Hope For Primarily Electronic Composers?

[NathanW]

I’ve seen that alot of music library composers write in a wide variety of styles. Productionwise and timewise, it’s much easier for me to just stick to two or three styles, and most of that is electronic.

My question is, do you think that could make it considerably more difficult to earn with music libraries? I know other styles are more in demand, but are there composers who work primarily in electronica that still make decent money once they have a large catalog? Thanks.

[Rob (Cruciform)]

I’m focusing more and more on electronica, or at least a heavy emphasis on it, and I’ve never been very versatile genre-wise. Could you make decent money with a large catalog? I suspect you could but electronica being what it is, you would need to stay current with trends and keep adapting. Styles come and go. That’s one downside of electronica, it has a short shelf life compared to say, singer with an acoustic guitar, pure orchestral, blues etc. IMHO, I think you could do very well with electronica if you become top shelf at what you do and create a demand for your style, or are able to capture the vibe of current trends and write top quality “in the style of” music.

[music_pro]

Rob, totally agree, I am in electronica too and something I wrote two years ago is not worth a lot now. I can add hip hop and rock to the list of genres that is not changing too much and worth focusing on if you can for the long run, that what we all want no?

But if you are really really good at what you do, go to the exclusive buy out libraries and make some money on the spot.

[NathanW]

Thanks, guys. That’s disappointing, I didn’t realize that I’d need to stay on top of current trends and that it might not be very relevant years later.

I think what I need to work on is producing music that’s mostly synthesized, but without necessarily being straight down the line “electronic”, i.e., soundtrack, motivational, pop, etc.

My real hurdle isn’t so much writing in different styles, since I’ve done that quite a bit. The only sounds I have access to are either synths, or sampled instruments. It’s often a pain to get those instruments to sound real, so producing electronic music has made things much easier. I guess the answer for someone like me is to try to find a good balance-have maybe one or two emulated instruments in the mix, and use synths for the rest.

[music_pro]

NathanW, I am just like you, I feel your ‘pain”.

 

You can do a lot those days with sounds within the box, just see youtube videos of east west and all the other virtual instruments manufactures, they can emulate pretty well just about anything so, you do have hope.

[Rob (Cruciform)]

Nathan,

If you are good at what you do, the other obvious road is collaboration. Find someone who wants to achieve similar goals and whose composing and production skills complement yours. Sure, you then lose half the credit on each track you co-write but arguably you will be more productive and most likely create better music than you could on your own.

 

[Mark]

Just to jump in here,
For strictly electronic composers a lot of what has been said so far is absolutely true. For example on ML Dubstep is a fairly big seller right now but probably not so much next year.
However one eletronica genre that does transcend fads and fashions and is always among the top selling genres on ML is ambient chill. We have ambient chill tracks in our catalog that are 10 years old that are still relevant and selling consistently well today along side the newer Ambient Chill uploads.
Ambient chill works really well in all kinds of video product demonstrations and on corporate videos and presentations. It is a very versatile genre.
Check our Ambient Chill genre on ML and sort by Most Popular to get an idea of what top selling ambient chill music sounds like.

Ciao for now,
Mark

[Ulla]

Well dubstep is just gonna morph over time and mix with other genres. I think dubstep will be watered down so its more accessible for a broader audience. Maybe in 2 years the straight up dubstep won’t be so much in demand anymore, but you might hear some pop/rock song with an occasional wub wub in there. God help us…

I mean you still hear techno in commercials these days, in the 90ies everyone would tell me techno is just a fad. Well, it wasn’t. The production tools change of course and so does the sound, so you have to upgrade and get the new tools – but so does everybody else. I think as electronica producer you have a great basis for this business. Just try to write in a few different styles, the neighbouring genres and learn new tools!

[axiomdreams]

Funny about what Mark & Ulla mentioned here. I just completed an Ambient Chill Album for my publisher & the request was for Ambient Chill Electro but with a slight touch of Dubstep. LOL! Maybe my publisher knows something about this trend too 🙂

AxD

[Ulla]

Funny story Axiom! I keep hearing a lot of dubstep references in songs you wouldn’t expect it in. I even heard a christmas dubstep song in a commercial few weeks ago. It was hysterical! =)

[Rob (Cruciform)]

I just completed a collection for a trailer label that had some dubstep elements in it, fused with industrial and orchestral sounds. Hopefully it has *some* shelf life given the time it took 😀

[Mark Lewis]

Another electronica genre that continues to be popular and sell pretty well is ‘Big Beat’ (is that what everyone else calls it?)
Styles like Crystal Method and Fatboy Slim, etc.

@axiomdreams That sounds like a great collection your publisher has requested from you 🙂

[axiomdreams]

Thanks Mark, that’s really good to know cos I specialize in energetic Crystal Method/Prodigy-ish style Electro too!

Ulla, I recently got a Dubstep Christmas tune placed. It was hilarious cos I wrote it for fun & didn’t expect it to get placed so soon but it got detected on TuneSat during this Christmas =)

Rob, Good Luck! Your Trailer/Dubstep/Industrial style is superb & I think it should do well. It’s just a matter of time for you!

AxD

[Ulla]

That’s great Axiom! Hey maybe it was your track that I heard in that commercial! The thing with dubstep is that it mixes so well with so many other genres.

Interesting to hear about Big Beat still selling well, Mark! I always was a big fan of Crystal Method, Junkie XL (whos now writing a lot of video game soundtracks btw) and the like… but I kinda thought it had its car commercial peak around.. I dont know late 90ies early 2000s maybe? And yes, in Europe we called it “Big Beat”.

@Rob: I started an orchestral track and before I knew it, it had turned into a dubstep orchestral hybrid thing. It’s just too much fun!

I’m curious about the next big thing already. Now that things got rather tonal than melodic and the tempo dropped so drastically, what could the next step be? =)

[Rob (Cruciform)]

Ulla, yes it is fun!! Keeping it very edgy (rather than the almost pop-ishness of say Skrillex) works well and industrial sounds are great for gluing dub and orch elements together. It’s a little bit addictive TBH 🙂

Next big thing? I for one, don’t know. We’ll have to keep an eye out.

 

 

[Author]

Posts