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Newbie Questions

One of our readers, Ev, came up with the suggestion to have a section devoted to newbie questions regarding music libraries, music licensing, copyright, music publishing etc. There a lot of experienced people on this site and many are happy to share their wisdom. So, if you are a newbie (or not), and have a question, try leaving it here.

Of course many questions have already been answered here. First try searching in the search bar in the upper right hand corner. Also Google is your friend! I have found one of the best ways to search a site is use site specific criteria at Google’s web site. In other words, to search for a specific keyword, say “contracts”, type it in at Google like this “contracts site:musiclibraryreport.com”. Do not use the quotes.

If you still can’t find your answer then leave a comment here and someone will most likely come to your rescue!

1,260 thoughts on “Newbie Questions”

  1. Hi all
    I have a question –
    I have a cat of 1000 tracks –
    And want to have a website to sell them on – like a site like Musicloops or similar
    I see Michael L you suggested to someone recently this site,

    http://www.sourceaudio.com/

    it has the page premade and you have to pay $150 per month to have the use of this premade hosting site

    I cant afford that – I was wondering if anyone has knowledge of a ‘much’ cheaper way to do it ?

    Is it so expensive because of the uploaded material – I guess a thousand tracks is about 8gig or something. I wish there was a much cheaper service available to poorfolk 😉

    • To add – to be clear – I want a site which will host only my tracks – and for me to be the sole seller within.

        • thanks Michael – thats helpfull – but its not quite good enough – it doesnt have categories on the left – just a long list – are there any other suggestions ? anyone whos done it themselfs ?
          thanks

          • You should just submit all of your songs to a royalty-free site. That is the only “cheap” way to add 1,000 songs to a site without having to pay.

            Sure, your songs will be featured amongst hundreds of other artists. But I do not think that this is a negative. A site with good exposure will help you to sell more tracks than your own site with all of your own tracks.

            Think about it like this: your site will have to work much harder to draw attention from more established sites. If your site is hard to navigate or is not visually pleasing, you will not get any traffic. Going cheap is not always the best thing to do.

            It takes time and money to get things off of the ground. Just upload your best 200 tracks to a royalty-free site. Once you start making money, you can use that to build your own site. You will still have 800 tracks plus any additional music you have created for your own site. Think about it. 🙂

            • hi, thanks synth player, I have done that, got around 800 tracks – I wanted to also host them in all (cheaply) on a ‘make your own site’ kind of thing and have them there and see if I can make some additional lolly through that, yeah may flop, but wanted to see if its any good – I would love it to be really cheap though, esp as its an experiment. the site vs as you suggest is goin ok for me – just wanted an additional avenue. Still cant find anything viable – the sites mentioned are exp, monthly cost way to high – I may change my mind and think its reasonable, but i imagine at the mo theyve got the idea cornered, maybe some cheaper vs is available and i just cant see it yet. if anyone knows of one, that would be great to let me know.
              thanks.

              • Adam
                I may have missed something in previous posts. Why do you want to host these tracks on your own site as opposed on an established royalty free site such as Audiosparx (or similar). There is no cost to you to do this- only splitting of revenue.

                Keep in mind the need for your tracks to be found in searches by clients, etc. What good would your own site be if no one knew it was there? The established sites have the infrastructure to support what you want to do as well as an established client base.

                IMO it’s well worth sharing the revenue in exchange for everything else. Am I missing something? 🙂

                Best

                • Thanks for the input – and totally get you on having the traffic, but it just wouldnt hurt for me to have my own collection – my stuffs good – better than lots peoples ( and worse ;-)) and i want to see whats gonna happen selling it that way – and yes its better for me to get 100 per cent of the money – I wouldnt be discontinuing that side just want this side also at a cheap price, so far cant see an option to do so – I mean a cheap option – also – thanks art – I will check out wordpress. I guess another way is to have a server at home to host my stuff – but I dont even know technically what a server is – some kind of hard drive !? I have seen peoples sites selling their own stuff – so I guess I need to figure out how they do it – its tricky because their sites dont say ” heres how i did it ” – not being a computer techy it may take time .thanks for input both.

                  • Adam,
                    Take a look at Bandcamp. I have some of my music up on there. You are able to sell your music directly from there at any price you set up. You can control pretty much every aspect of your sales there. Read the payment faq on the site and they explain about how they work. If you sell directly from band camp they will take a small fee for the sell. The sell goes directly to your paypal account.

              • @adam: It can be done with WordPress if you are willing to put the time in. I started on one for myself but just did not have enough time to finish it. Cost was about $10 per month for hosting and $30 for the shopping cart software.

                • I maintain a site for my own collection (see my link). I don’t expect people to find it blindly through a search engine though. I use it to refer people to directly. If I hear someone is looking for music I can point them to the site. I also use the site for promotional reasons and can send people there that need to hear examples of my music, but aren’t necessarily shopping. I do only a few direct licenses a year, but enough to pay for the site. I did one last week actually. It was for music for a DVD for sale. I pointed her to my site, she picked out three pieces. I made the wave files and license agreement available for download and we arranged for payment.

                  The site is hosted by broadjam and my broadjam membership costs me $8.25 a month ($199.00 yearly fee minus $100.00 ASCAP member discount = $99.00)No shopping cart or automatic payment features but for what I’m doing that is fine. I can handle all that hands on the few times a year I need to. That’s my cheap solution…

                  • Thanks v.much for the replies – I will have a good look at the info – I think my ideal would still be the 1st way suggested – only they need to add catagories and cut the price LOADS ! Then I would be a happy santas little helper !

  2. I guess this question is mostly for the UK, but applies anywhere:

    I am having trouble understanding how mechanical royalties work, and how am I supposed to get them.

    Firstly, if I understand it correctly, all “royalty free music” really means is pre-cleared mechanical royalty license music. As in, you can buy my music for $50, and then you can put it on a million DVDs and you don’t have to pay a mechanical royalty each time (which you normally would).

    But if a film director asks me directly for some music for his film, how does this work? How does the MCPS come into this? Do I have to use the MCPS? Can I say to the director, directly: “each time you make a DVD I want $0.50”? Can I register my tracks on MCPS – if I do, what’s the point? Do I then tell the director to go the MCPS site?

    What the hell is the MCPS for? Do they charge per DVD a company makes?

    If I do make a deal with a director to get 3% of revenue from sales of DVDs and cinema releases, and $0.50 per DVD manufactured, what hope do I really have of getting paid anything? I mean, everybody’s screwing everybody else all the time in this famously vulgar industry, right?

    If anyone has experience in this, as usual your help would be enormously appreciated!

  3. Just my not so experienced opinion but, sounds contrary to what exclusive means to me. Releasing an album under that library could be part of an exclusive deal scenario but what you’re talking about sounds kind of semi-exclusive to me.
    I think you’d have to come up with material you haven’t signed exclusively and make an album from that. jmo.

    • Hi Hysteria,

      I’ll give you the lawyer’s answer — it depends. I released several commercial CDs in back in 90’s.

      Subsequently, I entered into a license agreement with an exclusive library for some of those tracks. I can still sell those CDs, but I cannot give them to another library for licensing.

      It really depends on what you can work out in your contract. If your CD has any legs, it might actually help you get it placed with a library.

      BUT…I would say don’t try this at home. You should have a qualified attorney.

      Cheers,

      Michael

      • Thats not a problem, if I ever get into a scape, You’ll be first on my call list 😉

        So it depends on the library contract. Your tracks were released on CD before being entered into an exclusive deal. I wonder if it makes a difference that they were on CD beforehand. If your tracks were to have been in the library first would they have allowed you relese them on CD. Im guessing that any eclusive library that allows you to still sell you own tracks through your own website by yourself probably wont have a problem with me releasing a cd afterwards.

        Its nothing im going to to soon. just wanted to get a better picture on how it might work or not. Thanks Pat and Michael for the helpful comments.

        • “Thats not a problem, if I ever get into a scape, You’ll be first on my call list”

          Thanks, Hysteria, would if I could, but I’ve pretty much officially left the dark side. 😆

  4. Im guessing that if I enter all my music into an exclusive music library most of those types of libraries will never allow me to include any of those songs in a commercial album release?
    Please tell me it isn’t so as id love to try and release an album at some stage.

    • Many exclusive music libraries are exclusive only to film/TV or only as far as other music libraries. Contracts vary. Very often, if their only market is film/TV, they will allow you to continue to pitch songs to artists, sell your songs on iTunes, etc. Check the contracts carefully and if you don’t see what you are looking for, simply ask about it. YMMV

      🙂

  5. Just wanted to share some stats with some of the newbies like myself ( after doing this for only 16 months I consider myself still a newbie!)

    Since I stated selling tracks in May of 2010 I have sold to date 233 tracks, averaging about 15 track per month. On top of that I have sold 11 60-track collections that Partners-in-Rhyme put together for me.

    No major placements as of yet, or royalties collected or due.

    Hope that helps to those of you just starting out to give you some sort of idea. Don’t know if these numbers are good or bad, but I am very happy to have sold any!

    • HI Gary,

      Thanks for posting that info. I think it would be helpful to ad how many tracks you have.

      Have you found that certain tracks consistently sell better than others?

      Congratulations….sounds successful to me.

      Best,

      Michael

      • Thanks Michael:

        As of today I have around 160 full-length tracks in my catalog. I have been actively writing since early 2009. No loops or edits.

    • That’s great Gary. That’s alot of tracks. I can’t imagine having that many tracks much less selling that many. I’ve been doing it almost for a year now and have only gotten 2 licenses that I’m aware of. I take it you have a bunch of tracks at one of these Audiosparx type libraries?
      Also, have you accumulated that amount of tracks over time or are you averaging a track every couple of days? I need some sort of system so I can produce more tracks faster.

      • Pat:

        As I told Michael, I have 160 tracks in my catalog, so I have sold multiples of individual tracks. As far as libraries go musicloops, and audiosparx have my entire catalog. Due to me losing some of my masters and original projects over the years, some of the newer libraries I am with have about 120-130.

        As far as what sells, that is a real crap shoot. You just never know. I have been surprised many times with tracks that I did not think were my best, sold very well.

        But as has been stated here on MLR many times, it is a numbers game. The more tracks you have the better. Keep writing!

        • Hii Gary

          If your lost masters are on Audiosparx go to the track edit basics page and download it with the down arrow at the top ! I would be at the same unique track count as you but with more edits. I am guessing at 500. As you say volume counts, and what is selling on individual sites is easy tocheck out most of the time.

          • Denis:
            Thanks for the tip on getting the masters. I’ll try that. These are mostly older tracks that somehow got deleted from my Mac.

            • Hey Gary,

              I’m sure that it goes without saying –backup backup backup.

              I keep multiple copies on multiple hard drives. (same with my sample instruments)

              I’ve got midi files going back to around 1985!

              I hope you get your tracks back.

              Michael

                • I have multiple backups of everything. I also just recently burned my catalog onto DVD’s and gave them to my wife to keep “offsite” at her work. I had a fire here once. There was minimal damage but enough for fire fighters to chop some holes and soak a section of the house. Think about offsite copies, if it can happen to me it can happen to anyone!

                  • +1! I have three copies of everything and working on a fourth and fifth. Two at home, one at the bank in a safe deposit box. Slowly uploading everything up to the “cloud” using SOS Online backup. I’m thinking of making another copy and sending to my sister on the east coast. I’ve lost very few things over the years but enough to make me super paranoid!

        • Thanks for the response Gary and again congrats. I’d like to check out some of your music on those sites. Can you direct me to them. I might give them a try.
          Thanks

            • I appreciate you posting that Gary. You music sounds great. I can see why it would sell. I’ll bookmark it so I can I’m curious, I noticed all the music sounds like it’s the exact same volume. Is that something the site does with the tracks or are you consistently mastering your music exactly the same?
              I’m bookmarking your stuff. Great quality to shoot for.

              • Thanks very much Pat. I do master everything before I post it. it makes a huge difference in the sound quality of the track and consistency of volume

                Also, keep in mind that many of the tracks previews on sites are in low-res, so you really need to have it sounding as good as you can going in.

                • Yeah, after listening you what you’re doing I’m pretty stoked to submit. I only have a few tracks but if I can get in the door I can add more.

                  • Pat:
                    When I started last year I only had about 20 tracks. After selling a couple I was pretty motivated to write more!

                    As a side note note, I have learned a lot from this site,( and am still learning) about this part of the music business. it is a great resource where everyone is willing to help and give advice.

  6. Is there such a thing as a composer owned music library or anything that comes close?

    You License is the closest example I can think of where they post ‘music wanted’ adverts and the composer decides wheather to submit thier songs or not. But there is a monthly fee for most accounts and for the free account You License will take a small percentage of the license fee.
    But wouldn’t it be great if the library/website was owned only by the composers who have music on the site. No monthly fee, license fee or royalty splits. The only thing is, who’s gonna keep the site up and running. Also to keep the standard high some kind of review process would have to be implemented.

      • Thanks Michael. That actually looks like the quickest way to get up and running. Albeit they do take a 5% cut of every sale made through ‘your’ website so not totally free from a middle man. But probably the closest your gonna get. It would be great to have a 100% composer owned music licensing website renowned within the industry for its high/original musical standard. Could it ever happen? What serious composer would have the time on their hands to set one up? Art’s next project? 😉

        • This has been discussed before and could open a can of worms on so many levels. It is a good thought though.

          Also, by volunteering me for the job are you implying I’m not a “serious” composer? 😀

          • No not at all Art. Just trying to shift the workload onto someone else 😀 With your proven track record on setting up new and innovative composer friendly websites you’d be the perfect candidate! 😀

            Seriosly tho, would be a good thing to get together. I guess the only way to make it happen is to get people talkn about it here.

            • It would me a monumental task in time and expensive. Whoever set it up would have to be compensated. Then, how do you decide what music to let in? Like I said, a can of worms.

              • Art,

                I don’t know how you find time to run this site and still have time to write and produce tracks!

                You’re right, it would be a monumental task.

                Cheers,

                Michael

                • There are times when trying to run MLR and write music is a bit overwhelming but not very often. I feel incredibly blessed that I’m able to do both and have the added bonus of meeting such great people here!

  7. Do you guys who have non-exclusive music at say,for example, libraries like Jingle Punks or Scorekeepers, submit the same music to places where you name your own price like Audiosparx?
    I was wondering how that works where you have music at libraries that can maybe license your cue for $500 but at the same time you have it priced at say $40 to compete on sites Audiosparx where supervisors or whomever can get your same cues for hundreds cheaper.
    Hope that makes sense.

      • geez. Never thought of that. I guess there’s no problem with supervisors saying “Hey! I just hear the same song I licensed for $500 under a different name for $40 on audiosparx?
        I think maybe I’m beginning to see that there is room for argument when it comes to retitling.
        In any case, thanks Art. Glad to know I can do that apparently without repercussions since you mention no problem with doing it that way.

        • Repercussions? I don’t know and many would take me to task for it. But if we do believe in the non-exclusive, re-title business model, why not?

            • That’s the free market at work. Prices vary from retailer to retailer with any product. I’m purchasing a generator for my home this week. I’ve found two retailers that had the exact same product, but a $330 difference in price.

              Not sure why there is such a fuss over this when it comes to music. I guess we’re special. 😀

                • This raises a good question; Should supervisors be shopping not only for the music that best matches their creative needs but also makes the best financial sense?

                  At the same time I don’t want to see libraries rushing to the bottom to offer the lowest price.

          • Makes sense! I’ll need to start doing that from now on. On a side note I googled my name to see what libraries would come up and in the process I found my name on Tune Find and one of my songs was used on 90210. Cool!

              • Thanks, I never would have been looking if it hadn’t been for those previous posts!!

                Do you re-title for every different library? Or do you seperate them by type?

                • I re-title the lower price royalty free one way, the higher priced royalty free another and companies specializing in TV placements yet another. You should see my database!

                  • Please excuse this dumb question Art but you say “one way.”
                    Can that be construed as “one title?” for each of those circumstances you mentioned or do you actually do things a different “way” for each circumstance? Just want to make sure I understand what you’re doing so I can think using retitles to my advantage.

                  • Art, you raise an interesting perspective on “re-titling” in that you are retitling the tracks yourself.

                    In fact, the copyright form line 1 asks for the title of the work and line 2 asks for
                    “ALTERNATIVE TITLES” and “CONTENTS TITLES.” The latter would apply to collections. The former seems to allow the author to supply more than one title for the work.

                    Food for thought.

                    Cheers,

                    Michael

  8. Tim
    The couple of people I know who make enough money so they could quit their day job and do music full-time, took 5-10 years (and TONS of hard work) to get to that point.

    How much money equates to success? That depends on your goal. Do you want to make as much as a good paying day job and support yourself 100% in this field? Do you want it to be a part time thing to supplement another career? You have to define first what YOUR goal is in order for others to better answre your question.

    🙂

  9. I have a newbie question, I realize this is a very vague question and open to many interpretations but what kind of money do you think you need to be making on an annual basis to consider yourself successful in the library world – and how long did it take you to get there or how long do you think it will take you to get there?

    Thanks

    • Hi Tim,

      This has been covered many times here so try searching the site.

      Everyone’s idea of what they need, money-wise, will be different. Generally speaking, I would think $100k a year would be reasonable but it will most likely take eight to ten years and you will need 1500 to 2000 tracks.

    • HI Tim,

      There are a lot of variables. What do YOU consider a success… 25K, 50K, 100K?

      Where do you live and what is your lifestyle? You can live well in my part of the country (east coast) for 50-75% of what it takes to live in California. Do you want a 60K BMW, or is a 25K Subaru good enough?

      If you have a high maintenance lifestyle, YMMV.

      Cheers,

      Michael

  10. As mentioned before my recording system is a bit antiquated, so I am looking into upgrading my PC amd my software. On the PC front I am getting a local shop to custom build for me so wondered what specs I should be looking for. My main question tho is on upgrading my software. I am using a 10 year old Cubase SX1 at tho mo. Cubase 6 looks very nice but considering my aim is to write fast and effectively I am wondering if another option might be better. I certainly prefer looking down a list of presets rather than spending hours twiddling with reverb settings. Any thoughts gratefully received.
    Cheers
    Ian

    • Reason 6 looks tempting with the addition of audio ( at last ) – certainly lots of preset sounds/ fx etc etc. Depends if you can live with the interface though. Certainly cheaper than Cubase, but then you can’t bung in all those free vst instruments and fx.

      • Thanks Darkstar. I was looking at a couple of reviews of Reaso and it does seem to fit the bill. I do like plugins though. Certainly food for thought!
        Cheers
        Ian

    • Hi Ian!
      If you’re used to Cubase and wanna try something cheaper, but somewhat “similar” you could try Sonar or Ableton. I currently work with Ableton and rewire it with Reason. This way I sorta get the best of both worlds.

      • Thanks Ulla
        I did try Ableton live a couple of years ago but just couldn’t get on with it. In particular I found the piano roll screen too cluttered and difficult to navigate. I do like the look of Sonar though especially with the new channel strip.
        Cheers
        Ian

    • Ableton ‘sounds funny’ – yes its great for the time stretch as its so fast to chuck ideas down, but writting whole tracks in it just does not sound as clear as other ones, its like the whole tracks have the resonance of time stretched music.
      For a suggestion heres one – if you cant afford an apple mac ( second hand they are v.resonable tho and you know with a mac you have a nice easy ride, no freezing screens ever etc – get a mac desktop or something ) – or alternatively since apple Logic is prob the best music program turn the PC into a ”hackintosh” and run logic on the PC – got some friends who do this – you run the program which runs mac OS operating syst on a pc ( google hackintosh ) and then for a v.cheap price of a pc you get to use logic on it.

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