Not sure what to do

[RazBerry]

@Kiwi

Yeah, some do have some not so great deals. I’ve been offered to do a project that would pay me $100 upfront for each track, and 50% writers. No sync fee. This would be exclusive in perp of course.

The only other time I’ve been payed/offered to be payed upfront was $250 and 50% of all $ from a non-PMA in the UK. Weird how stuff works.

[Kiwi]

Yeah, some do have some not so great deals. I’ve been offered to do a project that would pay me $100 upfront for each track, and 50% writers. No sync fee. This would be exclusive in perp of course.

Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know who that is. Not something I’m going to go for.

[musician]

Hi Peter, Great music! No need to worry about “is it even good enough?” Your music is great and it will sell. It’s a very tricky decision you have indeed.

You could go with a so called “big time exclusive” publisher who will sub pub your works all over the world and attempt to place you into films, TV shows, spots etc so you’ll collect backend royalties ( 1 to 2 years from now) or you can try and distribute through as many royalty free sites and non-exclusive publishers as possible generating both monthly RF income and backend PRO royalty income. Or do a combination of both. Do not, though, guard your best tracks as your gems and special babies. I’d say get your best stuff out there earning for you.

I personally would want to maintain control of this music and sell the tracks on as many sites as possible. It has been my experience that the more distribution one has, the more money a composer can make both in RF markets, and Backend PRO royalty markets. If I could sell my music in every library in the world, I would. There just is not enough time in a day, week, month, year to get my music in the hands of all libraries out there.
Some are “do it yourself” upload platforms that just take so much time and patience. It’s a slow, deliberate process that takes years and years. But get started somewhere, get those tracks on the market. Get them on many markets ideally! Have an intelligent strategy on how to title ( and retitle) your tracks for each market too. Titles are incredibly important as some search engines deliver the playlist to a searching customer based on the title of track and not “keywords” that describe the feel and style/ genre of the track.

One of my best selling tracks in July was a track called “rock”. Pretty silly, but it worked!

If you start selling your film score music, you may want to use titles like “suspenseful underscore” or “beautiful cinematic strings”, etc etc.

Indeed, you have a lot to consider, but don’t consider for too long….Start doing. Since you have 2 companies in thread wanting to distribute your tracks eagerly…ask them if they will sell the tracks non-exclusively and also simultaneously do all the work in setting up your account with keywords, descriptions, etc. that’s a lot of unpaid work you’d have to do on nights and weekends which is a real drag. If all you’d have to do is FTP them the tracks and they handle the rest….that’s an ideal start.

[Peter]

@musician Thanks heaps for that advice and info. You’re spot on I just need to start putting the tracks out there and see how they go. I’m always writing new stuff anyway, can’t seem to help myself these days with so many tracks on the go at one time.

I’ve been in contact with a few libraries already and there are some very encouraging people out there that i’m looking forward to working with, so we’ll see how that goes.

I did listen to some of the DeWolfe Music tracks and they were pretty impressive so i can work towards that quality if they are one of top libraries around, which seems to be the case from what I hear.

Thanks again everyone for helping out!

Peter

[Peter]

Hi Guys, I thought I’d post an update as to my progress as I know it will help someone in the future. I have submitted a lot of music to different libraries some have replied some have not. I did try a few top tier libraries but still no response from any, which I take it means it’s a no go.

I have met some genuinely nice and rather helpful people, one of whom I was so impressed with we ended up doing an album of my orchestral tracks which is now for sale on various sites. That was a pleasant experience all around even though it was agreed that the music was not the standard stock music, it was nice to have someone believe in your music enough to take a risk.

I am finding out that I am quickly running out of tracks when a lot of the libraries are going exclusive so I am writing quite a bit lately. I have come to realise that the music that I love to write won’t sell as well as the music that i need to write to make money. So, even though I am still writing what I love to write I am also writing music that will sell (hopefully) in the RF world.

I have also been learning a bit about self promotion which has led me to some contacts which again led me to scoring a documentary for a community group around an artist changing lives of people with disabilities. it will be released soon 🙂

I think the most important thing I have had to come to terms with is my music is nothing special and in a sea of music, even if it was the best is not necessarily the most successful (sellable).

I have not used any names i as I don’t want to be seen as promoting anyone or myself. I just wanted to provide info for people who like myself are asking a lot of similar questions.

I hope my journey so far provides some help.

Peter

[Edouardo]

Well @Peter, you just evoked the story of my life as a library composer with all the questions that come with it. And I think every library composer has or is asking him/herself the same question.

To be truthful, I am a little appalled to observe what are my top sellers, while I have these magnificent tracks, that I consider as my best creations, that dive deeper and deeper in library databases. When one of these sale, it’s party time (It’s not a question of money). AT the same time, I am starting to get blase to see sales of ukulele/clappy or other cheesy music pop up multiple times a week in my email.

I started this library business about 2 years ago (musicians for more than 2 decades). And now I have digested that fact about the market. So my solution is to divide my studio time: 1/2 for crappy sell-able music, 1/2 for pure freedom to make the music I like. That seems to work out as I still enjoy very much what I do.

I take it like a strategy game to make the most sell-able track, while still have these drug-like high without rules and limitations when it comes to make some real music.

And I keep the faith, Some of the ‘good’ tracks do succeed to find buyers, but it does take them more time for them to get noticed…

[ChuckMott]

There is nothing saying you can’t take your music that you enjoy, and selling it via album through maybe cdbaby or one of those outlets. To do that doesn’t necessarily mean you get wrapped up in content id as you can opt out of that option. For some there’s a fair amount of crossover….solo piano music , acoustic music,ambient sorts of stuff, and you can still sell it in the library world. There are a fair amount of composers who do that, some of who are members here. Others may be a bit more famous. Keith Kenniff, for example, who acknowledges that his library music and his music as Goldmund, Helios and (with his wife) Mint Julep are entirely different animals. Thanks for posting by the way, as I visited his page (unseen music) this morning and was thrilled to find his made for tv music living beside his more artistic releases. I say write what sells, write what you enjoy and if somewhere along the road those two roads converge, the more power to you. And if you are one of those folks who do not make a living doing this, what is holding you back?

[MichaelL]

I have come to realise that the music that I love to write won’t sell as well as the music that i need to write to make money. So, even though I am still writing what I love to write I am also writing music that will sell (hopefully) in the RF world.

This pretty much sums it up. 😀

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pJw3N4KmMQ

[Author]

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