Service to submit a track to multiple libraries at the same time?

[chrisroeder]

Hi there,
I’ve just got started with the music library thing and I’m finding it deeply tedious to be constantly uploading tracks in slightly different formats to all the different sites and finding it hard to track which sites are making the money with which tracks.

It’s all so frustrating, I’m in the process of creating a service to automate the process and I wanted to find out:

1/ Is there any tool/service like this that already exists?
2/ Would the people around here be interested in such a tool?
3/ Anyone got any suggestions where else I could spread the word?

If you are interested in the service you can signup here: http://libsub.com

Thanks,
Chris

[Art Munson]

Hi Chris,

There was one a few years ago called ISYNDICA but they went belly up after a year or so. I think there are just too many formats, too many libraries and not enough composers willing to pay for it.

[Art Munson]

I might add that we were all confronted with the tediousness of it when we first started but have learned to adapt. 🙂

[Michael]

The implication from the add is that there is some sort of software that does the upload etc.

Is that the case or will somebody physically input the track and relevant data?

And what sort of money would you be asking per track/number of tracks?

[Del Smyth]

This is a great idea. Let’s swamp the libraries with thousands upon thousands of our tunes and put the likes of Universal and EMI out of business for good!

The industry has been waiting a long time for this because, frankly, there isn’t enough RF stuff available at the moment.

Hurrah!!

[MichaelL]

@Del…do I detect a hint of sarcasm?

People can make good money at ALL levels of this business, IF they know what they’re doing as a writer, where they’re music fits in, are prolific and how to market themselves.

[Kenny]

To be  honest, I dont see how anybody can make decent money on such a service. In my case I got pretty good routines and workflow for the uploading and tagging process, so it doesnt actually take that long anymore. The price I would be willing to pay for each track, will probably not be enough for others to make a good business out of it.

[chrisroeder]

Thanks everyone for the comments – super interesting.

There was one a few years ago called ISYNDICA but they went belly up after a year or so. I think there are just too many formats, too many libraries and not enough composers willing to pay for it.

It will definitely be a lot of work, but it makes me sad how much wasted, duplicated effort there is each time I write a new track. There do seem to be a fair few replacements for ISYNDICA (like ProStockMaster), but they all seem to focus on the photo side of things.

You’re 100% right though – it’s all about finding enough composers who are willing to pay for it.

I might add that we were all confronted with the tediousness of it when we first started but have learned to adapt.

It’s not just the tediousness of it though – if the webapp could save everyone 5 hours / month (or whatever), then it would be a useful tool I think.

The implication from the add is that there is some sort of software that does the upload etc.

Is that the case or will somebody physically input the track and relevant data?

And what sort of money would you be asking per track/number of tracks?

Yes, it will be a webapp. For pricing, I’ve got no idea at the moment. I prefer a subscription based service – I’d hate to have to pick and choose between which tracks to submit via the service and which didn’t make the cut. But I’ve got no real idea about how much (if anything) people would be willing to pay – what do you think would be a fair price?

This is a great idea. Let’s swamp the libraries with thousands upon thousands of our tunes and put the likes of Universal and EMI out of business for good!

Each Music Library is a storefront where I can sell my music. It makes sense to me to put my music in as many stores as possible.

To be honest, I dont see how anybody can make decent money on such a service. In my case I got pretty good routines and workflow for the uploading and tagging process, so it doesnt actually take that long anymore. The price I would be willing to pay for each track, will probably not be enough for others to make a good business out of it.

I’m not sure it’s possible either. I’m super curious though – how long does it take you to upload to the various libraries? How many libraries are you uploading to?

[Mark Lewis]

Hi Chris, I like your replies to all the different responses you have received, nice and rational.
I build lots of different systems on the web and I can’t imagine how you could build one system that could submit to so many places that have completely different criteria. Unless each place you were submitting to had a submission API available.
The upload criteria difference between my site and AS, AM, pond, AJ, etc is hugely different. Some you write your own keywords, some you choose, some you upload wav and MP3 some you don’t, you still have to write your own titles, descriptions, keywords etc and with a system as you have described it would seem to me that you would be doing almost the same amount of work for the upload of each song but you would only be doing it one interface.
Off the top of my head I’m thinking you might need to contact library owners before composers. If you were able to show on your home page a huge list of popular music licensing sites that you had partnerships with, that your customers could automatically upload to, then you might have something.
Maybe write a submission API that has every possible data entry field imaginable for a music library submission and offer it to the popular music libraries? Or collaborate with the libraries in writing an API.
And maybe a checkbox in the composer admin sections of all the different music libraries that says “for automatic uploads to this site join libsub.com” and give the music libraries a one-time affiliate type payment for each new customer.

/End of my stream of consciousness ideas for your project/

-Mark

[Mark Lewis]

One last idea…
For libraries that don’t accept every composer that wants to sign on, libraries that audition the composer first, you might offer a simple service that submits composer name, comments and URL to a soundcloud playlist to send to each of these types of libraries in one go.

-Mark

[haven42]

Hi Chris,

frickin amazing!  (Ok, I am convinced there is such thing as “Universal Intelligence”…here is a link to my post with same idea (Michael L brought your post to my attention and suggested we may want to partner on this – I am interested in discussing that)

https://musiclibraryreport.com/forums/topic/looking-for-feedback-on-starting-new-library/

(look towards the bottom of this thread and you will see where I lay out my idea)

And by the way, Chris – I have called a few libraries – they seem to be very supportive of it – even saying, yes they would like to “sponsor/endorse” etc. I have a few different ideas about how i was thinking about going about it – I think we should maybe do a skype?

-Haven

[MichaelL]

@Haven and Chris….do I get a percentage for hooking you two up?

Sorry, that’s just the lawyer talking. 😆

[chrisroeder]

@Mark – All good ideas, I like them a lot. Although the sites have different fields, there is a fair amount of overlap. Having said that, you’re totally right, an API approach would be 10000x better. Contacting the libraries was next on my list (looks like Haven beat me!). I would love to have a 10 minute chat to you about that – drop me an email at chris@nonfatal.com if you’ve got a moment.

@Haven42 – Aww yeah, we should definitely talk! Can’t figure out a way to DM you, can you email me?

@MichaelL – No percentage for you, but you’re definitely first in for beta testing!

[haven mcinerney]

@chris – for sure – i’ll send you an email w my contact info – would be great to chat on this

@michael – lawyer? we just may need one of those! LOL

[MichaelL]

@Haven….I prefer to say “recovering attorney.”  😉

You guys will need to pick a jurisdiction to locate your business, and find a lawyer who is licensed there to help you. Presumably, you’ll choose one of your locations.

All the best,

Michael

 

 

[Author]

Posts