To submit or not to submit… that is the question

[MichaelL]

@Advice, thanks for the kind words. I’m no guru. I’ve been very very lucky.

This is a brutal business that requires a lot of time and investment. There were four factors that I considered when I made the risky decision to leave my law practice and return to composing.

1) I had already earned a living as a composer for 20 + years, 2) I was already earning royalties from 4 TV theme songs, 3) we had another source of income, and 4) I had saved 20 years worth of midi files (about 2,000) from which I could build a new catalog.

If I had to start over from square one, without any one of those factors, I’d still be practicing law, despite my love of music and composing.

As far as exclusives go, I’m used to getting paid upfront. In the 90’s I was making around mid five figures to produce 10-15 cues per month, including 5 versions of each cue: full, bed, 60, 30 and 15. I look back at that as library boot camp.

So, I’m not really comfortable just handing cues over for free, particularly when there’s sometimes marginal difference between the backend payout for 15-30 seconds of music on a TV show and what the net would be on a sale of the same cue in a RF library. Case in point :38  of BG music in one of my shows on FOX paid $10.27. I just sold a :30 RF cue and netted $20. So, the RF cue is ahead by $9.73. Plus, that same RF cue has sold twice now.

But…there’s always a but, this business is highly nuanced. There’s no single path to success. I spent 20+ years composing for corporate clients, technical films/videos and educational productions, non-broadcast producers…the heart of the RF client base. As such, the vast majority of the 2,000 cues that I’ve accumulated will go into RF libraries. Libraries like JP and Crucial don’t have much need for music that was composed for a manufacturing sequence in a corporate film, or for horseshoe crabs mating in a science documentary. So, I’m building on my strengths and experience.

All libraries are not the same. You have to be a student of this business. You really have to do your homework and understand the libraries that you want to work with, what they need, and what they expect, who their clients are.  Otherwise, you are just shooting in the dark.

Notice that I didn’t mention writing “MY” music, or “MY” vision, or “MY” art? There are places for that if you’re an indie artist or avant-garde composer, but generally speaking outside the realm of production music.

You can learn a lot from composers who post here. Mark Petrie has offered tons of great advice, like “write every day, even when you don’t feel like it.” He also laid out his strategy of building on his back catalog, 12 hours a day, 6 days per week for 3 0r 4 years to get to the point of earning a living, with about (if I recall correctly) 1,500 tracks.

Steven Baird once laid out his approach, which included minimizing his living expenses, which I think is very important. I think Steve said he had been at it for 3-4 years, and was approaching the point of being able to leave his day job, with about 500 tracks.

In addition to being excellent writers, Mark and Steve have one thing in common…they understand business. That is so very very important.

As Art says YMMV. What your needs are, and how you define “earning a living” are huge factors. My recollection is that at the end of 3-4 years Mark was making about twice what Steve projected that he would make 100K/50K, respectively.

Minimizing your expenses, as Steven did,  helps you get there sooner. Hence, my wife and I are downsizing, de-blinging, and moving to the country. We all come from a different place. If you have kids or a mortgage, it’s not so easy.

To address your question: Do I think that part-timers should give up and throw in the towel? NO. But…they need to be realistic. The day you get that first placement, is not the day to tell your boss what you really think of him or her. If you’re having fun and not losing your shirt, go for it.

Enough rambling on. I’ll never get those tracks done, if I keep doing this.

Cheers,

Michael

 

[Musicmatters]

Michael,

I couldn’t agree more with “A”… thanks for your voice and posting with so much thought and consideration for us less experienced composers… it gives us a better roadmap. I, for one have been at this for the last couple of years… i am nowhere near meeting my expenses but i am ready to do whatever it takes and cannot imagine doing anything else. I also totally agree with the others that you have to write music whenever you can, and dont keep very high expectations… just let it come out. The more you do it the better you get and the better you know your tools and.. keep smiling…. peace to all

 

Abbas

[Author]

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