1,729 thoughts on “General Questions”

    • Hi Gary, I’ve written extensively about Tunesat and to me it’s worth it. Use the search bar in the upper right hand corner and search on “Tunesat”.

  2. I was wondering what you all find to be the best way to provide links to your music for those libraries that request that. I really don’t want to get involved with Facebook for MySpace or any other social media, so I’m not considering those.

    Soundcloud seems pretty good, but as I recall from reading their info, you can’t remove a song and replace it with a different version (like an altered arrangement or mix). This is understandable, considering that they do the file conversion for you and probably don’t want to keep doing it over again for the same piece.

    I’ve looked at ReverbNation, but I’m having difficulty finding the info I want – can files be set to play but not download, can some be made private, is it easy remove and replace files – things like that. Maybe you need to create an account first.

    I do have my own website, so it would be easy to create a private page that could be linked to. This might be the best way to go, but I imagine I would need to install some sort of player. Any recommendations?

    • I have been using SoudCloud for that past year or so. I write all full-length tracks so, it works well for me. There have been some quality issues with their player due to their transcoding, but all in all, very satisfied. Had over 3000 plays so far.

    • @TimV: I create pages on my own website and use an obscure name and “hide” it from showing up on the site. I send that link to anyone who wants to listen. I use “Audio Link Player” which converts any MP3 link to a player on the fly. I think you can also use short codes. BTW mine is a WordPress based site. I wouldn’t use a “Private” page as one has to be logged in to view/listen.

      • Thanks for clarifying. “Private” was the wrong word. I should have said “hidden”. The page would not have any link on the site, but the page’s url could be sent as a link to someone.

    • I love Soundcloud and it is a great way to build sets and share tracks. I originally had the free version for a few months where you couldn’t replace track files without deleting the whole track or build more than a few sets.

      I decided to upgrade to the “Lite” version and I think it was around $40 for a year. Plenty of minutes of upload space, unlimited sets and the ability to upload new mixes without losing plays and time.

      I have used it to link to my website where I can simply change around the sets without having to go into my website to change around the order or mixes of songs.

      Well worth the money to upgrade for me.

      • It’s good to know that both you and Gary are happy with SoundCloud. When I first looked into it a while back, I didn’t notice the ability to replace tracks with the Lite account. That had been my main concern.

        Gary mentioned having some quality issues with the transcoding, but apparently not significant. Their forum has lots of complaints about this. Have you had any issues with the sound quality?

        I plan to set up a free account and upload some things to see how they sound. If there are no problems I’m sure I’ll go for a Lite account.

        Thanks, everyone, for your input.

        • I have never had any problems with the audio but have a friend who mentioned he had some sort of distorting problem awhile back.

  3. interesting thread

    like we sent alot of trailor cues into a massive libary based in the uk and the guy write back saying thanks but no we got enough trailor stuff blah blah we dont need any more trailor music thanks but then all of a sudden im hearing alot and i mean ALOT of trailer music popping up here and their on there website – so now im thinking hmmm so they do want trailor music after all or what???

    its like huh? alot of it was similar in style to what we would of done – brass heavy pizz low strings deep piano even some reverse sounds so yeah – whos to say maybe the listed to it a few times and decided to copy it? – basically theirs no way of knowig unless we start watermaking our own tracks a la tunesat

    • >its like huh? alot of it was similar in style to what we would of done – brass heavy pizz low strings deep piano even some reverse sounds so yeah – whos to say maybe the listed to it a few times and decided to copy it? basically theirs no way of knowig unless we start watermaking our own tracks a la tunesat<

      I believe that Tunesat's technology is fingerprinting, not watermarking. It's not something that you add to your tracks before you send them out. You send your tracks to Tunesat and they take a fingerprint of the waveform. Then they compare the fingerprint to music that is broadcast to detect your tracks.

      So..Tunesat would not do what you're suggesting unless the company in question used your masters without any changes at all.

  4. Very Sad to see the end of Free access to this site. Having only earn’t $1.98 from licensing will sadly not be able to afford to pay.

  5. Does anyone know how to sidechain compression in cubase sx 1? ive read that it might not be possible using older sx versions.

  6. Hi….
    I’m as new as can be, and certainly need some direction. The first thing that I would like to find out is after you have written (composed) whatever it is you are writing, how then do you get it to a digital (or other) format for submission? Do you get into a studio, record and submit, or is it more like using a DAW, or is there a more common way to the idea into form?
    Thanks, first for any help, and as importantly, for the patience!
    fish

      • NONE of the above, and I’m not sure. A friend of mine introduced me to the site, and so far I’m just trying to gather info and see what develops. And, since this is just in the ‘thing about it’ stage, there are no others involved. That is kinda where I get curious. Do the majority of contributors do orchestral studio time or test the waters by synthetically putting the idea on a chip/disk? Or are a lot of participants running a DAW? For someone who is entirely new to the library concept, what is the most favorable entry route?
        Thx

    • Generally speaking, I think most composers here are players of some sort that write, record and produce everything on their, own using a DAW. There are variations on that up to and including hiring a full orchestra. In those cases you are probably being hired by a major library and they foot the costs. Most certainly that is the high end side of this part of the biz.

      Once your piece of music is completed you render to at least a 44.1k 16 bit wav or aiff file (though my master file is rendered to a 48k 24 bit file). Many libraries want a 48k 16 bit file. Submissions are generally made with a link to an MP3 file on your website (you do have a website don’t you?) or sometimes you can send an MP3 directly but ask first!

      • Thanks, Art. After taking suggestions and reading a bit more, its coming into focus. This clears up what I started to see as the bigger picture. So, it seems that there are several ‘tiers’ in terms of what people are putting together for their submissions.
        I did read a few comments about the opinion of some contributors as they relate to DAW submissions, but I believe that some people actually can and do put together complex and more than acceptable sounding pieces via DAW. Would that stand up to a large studio operation? Depends on the genre, I would think. Same old story….try to be the best at the medium.
        Thanks. This, for me, is a great learning place. The access to such a variety of platforms and technique is interesting, and educational.

          • Really enjoyed listening to that comparison. Although you can just about tell the difference (to me the real orchestra is more subtle and varied in it’s dynamics) I don’t think most non musician’s would see any better quality in the real orchestra.
            Am hoping to upgrade my system soon and try doing some orchestral tracks ( a bit of a jump from garage rock) and this has given me food for thought.

        • snappingfish,

          To spare some confusion, even studios use DAWs. ‘DAW’ can refer to either the dedicated audio recording computer or the recording program itself. In general use, DAW refers to the program such as Cubase, ProTools, Ableton Live, Sonar, etc.

          A recording studio will use their recording equipment to capture the playing of musicians and will track and mix those recordings in a DAW.

          A home-studio based composer such as the majority of us here will generally use sampled instruments hosted within our DAW and maybe a few live ones that we play ourselves eg. guitar, piano, some percussion. Unless you are writing for a major library where you might do a mock-up yourself and it will then be recorded by a session band or orchestra.

          If you do not have a home-based studio, you would need to record at a professional studio, which over time would cost probably a lot more if you’re doing many recording sessions. Of course, the quality will be better if professionally done by an experienced engineer but with time and experience one can approach studio-quality mixes.

          For a home-based studio, at minimum, you would need a reasonably modern computer (Mac or PC), a DAW, a midi keyboard controller, a decent audio interface (soundcard: can be internal or external), decent quality monitors (speakers) and some decent quality sampled instruments. If on the other hand you are recording all live playing and vocals, you would need to also budget for microphones and associated equipment.

          As a home-based composer, all my recordings are already in a digital format inside the DAW (including guitar which I capture with a Boss GT-10). Once finished, the song is then mixed down to a single WAV file and then converted to an mp3. The mp3s are used for submission/audition purposes. Once accepted, the high-quality WAV is sent to the library/publisher.

          • Hey, Rob…thanks for taking the time to lay it out. Any “fog remover” at my early stage is appreciated. I have about 45-50 years of playing experience, and some studio time. In my semi-retarded, eerrrr, semi-retired position, I have, in the last 5-6 years, been more and more interested in doing something ‘in the field’ other than trying to club-gig myself into oblivion. I would certainly qualify placement in the ‘Home Studio’ (room) and playing a few instruments (guitar, bass, keyboard) myself, gathering a guest or two on occasion, and counting on the “some decent quality sampled instruments” you referred to.

            The real beauty is that I don’t have to try to blow the doors off getting into running shape. I am going to try to watch, listen and learn from those kind folks here, and see what I’m really capable of in terms of finished results. Like Meg Tilly said in ‘Let It Ride’ ~ “Nothing ventured, nothing ventured.”
            Thanks for the help.
            fish

            • Ahh! So you’re not a complete newbie to all of it. Given your experience, I could probably learn from you! 🙂 I’m just a whippersnapper myself relative to all the dinosaur-era guys around here…… ***pokes tongue in multiple directions***

              Good luck, you should find some good info here to help you along.

            • hello snapping fish, well its good to hear someone a little older is getting into it, because i am sure at some point i am going to be going to a forum in 30 yrs time going, ‘ hey guys, wat is the method your using ‘ – hey so are you familiar with all the running DAW’S available and are you using one presently ? if you need any help choosing one i am sure everyone will be happy to help advise, the reason i ask was because you referred to a chip/disk? and was not sure what you meant by a ‘chip’ – microchip ? hey anyway if unsure you have come to the right place, 1st things first if you are wanting to make orchestral stuff – check out these string progs that will go in your DAW – IE DAW like ‘apple – logic’- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSATwPD7YyE&feature=related or this one – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY92Rk9aIPE or more exp and prob the ‘top of the family tree’ is this company – vienna – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB_QueMQ7kI

  7. Something strange is going on!

    I noticed songs are being submitted to certain music libraries and they are having their own signed or close friends duplicate certain tracks then within the submission.

    Sometimes the songs are too Identical to miss.

    I have waited to see if this was a one time thing, but now I am starting to see a trend.

    I would like to know people thoughts on this, this is really troubling to me.

    • i dont understand ? what using the same track and doing another mix and putting it under another name ?

    • So what you are saying is that for instance I submitted a track to a site. Then have a friend of mine submit that same track ( or a re-mix) to the same site so the track is really there twice?

      • The pre-screeners at the library hear the track.
        Then reproduce it and submit there version to make the placement.

        This is what I am noticing from some libraries. I watch also the same names out of so-called 1,000 plus get picked for submissions.

        Further research thanks to social media, you find the artists/composer is pretty darn close to the company.

        Remember some of these so-called library are owned by producers and composers. I get updates from some on how there music are getting all the bigger placements within that company.

        Its just weird.

        • seriously steven ? man I am the biggest conspiracist around, aliens on planet – yes , possibly in key positions in white house – yes / bankers trying to crush the economy to drive us into debt so they profit – yes / other dimensions – yes, but man seriously!!! this one beats them all, you know its very quick that someone can dismiss someones idea like that, but really, have you reason to think they have taken anything of yours ?

          • I knew it.

            Somebody was gonna pull conspiracy.

            That is why I hesitated to even post. Cause it would not be taken seriously.

            When more people start to see it, hopefully it will done way with quick.

            “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side.”

            Hunter S. Thompson

            .

            • Without laying down cold facts, I doubt anyone will believe it Steven. Probably could happen on a rare occasion though.

              • I can’t cause on the rules it says don’t mention library names.

                But it is happening and I and others are seeing it.

                It really is not unbelievable, producers do this all the time in the album side of things

                They call it “flipping a track”

                  • Its a dirty world.

                    That is why I hate I am seeing this with some of the so called popular libraries that look and act cool.

                    Have some employees that are working for them that are cutting back room deals at the expense of the outside composer.

                    Brings retitling to a whole new level.

                    • i dont doubt it man, hey when i said conspiracy, its such a great decent word, the governments have tried to redicule the word , saying only ‘silly’ people believe in conspiracist theories or conspiracies and the gen public think its a daft thing now, conspiracy simple means more than one party is active in the outcome of something and they conspire to do it, so man, i think you may be absolutely right and what you are suggesting steven is not ‘far out’, i think that these days with the sample cds, if you get a demo and recognise it off the latest ”xx”sample cd then it would be v.easy to go home and put the files tog and have the same, i will be honest here, i quite often put a file ( from the charts ) into my comp and copy melodies and gen production from and consider it a success if you were to hear it and go, thats ‘ xx’ s track , burnt at the stake maybe i should be !

                      but wow i dont doubt you, hey , can you give an example, i guess not, can i ask – how do you know whats been submitted which obv no ones heard ( unless these are files you have done yourself and been witness to this ) – and now these ”duplicate” files on the site turn up how do you know that these are the same copies.. i mean do you have direct friends who have had this happen to them.

                      i totally think theres very little one can do to prevent it but i think that awarness in the comunity is key and either a solution will present itself from the collective or the companys involved would begin to get a bad name and decide to cease doing such a thing. what little toerags ! i dont doubt and do take it seriously , if it happened to me i would be furious as they are in an assumed position of trust.

                    • @Steven and @ Adam:

                      “Conspiracy” is an extreme word. It implies that people are sitting in back rooms and plotting. You’re giving them too much credit.

                      Now whether or not some libraries engage in “idea mining” as a general practice is up for debate.

                    • ahah, i think its not strong enough, i now have a vision of ex CIA agents combined with russian ex military secret ops all plotting to take over the library world with global domination, they have made a supercomputer which is able to analize submissions and duplicate with pin point accuracy, agh ! i cannot live in this unfair world anylonger, i need help and a plan !

        • I’m skeptical that this happens much or even at all. Most libraries have very small staff. The effort it would take to keep listening to submissions, copying the ideas, and recording new tracks would be overwhelming, especially given that the money made PER TRACK is generally small. If you wanted to copy other tracks, you don’t need composer submissions– there are tons of libraries with tracks publicly accessible, all sorted and categorized.

          The reason you see the same composer names on many placed tracks for libraries is often the library owner(s) is a composer themselves and even started the library as an extension of their own work. Also, there will always be a handful of ‘go to’ composers that a library likes because their tracks do well.

          I’ve often seen on cue sheets, along with my track, many other tracks composed by the owner of the library who placed mine.

          If a library is looking for a specific track for an opportunity, and I send them something that seems perfect, they can send it off to the supervisor in a few clicks for a potential 50% of revenue and move on to doing other important things. If they spend hours and hours writing a knock-off, they’ve got nothing else done except work on ONE track and it may yield $0 anyway. It doesn’t add up.

          The library business is about tons of effort marketing an entire catalog, not going into the studio to re-write other people’s individual tracks.

          🙂 A

          • I tend to agree but anything is possible if the stakes are high enough. I can’t imagine in the music library world it’s a big issue. I hear lots of stuff similar to mine but mine is pretty generic. There are only so many, notes, feels, styles, genres, etc.

            • When you have submissions

              that are $5,000 – 10,000+

              Oh, they will take time out for that.
              Cause, those are the ones I am really speaking of
              that I see being done this way.

              • Though I have not investigated it myself so can neither agree nor disagree, it wouldn’t surprise me.

                • >>>> Though I have not investigated it myself so can neither agree nor disagree

                  Rob wins this week’s MLR Political Correctness Award! 🙂 🙂

                  Just razzin ya, Rob!!

                  Best,
                  😉 A

                  • “Rob wins this week’s MLR Political Correctness Award! ”

                    Wow! I wasn’t expecting this. What a surprise! Let’s see. I’d like to thank…

              • Are you sure that what your hearing is not an imitation of the ORIGINAL temp track or style spec presented with the lead as opposed to a knock off of a submission?

                Yes, there are $5K-$10K placements (though a lot fewer these days), but remember the odds of actually LANDING that placement, given the competitive nature of the business, are still small even with a great piece of music. It just doesn’t add up to me that the potential dollars vs. hours required make any sense. 50% of something already in your pocket is better than 100% of something that requires MANY hours of work when in either case, it’s probably 1 in 1000 that there is a placement at all.

                Hey– I could be wrong but this is what my gut tells me.

                🙂

                • I’m not sure that I’m following the scenario the Steven proposes. Is this a situation where a library has posted something like “we’re looking for a track that sounds like Lady Gaga to place in a national ad?” If so, then of course all of the submissions are going to sound very similar.

                  Also, just think when someone here says, “I got into library X,” ten people say “congratulations –what kind of track?” I would guess that within a few weeks library X is receiving a lot of similar submissions.

                  Without knowing what was requested and hearing the tracks in question, I can’t judge.

    • You know what, I wouldn’t doubt this could actually be happening. I’ve experienced the far more common version of this, which is where you have tracks in a library that have been temped in the mix of a TV show, and then the TV producers get a composer (often the credited composer) to do a rip of it. They did you a favor though, now you know you should never work with that library company.

      • +1

        I have experienced the same.

        The curse of the temp track. 🙁

        I’m not sure why you wouldn’t want to work for the library. It’s the show’s producer who provides the temp track.

  8. Can any libraries or non-American composers out there help me with a tax question? My accountant says that the US government is cracking down on the use of foreign contractors and charging US businesses a 30% tax to use them. Therefore I have to withhold 30% of any royalties I pay my talented composers from Sweden, England, Australia, etc.
    This causes most composers to choose the buyout route and I just end up paying the 30% tax one time myself in these cases.
    Does anyone have any experience with this situation? Any way to legally get around this? It doesn’t seem fair to withhold money on this end when they likely get taxed in their country as well!

    • Your composers need to obtain an
      Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) from the IRS.

      Then they need to fill out an W-8BEN form and put in the form their ITIN.

      So you can give them 100% of the money.

      What kind of music your library represents?

    • Hey Erik,

      Ditto on the ITIN and W-8BEN for your composers. It means US payers don’t have to withhold tax on payments to non-US domiciled payees. There are a number of grounds for being granted an ITIN. For example, in my case, Australia has a taxation treaty with America, so the IRS forego tax on the US end because they know we’re taxed through the roof over here.

      Cheers mate.

    • Like the previous answers my country,Ireland has a tax treaty with the US. I have a TIN and submit a W8BEN when required. Therefore no withholding tax is deducted, if there were though that withholding tax amount would be deducted from my tax liability here so I would not get taxed twice.

  9. Hi All,

    In order to get to the bottom of the question of whether artists selling their music through CD Baby can also participate in sites such as AudioSparx, we put the question to CD Baby directly. Here’s what we asked CD Baby:

    “Hi CD Baby,

    We have a question about your licensing terms, specifically this part:

    DIGITAL DISTRIBUTION ADDENDUM

    1. Additional Authorization:

    While selling Your Content on the Website is non-exclusive (meaning you have the right to sell your music and videos directly), the rights granted by you to us under this Digital Distribution Addendum are exclusive with respect to serving as your authorized representative for distributing Your Content to third party distributors for online redistribution, because online retailers (e.g., iTunes, Amazon, etc.) will refuse content that may be delivered by multiple parties.

    Our question is whether this “exclusive with respect to serving as your (my) authorized representative for distributing your content to third party distributors”, does this mean that I can’t license my music for sync licensing at such sites as musicsupervisor.com, audiosparx.com, crucial music, etc.? Or is this exclusivity strictly related to digital download licensing (i.e. for retail use / personal listening) only?”

    Here was CD Baby’s reply:

    “That’s a really good question and I am glad you are thoroughly digging into the artist agreement. That section covers exclusivity for a specific title at a specific online retail location. Basically, we need to make sure that you are not using another distribution service to get the same album at a place like iTunes that we are. It is bad for them to have two copies of the same album for sale, and if they find an instance of it then they freeze everything and make someone like me do some investigating and lodging of formal rights disputes. Not the worst thing in the world, but that is why we put it in the agreement.

    But this only covers the one title. If you have other titles, you are free to use a different distributor. Or if you put a couple of songs from this title on a compilation that someone else is distributing, that is fine too. Anything not related to that one title at that one online retail location is totally fine, too… so if you want to go for some sync licensing option, I encourage you to do it.

    All the best,
    Joel
    CD Baby-”

    So, what this means is that, if you’re selling at CD Baby, you can still place your music here at the AudioSparx family of web sites for commercial licensing AND participate in all of our licensing and distribution options because this will not conflict with CD Baby’s license terms or in their day-to-day distribution work. To date, we have never had any report or claim of any conflict between our work and CD Baby’s work, hence Joel’s reply is in synch with operational reality here.

    The key difference between what CD Baby does and what AudioSparx does is that CD Baby’s focus is on retail-level distribution of albums, whereas our focus is primarily on commercial-use licensing and, for the retail-level distribution that we do, we are not distributing original artist albums; rather we distribute individual tracks as ringtones to telcos, and we distribute newly created compilation albums, neither of which conflict with CD Baby’s distribution work.

    So, for those of you selling at both sites, rest easy.

    Regards,

    Lee@AudioSparx.com

  10. Anybody know what BMI pays per minute for background music on cable networks like the Golf Channel, learning Channel etc.?

    No guesses please. I’m switching to BMI. I’ve been asked to write a lot of music that will be on those channels, and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it.

    Thanks,

    Michael

    • I can give you a couple of rates from some TLC placements I’ve had.

      2 showings of a 1:11 placement yielded $21.81
      2 showings of a 00:51 placement yielded $15.58
      2 showings of a 00:20 placement yielded $6.23

      There are more but I think those give you a general idea.

      Never had anything on the Golf channel so I can’t help you there.

      -Steve

        • so its 0.15 per second…wow it is so low…I hope MTV pays more than that, if someone knows, it can really be nice to know.

          • Not sure if maybe I’m aiming for the wrong market or just need about 8000 more cues to make any real money. In any case, thanks Slideboardouts for sharing that. That’s what I call a real eye opener.

          • MTV does generally pay more but it really depends on the show and what time it plays etc. as to whether you will see much money. Here are a few MTV placements to compare

            Parental Control, 3 showings, 00:28 yielded $14.55
            Fantasy Factory, 3 showings, 00:19 yielded $27.56
            The Seven, 1 showing, 00:26 yielded $6.12
            10 on Top, 1 showing, 00:26 yielded $3.44
            When I was 17, 8 showings, 00:26 yielded $30.62
            Real World/Road Rules Challenge, 13 showings, 00:35 yielded $91.88

            Honestly, I’m finding its almost pointless trying to figure out the per second or per minute royalty rate for cable channels. They are all over the place. They re-run shows at all hours of the day and night, so who knows what you will end up with. Where you actually see decent money is on the shows that they re-run the hell out of (obviously). That is what you really have to hope for with cable. Re-runs. And lots of them.

            Also, a lot of times shows will get played on multiple channels. So you can make more than what you might think by just looking at what you have figured is the average per second or per minute royalty rate. Most MTV shows will also be played on MTV2 as well (one time I even had an MTV show played on VH1 I believe), and that 1:11 placement on TLC I mentioned in my above post that only paid $21.81 was also played on Discovery and it paid $111.12.

            It all adds up, believe it or not.

            -Steve

            • This is a really cool info, thank you very much man!

              And yes, you never know what its gonna be…but its nice to know where we stand…but 111.12$ for 1:11 cue sounds better.

              Thanks again.

            • Now this is the kind of info I can sink my teeth into. Thanks alot. Most interesting posts of the day imo.

            • Thanks for sharing your figures. Here are some of my own observations:

              royalties are higher on the first airing of a show, and then lower for the repeats

              Some cable shows repeat a lot more than others (and it’s when you get lots of repeats that you make a lot more money)

              New or lesser known cable channels aren’t even ‘surveyed’ by ASCAP or BMI. Fox Reality had a ton of my music on it, and I never saw a penny. Now Speed TV (owned by Fox as well) is using hours of my music every month, and I’m yet to see anything from that.

      • Thanks Steve, and others. That’s about what I expected.

        @Matt –what about getting cue sheets from the producers –instead of relying on the surveys?

        Best,

        Michael

        • Michael – the cue sheets have been filled out and submitted (I have many of them, but not all), yet ASCAP doesn’t ‘survey’ or even pay out this particular channel I have a lot of music on. Same goes for a lot of lower end cable channels (even on basic cable).

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