July 15th, 2010 at 5:52 am Reply:
I’ve been with them for abt 3 years.. but have only recently started to follow Barbie’s advice on keywords, descriptions, titles etc.. & results are just starting to show in sales..
I’ve gone full on exclusive too & should be with them for the long term I believe..
-KO
[Reply]
I followed all Barbie’s advice, they featured a few of my tracks but zero sales for me.
[Reply]
Rob (Cruciform), July 15th, 2010 at 6:56 am Reply:
I’m brand new to the production music business, only a few months at it so far, though I’ve been a muso for a long time. I’ve followed Barbie’s advice and I just got my first sale yesterday after being on Audiosparx for just over a month. Apparently this is a slow period and it should pick up in the next few months so I’d say “hang in there”.
[Reply]
Denis W, July 15th, 2010 at 7:17 am Reply:
I had a terrible June, but sold 2 this week at very good money. It really is a waiting game. I do like Audiosparx, great communication and higher prices. Downside is they are a huge library so extra work is required on description/keywords etc than any other site. You really have to put in the effort to be heard there, only you can decide whether its worth it for you.
If you have any questions email Barbie and get her to check your tracks. She gets back unbelievably quickly with advice and pointers.
[Reply]
Thanks for all the good words about the importance of describing, keywording, etc. to help achieve success here at AudioSparx. But also Dee nails it by indicating that the quality of music plays a large part in getting your tracks sold. To pick up your game, select a genre that interests you, then sort by Best Selling and write us some music BETTER THAN what you hear and it could help you in this highly competitive business. With over 110,000 music tracks on line your music simply has to be EXEMPLARY and stand out above the crowd to make sales.
Sergei, a quick review reveals you have a broad spectrum of genres, with 36 tracks on line. You joined us with three songs last year, and added most of your music beginning in March. In June I listened to 10 of your tracks and discovered (and corrected) many of your styles and descriptions that were losing you sales: you had tender and innocent as “Corporate;” you had dramatic music accidentally checked as “British Invasion,” and you had keywords for a Corporate track such as “angry, aggressive, hard, bluesy,” wherein Corporate needs to be motivational, uplifting, etc. I sent you a long memo with detailed suggestions for these 10 tracks, and some general advice including shortening titles or making them more trendy.
Bottom line: if you reviewed the advice and got everything in order, with proper keywords and style selections, titles that make sense and aren’t cliches, your music is finally getting in front of the right buyers. (A quick review of your Dramatic music, I would suggest again adjusting titles to match the production area you are trying to reach. Not sure “Acoustic Guitar – Nylon Romance” will be a winning title for our corporate clients. (By the way, removing “Acoustic Guitar” from all of your titles would look more professional and in line with other Best Selling music.) Strongly recommend that you review corporate, dramatic and other best-selling titles and make some changes, it could help us sell your music.) We just don’t have time to review each and every song you uploaded so we must rely on you to be sure you are doing everything advised, plus reading our Knowledge Base articles that have many articles on how to be a success at AudioSparx.
Re Anonymous’s note about Pond5 running ads on AudioSparx site — that is weird! Seems like everyone wants to get onto our site, even the competition! Thanks for pointing that out, we have taken care to block Pond5 and 40 other competitors from advertising on our site.
Cheers,
Barbie
Artist Liaison
PS Here’s a link to our Advertising, News and Corporate music page – some great titles and tracks here if this genre interests you for future compositional efforts:
http://www.audiosparx.com/sa/links/commercial-music.cfm
[Reply]
Sergei Stern, July 15th, 2010 at 8:57 am Reply:
Hi Barbie,
That’s true, you’ve helped me a lot with descriptions and everything I thanked you and I don’t blame anyone here. I think my tracks have a quality and those kind of titles brought me a good money on other sites – other sites claim that putting “tags” words in the titles boost the sales and its logical, cause those words make the track appear more in the search engines. Anyway, I’ll try to retitle my tracks as you advise, maybe it will make the difference as I see more and more people start to have a success on Audiosparx..
Or I’ll just quit and be a lawyer.. or programmer.. or actor
)
[Reply]
Barbie, August 1st, 2010 at 6:20 am Reply:
Sergei is to be congratulated! Since this mid-June email exchange about the importance of tagging your music tracks, writing good descriptions, getting your titles squared away, etc., Sergei spruced up his titles and had his first sale at AudioSparx on Friday. His fun, upbeat Children’s Music track called “Flowers” was just licensed in a buyout for worldwide usage by a client of ours in the UK.
Good job Sergei, hope this is just the beginning, and demonstrates how getting your catalogue, descriptions, titles and keywords in tip top shape can pay off for our composers…
Enjoy the day,
Barbie
Artist Liaison
http://www.audiosparx.com/
[Reply]
Of all the companies I use Audiosparx service is really unbelievably good . I had a small issue with cross referencing last night, in fact it was 2 am in not so sunny Ireland, which makes it 7-9 pm in the States !!!. I emailed Barbie thinking I would get a response the next afternoon. lo and behold she emails back, issue is discussed, correct dept informed and lo and behold 4pm the same day (Irish time) its all solved. Trust me I am not a huge earner for Audiosparx but their vendor service is exceptionally good. In fact any issues or questions I have, the response can be measured in minutes, not hours or days. Great stuff.
[Reply]
K.O., July 23rd, 2010 at 9:17 am Reply:
Hell yea!!
Love their service!!
#1 no doubt
Barbie doesn’t just help.. she goes beyond that & often add very useful suggestions, sometimes even include links whereby I can preview to get even more awesome ideas..
Best of the Best!
KO
[Reply]
After having listed my music with AudioSparx for several years, I’ve decided to pull all of it and close my account, much like several friends of mine are done. Here is why I’m leaving:
1. AS forces the composer to write descriptions, tags, etc. This is extraordinarily time consuming, and from my experience, pointless.
2. AS seems to do nothing or next to nothing to promote their artists. I was recently a Featured Artist on their site, which was cool, but I literally got NO licenses from that. And yes, I went through the pricing wizard and have clear descriptions/tags for all my music!
3. Despite the above points, AS takes an absurdly high 65% cut. What am I getting in return for this…?
4. I’m not getting anything from them. Lifetime I’ve earned almost nothing from AudioSparx. The same tracks in other libraries have gotten placement in major video games, network TV, regional and national ad campaigns, video game trailers, and tons of cable TV shows. I’m earning literally 50-100x as much per quarter from other libraries *with the same music* as I am from AudioSparx, who does less for me, forces me to do more, and takes a bigger cut.
The only company that takes as big of a cut is Pump, but you know what? The *same music* in Pump, submitted at the same time, yields several PAGES of placements for me on every statement I get, not to mention ASCAP royalties. So, while Pump’s cut is steep, they’re also extremely lucrative and work very hard for me.
I’m posting this in the hopes that more people will follow my lead, perhaps encouraging AudioSparx to work harder at promoting their talent, not to mention spending less on advertising (which apparently does nothing) and giving a bigger cut back to their artists.
[Reply]
Bobby Cole, July 24th, 2010 at 10:11 am Reply:
I think that Audio Sparx is just different for each composer. As there have been many success stories as well so it is unfair to see that they dont promote their artists as in your second point. I had nothing for a long time, then in the last three months have had some serious income from Audio Sparx. Just the other week I licensed a track to British Telecom through Audio Sparx for some serious money.
Barbie is un belivably amazing, pro active and polite. A great asset to Audio Sparx. It is a great company, and different composers have different success rates. I do have a large library of tracks though (coming up to 800) which may help, but I really think it is different for everyone.
I appreciate your frustrations, as you said you have tagged your music properly, but Audio Sparx has been brilliant to me, and am very happy working with them
Kind regards
[Reply]
Note to Andrew: This is so funny! You want to delete your 20 little tracks on our site, and you want all of our 2,500+ composers to join your AudioSparx boycott and go where? Why would our composers want to leave AudioSparx, especially when their music is being featured in all of these and many, many other recent deals: http://www.audiosparx.com/sa/testimony/licensings.cfm
Your lack of sales on our site has nothing to do with us “not” doing our job. Number one, you forgot to put any meaningful keywords on your 19 music tracks and hence they are NOT selling because they are NOT coming up on client searches. We often say: ZERO keywords equal ZERO sales. The description and tagging process you consider “pointless” is the key that drives clients to your music and helps you make those sales!
Your tracks that have sold multiple times (Nitronic, Antigravity, and Throwdown), sold because I personally added 60 or 70 keywords for you. The correlation of keywords to income is NOT pointless. Since your music is exciting and saleable, you just need to add track-specific, client-targeted, and trendy keywords to get your tracks in front of our buyers searching for specific music on our site. We have stated this in communiqués many times before.
In addition, if you cross-reference your tracks (as we have often advised), you generally double or triple the traffic to your music. Each website has different methods of driving sales; if you step up your game here you will likely see better results, because your music is strong. We can point the way and offer you help as you review and put the finishing touches on your catalogue. We’re approachable and offer advice or assistance when any composer drops us a note. You have to promote each and every track like you’re trying to sell a Bentley, so it will stand out vibrantly over all the other clunkers and make you some $$$. We do not have time to add keywords and do this hype for you, but as Bobby Cole and others posting to this site have stated: You, too, can have success at AudioSparx.
AudioSparx is a big, busy, and vibrant marketplace, and competition is fierce here each day. Many of our composers are doing well here and we believe you can too. Certainly we hope you stay and work with us through the final steps needed to accomplish the goal of increasing sales for your music. Our busiest season of the year is fast approaching, and the 37 sales you have had so far is just a start.
Kind regards,
Barbie
Artist Liaison
PS Pump Audio takes 65%; AudioSparx earns 60%.
[Reply]
Bobby, I appreciate your perspective on the matter, but I do think that the size of your catalog may indeed be a major factor.
I do not appreciate the tracks I’ve uploaded being referred to as “little” (so much for polite, right?) . As I mentioned to Lee, those tracks have been in top-selling Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 video games, worldwide game trailers, a national Bank of America ad campaign, a popular series of dance video games, Heroes on NBC, major inhouse corporate usage, etc etc. I got my first licensing deal with an album I wrote when I was 17, and the fee from that was several orders of magnitude greater than my LIFETIME AudioSparx sales.
I also do not appreciate you posting inaccurate information. As far as I’m aware, you edited tags/descriptions for my music recently – in the last few months. I have had basically no sales in that time period. Most of my sales were well before that, thus your edits would appear to have had a minimal effect.
I’ve put a considerable amount of time into tagging the few tracks that I have on AudioSparx. The result was not worth the time I spent doing that. I have a much larger catalog than what I’ve uploaded to AS, so what is my motivation for uploading those? If I have to ask for (or be offered) special treatment simply to get basic promotion, from a company that is already taking a whopping 60% of sync fees, what’s the point?
In other words, you say that tags are not YOUR job. Fine. What is YOUR job, then? What are you doing to earn your 60%? As a composer, I am having a difficult time figuring that out.
[Reply]
Deryn, July 29th, 2010 at 2:05 pm Reply:
Andrew, it sounds as if you’re doing remarkably well – with the licenses you mention you should be getting some pretty healthy royalty cheques. It doesn’t make sense that you would get so agitated about your 20 tracks not doing well at AudioSparx. If the business model doesn’t work for you, why not just remove your catalogue and be done with it? You already hit the nail on the head when you pointed out that the size of Bobby’s catalogue may be a factor in his success on the site.
Regarding the staff at AudioSparx I’m sure you’ll already have read some rave reviews about them on this thread from a variety of people. Just because this isn’t working for you doesn’t mean there aren’t thousands of composers who are happy with the site, the business model, their track sales and the support they get from the staff. Trying to stage a mass boycott is pointless and arrogant.
If you had read Barbie’s reply in context, you’d see that her use of the word “little” was not a means of insulting your music but pointing out how small your catalogue on the site is. She went on to refer to your tracks as “exciting and saleable”.
My advice: get off your high horse and enjoy your success with the libraries that work for you.
[Reply]
This thread is a good example where sometimes composers say negative things about a library but some or all of the problem is their lack of understanding of how the industry works. Anyone who doesn’t want to spend extra time tagging their tracks for mood, genre, tempo, sounds like, etc, etc doesn’t really “get it”. Libraries have huge databases of tracks. Clients search many thousands of tracks by keywords. How else could this ever work? A client wants fast tempo hard rock that sounds like Band X. If you have that and it doesn’t come up in a database search, you won’t be heard.
This is not just about this library. It’s how the whole film/TV music library world runs. To be in this biz, means embrace this.
I’m not talking about everyone on this thread, BTW. But a number of times on this site I’ve heard composers complain about having to tag their tracks. Although some libraries offer assistance here, it’s the composer’s job. Library staff need to spend a great deal of their time making industry contacts and marketing to get placements.
I’m glad Barbie came on here to address some of the negative comments. Otherwise, the comments would just sit here unchallenged and some readers would take them as the truth.
[Reply]
Andrew Aversa, July 29th, 2010 at 2:28 pm Reply:
Excuse me, but nowhere did I complain about the idea of tagging my tracks. My complaint is that I’m forced to tag my tracks AND AudioSparx takes a larger-than-average cut AND the tracks don’t sell as well as they do in other libraries. My tracks ARE tagged. They have ALWAYS been tagged, contrary to what Barbie said (even though she may have improved the keywords recently – with minimal effect.)
[Reply]
Andrew Aversa, July 29th, 2010 at 2:38 pm Reply:
I suppose it is easier to make snarky comments than to have an actual discussion. Last I checked, one of the purposes of this website was for composers to share their experiences – positive and negative – working with music libraries. My complaints are legitimate.
[Reply]
oontz oontz, July 29th, 2010 at 3:03 pm Reply:
20 tracks? You’re lucky you’ve made any money at all with AS. I think you’d be best served by re-examining your opinion.
[Reply]
anon, July 29th, 2010 at 4:29 pm Reply:
>>>>Excuse me, but nowhere did I complain about the idea of tagging my tracks. My complaint is that I’m forced to tag my tracks AND…. <<<<
No disrespect but don't those two sentences contradict each other?
[Reply]
First of all, I’m not trying to organize a mass boycott and I’m certainly not the first person to feel this way about AudioSparx. Other professional composers I know have either pulled their tracks from or refused to do business with AS for the same reasons. Calling me “arrogant” for my post is silly – the purpose of this site is to share one’s experiences. In my case, I had a negative experience, and I want other composers to avoid a similar experience.
It’s not that I’m specifically upset over the tracks not doing well. I’m in a couple libraries where I’ve had no licenses. It happens. I simply find it very frustrating that AudioSparx places ALL of the work on the composer, while taking a 60% cut (which is the opposite of what you’d expect, given that you’re doing all the work), and yet, despite those two very important factors, my tracks are still not doing well. To me, that is not a good combination.
[Reply]
Deryn, July 29th, 2010 at 2:36 pm Reply:
“I’m posting this in the hopes that more people will follow my lead” – the statement rather suggests a call to composers on the site to remove their catalogues. This amounts to boycott.
I agree: this site is for discussing our experiences – positive or negative – of the music libraries listed here. Negative feedback is inevitable and often important so long as it is constructive. The point about extensive track configuration has already been made several times in this thread so clearly it’s not for everyone. Your words quoted in this post are pretty silly and do not amount to constructive criticism. That’s all.
[Reply]
Andrew Aversa, July 29th, 2010 at 2:46 pm Reply:
Without straying from the topic too much, the implication of posting any negative review or experience about any product or service is essentially, that you are telling other people to not buy or use that product or service.
If a friend of yours had an experience at a bank that caused them to close their account, and you have an account with the same bank, they would probably recommend that you close your account too. This is not the same thing as ‘organizing a boycott’.
I don’t harbor any ill-will toward AudioSparx whatsoever. Lee emailed me shortly after my first post and we’ve been corresponding via email. The company is not in any way unethical or unlawful. I’m not claiming that they ‘ripped me off’. I’m simply dissatisfied with their business model.
[Reply]
oontz oontz, July 29th, 2010 at 4:57 pm Reply:
Dude,
It’s exactly the same thing as organizing a boycott.
I have alot of time on my hands today, so i looked up your catalogue on ASCAP. It seems you only have 71 registered tracks, some of which are double registered with the same title, others are retitled with pump audio and possibly other services.
You should get your track count up before starting to review ANY library whatsoever. There’s not enough tracks for you to make any sort of informed review within the confines of production music services.
Also another suggestion would be to not use your full name when posting wild reviews such as yours. Now every library owner knows who you are and of your stubborn, mis-informed views..
UNLESS your not really Andrew, and are posting under his name to make people think he’s stubborn and mis-informed. If that is the case, you are a crafty, crafty man and i applaud you!
PS..
a legitimate complaint would be that Audiosparx registered your WARHEAD track with the exact same title. Now there seems to be two registrations with the same name, but with different payees. ASCAP will probably freeze all monies due that track until the name situation is cleared up.
THAT is a legitimate complaint, and it only took me 1 minute to find it for you, you’re welcome.
[Reply]
John (the other John), July 29th, 2010 at 5:09 pm Reply:
Yeah, Andrew, you should have at least 10,000 tracks before you’re entitled to an opinion.
The demise of composers is going to be caused by quantity” Another decade and there will be billions of digital tracks to choose from. We’ll all be casualties dumped in the abyss. – except for music libraries – they’ll still be making money.
[Reply]
Matt, July 29th, 2010 at 7:37 pm Reply:
I get what Andrew’s saying – if a library is going to take more than 50%, it should be worth it to the composers that a) the submission/uploading process is fast and/or b) the sales make up for the smaller cut of the licenses.
Audiosparx is fantastic at feedback and assistance, and that’s a big plus. Can’t say that the sales or uploading process is anything to write home about though. Other sites like musicloops.com have a much faster upload process. Incidentally Musicloops (who give 50%) also sell a lot more. In fact Audiosparx is one of the lowest performing libraries I’ve tried out, and yes – I spent a long time entering a large swath of keywords.
[Reply]
Barbie, August 1st, 2010 at 11:45 am Reply:
Many complaints about percentages and comparisons make no sense: Like if a licensing site is “hard” or ‘fiddly” or requires “more tagging,” then that library should take LESS percentage of the composer’s money. In this analogy then, if a competitive site is “fast” or “easy” and no pain, well then, you think it’s okay if they take a HIGHER percentage.
It is easy for sites like the one you mention to make lots of sales if every track is priced under $40.00 and you receive $10 to $20 per sale. How you can celebrate so little money for your creativity amazes us. At AudioSparx we strive to maintain a fair value for your music by pricing each track based on its own merits, and avoid lazy low-ball pricing techniques at the expense of our composers. Our pricing strategy offers clients a realistic and fair price for tracks, taking into consideration genre, length, originality, sales history, etc. So percentage splits have no correlation to how “difficult” our tagging process is. The moderate complexity of our track configuration process results in a sophisticated yet easy-to-use HyperSearch system which allows music supervisors to quickly narrow their search and find exactly the music they need in minutes rather than hours. So, from the client’s perspective this is excellent, plus they have a much broader choice from which to select because AudioSparx is one of the largest music libraries in the world.
In addition, our percentage split has nothing to do with whether or not you succeed at AudioSparx. The 40% you receive for the sale of your music from AudioSparx may be double or triple what you earn for selling the identical song at the one-size-fits-all sites. Therefore, if you are happy receiving $10 or $20 for your music, albeit you are giving it away to receive the cherished 50%, by all means please do NOT bring your music to AudioSparx expecting us to compete as you drive your own prices downward while raving about the fairness of “percentages.” This short-sightedness harms the earnings of all composers who participate in this type of thinking.
Also, when a composer says “AudioSparx is one of the lowest performing libraries I’ve tried out…,” on this end, we may conversely be saying, “This guy is one of the lowest performing composers on our site…his music is taking up space, he’s not bringing new tracks, he has tracks in only two genres, he’s not configuring his existing tracks with any creativity or thoroughness, and we are earning 60% of ZERO from his sales.” What’s up with that? The knife cuts both ways.
By the way, while sheer quantity is not a guarantee of success, our top 10 best-selling composers have online an average of 541 excellent music tracks in 14 different genres within each of their individual catalogues. Hence, the larger your catalogue and the more creative you are as a composer the better your chances of improving your sales at AudioSparx.
In this business, what was hot yesterday may be dead on arrival today; and that is the reality we face in a very crowded field. Whether your music sells or not, our salaries, advertising and marketing expenses, data center expenses, and customer AND artist service and support demands march right along 24 hours a day. We are constantly enhancing the structure of AudioSparx, adding new features, closing new deals and expanding our reach around the world with a site that translates in real time into 52 different languages. Carping does not cut it around here, but rolling up your sleeves and trying to work smarter by creating the next wave of great music to meet client needs and expanding your own catalog at AudioSparx is what results in increasing sales. We see this over and over again with our top-performing composers. This is the type of composers we want to work with at AudioSparx.
Cheers,
Barbie
Artist Liaison
http://www.audiosparx.com/
PS For AudioSparx composers on line today, please read our communiqué coming out later. We are calling for music in some new and creative genres, so we hope everyone gets inspired and steps up…
[Reply]
New to Audiosparx, August 1st, 2010 at 12:20 pm Reply:
I’m a new artist on Audiosparx and yes, it takes a bit of time to tag tracks. But to me, that just means the library is thorough and has a good handle on how their clients search for tracks. I was also very impressed (after reading here) with Barbie’s willingness to help artists with the process and how to get better sales. Remember, your success is theirs too.
I’ve been busy this weekend uploading and tagging and I’ll probably have some questions for Barbie (or whoever is appropriate).
There is a theme that runs through many posts on MLR which show a little too much focus on how easy it is to upload tracks to a library and whether the percentage is 50/50, 60/40, etc. The end game here is not to just have tracks in libraries, get the best contract or percentage split– it’s to get placements. And in many cases in our world, the real money is in the back-end anyway.
[Reply]
Deryn, August 1st, 2010 at 12:36 pm Reply:
You just hit the nail on the head. We all know it takes a LOT of effort, belief and often many years to get a foothold in this industry. Licensing fees are a one-off event while back-end royalties are ongoing. We need to focus on creating music that is most likely to attract those royalties rather than throwing our toys out the cot over percentage splits.
Barbie is the most helpful and dedicated person I’ve met in all the libraries we have worked with both currently and in the past. She’ll go all out for you if she sees that you’re willing to make the most of your catalogue.
[Reply]
Anonymous, August 1st, 2010 at 2:30 pm Reply:
Quote -Also, when a composer says “AudioSparx is one of the lowest performing libraries I’ve tried out…,” on this end, we may conversely be saying, “This guy is one of the lowest performing composers on our site- Unquote
Not really, because Audiosparx is earning ad revenue from businesses marketing products and services targeted at that composer. You are the only licensing site that I’ve seen that splatter ads all over your site. I have also had spyware attack my computer from your site. Also, just because you license to people who make corporate videos and youtube videos, doesn’t make you one of the largest licensing libraries in the world.
What is your real initiative? To market to music supervisors, or market to innocent composers who will never see many if any sales, because they don’t have enough content?
Honestly, I find it very annoying how Audiosparx personnel have to come on this board for every little post and feel they have to defend themselves. If you are so great, then why get so defensive?
There are talented artists with lots of tracks on Audiosparx that will get sales. There are also tons of music that is very shoddy. And those composers get sales because of the sheer volume of crappy content they post. Also there are plenty of artists who blatently plagiarize, and are borderline copyright infringing on pop artists. If those Audiosparx tracks ever made it to a real venue, the original artists would have a very good copyright infringement case against that Audiosparx composer.
So please stop coming on here and posting childish reply comments to artists who post childish complaints. You are really doing nobody any good, and it makes you look unprofessional.
[Reply]
Entropik, August 1st, 2010 at 2:49 pm Reply:
At least they do not post anonymously .
This site is just becoming a place for miserable gits to waste time slagging other people off. Who are you to say what is shoddy music? You do not even have the guts to say who you are!
as for Barbie coming on here to address peoples concerns, well I call that good customer service.
[Reply]
oontz oontz, August 1st, 2010 at 3:17 pm Reply:
Exactly,
Haters will hate no matter what. AS could start charging 10% (instead of 60%) for their services and the haters would find fault with that somehow.
If they could make complaining a career they’d surely make great money. Something tells me their not composing music for a living…
[Reply]
Denis Woods, August 1st, 2010 at 3:28 pm Reply:
Thanks Entropik for writing what I was thinking. This is a prime example for making people have a username/account before thy post. Yet another anon poster (I wonder if they are all the same person?) has made potentially serious allegations against what I consider to be a very reputable company. If he has proof of copyright infringement then I suggest he posts links to make his case. That is a very serious and damaging accusation IMHO. Also to claim that he had a spyware attack from the site is bizarre to say the least, but also both these claims are certainly libelous on this side of the pond.
As Art said in another thread like this, go and put your energy into writing music. Dont start anonymously sniping at companies or individuals on this forum. This forum is an extremely valuable resource for many composers and it is really important to have dialogue with library owners and admins as-well as other composers. Please dont ruin it for everyone else.
Accusing a company of what you have suggested is way beyond acceptable criticism and if you have any guts at all reflect on what you wrote and withdraw it very quickly, or prepare to back up what you said.
[Reply]
Anonymous, August 1st, 2010 at 8:47 pm Reply:
Changing the anonymous option will not change anything. I’m making a very good point and observation, and there is nothing wrong with that. I’m not Andrew Aversa, but I’ve been watching the bickering that has been going back and forth, and I’m pretty irritated by it. If anything, Art should give us an option to opt out of receiving emails for certain library forums, because this one is getting ridiculous. If Art has a problem with what I post, then he can delete this, but you all are naive if you think you are not being marketed to by Audiosparx. Log in, check your stats, and see what sort of ads are on the page. They are targeted at YOU!
Creating sound-alike songs is one thing, but ripping off an artist is another, and potential problems are abound down the road for artists who do this. Audiosparx won’t be the one holding the bag, it will be the composer. Audiosparx is enabling it.
I have a degree in copyright studies, so I should know. Type in Coldplay and see what comes up. If some of these songs are not copyright infringement, I don’t know what is. There are 3 things that need to be proven in a copyright infringement case
1. Similarity- How close does the song sound to the original
2. Access- Did the accused person have an access to the original song.
3. Ownership- Does the accusing party have a claim to ownership of copyright.
Please respond with something intelligent, before claiming that I am someone just randomly sniping at companies on this board, or someone who doesn’t know what he is talking about.
Thank you
[Reply]
oontz oontz, August 1st, 2010 at 9:49 pm Reply:
Great point,
I checked the tracks out, Anonymous is 100% correct. They should change the name of the company to InfringementCityUSA.com
Not only are the tracks a total rip off, they’re also produced horribly.
Art, August 1st, 2010 at 10:37 pm Reply:
>>>If anything, Art should give us an option to opt out of receiving >>>emails for certain library forums,
At the bottom of the comment box is a link to “manage subscriptions”.
>>>There are 3 things that need to be proven in a copyright >>>infringement case
I have to agree about the copyright infringement possibility. I’m not a lawyer but I think it’s all about intent. That’s all that needs to be proven.
At a PMA meeting a year or so ago there was a bit of talk about this and some libraries had taken the phrase “sound alikes” out of their vocabulary. It seems record companies were getting much fussier about infringement.
anon, August 1st, 2010 at 3:40 pm Reply:
Yes, there are way too many angry people here. It’s pretty tiring and experienced composers won’t come here to share their knowledge and give solid advice because it’s not worth dealing with this kind of crap.
[Reply]
Deryn, August 1st, 2010 at 3:07 pm Reply:
I think you’ll find the responses from AS on this thread have predominantly focussed on offering advice to composers who are frustrated with low sales or the site interface. Running a business successfully entails taking customer issues seriously – a mark of professionalism. Not childishness.
“Innocent composers”… no such animal. We all have access to information about our industry. Those who are just starting out are more likely to get taken in by pay-to-play scams which send millions of messages to MySpace Music account holders and promise them fame and fortune, but they have the tools to do a bit of research before signing contracts, paying for “promotion” or uploading their music to libraries.
As for not making enough sales due to not having enough content, get real! We’re composers – it’s what we do. We should be creating new content all the time. There should only be one time in your career when you don’t have enough content and that’s when you’re just starting out – unless you’re lucky enough to get commission after commission, in which case you would have neither the time nor inclination to post anything on this site.
[Reply]
anon, August 2nd, 2010 at 5:21 am Reply:
Anonymous (from anon)
Let me see if I can understand what you and others are so d*mn angry about…
* Audiosparx invests hundreds of thousands of dollars to put up a fully functional, searchable website for production music.
* They charge $0 to the artist to join and offer music for sale.
* They bend over backwards to help the artist tag their tracks to maximize sale potential.
* The artist can remove their tracks at any time. So if it’s not working out for the artist, in a few keystrokes they can terminate the whole thing.
* Their income based mainly of sales of the music that artist’s put on their site. If music doesn’t sell, they are out of business.
I can see why you are so angry.
[Reply]
Lee Johnson, July 30th, 2010 at 4:53 am Reply:
Hi Andrew,
Sorry you took our response as a personal insult. Your attempt to have artists abandon AudioSparx, as well as your misinterpretation of our posts at MLR, does not sit well here. We have a reputation for being approachable by all of our composers. We liked your music, featured you as a Hot New Artist, often played your tracks on the home page and you did have some sales success although not huge. However, music trends can change rapidly. Tracks you sold successfully in major projects last year, unfortunately, may be seen as outdated this year. Clients are buying music right now for late 2010 and early 2011, and they’re searching for the next big thing, wanting new and different sounds already.
For example, the new focus on vocal music in TV series has taken away from sales of instrumental music; likewise, the increased use of teen, tween, and bubblegum pop also tilted the focus away from some dramatic instrumentals. Right now, ‘60s, ‘70s, retro and kitsch music are making a splashy comeback in commercials and ad campaigns. Change is endless, and change is inevitable.
Clients may buy your music today and or else they buy your colleague’s. The marketplace decides each day which tracks they are going to buy, and some of our artists, for various relevant reasons, have MUCH more success than others. Since we have no plans to change our “business model,” we have acted on your earlier request and deleted your tracks here at AudioSparx and wish you continued success in your career as a composer.
Regards, Lee
[Reply]
anon, July 30th, 2010 at 7:59 am Reply:
It is way more likely that libraries won’t want to work wth Andrew due to his posts than any artist would boycott Audiosparx.
Many library owners read this and other forums. Also, Google searches are virtually forever.
Kudos to you and Barbie for your handling of this.
[Reply]
Barbie, July 30th, 2010 at 8:23 am Reply:
Dear anon and others participating here,
We take absolutely no pleasure in this episode and hope it is now blissfully in everyone’s rearview mirror.
Our hope is always that libraries will judge composers on their music capabilities, which after all is what leads to success for all parties. We have to learn to cut each other some slack and find ways to help our young composers always do better and stay encouraged.
All of you songwriters and composers have exceptional gifts, and we applaud your efforts and are happy to be in a business where we can sometimes showcase your talents
Everyone have a cool weekend,
Barbie
http://www.audiosparx.com/
[Reply]
I would have to say ,that having tracks on different sites ,should not always be expected to have the same result’s for every site.Andrew has done pretty well with the music mentioned, even though on other sites.
All I can say is, if I was directing a video ,I would want something unique to my film,not heard anywhere else,unless it was a chart hit. The exclusive options will and is becoming the viable option.I’ve checked other sites too ,who have started to put more emphasis on this idea.
One reason is all sites having the same music will in some respect, be percieved as being used by many other companies giving the impression of a seemingly use and throw-away type analogy. Of course it can’t be helped if the music is good ,that companies use it even though heard somewhere else,this then becomes the process of a media hit in the media charts,if you will. Anyway not implying this to Andrews work.It just may be,with so many artists on AS it happened ,there was other music to fill the requirements.
[Reply]
Other than things getting a little emotional (still, what’s a forum without a good flame war or two?
) I feel we’re maybe at risk of getting tied up on issues that not only can we not really prove – but are not probably relevant.
How friendly and supportive or not people are is the icing – the cake is whether your tracks sell or not. The only real comparison between competing library sites is how many tracks they sell during a given period and after their cut, how much goes to the artist/composers. There are good commercial reasons which they might be reluctant to give a transparent response to that question.
When we talk about best-selling artists, I’m less interested in the league table positions than what the definition of success is. Is the reward for writing 500 tracks $50 / month, $5,000 / month or something in between. I’d be more than happy to be 500th in the league table if it was rewarding.
I’m also a little curious what 500 tracks equates to – is that 10 years of 50 tracks a year or a year of 2 tracks a day. How long should it take to write and create a track with good composition and production quality?
That leads me onto the business model and ranking algorithms. If you had two guys, one with 500 tracks and one with 50, and you divided the sales of the first guy by 10, the sales would be higher than the second guy (assuming their tracks were identical). Is that a good thing, for the client (rewarding quantity) – does it enhance the reputation of the library? – and does that mean certain clients would be discouraged from using AS?
Brings me on to the final question – which might be relevant for those who have posted that they sell well on other libraries and not on AS – who are AudioSparx’s clients? Is there a particular profile of customer attracted to the AS business model (huge number of tracks to choose from but always the same artists at the top of search returns etc.) – and are clients with that profile attracted to a particular type of track? [i.e. is there a type of composer who will do better on AS?]
Two final final quick points on track configuration: spending time on configuration is a no- brainer if it influences sales – whoever you think should be doing it. Compared to the time it takes to write the track in the first place, the time input required is negligible. On AS there are two issues, can clients find your tracks (and as far as I can see if you don’t spend time on configuration, they can’t) and when they do will they audition (again, configuration) and do they buy (different question completely).
If however I write for an exclusive library (who tell me what they want me to write) all I do is write the music. They do all the configuration and promotion (for 50%), because they figure they know their clients better than I do – and I pretty sure they’re correct.
This site is an excellent resource to help each composer arrive at their own business plan – but speaking for myself:
What I want to hear:
(From AS) ‘we sell ‘X’ tracks a day and on average our top artists earn ‘$X’ per month
(from composers / artists) ‘X’ is my artist name on AS [so I can hear the kind of music they write - and I can work out how much time they spent creating each track / production quality / configuration etc.] and I’m selling ‘x’ tracks a month [I can work out the income potential from their selling price]
What adds no value (at least to the business plan):
I’m really successful / happy and AS are really nice to deal with (what’s your definition of success?, would I rather deal with someone who is nice by won’t sell my tracks or someone who is uncaring an sells loads)
‘If you have less than 500 tracks you aren’t a proper composer and don’t deserve to sell anything’ (still can’t figure out why quantity should make any difference to earnings per track – other than if we accept clients aren’t too fussy and composing is just a numbers game – now that’s depressing – though not not as depressing as the prospect of earning a living by ripping off Coldplay
!)
Anon comments, such as ‘AS suck, boycott them immediately’ ( if I know who you are and can hear your tracks I can better judge whether you are right to be annoyed or a whinger who thinks the world owes them a living)
OK – bring on the flames!
D.
[Reply]
David … we do not disclose proprietary information on this forum. But suffice it to say we have many happy artists working with us, some for more than ten years now. We are going to withdraw from this scrap now so that we can focus on more productive things.
Regards,
Lee@AudioSparx.com
[Reply]
David, August 2nd, 2010 at 3:13 am Reply:
Fair enough Lee, as I said in my post, entirely understandable that you would not. However, as composers – which library is making the most for it’s successful artists is the question that should be interesting us most.
Unless of course our objective is to be happy rather than successful, in which case you’ve already answered the question several times
D.
[Reply]
50Styles, August 2nd, 2010 at 4:28 am Reply:
Hi David,
A happy and succesfull AS composer here….
Check the Top Music Artists list on Audiosparx:
http://www.audiosparx.com/sa/artist/list.cfm
Check the top 5 and your most important questions will be answered.
Best,
Erwin
[Reply]
David, August 2nd, 2010 at 5:29 am Reply:
Thanks Erwin,
What I was trying to say is that this is question of scale. One composer may be ‘happy’ to be a top seller with two sales of $30 per month – another might not care whether they are a top seller or not but has an expectation of $500 a month across all their tracks.
If I go to your number 2 selling track (The Arts) for example, my number 1 question would be how many sales of that track has Erwin achieved over what time period (I guess the other question would for many posters to this topic be if you’ve posted that track on say ‘Pump’ – what are the comparative earnings). Much as helpful friendly service is always welcome, I suspect most composers are most interested in which library will maximise their income.
When you are non exclusive, I figure there’s no harm in posting to multiple libraries, and the track configuration takes so little time comparative to composing it is a non issue – but when additional priority is now being placed on artists exclusive with AS – their comparative sales effectiveness becomes hugely important.
I’m always happy that people are happy, but ‘happy’ does not help my business planning
[Reply]
Any thoughts on the audiosparx sister site ‘Stockmusicsite.com’? I mean for a buyout site aimed at video games etc, it seems a lot of artists have their prices set on the low side (20-50$)
[Reply]
Lee Johnson, August 27th, 2010 at 6:11 pm Reply:
Hi Kalz, In general, we are moving towards raising prices on that site, especially for the lower-priced music tracks that are worth more, and for which clients will pay more. For a one-price site like StockMusicSite.com, it’s a constant balancing act between underpricing for high-end uses and over-pricing for low-end uses. Accordingly, we are considering various alternatives to the one-price model.
Regards,
Lee Johnson
lee@stockmusicsite.com
[Reply]
***CALL FOR CONTENT***
For all artists/producers/publishers reading this forum, AudioSparx is primarily seeking new content in the following genres:
1. English Vocal music in all genres
2. Spanish Vocal music in all genres
3. Music for Yoga and Cardio workouts
4. Japanese Pop, Hip Hop, R&B, Electronica and Dance (vocal or instrumental)
5. Japanese Traditional (vocal or instrumental)
6. Chinese Pop, Hip Hop, R&B, Electronica and Dance (vocal or instrumental)
7. Chinese Traditional (vocal or instrumental)
8. Thai Pop, Hip Hop, R&B, Electronica and Dance (vocal or instrumental)
9. Thai Traditional (vocal or instrumental)
10. Vocal Pop, Hip Hop, R&B, Electronica and Dance from any southeast Asian countries
(Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, etc.)
11. Arabic Pop Vocals
12. Bollywood / Indian Pop Vocals
We invite interested new artists to register at http://www.AudioSparx.com, login and submit a new artist application. The above content will be given priority.
Thanks,
Lee Johnson
lee@audiosparx.com
[Reply]