Home › Forums › Newbie Questions › How many tracks to prepare before taking the plunge?
- This topic has 6 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 7 months ago by Mark_Petrie.
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May 15, 2013 at 5:29 pm #9888Art MunsonKeymaster
Right now I have around 15 tracks that I’d like to submit to libraries, totaling around 30 minutes of music (mostly orchestral). I’m not currently involved with any libraries at all, just looking to get started.
I notice that AudioSparx asks for 20+ tracks. That’s totally fine by me, in fact I expected they would want more than that. Is this a typical number for a new artist application to be taken seriously?
May 16, 2013 at 2:34 am #9889Mark_PetrieParticipant15 tracks might get you in the door with a royalty free or purely online licensing library, but in that area of the business it’s all about volume… frankly it’s unlikely you’d make much money with so few tracks. You need a lot of tracks in RF libraries just to increase the odds of getting discovered – once a customer finds a track of yours and likes it, they might dig through your other music to see what else they might want to buy. For that to happen you need to show up in the search, and on a huge site like AS, good luck!
You never know, maybe you’ll do well with 15 tracks, especially if your tracks are in the zone of what most people are looking for. Definitely keep building that number of tracks if you want to make a significant amount of money from selling tracks on online libraries.
If your orchestral music is at a high level of production and composition, consider approaching bigger brick and mortar libraries with your 15 tracks. A pre-packaged album of great ready-to-go music is much more likely to get the attention of a producer / manager at one of these libraries than a composer sending demos for consideration on future releases. The bigger libraries either pay nicely upfront, or share the license fees. Depending on their focus, you could also make significant performance royalties from TV airtime.
15 great tracks places with a well connected library could potentially make you a lot more than uploading to a massive vault of tracks on the web! Just my $0.02 worth, I’m sure others will chime in with theirs ๐
May 16, 2013 at 6:33 am #9890Art MunsonKeymasterThanks for your response!
I know those 15 measly tracks are just the beginning of a beginning. At some point I will have 25, and then 50, and then 100… I’m just eager to start submitting, as opposed to simply hoarding those tracks. ๐
Can you elaborate a little on the idea of a pre-packaged album? What does that generally consist of in the library music world?
May 16, 2013 at 8:17 am #9891GaryWParticipantI had a mere 30 or so tracks whenI started submitting to libraries 3 years ago. I now have close to 350 full-length tracks in my catalog. As you will hear many say, it is a numbers game.
Keep writing as much as you can with still trying to keep the quality up. You will be surprised on how fast your catalog will grow.
If you can, try different genres as well, but keep it real. I’ve learned that as well…..
Good luck to you!
May 16, 2013 at 8:29 am #9892Desire_InspiresParticipantStart with what you got and keep creating and submitting new music.
May 16, 2013 at 2:19 pm #9893AdviceParticipantCobra
I don’t think the library you mentioned requires 20 tracks to get started. Unless they’ve changed it since I started, the requirement of 20 is only to be featured as a hot new artist. AFAIK, you can start with any number. Of course, it usually takes a fair number of tracks to make any real money.My suggestion is to submit those 15 tracks to non-exclusive RF libraries and also non-exclusive libraries that focus on broadcast placements where there are backend (PRO) royalties. Many libraries discussed on this site place orchestral cues on TV. Of course, I don’t know your music but if libraries with decent track records accept your tracks, it’s a good indication they can be placed.
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May 17, 2013 at 12:07 am #9894Mark_PetrieParticipantpre-packaged album
where everything is ready to go – 10-15 varied tracks within a ‘theme’ for an album. Mixed, mastered (maybe not so important), stems and edits.
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