[Edouardo]

D’excellentes vacances a tous, un très joyeux Noel et tous mes vÅ“ux pour une grande année 2015 pleine de musique!

Yes, we are a great family, and an international one!

Mark wrote a great post, it couldn’t have been summarized better.

It is MLR that opened my eyes and showed me the doors to the bizz: I had no clue that such a sphere existed at the time. Now, after a little more than a year, and thanks to the guidance of the most experienced guys here, it’s music that pays me, not me that pays to make music! I am infinitely grateful to be part of this group.

All my best wishes for a great year 2015 full of musical adventures, to all of you!

[Edouardo]

@wilx2, I haven’t received the email either, that is why I was quite surprised by that post.

Besides, same thought as you: assuming we receive it soon, 14 days is pretty short… especially looking at the complexity of the contract. Actually, I suspect abuse: Seriously, Who’s going to read and understand pages and pages of that Lawyer goobleeboo in such short notice?

Once, I rejected a NE library I was accepted in because the contract was… too long. For me, too long = too fishy.

I checked the website: this new agreement is real.

[Edouardo]

Well, this is illegal… When you sign a contract, both must agree: Just one party saying no response = agreement cannot be considered as a valid signature unless one lives in a dictatorship…

Hey, I could send an email to a person that I know doesn’t consult it often, and say: by this agreement, you give me your house. Not responding within 2 days, will consist a legal binding agreement.

Anyway, I still read the agreement. My understanding of it is not that negative:

concerning PRO:
Nothing contained in this Agreement shall prohibit you from affiliating with any PRO for the receipt of royalty payments for the public performance or communication to the public of your sound recordings or musical works made by a third party, excluding only public performances or communications to the public of sound recordings or musical works made by CD Baby pursuant to the Authorizations set forth in Section2 of this Agreement.

Concerning YT ID and Syncing:
This Agreement together with the TOS contains the entire understanding of the parties relating to the subject matter hereof. This Agreement (including all Addenda) supersedes all previous agreements or arrangements between you and CD Baby pertaining to the Services, provided that if you previously entered into a digital distribution or consignment agreement with us in the past, and elected any options specifying or limiting the scope of the distribution of Your Content, the limitations and authorizations with respect to the distribution of Your Content shall remain in place under this Agreement and the applicable Addendum. This Agreement cannot be changed or modified except as provided herein.

That is if I opted out of any syncing or YT ID stuff, I still will remain opted out… So basically no change…

Michael, If I got it wrong, could you please correct me ?

Greetings

[Edouardo]

Hummm, I haven’t been contacted by CD Baby (I have one album with them opted out of any syncing system with them including of course YT ID).

I just use them for distribution of my artist facet via i-tune etc… That was even before I knew about the library business. Luckily, I stayed cautious and didn’t opt-in anything I didn’t understand (pfewww, I discovered later I could have condemned all the tracks of my first album to never be licensed!)… Anyway, BandCamp did much better for me than CDBaby in that regard.

I found the agreement you guys mention on the Internet. So checked my account: Syncing status of the few tracks I have there are on “none”, as they should be. There is no warning of any kind that they will “kick me out” if I don’t sign the new agreement.

Anyway, they do not have the right to do so… I paid for the distribution package of that CD (i.e. i-tunes, amazon mp3 etc…), that is a life long agreement, so they ought to deliver…

[Edouardo]

Royalty Free Music Library = Quickly knocked up loop based tracks devoid of originality, emotional content or imagination. Music made by people who think that assembling a collection of pre-made loops is composing.

But, you are in for a wake-up call.

haha! I only have 40-50 full tracks. Started exploring music as a bizz a year ago with 13 tracks. Focused on RF. I should check, but I am pretty sure all 50 of them or an edit of them sold at least once, and I am only in a small number of RF libraries.

I give my best and post it to good RFs…

In the meantime I continue to learn.

Only when I feel I can rival with the best of the super-best, I will explore exclusivity. Once ready, I will only go to the best of the best exclusives, those that get you pitched whatever. Very tough to get into, but that’s my bar.

I am pretty sure, there must be quite a bunch of composers like me on RF libraries… Just give it a serious listen…

[Edouardo]

“Just a general question here to DI and everyone…
What is your definition of a Royalty Free Music Library?”

For me, there is a much bigger gap between non-PRO RF libraries, usually with a fixed (low) license fee, and Standard RF libraries, than between standard RF libraries and Non-Excl. I avoid non-PRO libraries.

As for a definition, As I understand it, RF and non excl, in terms of rights, have similarities although some RF libraries may limit the licence, others will give full license to perpetuity on any projects the client wants.

I see the real difference in the marketing: RF you market yourself (Catalog is accessible for everyone, so brand your stuff and choose effective keywords), non-excl you benefit indirectly from the address book of the Library team. In addition, they will try and pitch for you, and tell you of opportunities via their briefs.

[Edouardo]

I join the group in praising these two links.

I saw myself so much in that video: same thoughts, same feelings, same worries, same questions.

And for Derek’s post, after going quickly through it, I realized how much gold is in there. I printed the post, and am going to read it again, in depth, with a fresh beer under the sun shining in my little garden… and let all this stuff sink in.

Michael & Rob, thanks so much for sharing these links!

[Edouardo]

Then I noticed that if they like the full length track then the 60 edit is only added value, there is no need to charge less for it.
I would suggest pumping up the prices of the edits and loops and stingers and then have one nice package price that makes you feel good and the customer feel good because he is getting all of these expensive edits for one low price.

Wow! That’s some interesting piece of info Mark!

I’ll definitely consider pumping up the time edits to 90, 75 and 60% of full track price and in parallel decrease the full track price. It should break even for me, and look more attractive to the customer.

Thanks!

[Edouardo]

As you know Chuck I started one year ago, uploading my first track to my first library last year in end of August. I started immediately creating and uploading heaps of quality edits with each track. This library was very enthusiast about this approach so I continued. I still consider them as my center of operations!

I also figured out, that it can increase visibility, because the edits can be quite different from each other, and end up in different categories. i.e. living a life on their own. That only works for tracks with many variations (like the one you wrote you are working on). “duller” tracks will only get the standard 15s, 30s, 60s and stinger pack.

I started with about 10 tracks, and now have 40+ tracks out there. So an average of roughly 25 tracks offered over a year. You have to add a 0 to these numbers in terms of number of edits. Now, I must be approaching the 80-100 sales mark. Most of these sales are time edits (30s and 60s). I have about a sale every 2-3 days on average, although these come by packs. 5 in 2 days and nothing for a week or more, which is a phenomena I still am wondering about… And from time to time a massive 3 or 400$ sale (I receive between 40 and 50% out of that). Note also that I focus only on a few RF and NE libraries that I selected carefully: With all these edits, tagging can be quite painful, and I prefer spending time on the project studio ;-).

I cannot compare with a model where I would just have the full tracks on sale. Many composers seem to do that. For me, it is the edits that appear to get picked up most. Maybe I am shooting myself in the foot as I offer lower prices for the edits (60s: 75% full, 30s: 50-60% full, 15s: 40% full).

Maybe, maybe not, but for me the offering I propose appears to be working, and month after month, the ROI is growing, so for now I am sticking with it.

[Edouardo]

Hi Chuck,

I agree fully with the responses above.

When writing a track I wouldn’t choose the bpm depending on the practicality of making edits once the track is complete. The bpm is part of the initial feel you have for your new composition.

I also had trouble at first making time edits, especially when say, a 30s, would correspond to nearly exactly a block like a chorus. But in the end, I always managed. And actually, the more the constraints, the more the edit can end up original and interesting. It can even outshine the main track! There are many “tricks” you learn along the way.

For instance you do not always need to fit all the bars of a section. You can let the beginning of the last bar be the ending… Which can give quite an interesting suspense in the air…

Actually, now, “edits” are an essential part of my workflow. I do not rush into it and integrate this work as fully part of the music prod process. . I get into creative mode, and exploit my new track to make many mini-tracks, with intro, main and outro. Sometimes, some arrangements on edits will end up sounding more cool than the original!

So yes, think out of the box, be creative and have fun doing it!

For info, in “Edit” Mode, I can do about 2 tracks a day (i.e. I end up with about 20 files). it takes me about 4-5 hours work for about 10-12 edits on one track (1 or more of each time edits i.e. 15s, 30s and 60s and stingers, narrative, underscore and a bunch of loops). Take also into account the modifications in mixing/mastering that might come for lighter edits like narratives and underscores.

[Edouardo]

Yes Chuck, and it was a very interesting article/video indeed. Thanks!

But you have to take into account the fact that he has a 48 track console in front of him, with everything configured well and ready to go… with the prior help of his assistants having consolidated the work, leaving all the space for creativity alone…

That’s why I am upgrading my set up, it will not be as cool as the full blown studio in the video, but at least I have the cpu hassle out of the way 🙂

[Edouardo]

Actually surprised to hear that some guys spend so little time…..makes me wonder about my process.

Me too! Even though I know my set-up is not ideal, less than 1 hour on a mix/master process seems like scifi to me. A mix /master process can take a 2-3 hours for the lighter tracks to a full day and a half for the heavier ones, with that process spread over a few months (My ears get tired easily).

The genres I work with are all over the spectrum though, and most of them require sound-design in the composition (Electro based), so it can explain a bit. Their complexity and poor templatability makes that a slight EQing of a single of the 40 tracks in the piece can change the whole feel of the music! And like Vlad, I do not release until it reaches at least the average sound quality of chart stuff, and that it sounds good in a small portable loud speaker, hifi speakers, car speakers and a bunch of headphones.

My set-up is also not ideal with a cpu really having trouble (my tracks are quite demanding) and the obligation to master outside my DAW (Non VST compatibile) is a real pain. Some tracks are even non-mixeable, as I do not have enough cpu margin to mix with serenity: sometimes I have to export then master the export just to see how the changes sound… Painful… so , I always have a ukulele or a guitar handy to fool around while I wait for the compilation to proceed…

I can’t wait for the huge studio upgrade I am working on to be complete: New DAW+new computer+new sound banks. My current DAW, will become a slave so I can keep its amazing sound design capabilities. Hopefully this will seriously improve my workflow and let the mix take a more reasonable place in my production process.

[Edouardo]

Hi There,

In theory, once you have written a song or a piece, you gain automatically the copyright. The whole point is to prove it, that is why you need a third party.

35-40$ a pop! well that’s rough, I pay about 7-8 Euros for around 6-8 songs using France-Copyright (i.e. per zip file of 128MB). The deposit under notary proves that from the date of the deposit, everything in the file is yours (you can also include your artwork, lyrics and even variations). I also deposit ideas and tunes in the making as light mp3s. As this process is made according to the Berne Convention (most of the countries in the world signed it), I can sleep tight at night knowing, that whatever happens, I’m good.

There is not only the scenario of the big company that does not want recognize your rights… Just imagine, someone rips all your non-copyrighted tracks, and deposit them under their own name… If you haven’t copyrighted them, well you are (in theory) screwed and the thief can start exploiting your material. You could always prove with the assistance of library owners that you uploaded the songs before the thief’s copyright deposit date however, it would probably be quite a costly and long process…

[Edouardo]

Thanks for the info AlpacaRoom. I am curious to see what reforms will come of that.

Do you have an idea if Europeans PRO’s (I’m PRS) have similar legal restrictions in terms of claiming royalties from corporations (incl. US ones)?

[Edouardo]

There seem to be quite some outrage about DI’s suggestions and his thoughts on the streaming model.. He is accused to disrupt the topic of the forum? I would not throw the stone at him, or treat him of troll.

On the contrary, he threw a stone in calm waters (French expression: Un pavé dans la marre). And I thank him for this. All the reactions here show that he did hit a nerve.

He’s not guilty, he is actually a victim: it appears that his reasoning is the result of intense corporation propaganda brainwashing. Unfortunately it is becoming the norm. This happens in every field of life, and since I am a composer, I witness it in our world too.

Has anybody seen the movie from 2006, the corporation? A corporation is according to the law, equivalent to a person with duties and rights. So the movie makes a psychological portrait of a corporation (understand here a company above a certain size) as if it were a real person based on its behavior within the community. Well, the diagnosis is quite worrying: A corporation has no other option than to be a psychopath, having lost all sense of right and wrong. The only objective is to make money (It is actually a statutory obligation in regards to the US law).

So DI (and others), do you really think music related companies think about composer rights, the sustainability of the music models, pleasing the customers and as a whole, about doing the right thing?

I don’t think so! This is not profitable on the short term (they often forget the long term don’t they ?). I have witnessed it first hand as a research chemist (my former job), this is why I quit and my hobby became my job, as I could not stand being an accomplice of what I consider as criminal agendas.

So when composers still have certain rights, like the 70 year period after death copyright, we should cling to these as hard as we can. If we don’t, corporations will make an incredibly profitable job in killing the golden egg goose. To be truthful and unfortunately pessimistic, since I entered the composer world a year ago, I see clearly that this is already happening.

DI is right on one thing: we should unite, but not for the purposes he suggests.

We should unite to fight what is slowly but surely killing the profession (streaming models, YT/Adverb like monetization as it is organized today, privately managed copyright systems as YT ID-content, organized races to the bottom, giving away writers shares to publishers (themselves being manipulated by large clients), PRO bypass systems, etc…)

[Author]

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