A few things to remember when commenting and rating the music libraries. I doubt any of them would guarantee you placement of your music, so I don’t believe not having your music placed is a reason to give a company an unfavorable report or low rating. There are many things to consider (in no particular order):
Do they communicate regularly?
Are they responsive to your queries in a reasonable amount of time?
Do they make you aware of opportunities?
Are you comfortable with their contract?
How easy is it to submit material – CD/Upload?
Are they effective?
Please feel free to add more.
Hi Art,
While we’re at it, here are a few more questions for this form:
1. Do they give access to an updated client list?
2. Are they sellng licenses internationally?
3. Is there room for more music ? (Are they overdoing it? For some reason many libraries make it a goal to present their clients with as many musci peices as possible. Many of them have over 10,000 cues on site, this means your music is likely to be barried deep under)
That’s it for now, will post again when i have time to think for more questions.
I’m looking at survey plug-ins for WordPress and that might be an easy way to do it. I think it needs to be a mixture of both because the chances of all the libraries getting data from visitors is probably unrealistic in the foreseeable future.
Thanks for your input Ed!
I agree, it would be better to have a standardized form (as you suggest above) which the music creators/owners use to rate by. For example, each question could have a rating of 0 (lowest) to 5 (highest) so that all important points and criteria are methodically covered, and maybe require that all items be completed before clicking the Submit button.
This way all the libraries get rated on exactly the same basis rather then on some mix of unidentified or variable criteria. For some questions like “exclusive vs non-exclusive”, a simple check box selection could be used. Also, a text box could be offered for respondants to add any comments from their personal experience.
I’m sure Art will consider this kind of approach as a potential upgrade to the current rating system.
Michael
More questions about libraries that everyone is interested in…
Is there a price for submission/membership?
Is there a confirmation that anyone has listened to your music (Music pitching)
Is the upload process easy, confusing, time-consuming, tedious, etc.?
How long have you been with a library?
Do they pay on time?
Can you find out the names of the retitles? – important to find on your PRO statement
Can you make up your own retitles?
What is the split?
Do they take publishing?
Can you follow-up with placement contacts (cue sheets, get DVD copy, etc.)
There are some potentially fraudulent pitching org’s out there- anyone found any?
How much $$ have you made from any recent deals from this company?
Ringtone deals available?
Any other benefits? (online song sales, contests, etc.)
Are the contracts long, involved, overdone, underdone, easy to fill out, electronic?
How long is the contract?
Is the library exclusive or non-exclusive?
Note to this website:
Is there anyway to create a list of questions so that when someone comments, they can opt to answer a survey about the library using the above questions? At the very least, can a list of questions pop up on the page that you can use to give more info?