[Wildman]

Yeah,

mad what can be done with good programming. But I doubt that it´s possible to reach all alone. You need a little team of extremly talented programmers and mixers around you to get such a sound out of vst sample libraries. But again, it`s high level trailer music and not production music and that is a big difference 🙂

[Wildman]

Ok,

it´s my norwegians friend work. Hva en flink gutt 🙂

[Wildman]

Hi Rob,

the example sound for me like Kevin Kiners work for the Clone Wars. It`s a bit of another level what the usual production music composer is capable of doing 🙂

[Wildman]

Ok. Thanx very much for your answer. That is then how it is with normal European exclusive libraries. Maybe it`s different in the U.S., but in Europe it`s very seldom to get an upfront licence fee. You`ll get your pro royalties, if the track is used in TV, and normally a 50/50 share with direct syncs but nothing upfront…

[Wildman]

Yeah, it`s somehow a weird imagination of pay to get played sites….:-)

[Wildman]

Hi,

I keep things simple. I master in WaveLab. I use an 10 band eq, the BBE D82, it`s my secret weapon, a T-Racks Brickwall Limiter (great), and the L2. I very much trust my ears and the WaveLab metering 🙂

[Wildman]

I think the thread is very good for newbies and of course for professionals too, to constantly think about quality music. But still it is more out there as black and white 🙂

I will tell you an example of what some folks probably happened here before. I had a rejected acoustic guitar track with a very good exclusive library. Damn, I was sour. I listened to the track and thought what is the problem with this song ??? It`s good played, a nice composition and the sound is good !

A year later I wrote a whole album with pop and acoustic tracks for another exclusive library and I placed the acoustic guitar track on the album. 6 weeks later the track was constantly used in TV.

That´s how it is. All relative ! You  never know. How many pop tracks got rejected which later became famous ? A lot…..

Now rejections are not a real problem for me anymore. I see it sporty 🙂

[Wildman]

Hi folks, thanx for the thread, it`s very informative….

But people, please don`t let us forget this “why someone is rejecting cues” topic is the opinion of a single Library operator. Others may have other views if a song is good enough or not. It’s all relative ….. (Einstein would say) 🙂

[Wildman]

I think this “stick to one cue at a time” method is very effective but unfortunately that didn`t work out for me. I was so into a particular song that I wrote, produced and mixed in 1-2 days, including sending the track to the particular library, that I often overlooked little mistakes. Of course in production music it`s good to have a healthy balance between quantity and time but the quality should always be good.

Months or weeks later, I would hear my tracks and think: “Damn, here is the bass or the snare too loud or the acoustic guitar too quiet, too much reverb or a frequency is anoying me now !”

That`s why I write and produce the song in a row but I mix, master and uplaod a track often a week or two later.

 

[Wildman]

Hi folks,

I have almost 400 tracks in exclusive libraries and 100 tracks with other business models. When I started to write production music a few years ago I thought it`s totally normal to sign exclusive deals and that the tracks are assigned to the library in perpetuity.

I never asked for a reverse clause and I never took production costs or upfront money so far from them. Maybe the whole bizz works different in Europe. I don`t really know. I work with good and known libraries. Believe me there were times when I cursed the whole system but things changed with years and more experience.

Out of this 400 tracks there are about 100 tracks (25%) running regulary in TV. 10% running very good and I could make a “good” living if the cue sheets would be filled out correctly but that`s another topic.

There are days I am very sad that 300 songs are not used “yet” and then I ask myself what would be “if” a) this songs would be with non-exclusive libraries or b) with royalty free sellers ?

Answer: I don`t know. It`s hard to say if the tracks would be better somewhere else or make me more money and finally a good living. With no doubt as a library writer you have to be good and versatile but a lot of things we can`t influence and we need luck as well. Sometimes, when I open my tunesat account, I get happy because I can read the track name of one of those 300 unused songs that will be used from now on. If a track is in the TV system that track will be used more often in my experience.

I have now a simple and effective way to think about the library bizz. For me there are 4 systems. A) trailer and high end botique production music libraries. This companies work worldwide. I would ask for a production fee or upfront money. It depends on the deal. B) Good exclusive libraries that work in their territory. They don`t pay upfront money or production costs but they have good customers and your music will be in TV. C) Non-Exclusive or Retitling libraries. Most non-exclusive libraries retitle and don`t pay any upfront. D) Royalty free sellers(libraries). You upload your tracks there, write good meta data and see what happens.

I personally work for B and D but I started to work for A as well. I understand the non-exclusive retitling thing but it`s not for me. My personal goal is of course to work more for A.

My good and well produced music I`ll give to B. It takes time to generate money but Pro money will come. My good and fast produced music will go to D. These days your music has to be good to sell no matter for which system you might work. My top music with live musicians and co-writers, perfect mixed and mastered, will go to A.

I hope I could help a bit. Read also Mark Petries articles.

See ya and a Happy New Year

Wildman

 

 

[Wildman]

Absolute correct, advertising is part of any business ! That`s why AS, as a seller, gets  a 60%  share from a non-exclusive composer and 40% from an exclusiv composer and with that share they have to economize.

In return I, as a composer, expect that they advertise and sell my product. Or why else should I give them a share ?

There are plenty of good ways to advertise each composers music fair but ppc is simply not a fair way.

I am also a professional musician/composer. We have to learn to value our catalogue.

[Wildman]

No Anonymous. Pay per click is definitely “not” worth it. AS gets already 60% but they are to poor to run their site and the composer  has to get involved to buy this poor company more server space for more music that lies in the deep cellar of a production music company ???

Pay per click helps a composer to raise popularity ?

That`s a NO Go. Never ever work with companies who charge money for such services or for reviewing or any other weird service!

[removed and edited by moderator]

A Merry Christmas to all of you 🙂

Wildman

[Wildman]

And companies like Revostock or Pond5, in my opinion, prefer royality free music. Just check the best selling. 80% of the composers pretend not to be pro members. They are simply Production teams. I guess everybody understands what that means. It is good to split those two systems. With royality free companies you ll make money evtl.faster but it can happen that your tracks will run in programs they are not supposed to run and with exclusive libraries you ll make money
for a long period if the company has good connections to tv broadcasters.
My personal rule is like…for little and medium projects I licence my tracks to stock market and royality free companies and for the big stuff I licence with exclusive libraries.

[Wildman]

Hi folks,
Prs(England) and Gema (Germany) do a good job and those two countries are as well the biggest markets for production music in Europe. As a European citizen I recommend those Pros. But check their reglementations because they are both strict in some way. It is for sure ok with Bmi or Ascap but it depends for which market you’ll work more. I wait 2-3 years to get my U.S. Royalities. Welcome into the
reality.

[Wildman]

What we get is an “use list” of our used tracks in TV/Radio. But the problem is that the list just shows me approx half of the usages I really had f.e. in 2011

I monitor my tracks with Tunesat and it`s very frustrating to realise that there`s a huge difference between the expected income and the reality ! Gema (the pro) don`t use a monitoring system so far.

And  I am just talking about my home country. My tracks are runnng worldwide. I don`t even want to think about any further…..you get it folks…..

[Author]

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