[DavidG]

For my 2 cents, I think the main thing I would look for in a new library is the ability to pitch the right music to the right people and get sales.

Too many new libraries start off on the basis that they can be successful by having music in their catalogue that they consider to be of high quality and a wizzo website with flash animation and a killer search functionality and that those are the missing ingredients.

In reality, I think clients are looking for someone they can trust to provide them with music that fits their particular bill. Trust comes through evidence, which comes through experience and forms a relationship. If they can avoid having to use search engines and audition dozens of tracks, they will gladly risk the possibility that they are going to miss out on the ‘perfect’ track by letting someone else do the triage for them.

I would have no problem completing an AudioSparx-style admin process if I thought I was likely to get sales. What can get really frustrating is jumping through a load of arbitrary hoops to meet an individual’s view of what clients should be looking for, only to realise down the line that they don’t have any clients.

So I would say that having a client base to start with – you have already met my number one requirement, the other stuff is just about :benefit ratio. I hate doing 30 second edits – but if my client (i.e., the library) had a load of clients who bought 30 sec edits regularly, I might get to like them! What can be frustrating is preparing commercial cut downs to find they’re just a marketing angle whereby a library thinks they can differentiate from those who don’t – and they end up sitting and gathering dust as editors cut the full length versions themselves.

I guess having met requirement #1, #2 would be a clear brief of what you want me to write based on your knowledge of your clients. Music is a very personal thing and it’s really tough to guess the personal taste of someone you never met – not wasting my time by saying ‘just send me your best stuff’ when the client only buys emo piano tracks would be a real bonus.

What I think is good music and what you think is good music are irrelevant – all that counts is what someone will pay us for. Any working relationship where that is a mutual understanding would be utterly bazinga in my book!

Good luck!

David.

[Author]

Posts