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In the almost 40 years that I’ve been composing I’ve seen upfront virtually disappear because of composers’ willingness to give away their music.
So, remember, when you complain about the state of the music business, this is the monster that some of us have created.
The downfall started before I got in the game.
I find it a bit offensive for people that have been at it for decades to sit on a high horse and look down on younger people for dealing with the cards that have been dealt. Who in their right mind would ask for no upfront money and declining backend fees?
These lecturings are getting old and tiresome. People are pointing fingers and blaming one another for circumstances outside of their control. It gets silly after a while. If older composers have a problem with the industry, they should be inventing the solutions. They should not be sitting back and saying “look what you are settling for”.
What are the solutions?!? Until I hear the solutions, I am not going to take any more words of wisdom too seriously. It just makes one group of people attack another. In the meantime, a small group of people are making money from the whole ordeal.
Continue to tear people down for trying to make living. It must feel good to snicker at others trying to make a way through these rough waters. 🙁
While I may not agree with the word “never,” I certainly understand the principles behind the message. Hey, the downfall started before I got in the game as well but I wasn’t offended at all.
Here’s what I’d offer up for “new guys,” “old dawgs,” and everyone in between: Be the change that you want to see happen.
At this point I wonder if there is any hope for music, as a business, as practiced back in the “good old days”. That genie is out of the bottle and not going back in. It behooves us all to find our own personal “angle” to be successful in today’s music world. Of course as in any business, in any time frame, it’s a continually moving target.
Among other things, I’m following the example of a major library. While others were cutting their prices and doing gratis deals, they raised their prices and pushed up quality.
So I keep upping my quality, am shooting for the top and will politely decline all opportunities for ‘exposure’.
People will pay for what they perceive to be a premium product. If you position yourself in the budget demographic, you will only find those looking for music on a discount budget, or for free.
Depends on what you want.
2c.
People will pay for what they perceive to be a premium product. If you position yourself in the budget demographic, you will only find those looking for music on a discount budget, or for free.
Great advice Rob!
When I started out writing full time, I was pumping out tracks at a rate of at least one a day. Needless to say, the work wasn’t my best and I was falling into the trap of compositional shortcuts that come from working in an assembly line fashion.
About five years ago I transitioned to focusing full time on trailers and other higher end licensing. The music had to be much, much better and forced me to spend a week or more on just one track. Through doing such intensive work, I improved both my composition and production skills. Eventually I made more from writing just one high end track a week than I did from writing 10 or more reality TV type tracks.
Great article by Troels.
I read some of the replies on the 8dio website and I cannot believe what some of them say. How can (aspiring) composers seriously argue against the points Troels is making?
Has anyone ever heard engineers, laywers, scientists, doctors, pilots, teachers etc. encourage each other to undercut themselves, to offer their services for free, to work for “exposure” or “credit”? Next time I see the dentist I’ll tell him he can fix my teeth for credits and a warm handshake only, let’s see how that will go.Seriously, it is economics 101. The more people who offer their service for free, the lower the market price for that service will be. And that is it, unfortunately, no matter how you look at it.
Here is Troels advice:
1. You should NEVER work for free – unless you think your music should be for free. Free (most likely) meaning your music sucks so badly – no-one wants to pay for it.
2. You should NEVER sign up for projects under the promises and illusion that the credits alone will boost your career. Credits won’t matter when you are staring at the last can of baked beans.
3. You should ALWAYS negotiate an amount that makes you feel reasonably well about yourself. It doesn’t have to be thousands of dollars pr. minute, but something that matches the current level in your career – and something you can survive from (unless you don’t want to survive that is!)
+1
Golden rules to be applied in all businesses.
It is also a sign of respect to others and to yourself.That is great advice Rob! I’ve said for a while people don’t want dirt cheap they want the best value. I try to echo that through my blog and to new musicians that get a hold of me. There is a misconception about supply/demand and I think a lot of it is not being experienced. People think that lower prices will dramatically increase sales, and in this business I really don’t think that is the case.
Personally I think there is a LOT of new opportunity out there for us, and I am thankful to have gotten involved in this business when I did. It might just be my age but every job I’ve worked at I’ve heard from the people that have worked there a long time that it’s a lot harder now then it used to be, or we used to get paid a lot more for this back then. It is not just the music business it’s like everything, so I guess my expectations are different. Recently, I just started focusing my business locally and I have had a VERY positive response. I just joined my local chamber of commerce, and have got the opportunity to network with business owners in the area.
Let me tell you, maybe in the virtual world the competition for music is very tough, but in the real world I am the only commercial musician in probably a 50 mile radius. I have virtually no competition locally, and I am surprised by how many businesses need to occasionally license music, and I direct them to my website to make their purchases.
That is just some food for thought, and not only have I had some local stock music sales, I’ve gotten some quotes for custom music as well. So I guess my advice would be don’t underestimate your local business community, they maybe needing more music then you think.
I totally agree with Rob. What can we take from this and what can we, as a group, do about this. This message hits home like a hammer. There could be hundreds of composers reading this blog and together maybe we can make a difference, in spite of the composers who do not agree. I wish there was a union for composers as many of us are very naive. Here are some suggestions apart from not working for free.
1. Raise rates, working for free and working for 5$ tracks is very similar. I suggest a minimum rate of $50 at all RF sites. I have all my tracks set even higher.
2. Do not work with people who are trying to trap you to work with free, in fact expose such people whether they are publishers, libraries etc.
3. Network to help each other. Think as a community, not as an individual.
The business of music starts with us. If we dont comply, the music stops flowing. We have the power !!!
There is currently a huge overflow of music which will eventually subside as a lot of part time composers realize that this work is not that easy. We have to come together and stay focused till then.
I really appreciate this thread and especially MuscoSound’s comments.
I make a living creating music, composition is just a part of that (I record and produce as well). Composition has become a more lucrative endeavor for me over the last few years and the majority of the money I’ve made has been through deals that have at least started locally even if they’ve gone past that (I’m lucky enough to have a great production company nearby).
Library music is the least lucrative of everything that I do but I enjoy it. It’s what I do when I don’t have a gig otherwise but it’s never the priority. Library is great for keeping me in the writing process and allowing me to explore new territory. I can’t imagine counting on it for everything but it sounds like some folks have success with that here and my hat’s off to them.
In my experience I don’t personally know a composer that depends solely on library music. A couple of guys I know who are more successful than me hardly participate in library music at all. I think a lot of people who are new to this see the discussions here and think that library music is the end-all-be-all for many composers when that’s not necessarily the case in my experience.
As far as library music goes, I’ve been fortunate enough to get in with some nicer libraries in the last few months and I’m very happy about that. One of the criteria that I established that led to that is that I will no longer (never say never) work with a library where I can’t establish a personal relationship with someone on the other end. This has been beneficial in a couple of ways: Getting into cooperative and collaborative conversations has meant that I’ve gotten feedback that’s improved the quality of my output significantly. Also, even when there’s no money up front, directly working with someone means that there’s an investment coming from both parties. I know this approach might not work for everyone but so far it’s working for me. i just can’t bear to do anymore mindless uploading into a system that doesn’t value what I have to offer.
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