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The ‘hours viewed’ metric can be somewhat misleading, in my opinion.
Let’s consider the first show in the Netflix report, ‘The Night Agent Season 1,’ which accumulated 812 million hours viewed. Taking into account the following assumptions:
80% of viewers watch all 10 episodes.
5% of viewers watch only the first episode.
15% of viewers watch up to the fourth episode.
On average, there are 2 viewers per hour of viewing (considering that we often watch shows with someone else. It’s hard to estimate, but 2 viewers per hour seems reasonable, though it could be closer to 3. Definitely, it’s not just 1 viewer per hour, in my opinion.)
Based on these assumptions, I calculated that around 68 million individual viewers watched this show. While this number is significant, it’s important to remember that this is on a global scale, its supposedly the first viewed tv show on netflix.Popular TV shows in the USA often reached about 8 million viewers (correct me if I’m wrong) for every episode, but considering international audiences, a tally of 50 million viewers isn’t far-fetched.
So, @LAwriter, if your show has 50 million hours of streaming and assuming it consists of 20 episodes (this is a random assumption), the total number of viewers might be approximately 3.19 million. This calculation follows the same logic as before, considering the percentage of viewers who watch all episodes, only the first one, or up to the fourth, and averaging 2 viewers per hour.
It’s a substantial number, but not overly so, especially considering the global audience. This might partly explain the low royalties some composers receive from these streaming platforms.
Because they pay on the number of views…I’m not claiming this is the definitive interpretation, but it’s a way to illustrate how ‘millions of hours viewed’ statistics can be misleading
I am not particularly concerned about AI’s impact on music, at least for now.
Firstly, most AI-generated music currently sounds noticeably inferior to human compositions. Even royalty-free music seems like Mozart in comparison to AI-created tunes. While some companies, such as Avia Music, claim that their advertising music is generated by AI, they often fail to mention that professional composers arrange, orchestrate, and even perform the majority of the piece.
Secondly, relying on AI for composing music, if it ever becomes highly proficient, would feel like cheating to me. What would be the purpose of using AI in this manner? It is akin to using a doll for intimate experiences. There will likely be some who falsely claim to be music composers or boast about being “AI music composers” to attract an audience. However, this devaluation of music composition will eventually lead people to appreciate genuine artists once again.
Music is a fundamentally human endeavor; we are drawn to the stories, narratives, and characters behind the compositions. If your neighbor can produce 50 AI-generated songs a day, there would be little reason to listen to countless other AI-created tracks.
Lastly, I believe that our jobs as composers are not in jeopardy. Publishers, clients, and others in the industry prefer working with real artists over AI. A production music library’s primary goal is to collaborate with genuine talent, not to input prompts for an AI. Film directors, too, seek partnerships with artists rather than machines.
While some production music libraries might eventually stop hiring composers, these are typically the ones without significant placements. I have faith in humanity’s desire to work with one another, and I believe that people will continue to choose real individuals over AI in creative fields.
Lastly, from a technical perspective, AI faces a monumental task in not only composing high-quality music but also performing it using samples. AI would need access to the same samples that composers utilize, which raises concerns about the rights of sample library creators. Identifying samples is generally straightforward, and it’s unlikely that companies such as Cinesamples, Spitfire, or any other library provider would be pleased with their work being used without proper compensation. As it stands, AI-generated music predominantly consists of repetitive loops with dull chord progressions and lacks creativity and innovation. While some might argue that much of today’s music shares these characteristics, I strongly disagree.
I tried the back blaze route, it was nice.
But when comes the time to actually download files, its a little more cumbersome.
You can’t download a whole folder easily, you have to wait for the website to create a “snapshot” and this can takes a few minutes depending on the folder size.I decided lately to go the dropbox route.
It was hard because I had to re-upload 8 TB of data, but it’s really worth it.
Now if I need to open an old session, old folder projects, I just click on a folder and hit the selective sync button.Prices wise, it’s more expensive than back blaze… but it’s unlimited data if you choose the dropbox business account with only 3 members (by default, it is 5 which’s more expansive)
So now for the same amount of data as back blaze and even more (as it’s unlimited) I pay around 77,40 euros. With backblaze it was around 38 dollars.I will probably upload my whole samples data (around 8 TB) to have a backup.
With fiber connection, it’s really easier to go the cloud route…
@roscoe foderotz
I understand your point, but at the end, the publisher is the one placing the music…
are you the guy who calls the editors ? the directors ? the shows producers ?
No.Without the publisher (as a production music library) , the music isn’t placed (or you don’t need a publisher)
I’m not saying we have to say amen to everything a publisher asks… but depending of the relationship you have with a publisher, the answer is different.
If you’re trying to build a relationship with a publisher, having the “business is business” attitude, will not be of any help to build a relationship.
They’re in a position of power, do you really feel that you’re in a position of power as a composer for production music library?15 years ago, I would have said yes, but now… we’re just minions, as they are so many composers doing great tracks, for little to no money, and very quickly.
Your publisher, is always the priority.
I mean, if you tell your wife that tonight you can have dinner with her but if she is not available then you’re going to dinner with another woman friend , she won’t like it.
same thing for a publisher. They have to feel they are a priority for you.I make that for living… and I do use that principle of letting the materials to sit in queue. It’s a simple respect for the publishers I work with regularily.
They can have different issues that prevent them from listening in a week your submissions. Nobody is perfect.
So just putting a gun to the head and tell a publisher that “if you don’t answer in a month, this album is going to be to another publisher” is the best way to ruin your relationship with that publisher…I would honestly don’t go the pressure road only after 2 weeks after initial submission.
Give them time.
After 2 weeks, ask them if they listened to the submission, but don’t pressure just yet like ”I have potential other publishers” , to me it’s not the right thing to do if you’re a beginner. They have hundred of submissions every day so they would just likely say “Ok man, no problems, bye!”Even as a 12 year + music library composer in that field, I would never put pressure on my publishers after 2 weeks.
Because some publishers have became friends, some close work relationships.. I would give them a lot of times and I would only submit an album to one publisher at the time.
Why ? because if in the meantime 2 publishers agree to release your tracks, you will have to choose between 2 and I never do that honestly. I try to keep my publishers relation good and saying to one of your publishers “sorry another one took the album” is a little bit disrespectful to me…Publishers are the guy who place your music, you need to respect them and they need to respect you also. But giving them only 2 weeks to decide isn’t the right thing in my opinion.
ps : sorry English isn’t my native language
And about Numerator.
I had a lot of commercials in the USA and a lot of discrepancy between Tunesat and Numerator.
This is entirely normal and due to the fact that Numerator takes into account all airing including locals televisions like Chicago TV, New York local TVs, etc…
Tunesat doesn’t monitor these local channels..Also of course the 15s, 30s edits have some impacts on the discrepancies…
Hi Music1234 if you want you can PM me and I give you an email from someone at SACEM who takes care of commercials aired in France.
France doesn’t use Numerator, they have their own way of tracking a commercial…And they let you download some excel files with all the TV spots aired each years, you can download the excel and see if your commercial is inside…
Sean, sorry English is not my native language.
You wrote this :
”If the performance occurred, they shouldn’t need to determine if the performance can be paid or not.”
If the performance occurred DURING THE SURVEY TIME, they pay the performance.
If the performance occurred outside of the survey time, no pay.
they (friends) both have quality music and on-demand music.
And their placements are low so…
I’m only talking about BMG here. Not Warner which I heard are goodEven if BMG is a very well known music major, they are relatively new in the production music business and IMO not at all established unlike Universal Production Music for instance…
It’s not because you’re a big music major that you’re good in production music. It’s a totally different beast.
no. the way I understand it is they are using sample surveys to determine if your performance can be paid or not.
For examen if the survey window is each Monday and Friday from 5 pm to 11 pm, and your music air 5 hours a day but only from Tuesday to Thursday, then you get absolutely nothing 😉
Also very interesting info from Affilion
“Channel Type: Cable. All commercials and programs are monitored by census survey and are paid. All other programming is monitored by sample survey and is not paid unless it falls within the sample survey time window.”
This means cable is paid on a census survey basis, but apparently there Is also some sample survey for “all other programming”
anybody here gets what they mean by “all other programming” ?Some friends have told me that BMG Production Music have very low placements…
I would go for Warner.Hello
if you’re not reaching the 4 figures with 400 tracks. there is an issue.
Either you bet on the wrong publisher (they are bad and dont do anything with your music) or you are not writing the good music style wanted by TVs.