[daveydad]

Thanks for the insight about charging per hour. Hadn’t thought of that. I just finished composing 10 mins of music for a low budget educational video; not extremely complicated music, 4-5 tracks each, took me about 8-10 hours total. I was paid $1000; so using that as a baseline, I’m thinking $100 per minute would be a good place to start. No other musicians are involved.

I think they’ll be fine with me just composing however many tracks it takes to fit their video and not an actual score to picture. So if they need 40 minutes of music I would ask $4000. I know this is gonna blow their mind! Why? The client is a friend which can make it harder to negotiate… you know how that goes.

[daveydad]

Thanks for the tips. I also found one of my songs being used on a YT video that was a rough demo I had never posted/released anywhere except for SoundCloud.

[daveydad]

Chuck, wish I could help. I have no idea. I have seen numbers go up and down over the course of the 2 years I’ve been doing this. I have over 200 tracks on most RF sites. In fact, I’m on about 20 RF sites and most have never had any sales. So it makes me wonder, do I keep the tracks with them, add more or cancel the accounts with no sales?

[daveydad]

good points. yeah, as originally stated, this isn’t a true score synced with the video… simply replacing stock music with original music. i simply listen to the stock tracks and compose something similar, without ripping it off. so far, i’ve composed 4 tracks about 2 mins each in two days of work; guessing maybe 8-10 hours of total time. so far, the video people love what i’ve done!

[daveydad]

did you just contact them via email?

[daveydad]

Has anyone submitted music to these guys?

[daveydad]

Guys, thanks for the “flood” 🙂 of comments, thoughts and wisdome!

[daveydad]

I joined on exclusive library in the Netherlands. Almost been two yeas and nothing. They keep saying they’re making inroads to get music placed. Trouble is, deal with them is 5 years; good thing is, only signed 22 tracks.

[daveydad]

Interesting thread. How exactly does Competitrack work and how does one use it? I signed up a while back but am clueless.

Also, thanks to Tunesat info, I have had a song used on a religious station for many months now, several times a month. Will that generate anything? Thanks.

[daveydad]

will do. nothing yet… my guess is it takes at least one quarter to see royalties.

[daveydad]

Ah yeah, now that I re-think I see that. I would be glad to get $100 per minute at this stage in my journey. We’ll see.

[daveydad]

$150-$200/minute!? I’m pretty much a newbie at this so I would be happy getting my usual $25-$40/hr. I doubt the entire film will feature my music; but hopefully a lot. I’ve used Mixcraft for years (which has video capability) and am learning Cubase. Not sure how much syncing will be required… more like a certain length track per scene or something. Will keep ya’ll posted when and if this happens.

[daveydad]

When I signed with 2 or 3 libraries they asked for everything I had. Then they went through them and decided what to keep. I’m also now doing some custom composing by their request. Wish I got paid up front for this but am hoping it leads to use/income. Keep me fresh and creative too!

[daveydad]

Wow, great thread ya’ll!! Good to know I don’t swim these waters alone! I’ve only been seriously doing this for income for a year, learning as I go. I actually have two libraries asking me to compose certain cues and styles for them. Fun, time-consuming and hopefully leads to income!

My income from RF sites where I’ve had tracks for the past year is helpful but not enormous. But I will take it from wherever it comes, for sure. Fortunately, I have income from a side business and other sources; doubtful music will ever be my main income but I can dream. 🙂 I try to compose at least one track a week, sometimes more; be it a 30 second sting out cue or an elaborate Disney type piece.

[daveydad]

Yeah, certainly not complaining… but I at least thought the payout would be dollars and not cents. Seems like I can make more on cheap RF sites than doing reality TV. 🙂 And… still waiting to see how/if that viral video pays off! 😉

[Author]

Posts