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I am a guitarist. I have been playing guitar since I was 15, 1977 to be exact,before the internet took over the world and writing music for tv and film were for guys willing to take their chances moving to New York or LA (or at least that was the perception back then). For all the money I spent on buying sound libraries since I started recording muisc aimed at licensing about 7 years ago, I invested in sound libraries, and withte exception of one track where the synthesizer featured prominently, have not written anything that made a blip on the licensing scene featuring anything but my guitar work. My piano and sample libraries, I don’t thik have even earned their money back, and maybe Omnisphere may have paid itself off by now. I find writing my guitar stuff a lot more enjoyable process, and if I am doing the licensing thing at all, find I write them quicker and that they overall sound more professional then my feeble attempts at other stuff. SOme of the best stuff I have done otherwise has been with Kubed, where I was a contributing guitarist, and let him work that electronic wizardry he does best. Otherwise my sound libraries make the occasional money in the RF world. It also looks like the only way I an going to write full length originals, always a dream of mine, is to have te time to do it, and working with sample based stuff for me, is way more labor intensive. DIfferent then saying I have no interest in plying keys at all, as that was something I kind gf enjoyed learning. SO , I am really thinking of working on my strengths, which is primarily guitar based music, and working on developing my own singing voice,writing original “artist” music and also doing library music. Another reason for that is I have to pout in a reasonable amount of practice time, as a gigging musician, to keep my chops up o guitar, and I lose some of that when I am focusins on creating the latest and greatest synth based dance or tension track. So guitars and the various ways to massge tat music seems to be the way I’ll be going from this point out. I will still happily contribute my guitar to someone else’s work. Thoughts on all this?
So guitars and the various ways to massge tat music seems to be the way I’ll be going from this point out.
I generally agree with you Chuck. After 12 years of writing production music I’m leaning more that way. Although we have had success in other genres (thanks to Robin’s contribution) I’m finding it more enjoyable writing what comes the most natural. That doesn’t mean I will stop trying sample based music. I guess I’m too thick headed to get the total message. LOL!
Hi there Chuck, I have a question for you, and quite possibly several people that are doing “more complexed, and interesting Music Tracks”.
When you listen to your Compositions, do they sound like “Music Beds, or do they sound more like Instrumentals & Songs”?
The reason is, I have learned something that “has put quite a few extra digits/numbers in my money making dividend”.
If you are writing “Music Beds” go for Production Music Libraries. If you are writing “more complexed and interesting music that seems more like an Instrumental” (that more than likely would interfere/distract, or not lend to dialog being on top of it) You need to go towards companies that do advertising, branding, and marketing.
There are now several of these companies out there, that are avidly looking for “High Quality Music that they don’t have to license thru record labels and big music houses”. Trust me, the checks are CRAZY!!
Well, I think a statement like “the checks are CRAZY!!” will grab just about anyone’s attention…
It’s my opinion that most people who would dare to call themselves a composer would prefer to write the more complex/instrumental stuff. I think that’s more rewarding than writing four chords with minimal instrumentation in order to not conflict with dialog or overdubs. But… if that’s what pays the bills.
Having said that, where would one go about finding these companies with these fat checks for hungry composers?
Hi there Robo, they are “really easy to find”, and a simple Google Search will send you to a good number of them. (Not a good idea to show favoritism towards companies here on the Forum, and just give general information)
The main reason that I asked the question was.. “As soon as I figured out that there IS a major difference; and how to know the difference(s) in my own work. It made it MUCH clearer to me why certain things were getting placed with Libraries, and certain things were not”.
The BIG thing that tipped me off was getting emails, and correspondence from production library owners, presidents, and key people that told me they loved my work; but wouldn’t know how to fit it in to their existing libraries..
The pieces that I “Loved” it ended up were much too complex, and in some cases too “eclectic” for general use. so I did 2 things
1) Came up with much simpler pieces, re-submitted to the libraries that were interested, and got deals with them.
2) Did my research and found companies that primarily do branding, and submitted my “Instrumentals & Songs”.
Thanks for the good suggestion. That seems like a good balanced two-prong approach. One let’s you write a little for yourself, and the other forces you to write a little for the market. I’m trying to find a balance there where I still enjoy what I’m writing but then also making some money too.
I was listening to the best selling tracks at a music library and they all sounded like tweaks of Clocks by Coldplay. Does the artist inside really want to write yet another barely disguised copy of what’s popular? But… guess you gotta do what you gotta do.
Maybe write two “Clocks” for every unmarketable, edgy, avante garde, weirdness?
Maybe write two “Clocks” for every unmarketable, edgy, avante garde, weirdness
I think for me, it was just understanding my products, and what is/was my “passion Play/Ego” and what is what general consumers wants.
Most companies and consumers don’t want what You/I have deemed high technical merit, or something cutting edge. Most want “what they have been hearing on the radio, and what will sell the fastest”.
Once again, it was just being able to finally see the difference between music beds/stock/source music, and real music.
Have it all, and be able to do it all. After all, no-one sees our faces, so we can be whomever we want to be musically.
Man, this thread was very interesting. Hits so close to home. Thank you all for your thoughts!
Very enlightening. Thanks
like you chuck my main inst is guitar and keys secondary. I get what you mean on focusing on your strengths, to me creating guitar oriented genres seems so effortless, satisfying, and best of all…quick. ive also noticed how production music is also improving my singer/songwriter career, and vice versa. you mentioned songs, i found a happy medium on merging both worlds…the world of sample libraries and production music techniques has immensely taken my songs to another level, in the same token creating and singing lyrics to 2min cues has been a blast and a different artform altogether (ive been getting requests for those specifically from a lib)…so for me, i think its necessary to do both honing your craft and expanding your horizons, im actually buying a cello next year and try to learn it, theres something magical that happens when you get to play exactly what you had in mind, even if its not a stellar job, that no sample library can deliver…and for the electronic side, im enjoying sound designing and synthesis too much to not give it a go and see if i can become great at it…FWIW i feel i already made the investment, so might as well push it to the limit (unless thats not your outlook)
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