[Alan]

Hey Michael Nickolas,
Did you see any back end from NBA Gametime on your April Statement? I did not. Tunesat has picked up about 50 separate placements on the NBA channel for me (all the same track). They started in April of 2017 and continue steadily. About half of them have cue sheets filed so far.

Staying on topic, my April ASCAP statement was my 2nd highest ever. I had 5 “Survey Type” lines with an “S.”
Two of those were from the Reelz Channel, $71 and $65. This is the only income I have ever received from the 85 placements tunesat has picked up on the Reelz Channel.

The other survey lines were $0.18, $1.19 and $1.63. It makes no sense to me but I really gave up trying to understand.

[Alan]

Ha, good thread. When my wife comes home and says “how was your day?’ and I reply “edits and loops…” she knows to stay away. hahaha.

My secret formula is to choose your bpm’s wisely.
Cheers all you nip and tuckers

[Alan]

I have a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 Pro (250 ohms) and a pair of Sony MDR7506 (63 ohms online, mine are 20 years old, not sure if they have changed).

I just A-B compared them. I would guestimate the Sony set is 6 to 8 dB louder if they are tight to the ear. The Sonys are very “bright” above 6kHz and make the Beyers sound very “honky” in the 600Hz to 1kHz in comparison.
The Beyers are my go to headphones for the past 3-5 years. I use them to make weekly live to 2-track rehearsal recordings for a band. The mixes generally translate well on my Genelec 8040A’s
My headphone mixes done on the Sonys generally are lacking in HF content.

[Alan]

I have this one. The price has dropped several hundred dollars since I bought it several years ago
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Studio-RTA/Producer-Station-Maple-1274228073432.gc?cntry=us&source=4WWMWXGP&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0MCWxp6D2QIVioZ-Ch01hgmZEAQYAyABEgLhGPD_BwE&kwid=productads-adid%5E57619015002-device%5Em-plaid%5E143217948282-sku%5E1274228073432@ADL4GC-adType%5EPLA

[Alan]

The Netherlands shows up on mine too.

[Alan]

I have a solution….. We can no longer “categorize” a music library into a category. Each one must be taken on it’s own merits. They are all morphing too much to lump into a category.

I like that idea. I’ll add that the successful libraries I’m in seem to cater to a certain clientele. Not one size fits all music supply. This is the reason my simple brain likes to put them into boxes. And each library has their own terms with composers. Ex/Non-Ex, upfront $ or not, perpetual or term length, split percentage, re-title or not, name your own price or not, etc.

I think MLR need a glossary of terms. I nominate Mark Petrie to write it …. anyone care to second? 😉

Seriously, do any of you have Wikipedia knowledge? Maybe this can be updated or tweak a bit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Production_music

[Alan]

So….is Non-Ex is ALWAYS re-titled for the sake of the library collecting the publishers fee? Or not?

A Non-Ex broadcast library will retitle so they can get their PRO income. The smart ones (IMO) completely change the title to there is no chance someone else gets their publisher cut. For example. I title my track SONG by Alan and register it with my publishing. Non-exclusive library BB re-titles it SONG-BB by Alan. I can say from experience that library BB has lost their publishers share due to a mistake on the cue sheet that gave me the publishers share. UNLESS they bought SONG by Alan from a RF site, hmm.

RF is Non-Exclusive as well, isn’t it?

Yes, I know of none that are exclusive

One can be in multiple RF libraries, no?

Yes, you will find most of us here with the same tracks in several “RF” libraries.

And is RF is NOT retitled?

All RF/Production/Stock site I use are non-Ex. They don’t care what you call the track. I use a couple of pseudonyms with different libraries and sometimes retitle in case a buyer searches to try to find it cheaper elsewhere. I price my tracks the same on most sites to avoid this too.

[Alan]

Non-Ex vs. RF. The differentiation between the two is something that’s eluded me for years… What’s the difference between the two? Or anyone can answer.

Non-Ex vs Exclusive is pretty clear to most on MLR. There is no shortage of debate about it, that is certain.

If I were to explain RF to my plumber friend (who charges me $80 per hour 😉 I would say this:
a Royalty Free or RF library is vendor that sells the right to download and use a piece of music for a one time fee. Each each vendor has its own terms of sale. Some charge a flat rate regardless of where/how long or how many times the music is used, others vary the license fee based upon the intended use/audience size. I expect to make $20-$100 per sale.

My OPINION: The term Royalty Free is nothing more than a marketing trick. The customers are mostly independent film producers for non-broadcast, web based videos or local broadcast commercials. I believe that newbies in film once feared they were responsible to pay music royalties for anything they created for broadcast. I think the RF term is only meant to assure the buyer that they will not have to pay performance royalties down the road for their production. I base my OPINION on what I remember was on some of the website home pages when I first started at this. I recall seeing “Never Pay Royalties” somewhere.

Do side-by-side Google searches on Royalty Free Music and Production Music. I think it is safe to say that everyone but us composers consider RF Music and Production Music the same thing.

I consider all the income generated from my music as Royalties (That’s what all those 1099’s say, haha). I break my royalties into three categories.

1. PRO payments – payments for broadcast performances from my PRO (ASCAP) which now includes TV, radio, film, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon internet etc. I have two PRO accounts, writer and publisher. I honestly don’t know where the money comes from. You can probably answer that LAwriter

2. RF/Production music license sales – my cut of “consignment shop” music sales, $20-$100 per sale

3. Sync fees – gray area here. I consider a sync fee as a one time use license. They are generally 3 to 4 figures and are used in a film, Network or higher budget TV show, national or global tv or web ad.

In my own mind I put the libraries I’m in into these same three categories.

1. Broadcast libraries – They mostly provide music for cable TV. The only income I expect is from PRO payments. M_ _ _ , SK, JP etc. I do get sync fees almost every quarter from one broadcast library. Most, but not all of these are now demanding exclusivity

2. RF Music/Production Music/Stock Music libraries – I do not expect to see any PRO income from sales here. A few “RF” sites offer PRO registration options (ha) and I always opt in. I have seen a few small PRO payments for sales from these sites, though nothing significant. I think pretty much all of these are non-exclusive.

3. Sync fee “boutique” libraries – Higher end specialty libraries that provide music to productions with significant music budgets like films or Network/Pay TV. For me, only a few licenses per year from libraries like C_ _ _ _ _ _ and the other A_S. These average around $500-$700 each with an occasional 4 figure surprise. These almost always generate significant PRO payouts too. I once had a network show use the same track 4 times in one episode. I got $500 for EACH USE. You don’t get that on Bravo, ha! The couple I have gotten into are non-exclusive. I feel this is because they are a tool to help a Music Supervisor find that perfect music for a scene, and they are willing to pay for that.

There are a few oddball libraries that try to do it all, but they don’t seem to do well for me.

That is my dissertation on RF as I see it. I’m sure many will disagree, but I’m set in my ways and probably won’t change my mind or the explanation I give my plumber. 🙂
Cheers!

[Alan]

Thanks LAwriter, I was hoping you would chime in because I know you are passionate about this stuff. I definitely fall under the “modest” room (home studio) and engineer category and I’m in Virginia, so $80 is probably a bit high for me.

If they do call (big if) I’ll probably ask them exactly how they expect the process to work. i.e. they give me xx number of tracks (music or VO with underscore? video to sync to?), based on their experience how long do they expect it to take. etc.

I’m thinking to start at $40-50 per hour because I’ve never done this kind of work and I’m sure there will be some growing pains involved. But I will tell them up front if they like my work and want me to do more then my price will go up as I get better and faster.

I had planned to apply for work with them years ago if my writing was a total failure. It’s nice that I am already on their radar.

It may never happen, but I think this has turned into a useful thread for others on MLR.

Thanks again everyone.
Cheers!

[Alan]

Here is a good article on the subject:
https://www.izotope.com/en/community/blog/tips-tutorials/2017/08/how-to-figure-out-your-audio-engineering-rate.html

[Alan]

Sought after mixers in LA charge $600 – $1000 per track, at least in the trailer music world.

Ha, I’m definitely not that good

To a company that big, they will not blink if you come in high. They may not like it, but they will be used to hearing/seeing those sorts of rates.

Agreed, my most recent gig with them was a live multi-track audio capture only. Literally plugged a usb cable into the provided house PA, hit record/pause for a few hours then delivered the raw audio track files 2 days later. (Yes, there was prep work, plus plans B and C with outboard gear in case my laptop couldn’t connect to the house, no fun there). It was 4 hours away and I REALLY didn’t want the gig so I quoted them such a high price I was sure they would refuse. They probably could have found someone local to do it for less than half what I charged. I can only assume they were willing to pay rather than risk using an unknown engineer.

Here is a side note worth sharing. I put a link to my website it in my signature line for this gig (I rarely do that) and the production company visited it a few times and listened to my tracks. I assume that is why they asked me to begin with.

I charge between $65-80 per hour. No project rates.

So I assume you work in your own studio and bill them based on your hours? Do they generally have a rough idea on how many hours you will need? By “project rates” do you mean per song, per album, etc?

[Alan]

Thanks guys

[Alan]

Thanks for sharing pike60 and Frequencee. I think it’s important for us to share this info. The newbies need to know that this is a long game and persistence is rewarded with exponential growth. Congrats to you both and keep going!

[Alan]

Art,
FYI, The close tags button didn’t work with firefox on the above post. I tried to edit it and got the same result.

[Alan]

I thought the ASCAP statement was scheduled for Monday, you’re seeing yours already?

My direct deposits from ASCAP normally hit the bank as pending deposits 1-2 business days prior to the statement date.

BTW, I am expecting less income next year. I had a couple of big sync fees and the ASCAP survey treated me well one quarter. I doubt that will be the norm though.

[Author]

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