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youtube contentID allows the artist to earn revenue whether the people get scared or not. they have no choice.
Real production music composers should take care to protect their music and not put it out there for every tom dick and harry to download for nothing. Your catalog is your livelihood, you need to protect it.
I totally agree but as to most things in life, there is a learning curve. 😉
exactly Art. That’s why these are my preferences and not a business policy. I completely understand that I am working with creative people, not people with MBA degrees. I enjoy working with the former rather than the latter 🙂
The comparison between Lady Gaga and most of the production music composers on this forum is beyond apples and oranges.
I prefer not to represent composers who sell their production music catalog to consumers for personal use as well. Personal use sales of production music always ends badly.
Selling production music to consumers is something that would never occur to me. I think the reverse is what happens most often, i.e., pop stars license their consumer music.
I prefer to work with production music composers who are serious about just doing production music. no “bands” or “stars”.
Sometimes I actually feel the same way about this forum. I wish there was a filter or section just for production music composers, not song writers. I’d like to communicate with production music composers about production music…our craft.
_Michael
The comparison between Lady Gaga and most of the production music composers on this forum is beyond apples and oranges.
The point I was making (badly) was that everyone sells for 99cents on iTunes. LOL
However
I do agree though with Mark, Art and MichaelL’s points on this. The handful of tracks I put on the AS labels have generated virtually no income and in fact one lost license would invalidate any earnings. It seemed a worthwhile idea at the time to see if it generated any further interest.
Thankfully I am cautious by nature and any losses would be minimal, if any at all. You live and learn and it was a pre MLR decision !!!!
As time goes on I have learned hopefully, what production is, and more importantly what it isn’t.
Songwriters and bands who want their catalogue licensed are in different business to me. There is a crossover at times but rarely.
It is important to note that none of my knowledge “real or imagined” would be possible without the contributions, discussions and info on this site. Seriously, kudos to Art for running a tight ship, and his everlasting tolerance.
I wish there was a filter or section just for production music composers, not song writers.
I try to keep the focus on production music, particularly with the library listings, but there is some crossover. There are more than a few sites I have not listed that appear to be artist centric. Still it’s sometimes hard to know where to draw the line. CM comes to mind as an example.
Seriously, kudos to Art for running a tight ship, and his everlasting tolerance.
Thanks for the kind words Denis but I have learned so much from all the years of wisdom that many of you bring to the table.
Songwriters and bands who want their catalogue licensed are in different business to me. There is a crossover at times but rarely
Absolutely agree. It’s a different business. That’s why I call companies like CM, “licensing agents,” not libraries.
Sometimes I feel like everyone’s in an indie band, or a DJ, and that’s not what being a professional composer of production music is about. And quite frankly, that’s where a lot of the “flood” in this business comes from, struggling “artists” looking for another way to get noticed vs. production music pros.
Seriously, kudos to Art for running a tight ship, and his everlasting tolerance.
Absolutely. +1
Sometimes I feel like everyone’s in an indie band, or a DJ, and that’s not what being a professional composer of production music is about. And quite frankly, that’s where a lot of the “flood” in this business comes from, struggling “artists” looking for another way to get noticed vs. production music pros.
This is because indie bands, DJs, and beatmakers are actually encouraged into getting into music licensing. That is how I got involved in this business!
I have read many blogs by music supervisors that sell the idea of music licensing to be an untapped goldmine for struggling musicians. Now that I have more knowledge and experience, I realize that being a production music composer is very different from working to be a mainstream recording artist or producer.
Now that I have more knowledge and experience, I realize that being a production music composer is very different from working to be a mainstream recording artist or producer.
Yes it is. That’s why I call companies that handle a lot of that sort of material “licensing agents,” not libraries. Some of them even promote themselves as an alternative to production music.
I think the licensing agent model leans heavily on reality TV, which is a perfect place for pop culture music. But, when you get away from that market, there’s a whole universe of productions that need functional music.
I’ll go so far as to say that I think the reason that some people do well in one business model and not the other, is because one is a better venue for pop music, while the other is a better venue for production music. That’s why after following all of this for several years, I don’t think the everything everywhere approach is efficient, or effective, at least not for my catalog.
I’ll go so far as to say that I think the reason that some people do well in one business model and not the other, is because one is a better venue for pop music, while the other is a better venue for production music. That’s why after following all of this for several years, I don’t think the everything everywhere approach is efficient, or effective, at least not for my catalog.
The more I think about music licensing, I draw parallels to 401(k) investments. the 401(k) was not originally intended to be a retirement investment option. It was a side benefit. But as pensions decreased, the idea of a 401(k) account was sold to the masses as an investment vehicle for retirement.
As the mainstream music industry has suffered from pirating and a decrease in sales, musicians have been sold to the idea of entering into the production music business as a means to supplement or even replace the income lost from mainstream music sales.
I believe that the retitling trend is what brought the music licensing business into the eyes of struggling musicians. Musicians were offered the chance of getting music used TV shows and movies and still being allowed to sell the same music on CDs and on iTunes.
Unfortunately, most musicians learned that this business model operates quite differently from the mainstream music industry. This is why many people that dive into the production music field become disenfranchised and end up even more dissatisfied with the music business.
A healthy dose of education and humility have helped me to navigate this business. This will help most people that come into the production music field.
My opinion as a relative newcomer: I’m going to seriously restrict the libraries I’m in I think. Read a post elsewhere regarding differing tiers of libraries, and beginning, after submitting to several, to see my place in the grand scheme of things at the moment. Between retitling, hearing about tracks sell for differing prices on different websites, dealing with websites down for prolonged periods, hearing in some cases that my stuff is going to take “up to a year to be put in the system”, formatting different versions , but depths, etc for various libraries…..think I’ll stick with what seem to be with the smoothly run sites and libraries that aren’t so overloaded that they’ve crossed the fine line to being “overwhelmed” by the amounts of music they’re getting. Have a few that I’m happy with and think I’ll stick with those, and target select others. Thanks in large part to the research I’m able to do here and the comments from more veteran composers.