Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
nice guys over there at audiosparx. they were the first library that took in my music which gave me a great level of confidence. might be worth taking up their offer Boinkee.
good article. i wouldnt consider the pay for feedback option a scam. if this is being offered by an established top artist working in your genre of music then their feedback can be invaluable. if on the other hand this is a bunch of faceless so called composer/producers with no credits to their name sitting in a bedroom somewhere in cyber space then i would stay well clear.
boinkee i think you need to get away from the fixation of getting into a PMA library. some of them are not going to do much for you. if your end goal is to get placements and make money then go find out the libraries that are getting placements. i can tell you there are lots of great libraries out there getting tons of placements and they are definitely not all PMA libraries.
good to know Art. great cue. but listening to it i know of many composers who can achieve similar results inside of the box. as Mark P says you really can push today’s samples to do almost everything you need to to do to make a great trailer track in this style.
and i think that is the key Mark. aim to be the best of what you do and you can also pull in a great living. thats what i firmly believe anyway. i don’t see the point in getting into music if you’re main aim after 10 years is to be just another mediocre composer that is a jack of all trades. i think if you haven’t a least developed some sort of sound after 10 years you probably never will. the people who make the great livings in any sort of music are those who are identified by their sound, that’s even the same with pop music.
i think you have the right atitude to suceed Boinkeee. but as the saying goes “if it was that easy, every one would be doing it”.
i’m one of the newcomers in this business in comparison to some of the pro’s here so i’m still on that slippery ladder. here are a few of the lessons i’ve learnt along the way.
– knowledge is key. really do your research on this business first before you dive in. that means researching the type of deals on offer, researching the libraries you are planning to submit too etc. there is a wealth of knowledge here on MLR.
– take the advice of composers that are already in the business. this is tricky because depending on your goals and genres you may get polar opposite opinions on the best strategy (just take this thread for example).
– focus on quality over quantity. if i had just pushed out 30 medicore tracks that all sounded exactly like the other millionsof tracks out there i dont think i would of got into any exclusive libraries. why would i if i’m not offering anything unique.
beaslinger thats great to hear you are making a living on 200 tracks. that sounds alot more realistic and managable than composing 2,000 music beds. at my current speed i can compose 1 track per week so that would be a realistic target of 50 tracks per year. in 4 years i could have a nice catelogue of 200 tracks. i think for me anyway that would be alot more fullfilling than slogging away at making 1000’s of average cues to send out into the world.
but once again this is my strategy based on my experience and my goals.
seriously OP we all need to be honest with ourselves before we start aiming so high. extreme music has the best composers in the world on their books, if you’re music is good enough they will find you eventually not the other way around. unless you’re doing something that is so drastically new, fresh and interesting then extreme will not be getting back to you. you have good production skills from what i listened too but i would just start with getting your foot on the ladder and seeing how things work out from there. maybe start with a few RF libraries and see if you can catch some sales that way you will know where your strengths are.
this is just my opinion so just take it with a pinch of salt.
great post Beatslinger. thank you for sharing your positive experience.
btw what was the theme of the album of 15 songs?
exactly…I agree…sometimes writers don’t show up and suddenly it’s magical. “Hey Guys…Non Exclusive is OK! We’re kind of desperate here!”
yeah maybe so. but are all the thousands of new composers coming into the industry every year either from the music colleges around the world or hopefuls from the yellow company gonna take that chance? probably not. its hard enough to make breaks in this industry, if you have the opportunity to impress in a brief were actual music sups in TV networks will hear your music you are gonna take that opportunity whether its exclusive or not. i see it as building the CV. its like any career you have to climb the ladder.
like Alan the only exclusive briefs i now submit to are 3 year deals.
we can continue to argue this reality unitl we are blue in the face but at the end of the day the customer is king and this has become the new norm. its like video store owners complaining about the uptake of netflix and suggesting ways to stop it. its called progress and change and its going to keep happening.
in this case the networks have told the libraries they will no longer be using their non-exclusive catelogues as they are tired of getting the same track 5 times from 5 different libraries with 5 slighly different titles.
the libraries can either move with this market or go out of business. now we as the composer need to also change our strategy to stay in a job. the best way to do this imo is to diversify.
compete in all markets, RF, non-exclusive and exclusive. complaining about one business model over another gets nobody anywhere and definitely does not bring in inome.
i think the only non-exclusives that really work long term are the top end non-exclusives like crucial. everything else to me seems the name of the game is make a 1000 cues a year throw em out there and hope for the best.
for me the key word is perpetuity. as still a new comer to this industry i am already of the feeling that it is unfair for a library to ask you to write exclusive tracks for free and they will own the rights to it in perpetuity. on the other hand if its for libraries were they are only signing you up for a 3 year deal then i think its worth the stretch especially if you are seeing results.
unless they are an A list library i dont think composers should be giving away their exclusive tracks in perpetuity.
ha ha this is how easy it is to make $5 dollars these days 🙂
pre-screening also available here from a less experienced composer 😉
yes whats working is that you will always have desperate composers who are in a hurry to break into the industry instead of taking time to educate themselves and work on their craft.
in fairness as an outside observer i do find that claim of people being paid to be at these conferences a bit hard to believe.
but lets look at this service from another angle. the libraries are sick to death of getting submissions from composers who have no idea what they are doing and dont have any craft yet. so a middle man company like the yellow company comes along and pitches a service to those libraries. “tell you what,” we will filter all the rubbish from the good stuff for you and only send on quality placeable tracks. perfect for the libraries. then the service which is not going to be charity has to create a business model and to stop composers just bombarding them with rubbish they charge a $5 fee per submission which forces the composers to be more selective to what they send. so in a way everyone wins. the composer is forced to only submit good material and gets feedback on those tracks. the middle man is only getting good to great material making it easier to filter this stuff and lastly the libraries are not getting bombarded with rubbish on a daily basis and instead are only getting placeable tracks forwarded.
i can see how this model works for some all i’m saying is i don’t see the need for going down that road in the first place if you can take a free route.