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hii guys i’m curious to hear from composers here who have managed to make writing for sync/production music a full time gig. i still am not at the level of growth i would of hoped for 4 years after starting this and still wonder is a full time income even possible in this game or even a very good part time income. so i would be iinterested in hearing from those composers here who have managed to make this a full time gig in the past 10years. tell us your story and what year of your journey you were able to quit the day job? what percentage of your income from music comes from sync and back end royalties? how many tracks do you now have out in the world earning you royalties every quarter? how many publishers are you writing for these days? thanks guys.
Writing is my main job. I have several other methods of income streams though as well. I’m well over $60k annually from my writing, but IMO, it takes pretty much at least $100k + to live in the US with a house, studio and family these days. I’m outside your range of 10 years, but I’d guess that the vast majority of anyone making $60k + is outside that boundary as well.
Music has always been my “day job”, and I’ve done many things over the course of my career – arranger, film/TV composer, music copyist, session musician, ghost writer, producer, recording engineer, music editor, touring musician, etc., etc. and yes – writing for libraries. So my “transition” back to writing (now pretty much writing for my own production company and a handful of others) was not as dramatic as leaving a job as a CPA to take up music. :). That said, serendipitous situations led me to be writing more and more, and producing / playing or composing for others less and less, and eventually the transition was complete. And now, it’s rare for me to do anything musically outside of my own production company.
IMO, 4 years is not nearly enough time to make a living in this biz. I started transitioning into writing for libraries seriously around 2007. And I was late to the game IMO. At this point, I have almost 2500 titles in play, and have placements in probably 500+ films/shows and thousands of actual “episodes”. And even so, streaming and industry change has stopped me short of where I would like to see my income with the titles I have. For reference – I focus mostly on film/TV underscore – not commercials or trailers.
I used to think 1000 titles would get you “there”. Then, as the industry started to change from the “old school” way it had been for years, I rethought things, and changed the number to “2000” songs/titles. Well….. With the deterioration of the industry, I’m beginning to think that maybe it’s 3000? Haha! Not sure, but I think I can make it there by the time I retire. Or maybe I’ll never get to retire. LOL
I have a dozen + publishers, but these days, I find myself writing for outside publishers less and less – trying to retain ownership of as much of my content as possible. I’d guess that 70% of my music based income is directly from sync / back end.
If I had a crystal ball and could have seen where things are going, I would seriously have thought about another industry, but honestly, I’m a musician and I’m not sure what else I could have done…. But at this point in the game, most of the newcomers are going to be relegated to part time, hobbyist, starving musician, frugal living, or depending on their significant other to carry the lions share of fiscal responsibility.
I consider myself extremely lucky, fortunate and blessed. And I’m not sure I could actually pull it off again if I had to start off with the industry the way it is now.
Hi everyone, i too, consider myself very lucky to be in music full time. I grew up as a self taught musician and later completed my Masters in classical guitar from a good conservatory. I started with production music in 2012 and I wish it could have been a few years earlier. It was a slow start and took all my savings and about 5 years of constant writing to make a survival income. I have accumulated, over this time, about 2000 tracks of which about 60% are exclusive and 40% non exclusive. Over the last two years I have really slowed down my output and focusing a lot more now on quality as I find that in todays market, quality goes a lot further. My income last year, which was my best, was about 65k. Through the years, i have found that I have to keep raising my bar every year. Complacency is the enemy. I keep learning new instruments and styles to keep things fresh. I cant imagine what it would be like today to be a newcomer. Things are extremely competitive and I don’t think I would have survived. For many of us, music is our life and true love and we don’t have a choice but to keep going on. Keep the good struggle going. I believe thins will get better in a few years when all the chaff settles. Good luck to all !!!
Great topic and thank you LAWriter for your generous post! I too have always made a living with music, but mostly was from performing. I had a full time job with a music software company in the late 80’s , taught MIDI privately or with workshops and recorded folks in my home studio. I have been a recording addict for 40 years at least! I used to write/record for those song-plugger sheets that would come out with publishers looking for tunes and enter the songwriting contests.
I started writing for sync 3 years ago. I sure have a ways to go. But I love the challenge and community of writers I have met. I am getting more no’s than yes’s right now and I have a minimal stash of tunes (Except for reel to reel vintage ones that I have signed), but the stash is growing.
I feel blessed to have these opportunities to work towards especially when one is home now due to Covid.
I do website work on the side and other various sundries to support myself. I don’t know if I will ever get to 60K, but I must say I am enjoying the process, and even when hit hard, I am still putting myself forward and the creativity within is wonderful. and good for health!
TuneSthanks for sharing your story Lawriter. its interesting your strategy is a lot based around getting thousands more tracks into the system. other long term composers have said to me its not the number of tracks its the quality level of the tracks. for example 500 amazing tracks will go alot further than 3000 mediocre tracks.
Who said anything about 3000 mediocre tracks? I consider my production game to be at the top. My writing is skilled and honed to a T. You’ve got to deliver at the top level or you’re not even IN the game.
After many years of tracking what gets used and what doesn’t and “why” and talking with editors and clients – I would disagree with the amazing vs. numbers comment. At least in writing for TV/Film. Commercials and trailers are somewhat different.
There are so many factors that go into a piece of music being chosen, and there are at least a hundred types of styles that get chosen for an incredibly varied set of uses. Having a good number of titles in a wide variety of styles is what gets you placements. There is no substitute for that IMO. It’s a simple numbers game. The “I only need a few incredible songs” is an artist style perspective and this is not an artist game. Yeah, you can do it that way – but you have to be the one in a million guy. There are thousands of the rest of us making it with numbers…. Best,
Nice posts here of actual full timers sharing. Very interesting and inspirational stuff. This is what it’s all about. Thanks guys!
My background has elements similar to all of the informative posts above. Although I’ve never really made any money to speak of, I’ve gotten by with sacrifices. As I’ve mentioned here in the past, I was fortunate to freelance as a songwriter in the educational market for most of my career. Some years I was so busy custom writing music for educational projects that I didn’t complete any library tracks at all.
I will admit that I’ve recently taken a break from music creation. Given all the negative changes in our business over recent time, I felt like I was working for pennies, and that is not where I want to be. I’m not sure there is anything left in todays music business, but I hope to regroup and find something that works.
Given all the negative changes in our business over recent time, I felt like I was working for pennies, and that is not where I want to be.
I hear ya. For me, it’s never been about huge payouts on individual placements. Sure, they come in from time to time, but it’s been large numbers of continually playing shows that make the backbone of my payments. Lots and lots and lots of little trickles make a huge river.
Unfortunately, my actual bottom line payouts have roughly stayed the “same” for a decade – even though adding hundreds of placements. The ultimate payout has gone from 10’s of dollars, to dollars, to quarters, and now, with streaming sometimes down to $0.01. I guess you can’t go lower than that eh? LOL. There ARE more venue’s to be played / streamed at though, but even so, the numbers per placement or per title are down significantly. (After talking with several publishers and writers, it’s looking like close to a 90% decrease in payout when your show goes to streaming – and that’s a hard pill to swallow.)
So yeah, starting out and seeing pennies is not a great way to get excited about earning a living in production music. I think that perhaps it still can be done, but I wouldn’t want to be the one trying to figure out the new game plan. Plus….when AI hits, I think all bets are off. We’re going to see another huge paradigm shift. At that point, once the glut ensues and music users are overwhelmed with the mass of input — the only ones selling custom music will be those who make it with REAL musicians, recorded with microphones and real instruments. That will be the final frontier I think.
But it’s all just my observations and opinion. cheers,
I’m by no means receiving full-time income yet but I’m producing a lot of music these days. I started about 3 years ago and have roughly 330 exclusive tracks and probably just as many non-exclusive (but I don’t write NE music much anymore). The wait for royalties was very long (2-3 quarters in a row I got “snubbed” even though my music was within the range of that quarter’s payout). Now I’m consistently receiving ASCAP royalties almost every quarter (never publishing royalties yet though). The range is still low at my highest quarter being about $150-180 ish. I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon because I’m enjoying creating music, and I now realize it will take many more years before I can earn a decent income (hopefully within 4-5 years but we shall see!). The whole Pond5, Getty images restructuring really hurt me and made me focus on exclusive stuff but I was getting monthly royalties greater than my current ASCAP averages. I hope to have a 4 figure payout at some point next year and that will really give me some hope for the future! Now that I’m writing several albums per month, I’m addicted to it so, if nothing else, I’m getting joy out of it and increasing my value and skillset as a musician.
Unfortunately, my actual bottom line payouts have roughly stayed the “same” for a decade – even though adding hundreds of placements.
LAwriter is exactly right. An eleven page ASCAP statement from 12 years ago paid me just about the same amount as an eighty one page statement from January 2021. This is not encouraging to anyone, to say the least. Add to that RF sites cutting payout percentages, reporting drastically lower sales numbers, or just disappearing entirely. Newcomers and old-timers alike are facing challenges.
An eleven page ASCAP statement from 12 years ago paid me just about the same amount as an eighty one page statement from January 2021.
When asked “why can I have triple the number of placements, same venue’s and have the same payout, BMI essentially just shrugged their shoulders and said “that’s just how it is”. Essentially, no matter what I do, or how many new shows I add – I’ve hit the proverbial glass ceiling. I must say though that I don’t rattle their cage a lot. I suppose if I did I might eek more out of them. BMI is not a helpful or well paying organization IMO.
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