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Essentially, no matter what I do, or how many new shows I add – I’ve hit the proverbial glass ceiling.
Exactly again. It’s been a tease for me over the years. Getting enough to see the possibilities and keep me going, but never actually realizing the possibilities. And through no fault of my own, because “that’s just how it is”.
i guess my main problem is having so few tracks out there and working a full time day job so if anything the one thing i need right now more than anything is time to write more music.
Two questions:
1) Is your current full-time job a potential well-paying career?
2) If so, do you hate it so much that you’d rather do this?I’ve said it before. There are easier ways to make money and better ways to make music. At some point, even writing music can become a “job,” like any other job, which can suck the life out of your passion for music if you aren’t careful.
I’ve said it before. There are easier ways to make money and better ways to make music. At some point, even writing music can become a “job,” like any other job, which can suck the life out of your passion for music if you aren’t careful.
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TRUTH!! @MichaelLDanny – if your employer will accommodate you, and if you can deal with the financial sacrifice of going part time for a couple of years, I say do it for 2 years and put EVERYTHING into writing and producing music on your spare 3-4 days for the entire period. Go totally crazy on building your catalog and contacts.
Then, at the end of 2 years. Re-access. One of 3 things will become fairly obvious. If job security and a 6 figure income is a necessity and/or your goal, I’d guess you will go back to your full time day gig. If writing music part time makes enough of the difference (hopeful, but probably in all reality doubtful) to give you enough hope – then stay on part time until you can pull the plug on the day job. if you end up making 100k+ in those 2 years, see a bright horizon, and can deal with the ups and downs of the industry and having an income that moves all over the place – then pull the plug on the day gig!!!
The reality is – quite frankly from my point of view – that getting to a full time salary (especially 6 figures) takes a long term (deacade+) level of commitment that few have the resources or life situation to accommodate. Especially in 2021.
Best of luck.
I’m full time – I got my first ever back-end royalty in 2011 – it was £23 and I purchased a frame for the PRS statement with that lofty amount printed on it and a botle of cheap bubbly to celebrate with my wife. The framed statement is still on the wall in my studio. Five years later I quit my job, as my earnings (which are almost entirely all back end) had surpassed my salary. If it all ended tomorrow and I had to go out and get a ”real” job I’d be thankful I had five years doing the thing I love for a living.
full-time,21 years, 160,000 to 180,000 yr
probably 3,000 titles or more
many styles and genres, my catalogue covers a broad range, and my production is considered top notch, I try to find a balance between really good and not spending more time than necessary on a track. I work for a very limited amount of publshers, and I’ve had a handful of trailer licenses…and ‘trailer style’ tracks have been good for my TV catalogue as well 🙂It took me a year or two to make low 4 figures annually off the backs of 150 exclusive tracks or so. I started in 2015. Sucked the joy right out of my music unfortunately and started a job in real estate development 2 years later. Much higher risk but much bigger potential for rewards. Having financial freedom to do whatever I want, include making music, is my new goal and I anticipate a few more years of grinding between stocks and other investments to make that a reality. Still get around $1200 a year in royalties though and am able to write off gear on my taxes 🙂 For me I realized turning something you love into a job makes it a job.
In 2015 I kinda stumbled into this field by getting recruited into a library company that works directly with lots of reality TV shows while just posting music for fun on youtube. It was a lucky opportunity, a music supervisor and composer who happened to need help with the cinematic side of his employer’s catalogue. He reached out to me after finding my music on youtube and we had a phone call, and I decided to go for it. Started writing 5 tracks a week with mentoring from that music supervisor, and after 3 years, I felt comfortable quitting my day job. It was year 4 that I made $60k+
Along the way, I started learning more about the library business and reaching out to make my own contacts with other more traditional libraries, and also got into trailer music as a side hustle. The reality TV stuff is my bread and butter work, and I do occasional solo albums for other libraries to get my own ideas and creativity out.
I’ve realized after reading quite a few stories that I managed to have an exceptionally fast launch. I’ll chalk that up mostly to luck, as my first library contact ended up being a very important and lucrative one. But I’ve gotta say, jumping straight into 5 tracks a week while working a full time office job sure was something. I’m very grateful for where I’ve made it today.
I’m a lifelong musician who made the jump into writing production music 4 years ago and am now full time, earning mid five figures between sync fees and royalties.
I spent the previous 10 years as a gigging sideman musician, band member, and music teacher and was able to start out by writing library cues during the daytime before rehearsals, music lessons (after kids get off school), and gigs (night times).
When starting out, I decided to cast a wide net and submit my first 12 songs album to as many non-exclusive libraries as I could find as an info gathering action. I had no idea what would work and what wouldn’t. I lucked out and found a few libraries that earned enough money to encourage me to pursue writing more. I wrote 3-4 more 12 song albums and after a year, I was bringing in 1k/month, which was enough to make me stop taking some gigs, stop accepting new music students, and focus even more time and resources on making my production music cues even better.
During my first few years (and still), I did my due diligence, spent countless hours on the web, YouTube, listening to podcasts, reading MLR, etc., and decided to write some albums for exclusive libraries, as well as continuing to feed the NE ones that’d been supplementing my other music income. I considered the amount of work I was doing researching + writing to be full time (at least 40 hrs a week), but I was also still playing some jobbing gigs, performing with passion project bands, and teaching a handful of music students every week. My income in the first several years didn’t reflect the amount of time I was putting in, but I loved that my schedule was always filled with something musical, and that I was building ownership over music I had written, and getting paid again and again for it, instead of working on other people’s music for a one-time sideman fee.
In my third year, I was offered a full time, exclusive (couldn’t write for other libraries) writing deal with a library who expected a certain amount of tracks per month in exchange for a monthly salary (sync buyout) + I got to keep 100% writer’s royalties. I did this for almost a year and continued my sideman + teaching duties part time until that library dropped me as a writer. They stated that they wanted to bring in some new writers to diversify their catalog and had to make room.
My fourth year was filled with several albums, co-writer collaborations, new deals with new libraries including ones with up front production money and advances, and finally seeing PRO returns on the exclusive albums I’d submitted several years ago. I was thrilled to see placements on CBS, NBC, PBS, BBC, RTL, Discovery, Netflix, commercials, and more!
I’m now not gigging at all (COVID) but still teach music lessons 1 day per week to help others with their musical pursuits. Other than that, library music is my full-time pursuit.
My thoughts about going full-time:
-Try to lower your expenses. This will allow you the time required to write enough music to afford more!
-Everything you need to know can be found for free on the University of YouTube, web forums, magazine articles, podcasts etc. The educational resources I’ve paid for include this forum (Great job, Thanks Art!), and to attend the Production Music Conference held by the PMA.
-Long game. There’s no jumping in immediately at 60-100k. Work and study at it like you’re a student who needs 6-8 years of schooling (masters degree) before you’re worth that much to an employer.
-Specialize in whatever music you’re the best at and try your hardest to stick with itBest wishes!
Going Full Time? Are you kidding me? Yes. I do make “Full TIme” income in this business but I do not trust this business as far as I can throw this business. Do not EVER go “full time” into music for media because you will end up getting another job anyway. Do you have 10 years of time to write 75 cues a year? Can you work for perhaps low 4 figures in your first two years just to get the ball rolling? Are you willing to learn every aspect of every potential royalty stream out there for you to take advantage of and put in the hundreds or thousands of hours of time in front of spreadsheets, entering metadata, registering your songs, releasing them as albums On Spotify, uploading to Content ID? Are you willing to make hundreds of phone calls to establish really solid connections at PRO’s, at libraries, meet Directors, post house folks, other musicians, music managers at stock music sites?
Yeah I have a music production studio and make tunes every week, but no way in hell would I ever put all my eggs in this increasingly “free” basket of library music. The pricing of production music just keeps getting lower and lower and lower every day. How can anyone sell a track for $5 and expect to make a living at this?
For the record, I always sell in the $40 to $100 range for the “standard” youtube/ internet use music license. Le t that be a start to making money. I have been preaching this for years yet I still see so many talented writers selling tracks for $5 to $20, and now of course …$15 a month subscription fee for all you can eat. It’s just getting pathetic.
This is why now these stupid models like “non-fungible tokens” are coming into play to try and help artists put some more pennies in their pockets. Instead of always trying to reinvent the wheel, why can’t composers stick to some basics:
1. License your music for a respectable, professional rate, not $5
2. Stop giving away 50% writers share to mobsters promising the world to you while privately, they are just extorting 50% of your intellectual property because YOU, have no respect for YOURSELF, and are willing to work for chump change.Sad! Pathetic! Stupid musicians screwing themselves again and again and will never learn.
P.S. The reason why everyone’s numbers are so low is because you all like to give away your intellectual property for peanuts. Sharks are there willing to take the free give-away’s for $0 and profit from your works. Clients will gladly take the discounted prices they never requested. You writers don’t seem to mind. I guess you all are in it for the “Love of music” . You also do not see the value in collecting money as 100% writer and 100% publisher….that’s too “stressful” and too much work for most of you it seems. Ditto for registering your cues and crafting your own meta data. “um isn’t that for the library to do?” Uploading to Content ID to collect that stream? nah….that’s too much work! Let’s have the library do that and be the first to collect on it.
Start taking notes, these are ways to exponentially increase your royalty revenue. Raise your prices on Stock sites….see what happens, you may be quite surprised. Have I experimented with price cuts? Yep, and guess what….It failed every time. Cutting my prices NEVER resulted in more units sold, and NEVER resulted in increased revenue. Did it accomplish anything for you?….other than feeling good about selling a track for $5? Did that make you put a feather in your cap and make you feel good for an hour or two?
Cutting my prices NEVER resulted in more units sold, and NEVER resulted in increased revenue.
Yep, been there, done that. Doesn’t work.
I’ve never CUT prices, but I have RAISED them, and that has not seemed to hurt sales. If someone wants your music and it works for their needs an extra $20-50 is not going to stop them from buying a license.
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