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I had an idea and I wanted some input on it. I’ve been wondering if it would be a good idea to place other composer’s tracks (anyone who would want this done) with music libraries in return for a fraction of the income generated from the tracks . They would still keep all of their backend royalties they would have received if they were to place their tracks themselves, as well as a large part of the license fees from each site.
I’m guessing there’s already people who do this, and I can see the appeal of it, both for the composer, and the person placing the tracks (I guess they’d be like a publisher in a sense). All the composer would have to do is create tracks, and the person placing the tracks would do all of the research on the music libraries, sift through tracks to for quality, uploading, tagging, descriptions, and everything else that would normally be the job of just one person.
What are you thoughts on either having someone do this, or doing this for others? Thanks.
I had a thought on this too ,sort of music publishing house or agent that specialize in production music and libraries.
I would love to just write music and the give and then give tracks to someone who can shop them around the net better then I do . Loosing percentage on split would be compensated by having more material since there would be more time left for writing music which in the end I like and can do better then dealing with libraries and track configurations.
It’s no secret that talented composers are not always the best salesmen and vice versa.
@Mark, that’s good to know. I’ve been discussing the idea of putting our library online, with the producer of the television shows that I write for. Although, it’s great to be a feeder library for seven syndicated shows, I’d like get it wider exposure.
@Nathan and Andrej, there is at least one person I know of that is doing just that. It seems to be by invitation only or recommendation right now, so I’m not sure he wants his name posted. But…what you suggest does exist.
Cheers,
Michael
I’m sure it’s doable and others have mentioned there are folks doing it. Two big challenges I see are (1) Exclusivity. You can’t have composers pitching the same tracks to the same libraries on their own. (2) How do you get paid? It would be difficult to run a business based on placement results (e.g. % of sales) only since these vary so much and take years to develop. Composers are reluctant sometimes to pay upfront with no guarantee of results and no one can make a guarantee. If you wanted to share in publishing, that would be problematic since the libraries themselves generally want the publishers share. Asking them to split that can make things complicated for them.
I ran a small business years ago where I dealt with many songwriters and composers. Most of the time it was smooth and easy but sometimes (just look at some of the posts on forums like this one) the bad situations made it very difficult. Just getting people to sign and return contracts was a pain at times.
And never underestimate how many hours of work are required before you even see a penny. You have to be thinking long term, 2, 3, 5 years in planning.
As I said upfront, I’m sure it’s doable and with the right creativity, business skills, and approach, there is a business model out there.
😀