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I’m curious as to how long it took some of you to start seeing PRO payments of at least $1,000. I’ve been in the biz for over 4 years now, and despite getting over 100 TV placements last year I am still scraping the low hundreds for my international statements and even 2 figures for my domestic! I have over 400 exclusive tracks out there with at least 30 different libraries.
We’ve been at this for about 15 years. For us it was only a few years but the business has changed a lot since then. Much tougher now as the market is saturated with music. It is a long game though so I would keep at it.
Twenty years ago it took only three ASCAP payouts before hitting four figures. So maybe a time machine? 🙂 Seriously though, I think you’re seeing the affects of streaming on this business.
4 figure PRO royalties (from a single placement) only come from:
-featured placements ( a 2 minute song with vocal playing on a show in front of a large listening audience)
-TV themes, large viewing audience
-Tv spot campaign – your track lands on a commercial with a reputable BIG brand (not cheap, local furniture store ads broadcast in local markets) and broadcasts thousands of times in a given quarter.It’s not so much about time invested in the game of music licensing, it’s more so about landing that one sweet placement into a big TV project with a massive viewing audience.
The vast majority of your royalties (on a PRO statement) will pay between fractions of cents $25.And while streaming has grown, at the end of the day the big reward has not changed, we all want music on big, popular TV shows or movies, on TV Networks that actually pay broadcast performance royalties, and with millions of people watching the show or TV spots. And we want these TV shows or TV spots broadcasting constantly. It’s all based on Quantity of broadcast air dates Or “plays” or “Performances of your music composition” and viewing audience size.
All of those variables are always 100% out of your control.
All of those variables are always 100% out of your control.
That ^^^^^^^ is truth. It’s one of the terrifying and also hopeful things about this business. I have faith. That keeps me positive. I can’t remember how long it took to get to the first 4 figure payment to be honest, but it didn’t take 4 years. Also, getting the RIGHT library for you is critical. 400 tracks is nothing at this point IMO. You need a lot more. If I had to rely 100% on TV tracks as 100% of my income, I think I’d be looking north of 3000 well written, produced at a high level, unique titles – each having 5+ alternate mixes. If you have a family and mortgage and college tuition – more. The business has collapsed. This is evidenced everywhere you look.
The best thing you can do is analyze each library you are in very, VERY, VERY carefully. Feed the ones that are working, and jettison the ones that are doing nothing. Write everyday, get extremely good and fast at what you do, keep doing it. When the 400 reaches 1500 and they are in the right libraries, you should be seeing some significant improvement.
about two years
All of those variables are always 100% out of your control.
Great points! But, I’d argue there’s something in your control that increases the odds of those opportunities dropping out of the sky and into your lap: QUALITY. Moving from a spam-mode mindset to attempting to make each track the best thing you’ve ever done goes a long way to increasing the odds of theme use, major syncs etc.
400 tracks is nothing at this point IMO
I’m not so sure about that. I’ve made more from my last 100 tracks than I have from the previous 2000.
Quality over quantity has proven to be a winner for me.
Quality over quantity has proven to be a winner for me.
I agree. In the RF market you can have individual tracks that generate 4 figures if the quality is there and your metadata is effective.
I’m not so sure about that. I’ve made more from my last 100 tracks than I have from the previous 2000.
Quality over quantity has proven to be a winner for me.
You write for trailers though right? Or am I mistaken?
A pretty exhaustive study for me has shown a 95% reduction in payout per placement with streaming. Zero doubt TV focused cues are earning less – all things being equal.
Definitely agree about the quality needing to be high.
What’s a hefty tv royalty. Anyone here had one.
My publisher said i should be expecting hefty tv royalties at some point.
I’m still waiting tho for my first ever PRS statement hopefully in July.
You write for trailers though right? Or am I mistaken?
Yeah that’s me, but I still do a lot of library music designed for TV, and make the majority of my income from that stuff used in unscripted shows, sports etc.
What’s a hefty tv royalty. Anyone here had one.
To some that might mean $100 a track per quarter. I aim for at least $500 but I’m also spending 5 – 10 days working on each track.
$500 per “track” is not unusual for me – but that’s spread across dozens (sometimes hundreds) of placements and dozens (hundreds) of plays. So “per play” we’re down in the single to two digit range. Depends on the show, the time of play and OF COURSE – the length and type of play. My show themes obviously pay much more than underscore. And WAY more than 5-12 second underscore placements on streaming shows – which generally pay out between $0.01 and $0.05.
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