Has anyone experience of submitting and selling production music?

xSkarloey

I've got lots of stuff and ideas knocking around that can't be used elsewhere with the various bits and bobs I do. 

I'm interested in polishing them up and perhaps submitting them to a music library or a production music website.

Has anyone got experience of this and any dos, don'ts and gneral advice they could share? 


Ta.  

spark240

No. though I am seriously thinking of trying Taxi for the same reason

kin

I'd be interested in the ins and outs of this too.

colourofsound

I've done work for TheMusicJar.com. I got this work through a friend who works for them, but once you're on the roster you're in.

I'm not sure how true this is of other libraries, but Music Jar want songs that are very much in keeping with current chart styles. I did a track which was very Vampire Weekend-y, for example. So even if you have a bunch of ideas, they might not be suitable, or they may ask you to make them a little more this or a little more that to try and capture clients attention.

Each company also has drastically different approaches to payment. For example, TheMusicJar run a subscription based service to their clients, but also one-off purchases as well as 'free-for-broadcast' music. So in the subscription based model you get paid a flat rate if the client uses your music as part of their subscription, one off purchases are split 50/50, and the 'free-for-broadcast' model involves you getting paid through PRS rather than from the library. Most companies I've heard of do the PRS thing or the one-off purchase thing, but in my experience Music Jar are pretty generous; a lot of libraries split 60/40 or even 70/30 in their favour.

Lets talk about rights and licenses. So, again, each company operates differently. With TheMusicJar, my music still belongs to me and I can sell it to whoever I like, but my agreement with them states that they are the only library my music is featured on. So you can't generally spam multiple companies with the same tracks; you'll need to spread tracks out across multiple companies as they want exclusivity on tracks. Once your track is bought the licensing might change dependant on what your track is bought for. You may have to hand over all rights to your tracks for one off purchases, so be prepared for edits of your tracks to be used after the sale and not see any money for those edits. This will be dependant on the library you write for so be sure to read all the T&Cs before you commit your music to any company. I generally make a rule that I only submit music I don't really care for - got a killer riff you love playing? Keep it to yourself!

Money - You won't get paid! Haha. Seriously though - you won't get paid for the work you do unless a client buys the track or licenses it for broadcast. You get nothing upfront. So potentially you have to commit a lot of time and effort into writing and recording the tracks for basically no cash. I have about 20 tracks on the Music Jar and none of them have been bought. I've not seen any money at all. The friend I mentioned earlier who is also a contributor has probably 60 tracks on there, has been cranking them out for 6 years and only recently has he managed to sell a track to a TV news station in Nottingham. That will net him a years worth of PRS - again nothing up front.

Competition - a lot of people are doing this. A lot! And some of them are incredibly successful. Look up a guy called Max Brodie - he's been writing library music since he was 16. He now has a dedicated studio space in Manchester and is well known in the library world - clients seek out his music. Like in every part of this industry, there is always someone with more time, money and maybe talent than you. This is tough.

Format - generally songs should be no longer than 3 minutes. They need to be arranged in such a way that there is a beginning, middle and end, and that interest and texture waxes and wanes throughout the song. Additionally, some libraries will ask for 10, 30 and 60 second cuts of your track, which ideally are loopable. This involves a lot of tedious editing. Most libraries want instrumentals (but this can include backing vocal like oohs and ahhs) so melodies will be on instruments rather than vocal.

I think thats it. I realise that I've not painted a great picture of the library world here. Suffice to say its the same as any part of the music industry - its hard to get started, but if you have the time and the money to put into it, then you can make something from it. The dream is to get PRS for your tracks - thats a monthly salary just from 3 minutes of music. But the initial effort you need to put in is great, and you might not see any return for quite a while.

I've sort of stopped writing library music as I didn't really like the fact I put the effort in writing tracks I wasn't really enjoying for no money upfront. It all depends on what you enjoy doing - if doom metal is your thing then writing track after track in the style of One Direction is probably going to drive you to depression. However, if you can churn out simple, catchy tracks and you love doing it, then library music is where it's at! You've got to be a production wiz, or know someone you can collaborate with to mix and master your tracks - they need to sound shit hot. Thankfully I'm a mix engineer, give me a shout

Hope that helps! 

kin

Brilliant , thanks very much for such a detailed answer. 

xSkarloey

@colourofsound ;

Wow. That's a fabulous and fabulously detailed reply. 

Many thanks for that. Very much appreciated. 

colourofsound

You're welcome! I'm wondering if collaborating is the key, maybe setting up a composing co-operative on the forum might be an idea!

pintspiller

I've applied as a contributor to Pond5 to see how that goes. Four corporate-style tracks uploaded, but my catalogue/portfolio won't "go live" until my ID has been processed and the tracks approved by a curator.

spark240

Wow....a 4year old thread resurrected ;-)

Nerine

You could also try Audiojungle.net. 

I’ve sold some stuff on there. There’s an awful lot of submissions though so sometimes being prolific helps keep you at the top of the search listings. 

Stuckfast

In the long run you'll do much better if you can get your tracks into a "proper" library like Audio Network, BMG etc rather than using "stock music" places.