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I’m not so sure about that. I’ve made more from my last 100 tracks than I have from the previous 2000.
Quality over quantity has proven to be a winner for me.
You write for trailers though right? Or am I mistaken?
A pretty exhaustive study for me has shown a 95% reduction in payout per placement with streaming. Zero doubt TV focused cues are earning less – all things being equal.
Definitely agree about the quality needing to be high.
All of those variables are always 100% out of your control.
That ^^^^^^^ is truth. It’s one of the terrifying and also hopeful things about this business. I have faith. That keeps me positive. I can’t remember how long it took to get to the first 4 figure payment to be honest, but it didn’t take 4 years. Also, getting the RIGHT library for you is critical. 400 tracks is nothing at this point IMO. You need a lot more. If I had to rely 100% on TV tracks as 100% of my income, I think I’d be looking north of 3000 well written, produced at a high level, unique titles – each having 5+ alternate mixes. If you have a family and mortgage and college tuition – more. The business has collapsed. This is evidenced everywhere you look.
The best thing you can do is analyze each library you are in very, VERY, VERY carefully. Feed the ones that are working, and jettison the ones that are doing nothing. Write everyday, get extremely good and fast at what you do, keep doing it. When the 400 reaches 1500 and they are in the right libraries, you should be seeing some significant improvement.
I’m fairly new to BMI after switching from ASCAP
I think you will find that BMI does as BMI feels like doing in terms of amounts… No Rhyme or reason, but if you have performances on any particular quarter – they should show up on THAT quarter. As mentioned above, how much they pay out is a completely different topic.
Speaking of BMI Statements, did anyone else notice a drop in domestic royalties but an increase in international royalties for this 3rd quarter payout?
Yes. Big time.
As Art mentioned, if you want control later, you need to retain ownership of the masters and your publishing. This is generally NOT normal for film composer contracts as the production company wants complete ownership so that they can SELL the film to a distributor, streamer (Netflix), etc.. That said, it sounds like they didn’t pay you, so all bets are off. You actually should have negotiated the terms BEFORE you ever wrote a note. Now, you will probably be forced to take what they decide to give you or risk your relationship with them.
I’d suggest you 1.) re-title the cues, 2.) give them 100% publishing of the cues in the film, and 3.) retain the master rights for yourself for future uses (this is going to be the tricky item, and may very well preclude them from ever selling / assigning the film down the line to a 3rd party, as they may not even know who may want it and what their terms may be…)
Best of luck! Next time, get it in writing out front.
-=LAwriter=-
Generally composers are not “employees” of music libraries. They are independent contractors. There may be exceptions…
As was mentioned, 4 or 8 bar repetitive “loop” compositions that add and subtract elements are more akin to “loops” than to traditional compositions.
They work sometimes. I’ve been guilty of doing it. It’s easy and fast and gets the job done if you don’t mind disposable. But it almost certainly won’t have the staying power of real melody and compositional progression and depth. Still, there’s a market for it in reality TV no doubt.
Ways around falling into that trap? As mentioned earlier – don’t “compose” with loops as the groundwork. They will often lead you into the trap of 4 or 8 bar compositions. Do what film composers do to hit cuts : Mix up tempo’s, mix in odd bar phrases. Add a bar or two at the end of a phrase. Odd meters will pull you out of loopage too. Drop the tempo completely out – the bridge for Royal Deluxe’s “I’m A Wanted Man” comes to mind. Make sure you write a bridge that stays in the general vicinity of your groove, but pulls you out into a slightly different mood. Texturally mix things up. Write with piano or acoustic guitar only. Or better yet – learn to do it old school – write with a pencil, paper and away from any instrument. Write away from your DAW. All these things will pull you away from the hundreds of thousands of 4/8 bar additive / subtractive compositions and push you closer to a unique voice.
Haha! Depending on the client, you’re often just revising it.
I get briefs to “plagiarize” myself all the time. They send me cues I did last season and am told to “copy” them as close as possible. I always as “why not just use it again”, and am constantly told that they need new material, but make it as close as possible to the old material. LOL. I oblige. If they are using it, who cares….
I usually don’t chase “best selling” genre’s because everyone else is doing that as well. I almost always look to whatever seems artistically interesting to me. Especially if I have not written in that genre lately. I write enough that I will always hit those best selling genre’s as well as more unique genre’s. I like to spread my writing as wide as possible so that : 1.) I don’t compete against myself. And 2.) I stand unique when a bizarre and possibly interesting need comes to popularity for some unknown (or known) reason. Like….say “Chinese” music during olympics. Or Christmas flavored cues. Or “Baseball Organ fanfares” during baseball season, etc..
I’ve had non competition clauses that preclude me from “poaching” specific clients that a particular library has. And I think that’s fair. But never a clause that limits me working elsewhere in the industry. Either red-line (strike) that clause or move elsewhere. Those are HIGHLY unreasonable terms.
Haha! Of course. 🙂
Maybe Hulu’s rate isn’t so bad after all.
From what I’ve seen, Hulu is about the best paying of the lot…. I don’t have that many shows on Hulu, but they are paying out about (roughly) 10X’s what Netflix and Amazon are. Just by itself, more than all the other streaming services combined.
If you have a “pro” mix all your music, and you pay fairly, you’ll never make any money in this biz. There are a couple libraries that will mix your cues, but they are few a far between. I think Warner Chapell does – or at least did. But they don’t seem too interested in tracking down royalties, so…..
That dude LA Writer was screaming about this over the last few years….to his credit, he was spot on.
Hmmmm…. Go figure…. LOL