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It is a nice article and I clearly wish them success for us and themselves. I still have yet to meet anyone I know that has landed a decent sync fee on that site. By that I mean 2K to 5K for a movie or show or spot, etc. I do know some very talented composers and songwriters dealing their music on that site and still, no one has landed even a $500 fee. It kind of feels like the old music dealers model, but with slicker uploading technology and metadata entry. I hope it evolves differently, but what actually scares me is this:
“Songtradr has raised over $5 million from international investors and is making significant investments in its technology and infrastructure, he said.”
This usually is a prelude to a total melt down and bankruptcy and another event where artists will not be made whole on their sync fees, and lawyers handling the bankruptcy will sweep up hundreds of thousands of dollars. When Wall Street type “investor” folks enter the music licensing business, that kind of scares me. I highly doubt that their sync licensing revenue will even hit 5 million over the last 12 months. A Staff of 20 equals a payroll of at least 1 million. Probably more. I am basing the number on 50K per employee. 50K does not go far in LA. Investors are owed 5 Million. Annual salaries are 1 to 2 Million. They better start generating $25 million in sync licensing revenue soon. Cause remember, they claim to pay artists 60 to 70% of every sync license sold.
Regarding the info on artlist.io…I’d steer clear of uploading there too. I sense lots of exaggerated claims by that owner, he also was unable to explain how artists even get paid when I had a few exchanges with him. That’s another “don’t worry about it…we have some formula to pay artists and we can’t really say how it will all happen as it’s based on monthly revenue divided by your percentage of the catalog and then prorated to blah blah blah..and the figures will change every month based on how many songs were downloaded…
BOGUS! (in my opinion)
I encourage all to stick with clear, clean cut compensation models on a license by license, transparent basis. Film makers say…”well it’s too time consuming for us to buy dozens of cheap licenses, we need access to an entire catalog”…well guess what…There are plenty of blanket fee options out there for you.
Anyway, I wish Songtradr a lot of success.
The “Briefs” and “Deal Boards” and “Music Wanted” scene is definitely spinning out of control. The way this process should work is by having 1 music supervisor using first his brain to think of a company or even a few individual composers who can service the need. We’re now in a time of public cattle calls where everyone and their mother is getting the information.
This is not healthy and is a waste of resources. 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. They will receive 1000 submissions probably! Just pick a reputable supplier or catalog and send them your brief. That would be my advice to music supervisors.
What advantage does a MS gain by having a big cattle call (You inform 5 or 10 deal board type sites) and hundreds of people (if not thousands) get the information about the music listing? Is this approach effective?
Write 1000 high quality film/ tv/ advertising cues and render off stems for all 1000 (Probably 5000 audio files) Make sure they all sound great and can be used for today’s TV shows, films, and commercials or corporate videos. Then you should be making a livable wage. This is not sarcasm, nor discouragement. This is what it takes to make a decent living in this business. Oh, I forgot, Be ready to enter a ton of metadata onto spreadhseets and music licensing sites and upload constantly to companies who open the door for you and your music (Not all of them do!)
Then, in decade 2 of your career, repeat the above and march to 2000 cues produced. Then 3000.
It’s a direct rip off of “Lose Yourself”. I just listened back to back, first the spot, then the actual song. Eminem wins this case in my mind.
1 week ago I dove in and decided to upload my free 50. Ignorance has been bliss. Now I get to check in on detections a lot. Detections started happening immediately. I hand picked the 50 tracks. I selected titles that are on my PRO statements a lot as well as new titles that I think and hope will attract TV show producers. Sure enough I have about 30 MTV UK detections for a new track already across several shows over the last 3 days alone. I think the technology is very cool.
I will stick with my free 50 scenario for a while. I am not sure if the PRO’s will pay based on TUNESAT detections anyway. I see this as information and that’s about it. Can UK writers chime in and let me know about their experience with MTV Reality TV shows in the UK? Are they responsible with filing cue sheets to the PRS? I have 1 relatively new track in very heavy rotation on these shows in just the last 4 days all MTV UK.
Catfish: The TV Show
The Hills
My Super Sweet 16
Room Raiders
Teleshopping
Jackass
Finding CarterYes, Ignorance was bliss, now 1 week in Tunesat is definitely creating some anxiety. Suddenly a track is getting used left and right in the UK, normally I would not have a clue about this stuff. I definitely find value in this service!
Hey Daveydad, get Jeff Price after them and maybe he’ll find some royalties for you: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-adv-ct-jeff-price-spotify-2-20160119-story.html
Also, would love to chat with you off line about your streaming experience.
Ahhh. This page. First time I clicked on it! I do see some value to this and you do display the number of votes. Yes this is good Art, and I’d agree with your clean up edits you suggest above.
Art, I think you actually may want comments to speak for themselves. I have to be honest that I have decided not to consider ratings when evaluating a library here. What does 5 stars mean? 6 stars? Is the ratings based on how nice these folks are? how quickly they listen and respond to submissions? how cool the web site looks? How much money they make us?
We really need to take into consideration what people say about the music library and the relationship they have with them. Maybe make one of the requirements be that writers reveal how long they have had tracks at the library, and how many tracks they publish there. Less than 50? more than 50? (something like that). If new writers come in and offer bad ratings, but in reality they’ve had 10 tracks there for 4 months, there really is nothing to judge.
Ratings are always tough, they can be manipulated easily because people can vote negatively for the wrong reasons such as “my track was not accepted”. I agree you’d need at least 20 votes to reach a conclusive, reliable rating. I honestly don’t even know how I’d rate the places that earn the most for me because there are always issues that frustrate us. Do they deserve 10 stars just because we do well there? Comments really do the best job. You may want to save yourself some time sifting through all the ratings. Just my 2 cents on the matter.
You have no idea how many people are rabid trying to get into the online music licensing space. When I get a phone call from a guy who worked at the options exchange as a broker for 30 years seeking advice on the “internet music space” you know things are getting really out of control. As veteran writers, even new writers, any writer, even publishers, we have a duty to protect and support the models that pay us properly. It is never in our interests to support subscription based models. We want the register going “cha ching” for every single transaction, one track at a time. Those models of unlimited downloads for $199 a year are total garbage and absolutely fire up the race to the bottom all over again. Why would any composer engage in that model?
I do want to confirm that they were speaking about “averages” with that .30 cent per 1000 view estimate. “Average royalty per 1000 streams” Should be all we’re concerned with. Yes, pay does fluctuate based on variables.
Adrev said the pay is .30 cents per 1000 views and that does seem to match my data.
Hi Art, do not be swayed by that long debate Alan posted. That thread is ancient history. Video Producers once were disgruntled about getting ads on their videos and claims filed. The ADREV ship sailed with thousands of composers and tracks on board 3 to 5 years ago. Video Producers have defense mechanisms in place to deal with their YT videos at this point.
Music publishers and libraries can squash complaints from customers fast and ads get removed fast. ADREV is not a money making mechanism unless one of your tunes ends up in a video with 100 million views and the monetization goes to you. Use it more or less to spy and get info/ data on how your music is being used in YOUTUBE. You will make some extra spending money quarterly. Many of us were oversold on ADREV.
I have no regrets. I have a portion of my catalog in there and I do make quarterly spending money. It is neat to see how people use your music on YT videos. Don’t sweat it. I have had one customer write to me asking to get an ad removed. It was not a big scene nor did anger flair up. Video Producers probably know how to deal with ADREV by now. Anyone with any kind of YOUTUBE video uploading experience knows about adrev and other services like ADREV I’d think.
My advice would be to start with 50 to 100 tracks, then see what happens in 3 months…then add more. I would not stress out about it and I would not even worry about libraries that disallow it because it just has not been that problematic for anyone. One final thought, I do not add my latest music to adrev simply because I am more interested putting energy into selling licenses. That is where we make our money.
Yes LA Writer…We need to pull out the loudest trumpet we can find, a Mega Bull Horn and remind all writers that you win in this game, by controlling and owning your works period. 100% control and ownership of your creations at all times forever, sold everywhere ideally. Working with HIGH END and working with RF. One of my favorite quotes from a music supervisor article interview I read was this…He was asked “People ask me all the time where should I sell or license music? Who should I target?.” His repsonse was great: “I tell people to sell their music to whomever is buying it.” Could not agree more! You own and and control your music and sell it to whomever is buying it. This is not to say sell for any price. But do sell it to whomever is buying it.
Patrick, you asked:
how do you deal with the fact that some high end libraries will not accept you if they see you have work on royalty free libraries?
I simply say “I am sorry but I am in business to make money. I have a large and proven portfolio and a history of making money with it in any and all markets so please don’t worry about where I sell my music, if you believe you can sell my music at “high end” prices…you can take it in and rep it non exclusively.” Patrick, Let your music speak for itself. I just had a “medium end” EXC library accept a huge batch of cues non-exclusively by the way.
Why did they take it in NE? Probably because THEY make money off of my existing music in the library and the NE or RF issue is not causing any problems for them. They really are two different markets servicing two different customers. Remind them of that. Cheers, and good luck Patrick.
“Higher end” what does it mean? It means that they will sell a license for your works at a higher price on very rare occasions. So you may get 10K for a national spot once every 1 to 3 years. Perhaps 3 to 5K happens once a year. “Higher end” does not mean more revenue in your pocket. Yes, hiding your identity with a pseudonym is pretty much so what everyone does. “SSSSHH, Don’t tell anyone, my music is also for sale on “low end” markets, I am selling as “Golden Turtle Eggs” over at the rf stores…but my “real” artist name is Massimo Maestro Bella Laudaudio“..
P.S. Don’t ever give up control of your music. Those contracts that ask for demos to briefs and then they own the demo if it does not sell for the project, Don’t sign those. NEVER give up ownership of your intellectual property because in the end that is all you have. That is the only asset you have is your music! Does everyone realize this?
I understand all of the nuances. I still do not want anyone to sell my music and take 100% control of it without paying me. I have to believe, and this is my perspective, that these folks are not plotting a sale, but rather a perceived competitive edge where they can say “no one else has what we have”. I just find that rationale silly because infinite amounts of new cues hit the market every day. The competitive edge (for a publisher) comes from relationships, reliability, and quality of the music. Exc vs NE should be irrelevant to a buyer of background TV cues or music for promos and ads, youtube videos, occasionally films – which is the context of our world here at MLR.
I also think that when JP sold, they sold an entire sales force infrastructure, a quality search engine, and a steady royalty stream that is flowing and flowing from lots of PRO registered NE cues ending up on tens of thousands of cue sheets. Why would anyone want to sell a lucrative royalty stream? I guess the offer was too sweet to say no thanks! Back on topic…it’s best to own and control your content and use multiple selling outlets to maximize profits on your assets. I think even library owners would admit that is accurate info.