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!
Do I need to have all my music mastered for volume for music libraries. Gets pretty expensive.
Just make the best possible recordings you can do with what you have available. Submit your best work to about 5 to 10 mid level libraries (including some royalty free sites). If every single library is turning your stuff down then you might want to consider paying for some professional help. Otherwise, why bother?
Post some links to your work on sites like this one or homerecording.com to get advice from others besides your mom, wife, best friend or your hamster.
Be sure to research the libraries you submit to. As part of that research, listen to the tracks they have available on their site and if their tracks blow your tracks away, move on to next library.
Wow! This has grown.
Thanks! A top 5 list is a cool idea for a thread… I’ll take some time and come up with my own list.
Top Five Steps To Conquering The Music Library World (maybe :-))
1. Contact every library out there.
2. Make short tracks that vary on a recurring theme.
3. Once you get certain types of songs accepted, keep making those songs.
4. Continue to work with libraries that get you placements.
5. NEVER QUIT MAKING MUSIC!
Success is not hard or impossible.
I might just print that out and staple it to my head
1) finish what you start
2) write every day (even a little)
3) when writing a library track stick to one genre or emotion
4) be patient and have a 5 year plan that takes into consideration residuals always take longer to materialize than you’d think
5) these days speed and production quality are, for better or worse, more important than the quality of your writing (which is still very important). Improving in all three areas will help you make a living from writing music
I got a piece that’s only 1 min long. Is that something a library would even bother with?
I’m new to this myself. Found this site by pure accident. I’ve only been on jingle punks, Musicdealers and MusicSupervisors a couple of weeks. Some rock and hip hoppish stuff. Nothing to write home about but I’m working on it.
Cool, guess you’re better than you give yourself credit for. Jingle Punks seem to be screening the submissions pretty hard.
Don’t feel to bad. You need to save some for all the rejections to follow. I got 4 rejected by Crucial yesterday and AudioSocket rejected everything I sent them.
At first I was bummed but now it’s just another rejection which is a pretty good mental state to be in since there’s plenty of rejection to go around. I just have to get my game up. The other thing is maybe your stuff was right at the wrong time. Never know. Just keep trying.
I have stuff at Jinglepunks but I’m not holding my breath.
Thanks for the encouraging words Pat. I’m pretty new to this type of licensing. Guess my skin will grow thicker in time.
What kind of music do you have on JP?
Patience and perseverance is the key! Crucial has only accepted one out of my 15 or so submissions. Jingle Punks just started getting me placements (MTV and VH1) after being with them for about 6 months.
Art! That’s just awesome. Congrats.
I understand that jingle punks are pretty effective. That’s why I really wanted to land my [Removed by moderator] on them… Lol, that came out funny but I guess you know what I mean.
I was wondering if Jinglepunks actively tries to place what they accept of if they’re more like MusicSupervisor where it just sits there until it happens to come up in a search.
I think they actively solicit.
Thanks Art.
Rejections are just part of the game – what isn’t right for one publisher on any given day, may just be what someone else wants tomorrow.
Really about 80% of this is hustling your tracks, the other 20% is writing them.
🙂
Dang, just got two rejections today. Jinglepunks and audiosocket. I really thought I could get in on their libraries after getting accepted to pump audio in a matter of weeks. How wrong I was and how hard the fall is sometimes. One day you think your music really has that something, the next, not so much. I guess I’m not the only composer with these ups and downs!? Anyways…
Just wondering, many times you only get to submit, like to jinglepunks, two songs every 60 days. I’m thinking it’s very important that I choose the right songs. Does anyone have any suggestions as to what makes a song a good “qualifier”?
Chris,
Any given individual library might reject it for a number of reasons: already have too much like it, doesn’t suit their niche, suits their niche but doesn’t have something unique, etc etc.
I’ve had libraries reject tracks which were ultimately signed to high-end exclusive deals. Tracks which were rejected by the exclusives got me into a non-exclusive which had rejected my earlier stuff that was accepted by the exclusives. Convoluted hey?
It’s just the way things are. You have to come to a place where a rejection is just normal because you will be rejected a lot. Don’t take it personally. Just keep improving your game and keep looking for homes for your music.
Rob!
Thanks for the reply! I guess you’re spot on there.
Just need to adapt my thinking to it all.
Come to think of it, even if my music stinks it’s still possible that someone wants it ’cause they’re actually looking for music that stinks…
Yes, there is a good size market for (exactly) 30 and 60 second pieces for commercials, voiceovers, etc. Many libraries are interested in tracks like this. I can’t tell you which libraries are in those markets but you could easily contact some and ask. Sometimes 60 second pieces can be used for other purposes since often much less than that is needed. That’s not usually the case with 30 second ones.
There is also a market for 5-15 second pieces for bumpers and stingers. Bumpers are the music you hear at the end of a half hour or hour segment as a show fades to commerical. Stingers are quick bursts at the end of a scene. Google on the terms and you’ll find examples out there.
All these pieces should have a defined ending, no fade outs. On 30 and 60 second pieces a ring out on the last second is usually the way to go.
And…. the only dumb question is the one not asked…
🙂
Thanks anonX. That’s a big help. I’ll check and see who’s looking for those as well as full pieces. Since this is a numbers game, as many here say, I thought doing those would be another avenue and also help me get more material out faster as least to get a good start.
much appreciated. Also great for songs I where I like some of it but not the rest that might make good 30 or 60 sec pieces.
Kind of a dumb question here. Is there a place for writers who just like to write say .30 and .60 and maybe 1 min pieces instead of whole songs? I don’t mean 3 min pieces edited down to those increments but TV commercial size pieces. Is that something supervisors would be interested in as well?
I noticed on MusicSupervisor site that is one of the meta choice when inputting your song but I’m curious if that could be a legitimate pursuit and what the cons are (like making 0 dollars perhaps?).