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Hello, everyone. My name is Justin, short-ish time lurker, even shorter official “member”. I’m a pretty traditional “beatmaker” interested in moving more into this licensing/library world. It’s a long, long story how I arrived at this decision and I totally understand the “oh, great, ANOTHER hobbyist flooding the levy” feelings but I’m committed to being a patient sponge, researching everything I can fully while contributing to this wonderful resource when I think I can offer something helpful!
Thank you to MichaelL, Desire_inspires, Art and at least a few others that I’m forgetting for all of the advice you’ve got peppered around this place! I feel like I’ve learned more in the few short weeks I’ve been devouring forum posts and discussions on MLR than I would have stumbled on in years of trying to figure a lot of this stuff out on my own. I am sincerely thankful to anyone who has shared their experience and I promise to contribute mine as I go.
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Things I’ve considered and “the plan”
I’ve gone through my entire “catalog” and found about 100 “beats” that are sample-free, original compositions (many, many more that contain uncleared samples though :D) that I think range from decent-to-great “library” tracks. From what I’ve read and listened to, it seems like no one really knows what will end up doing well in a library (of course, you certainly can assess whether something will perform terribly depending on the library, the customer-base and other factors) so the common wisdom seems to be to stick to what you do well, while varying your compositions so as not become a one-trick pony (unless of course, that pony wins every race she enters!).
Consequently, my plan is to start with 20 of what I feel are my very best but diverse “beats”, deconstruct them and reformat from a singer/songwriter-friendly arrangement to instead, commercial-friendly :30, :15 and :07 second versions with short intro’s, getting right to the point and add “stingers” (I guess that’s what a graceful but abrupt outro is called?). Then, I’ll take these very best tracks (or “cues” if I’m understanding terminology correctly) and carefully select libraries, whether NE or EX, and begin trying to place them. Ideally, I’d love to cut out the middle-man and just pitch these cues directly to supervisors but I figured I’d better just put one foot in front of the other before I dive in, head-first!
Anyways, does this seem like a good plan? Any holes or other things to consider? Any advice if you were in my shoes?
– What’s the best way to give back to MLR? I don’t want to just take and take but I wonder what I have to give when it seems most of you are seasoned professionals and I feel like I don’t have much to contribute!
What’s the best way to give back to MLR?
Welcome Justin and best of luck. Not to worry, we all started from zero. Sharing your experiences as you travel this path is the best way to give back.
Take care
Art
Hi Justin,
Thanks for the kind words!
(many, many more that contain uncleared samples though :D)
Take it from a lawyer, using uncleared samples is definitely not a good idea. Replace those sounds.
Consequently, my plan is to start with 20 of what I feel are my very best but diverse “beats”, deconstruct them and reformat from a singer/songwriter-friendly arrangement to instead, commercial-friendly :30, :15 and :07 second versions with short intro’s, getting right to the point and add “stingers” (I guess that’s what a graceful but abrupt outro is called?).
That’s a great idea, but it will take you some time. Several libraries are interested in singer/songwriter type tracks for their streaming services.
#RadioSparx does very well for me and Mark Lewis at MusicLoops recently requested music with vocals.
It might be a good idea to get the vocal versions out first and then work on the instrumental edits.
Best of luck!
MichaelL
My suggestion would be to not use the word “beats” when describing your music tracks. “Music” would be a better word to use when promoting your production music catalog.
My suggestion would be to not use the word “beats” when describing your music tracks.
Totally agree. “Beats” and “singer/songwriter” connote two differnt things.
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