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Hello Everyone,
My name is Matt and I’m new to the MusicLibraryReport and licensing communities. Currently, I am submitting to libraries that use singer/songwriter, folk/rock, and pop/rock songs with vocals. Although I haven’t been pitching for very long (approximately two months), I haven’t had much success. Most of the time, I don’t receive any response but can sometimes see via SoundCloud that song(s) were played by certain libraries. The one response that I did receive specified that the songs don’t fit the needs of the company at the moment and that I should continue to submit to the company in the future. I’d really value your thoughts and opinions about my catalog if you have the time to listen. I’m also happy to listen to the music of any composer in this forum, but my perspective may not be as informed as the seasoned composers with placements. You can access the playlist that I’m mainly pitching at:
https://soundcloud.com/matt-colligan/sets/matt-colligan.
Thank you all and I hope everyone is safe!
Matt
Hey Matt – just took a listen. Good stuff. and I’m guessing you know that your songs, performance and production are on the level they need to be at.
You mentioned you’ve been submitting for about two months which as you suspect, isn’t that long. Some libraries respond in weeks while others take many months before following-up on new submissions. I once had a library follow-up almost a year later after they had almost cleared their production schedule for that year.
If I could suggest two things: first, have no-vocal versions of your songs too. And second, submit to libraries with an eye towards their specialty (commercials, movies, scripted TV shows, etc).
Hope that helps.
Hey Matt,
I really enjoyed listening to your songs. I’d say just keep sending them out. You’re bound to hook-up to what you’re looking for! I love your voice and execution. Welcome aboard!
Jesse
Matt, you are a talented songwriter, although most libraries deal with instrumentals, there are a few that specialize in this style, also, keep working on production skills, good work
Hi, Matt.
Welcome. I’m sure you’ll find a wealth of info here. Art has set up a wonderful resource that allows composers to share their own experiences with various libraries, which can help you in deciding which libraries to approach and as important, HOW to approach them.
As a singer/songwriter you will need to be very cautious on what kind of libraries you go with, as copyright laws vary from country to country, and not all allow for retitling under all circumstances. It’s less problematic for orchestral/instrumental cues, but with songs with lyrics that get airplay can have devastating results. So you need to be very cautious about your contract terms to avoid any situation like this: https://www.macmusicmagic.com/single-post/2016/12/06/A-Cautionary-Tale-About-Music-Re-titling
I suggest that in addition to your efforts with libraries that you obtain Ritch Esra’s “Film and Television Music Guide” (https://www.musicregistry.com) and approach music supervisors directly for their current needs. You can also set up your own spot at Michael Borges’ https://www.licensequote.com. It’s a DIY portal that puts you into a spot that allows you to be found when supervisors come a-callin’. ? As a singer/songwriter you may also find some success with https://www.musicsupervisor.com. They also have retail airplay if you choose to opt in.
Hope that helps, but feel free to contact me directly if you think you might benefit from some coaching in the arena (macmusicmagic@yahoo.com). The business side of “the biz” is an important aspect for any artist trying to navigste what can be very tricky waters.
Oh, yeah… and please avoid so-called “royalty free” libraries. They have a portion (or all) of their music they license for free, and you get nothing but what is usually a very small piece of the back-end. These libraries devalue music for all of us and make it difficult to obtain fair rates for the use of our music.
Oh, yeah… and please avoid so-called “royalty free” libraries. They have a portion (or all) of their music they license for free, and you get nothing but what is usually a very small piece of the back-end. These libraries devalue music for all of us and make it difficult to obtain fair rates for the use of our music.
I think you may be confusing “royalty free” with “performance free,” which truly is a problem. Most of us here have music in RF libraries like Pond5 and AudioSparx. They do not give music away for free. They license music for an average of $40 per track, but can go much higher. In the case of P5, I regularly receive backend from BMI as both a writer and publisher for TV shows, for which I also received license fees (unlike many TV focused libraries). I’ve even gotten an IMDB credit through a P5 placement.
Oh, yeah… and please avoid so-called “royalty free” libraries. They have a portion (or all) of their music they license for free, and you get nothing but what is usually a very small piece of the back-end.
Not true, I have made many thousands of dollars, in back-end money, from commercials on licenses sold through “royalty free” sites. And, I don’t have to give up control of my copyright.
It’s really fascinating how misunderstood this business still is even by the most experienced pros. (I don’t know everything either, but I have learned through trial and error) Most people will live an entire life and never fully understand how this business works. It is a very complicated business though. There are are just so many tems and every single one of them is misunderstood by the majority:
-CID
-Royalty Free
-Performance royalty free
-Subscription
-Blanket
-Back end
-PROS
-Neighbouring Rights
-Publisher
-Sub Publisher
-Original Publisher
-Retitle
-Sync Rights
-Master and Sync
-royalties
-sync fees
-music license
-up front sync license
-advance
-library
-sync agent
-stock music site
-RF site
-buy out
-reversion clauseAsk 20 different “pros” in this business and they will not be able to agree on what any of these terms mean above. When all is said and done, this is a complicated business and it takes years and years and years to understand these terms.
And Yes, I too have made substantial royalties “on the back end” from some very high profile placements where the the music was sourced from web sites where you’d least expect that to happen. The music licensing landscape has changed drastically over the last 7 years. Owning and controlling 100% of your writers share and 100% publishing share is more important than ever. NE deals are still fine in my book and it’s an overt lie when music libraries state “our clients are demanding that we only offer exclusive music in our castalog.” That is a LIE! 100% false statement. I have had literally thousands of placesments with my 100% Non Exclusive music air on ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, BRAVO, Discovery, ESPN, BTN, USA Network, HBO, MTV, VH1, Comedy Central and all of them, to this day it’s still happening.
Hi Matt; Had a quick listen. really nice stuff! I suggest that if you are approaching libraries, you need to cut down the intros to like nothing. I t wouldn’t be hard to remix and edit the songs just for that purpose. If you’re looking to get on TV or commercials, you have to get right to the point, and the people screening don’t have 8 bars of time to waste! Of course you can also have your artist versions with the intros as well. And the suggestion to make instrumental versions is good too.
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