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Advice, I think that you are reading my answer incorrectly.
Let me be clear, the [removed] company and similar companies ARE NOT libraries. They are independent A&R services, which act as a pre-screening services for the libraries that post opportunities on their sites.
Libraries that I am familiar with, who post opportunities on the A&R services’ sites, e.g. the [removed] company, DO NOT take a cut of the fees paid to independent A&R companies. In fact, in some cases the libraries also pay the independent A&R company to post the opportunity.
And these libraries make money for each submission so it is a revenue generating thing for them in itself.
The libraries do not take a cut of the fee that composers pay to these services, which often act as a much-needed pre-screening service for the libraries.
I suppose Songtradr may be Ok for listings when songs with specific lyrics and genre are required, but a listing like “80’s synth pop music ” is kind of absurd.
Speaking of Songtradr. This is a good read about Songtradr and the business in general.
You won’t find a stream count on on your CD Baby account page.
CD Baby pays for download sales. Your Pro and/or SoundExchange pay for streams, depending on whether they are interactive or non-interactive.Overall, including downloads, streams, etc I make about $300-$400/month from music. My goal is $1000/month. We’ll see how soon I hit that.
Thanks David. There are two very important takeaways here that anyone thinking about “quitting their day job” and doing this for a living should consider.
1. After 4 years and 300 to 400 tracks, David is making $300 – $400 per month, which is great supplemental income, but it is not earning a living.
2. David’s goal is $1,000 per month which is great supplement income, but it is not earning a living.In the past 15-20 years, for most composers, production music has evolved from something you could earn a living at to being just a part of the income puzzle.
Yes, there will always be exceptions. But, for the vast majority of composers writing production music will fall into the extra income category.
we might be from the same school.
HA! Sounds like it, but 30 years apart! I had my main run. Time to let the “young lions” have fun.
But does anyone here knowingly put out garbage and hope for the best?
No. But an awful lot of people do…unknowingly
It’s like having on multiple colors that don’t match, or make any sense in combination. Bass lines COMPLETELY out of the key of the song. Piano parts that don’t match that; and let us not forget about Chords that don’t fit ANYTHING in the song being thrown in for added measure.
LOL!!! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard tracks where somebody is using loops and adding parts in the wrong key or playing out of time!!!
I have spoken to a few Music Supervisors and these particular guys say that simplicity is the key in most que music. They don’t care if you play guitar like SVR or orchestrate like Mozart.
Common assumption… you’re equating quality with complexity. There’s a lot of complex music that’s crap because it’s pointless. The composer is just talking to themselves.
The difference between quality and not so much in production music often stems from how lazy or skilled the composer is in their approach to production. Do they put the effort into using the mod-wheel or editing controller data to make their samples sound convincing or do they play samples like a keyboard, which results in very plastic or fake sounding music?
“The key to making money is to having lots of quality tracks in several different libraries”, advice I got here and from , the, er, car company. Not that it wasn’t true at the time but times change.
There’s a difference between “lots of quality tracks” and “lots of tracks,” – quality.
No one ever said put out a lot of crap. Just like no one ever said you can have too much knowledge. The more competiton there is, the better your game has to be.
However, there is a trend toward diminishing returns. The number of tracks in the market increases exponentially every day. I recall a thread where someone said it now takes 1,000 tracks to make the money that he used to make with 500.
High end corporate/branding, TV, Film, and mixed media are NOT looking for material that they (as amateurs) could make themselves.
Brilliant and true! They’re not looking for what their kids can do on Garage Band either!
One site that used to make me more than $1500 a month a few years ago is down to maybe $100.
I know the site. It used to be my second most profitable. Now, it’s non-existent.
Overall, like what Michael said, it seems the key to survival now is quality over quantity, and working with libraries that get your music used in more lucrative ways.
I believe that quality is the key if you want to write a track today and have it still making money ten years from now. The notion of putting out X-number of tracks and being “set for life” may be mostly a delusion. If you’re producing disposable cookie-cutter tracks with a short shelf-life, you’ll always need to feed the machine to keep even.
I’m not sure that anyone who ever dreamed of being a musician or composer did so with the intent of simply cranking out content. Ultimately, the question is what makes you happy as a musician? If a day job allows you to make music that you love rather than chasing pennies writing music that you might not even listen too given the choice, then a day job can be a very good thing and not something that you want to abandon.
Never give up something that makes you happy!
Quite true and conversely if something doesn’t make you happy, why do it?
I’ve known writers who were unhappy in this busines because of the “business.” They didn’t like the music that they had to produce in order to make money, so they got out and are much happier (making music that they enjoy).
Depending on your musical preferences, there are easier ways to make money and better ways to make music.
Hate to be a doomsday guy, but I think the glory days of composing (like most of the music business) are behind us, and it will be interesting to see what the future holds.
Everyone complains about the “race to the bottom,” but that is a market adjustment for supply and demand.
Back in the “glory days,” under most circumstances, it took expensive tools and a highly-developed skill set to make a living as a composer.
Today, tools are cheap while musical knowledge and skills are optional. The result is a market in which anyone and everyone is producing content. That kind of market cannot sustain the kind of numbers that composers enjoyed in years past.
A few of you mentioned being “older.” Much of the market, especially TV, is driven by demographics and specifically toward a younger 18 to 34-year old audience. It’s not easy or enjoyable to write for a much younger audience if the music doesn’t come naturally or appeal to you. Then, it’s just drudgery, like many other jobs, only for less money.
Art is correct that the slices of the pie are getting thinner, much thinner. I don’t see that changing unless the demand for music exceeds the supply. However, with composers cranking out content 24/7 on laptops and even iPhones in every corner of the planet, I doubt that value will return.
Like lottery winners, there will always be enough who succeed to inspire others.
I guess the dream would be to get up to 1000 tracks and nearer $2000 a month and then consider giving up the day job ? But even then you’d have to keep writing new tracks as old ones fall out of favour and music trends change.
There are composers with 100 tracks who make as much as composers with 1,000. The latter part is especially true if you write trend-based tracks rather than “evergreen” tracks.
But I have been seeing a LOT of great info here about “John Manchester/Manchester Music” and are currently writing compositions specifically to submit to him..
I wrote for John almost twenty years ago. As far as I know, he sold the library a few years ago. I had to approve the transfer of my tracks to the new owner. Maybe the sale didn’t go through. Maybe the new owners are still using the name. Maybe the new owners kept him in the game to run things. Interesting.
I still get royalties for those tracks, once in a while.
While these are all valid points, this is info I’m already aware of. I thought this subsection was called “critiques” because I could get those with some experience of this game to listen to the tracks…..
This is generally a very polite group. Lack of a direct response is a response in and of itself.
It is quite possible that someone will find your tracks useful but you need to guide them with your metadata. You could add a lot more with respect to possible uses for your music.
One of your 30-second edits doesn’t work because it doesn’t have a natural ending. It just chops off. Maybe you intended it to be a loop.
More than twenty-five or thirty similar tracks and you will just be competing with yourself. Branch out into other styles, even if you remain in the electronic music genre.
Your prices are high compared to similar tracks.
If you want advice on creating competitive tracks go to Pond5, AudioSparx, MusicLoops, Premium Beat, AudioJungle, etc and search by genre then filter by best selling or most popular. That will give you an overview of metadata, pricing, and edits.
And, most importantly, listen to the top-selling tracks to see how yours compare.