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In my case I now have upwards of 200 tracks (near, like 182) . While last year it looked like my numbers were seriously climbing upwards, this year I’m beginning to question this venture as even a passive second income stream. Still love seeing my tracks get used, but I am a practical person. Is there a number you can look at and say, if I am not consistently making this amount after 5 years, I may just throw in the towel , and concentrate my musical energy and skills/ talents elsewhere?
At this point I feel the whole venture is a serious hobby and will never turn into a full time or a lucrative gig… I’m okay with that as I am 56 and it allows me to earn the same money that I would earn if I played in a bar band once or twice a month. I do still perform a few times a year and still write and record actual songs and put them out there… where they die slowly but it’s what I do… and I love doing it. I am having my best year mainly from one nice fee for a Public Domain Christmas track (3500 total this year so far) but I am well aware that could be my 15 minutes of fame and it could be all smaller numbers from here… I have nice gear, I have some level of talent and it keeps my brain active anything else is a plus in my eyes.
Yeah, the pie slices get smaller and smaller as time goes on.
We might be able to live on what we make but not In SoCal. Then again we have friends living Bulgaria on about $1k a month. Not sure I would want to do that!
Still, making music is what I love doing and nothing else even comes close.
I live on music licensing in SoCal. And live pretty well I might add. You can do anything in life.
I’m at around 400 cues and been writing TV stuff for 6 years. I really figured at this point the income would be much more significant. I don’t put in 40 hours a week at composing, but I have invested a good portion of my time. From what info I gathered early on, at around 500 cues, you could make a living, and that’s definitely not the case. I think like Art said the slices of the pie are dwindling. I make less than a quarter of my living from composing. I’m sure if I put in 40 hours and hustled I could make a living, but it’s too much of an uphill climb for me at this stage. I got into composing as an outlet for my writing, and to make some passive income, and it has done both for me. The hardest part for me right now is finding libraries for my cues. Don’t want to do exclusives without upfronts, and it’s hard to find decent non-ex libs. Hate to be a doomsday guy, but I think the glory days of composing (like most of the music business) are behind us, and it will be interesting to see what the future holds.
I’ve been writing music for about four years and have about 300 tracks that make me about $600 a month, so on average $2 per track per month. Although that $2 per month figure is falling as the market becomes swamped with music.
I guess the dream would be to get up to 1000 tracks and nearer $2000 a month and then consider giving up the day job 🙂 But even then you’d have to keep writing new tracks as old ones fall out of favour and music trends change.
We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies. – Walt Disney.
I think the same applies for music. I’m an Amateur, but have played almost 30 years (some in bands). I got into recording after the home recording boom in the late 2000s, but only have about 100 recorded tracks (through about the same amt. of songs as a songwriter), done over the last 8 years, so to me, production music is like a portfolio, a CV to showcase for bigger gigs (like teaching, movie projects ect.). It can of course also stand on it’s own, and be an income stream in itself, but I would never expect it to be comparable with, say, a full time teaching job. I would like to step up the game, if I could hope to see about 25 grand a year for my pension (I’m 47), but hardly believe it is possible – so I just take it real slow and keep it real fun.
Many musicians today have to take a 360 degree approach to earnings, and creatively combine many different types of gigs, in order to achieve a full valid income. They have to jump on every opportunity imaginable. Easy to understand why young musicians becomes almost anarchistic in their political views. Thats a survival attitude.
For me, doing music is acceptable for the love of it (“amateur” literally means; one who loves) – but going professional as your only path, you need uncompromizable passion, undeniable talent, the right circumstances, careful budgets, few other commitments, or lots of money in the bank to draw upon. If it’s all about the money, I would find music at the bottom of my list of things to do. On my list “all about the love”, music is on top, as I get immediate joy when I’m playing, it’s very social, and music requires a lot of skill, so it also makes me proud and feel accomplished.
But as the big record selling days are over now, I guess we live in a world where our parents’ “get a real job” unfortunately is more true than it ever was before. The “Money for Nothing” myths that I grew up with, is today just that, a good story, with a little drawing power left still, but..
Like they say, music is about the only business where you spend two million to make one million.
That’s my expectations, and how I feel about the circus.
Hate to be a doomsday guy, but I think the glory days of composing (like most of the music business) are behind us, and it will be interesting to see what the future holds.
Everyone complains about the “race to the bottom,” but that is a market adjustment for supply and demand.
Back in the “glory days,” under most circumstances, it took expensive tools and a highly-developed skill set to make a living as a composer.
Today, tools are cheap while musical knowledge and skills are optional. The result is a market in which anyone and everyone is producing content. That kind of market cannot sustain the kind of numbers that composers enjoyed in years past.
A few of you mentioned being “older.” Much of the market, especially TV, is driven by demographics and specifically toward a younger 18 to 34-year old audience. It’s not easy or enjoyable to write for a much younger audience if the music doesn’t come naturally or appeal to you. Then, it’s just drudgery, like many other jobs, only for less money.
Art is correct that the slices of the pie are getting thinner, much thinner. I don’t see that changing unless the demand for music exceeds the supply. However, with composers cranking out content 24/7 on laptops and even iPhones in every corner of the planet, I doubt that value will return.
Like lottery winners, there will always be enough who succeed to inspire others.
I guess the dream would be to get up to 1000 tracks and nearer $2000 a month and then consider giving up the day job ? But even then you’d have to keep writing new tracks as old ones fall out of favour and music trends change.
There are composers with 100 tracks who make as much as composers with 1,000. The latter part is especially true if you write trend-based tracks rather than “evergreen” tracks.
Hello to all! I would say this. Never give up something that makes you happy! As well, it really doesn’t pay off until you don’t look for just the payout! If it is a extra income, great. if it is a hobby, great. But, if you need it to be more than that “figure out what steps you are missing, and make the necessary adjustments!” I now get about 400-600 cues a year; simply by understanding what I was not doing. One big key to this whole thing is.. “Just like any other business; it takes money to make money!!”
Never give up something that makes you happy!
Quite true and conversely if something doesn’t make you happy, why do it?
I’ve known writers who were unhappy in this busines because of the “business.” They didn’t like the music that they had to produce in order to make money, so they got out and are much happier (making music that they enjoy).
Depending on your musical preferences, there are easier ways to make money and better ways to make music.
@Chuck
I’m beginning to question this venture…and concentrate my musical energy and skills/ talents elsewhere?
@Mc Gtr
combine many different types of gigs, in order to achieve a full valid income
Chuck – I think Mc Gtr has a great point. And if I correctly recall, I’ve read in some of your previous posts that you’re plan is to leave your day job and pursue music full-time.
Could you make that happen if you combine your gigging, music production and other musical revenue like transcribing, live sound, making a Kontakt instrument, studio session work, adjunct professor at a college (you know lots about recording and composing) or a evening adult Ed guitar class etc, etc.?
There are so many ways to go to work…and bring your guitar:-)
I think MichaelL nailed it right here:
There are composers with 100 tracks who make as much as composers with 1,000. The latter part is especially true if you write trend-based tracks rather than “evergreen” tracks.
From my perspective – just looking at how my tracks are performing, the lower end side of things – RF / micro licensing – has become a lot more crowded over the past five years, but particular this last year. One site that used to make me more than $1500 a month a few years ago is down to maybe $100. The re-titling side of things seems to be getting more crowded too.
Overall, like what Michael said, it seems the key to survival now is quality over quantity, and working with libraries that get your music used in more lucrative ways.
Because with all that doom and gloom I mentioned above, you can still make a great living with library music, particularly with in demand genres that very few others can do well.
It’s a moving target, as the production value expectations in areas like trailer music go up every year, but there are still many composers doing really well, some with just a couple dozen tracks released a year.
i truly believe there will always be high end clients out there willing to pay good money for a high end product. quality over quantity hopefully will win out in the end and be better for everyone overall including the industry.
One site that used to make me more than $1500 a month a few years ago is down to maybe $100.
I know the site. It used to be my second most profitable. Now, it’s non-existent.
Overall, like what Michael said, it seems the key to survival now is quality over quantity, and working with libraries that get your music used in more lucrative ways.
I believe that quality is the key if you want to write a track today and have it still making money ten years from now. The notion of putting out X-number of tracks and being “set for life” may be mostly a delusion. If you’re producing disposable cookie-cutter tracks with a short shelf-life, you’ll always need to feed the machine to keep even.
I’m not sure that anyone who ever dreamed of being a musician or composer did so with the intent of simply cranking out content. Ultimately, the question is what makes you happy as a musician? If a day job allows you to make music that you love rather than chasing pennies writing music that you might not even listen too given the choice, then a day job can be a very good thing and not something that you want to abandon.
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