photo by judepics

In this final installment of the series of making money with production music libraries, we take the process full circle and use our music for picture placements as leverage to gain more projects and placements moving forward.  It’s all about using your achievements to snowball into more success as you roll along in your career as a music composer.

For composers who are new here, check out the rest of this series and be sure to sign up for free email updates or the RSS feed to keep up!

1. Introduction / What are production music libraries
2. Produce tracks that sell
3. Copyright your music
4. Register with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO)
5. Submit your songs to production music libraries
6. Leverage your music placements to gain future music for picture work

Your First Music for Picture Placements

If you have released a batch of songs to production music libraries and they have been in circulation for a number of months, you should have successfully landed some placements on television shows, films, video games, or other media.  But you may not know about all of them, or exactly when they aired.

The way you can find out is by looking at your statement from your performing rights organization.  Not only will this show you how much royalty income you have earned over the past quarter, but it will also list the names of the productions where your music has been placed.

These names may not always be very descriptive, but they often give you enough info that you can use to your advantage.  For example, it may say “Fox Sports”, or “Discover Channel” along with the name of the television program.  You may have received international placements.  The statement will show the country of origin for each placement as well.

There’s nothing like that bit of excitement you get when you realize your music was heard on the airwaves!  In fact, one time I was home watching television and I happened to see a commercial come on that used one of my tracks!  Great feeling.  A few months later, that placement was reflected in my royalty statement.

Turn Your Music Placements into a Marketing Tool

Now the key is to use these successes to your advantage and gain more work as a composer.  The way you do this is to promote the fact that your music has been placed on such widely recognized networks as “Discovery Channel”, and “Fox Sports” (for example).  People know these names.  This name recognition helps to support your credibility as a composer and serves to create the impression of success.

It’s OK to name-drop a bit in your bio and your description of services.  Work these names into the copy on your personal website, your social network page bios, your email signature line, author bio on blog posts, etc.  You might even want to consider dropping their logos somewhere on your site or in other promotional materials.  Use this stuff in your email marketing campagn.

Go ahead and utilize your successes in actual conversations with folks in your industry, friends and family.  Your music has been placed on television.  Be proud of that.  You can now be confident in presenting yourself as a composer of music for picture with placements on nationally recognized media outlets.

The music business is all about networking, promoting, networking, promoting, marketing yourself, promoting, and networking (oh, and writing some great music too).  Utlizing production music libraries gives you an easy point of entry into the music for picture business.  The successes you gain from it, like music placements on television, will help you take your composing career to the next level.

photo by BL1961

Welcome back to our series on making money with production music libraries. If you’re a music composer looking to find placements in television, film, video games, and other places, submitting your music to production music libraries is a great place to start. In this installment, we will look at the process of evaluating online production music libraries, and submitting your music.

For those songwriters and composers who are new here, check out the other articles in this series and be sure to sign up for free email updates or the RSS feed to keep up!

1. Introduction / What are production music libraries
2. Produce tracks that sell
3. Copyright your music
4. Register with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO)
5. Submit your songs to production music libraries
6. Leverage your music placements to gain future music for picture work

Find Online Production Music Libraries

Through just a bit of Googling or Twitter search, you will quickly find a ton of online production music libraries. Some of the terms that generate lots of results are, “Production Music Library“, “Stock Music Library“, and “Royalty Free Music Library“.

Included at the end of this article is a list of production music libraries that openly encourage music submissions. This could be a good starting point for finding the right set of libraries to shoot for.

Differences Among Music Libraries

Online music libraries tend to fall into one of three categories:

1) Those that act as the Publisher

These production music libraries will generally control 100% publisher’s share of performance royalties. You, the composer, will still retain 100% writer’s share. In addition, each library varies in the way they split licensing fees (if any) with the composer. A song that is licensed through this type of music library cannot be licensed through another library under the same song title.

While this option may seem to offer the least financial benefit to the composer, these libraries do offer the potential for lots of placements, which can generate a sizable amount of performance royalties over time. Remember, your tracks can be licensed over and over on a non-exclusive basis, which makes them a continuous money-maker over the long-term.

One example of this type of music library is Freeplay Music.

2) Those that act as the Administrative Agent

These production music libraries allow you the flexibility to submit and license your music through other libraries in addition to theirs. Here’s how these types of music libraries generally work: Upon accepting your submitted music, they will rename your songs. Then they will register your renamed songs with their PRO, and handle all collections and distributions of performance royalties. This renaming and PRO registration process is for the purposes of this library only. You are free to submit your songs (under your own titles) to other music libraries.

An example of this type of music library is Pump Audio. Through their system, Pump Audio takes 50% of the publisher’s share of performance royalties. You, the composer retains 100% of the writer’s share (150% total for you). In addition, all licensing fee’s are split 50/50 between you and Pump Audio.

Pump Audio is a great place to submit music to since they are among the most popular services out there. Aside from the large amount of TV placements they can deliver, their service also drives the music section of Getty Images.

3) Micro-payment sites

These music libraries stay out of the publishing game altogether. You are free to submit your music for their library as well as others. Your music is posted on their site for relatively small licensing fees (usually only a couple bucks per download). They offer you a percentage of the licensing fees collected through downloads of your music. Your cut is usually fairly small so it requires a long period of time to really accumulate a decent amount of cash from licensing. Of course, you still retain 200% of the performance royalties should your music end up on a TV show, radio spot, or other royalty-generating exposure.

An example of this type of music library is Audio Jungle. They offer the composer 25% of the download fee, which ranges from $1 to $10. Not much, but give it time. They also offer you the option to become an “exclusive” composer, which means you agree not to offer your music anywhere else besides Audio Jungle. Exclusive composers get 40% – 70% of sales, depending on volume.

Research / Contact / Submit

As you can see, it takes a bit of digging through the fine print on these websites to figure out which category of music library they are.  Some offer extensive FAQ’s while others simply offer an email address.  Find out as much as you can, then use the provided contact form or email address to get in touch.

Follow the instructions they provide for submitting music.  This usually involves mailing in a CD, but it may be as simple as uploading your tracks through the website.  Each library has a different system, and some have more advanced websites than others.  Sometimes this info may be a bit hard to find.  If the website doesn’t have a dedicated page for composers, the info is usually located in the “Help”, “FAQ”, or “Contact” sections.

List of Production Music Libraries

Here’s a list of production music libraries to get you started on your search.  Some of these have generated nice sums of money for my music, others just seem to show potential (although I have not personally used them for my music).  Dig in:

• Freeplay Music
• Pump Audio
• Audio Jungle
• Stock Music (stockmusic.net)
• Beat Suite
• Proud Music Library
• Ditty Base
• Gratis Music Library
• Sound Image
• Fresh Music
• Premium Beat
• S3MX
• Oak Stock Music
• 615 Music
• Production Music Library
• APM Music

photo by brentbat

Here is another installment in the series on making money with production music libraries.  Today I will offer tips for composing tracks that sell and earn placements on television, films, video games, and other media.  This list of composition tips will help you meet the needs of television producers while setting yourself apart from the competition.

Check out the other articles in this series and subscribe to free email updates or the RSS feed to keep up!

1. Introduction / What are production music libraries?
2. Producing tracks that sell
3. Copyrighting your music
4. Registering with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO)
5. Submitting your songs to production music libraries
6. Leveraging your music placements to gain future music for picture work

10 Music for Picture Composition Tips:

1. Pinpoint a specific mood. Music placements are chosen because they perfectly match the mood of the visual scene they are supporting.  Try to envision how your composition might be used.  Would it be for a rainy day scene?  Winning the big game?  A horror sequence?  A bedroom scene?  Maybe a fast-paced car commercial.  Or a fun-loving kids television show theme song.  Often times, when you pinpoint a specific visual mood for your composition, it will end up being compatible with lots of other common moods that media producers look for.
2. Choose the right instruments. A big part of shaping your composition is in choosing just the right sounds for various parts.  From the start, you might have a general idea of which instruments you want to use.  Go ahead and lay those parts down quickly using MIDI.  Then spend extra time later choosing the perfect instrument.  For example, you know you want a piano.  Start out with a general grand piano patch.  Lay down the part.  Then go back and switch the patch from your typical grand piano sound to a darker, more muted aged piano – if that’s what will serve the composition well.  Here’s an article about effectively using MIDI in your composition flow.
3. Mix and match styles and genres. Music for picture is all about uniqueness and originality while capturing a specfic mood.  The majority of compositions used as background music don’t fall into one specific genre or style.  They mix and match elements from a variety of styles.  You might have an orchestral sequence layered on top of an electronica drum beat.  Or a country song with a soaring lead guitar solo placed within it.  My favorite thing about composing music for picture is the endless possibilities for creativity in song structure, style, and instrumentation.
4. Craft with dynamics. Many visual scenes will require a change in pace.  Incorporate a few different stages of dynamics within your composition to accommodate changes in a visual scene.  Start with a stripped down section, and move into a more full-bodied section.  Or incorporate an alternate arrangement every 8 bars.  Be sure to make these changes quickly – within 10-15 seconds of each other.  Music placements on television tend to last only 30 seconds or less, especially for commercial spots.  Dynamic compositions with a few changes will be more useful to television producers than ones that stick to the same repeated loop for two minutes.
5. Choose names that sell. The name of each composition should reinforce the intended mood.  Choose a name that paints a visual picture in the mind of the person choosing the music.  Most production music libraries are browsed by track name, so you want to create names that jump right out of the list.  Examples of good names are “Ticking Time-Bomb” or “Fields of Passion” or “Stormy Night”.  These are in line with the needs of potential music buyers.  Examples of names that get passed over are “Guitar Song 3″, “Track_8″, “Synth Mod XT”.  These names offer no information about how this track might be used.
6. Cover all the bases. When putting together your collection of music for picture tracks, be sure to cover a wide variety of styles, moods, genres, and potential uses.  You don’t want to limit yourself to only hard-rocking action sequence music.  Or only love-scene ballads.  Try and cover as many bases as possible.  A wider variety of tracks in production music libraries will earn far more placements and potential royalties because they fill a wide variety of needs.
7. Produce a quality mix. You might have composed the most amazing piece, with tons of potential uses on television or film, but if the audio quality and mix is no good, your track will sit on the shelf collecting dust.  Make sure you have a good handle on producing quality mixes out of your music production studio.  That means finding a pleasing balance of EQ, dynamics, panning, volume levels, and overall mastering level.  It’s quite possible to produce perfectly use-able tracks in a home recording set up.  If you’re not experienced with basic audio engineering, you might want to consider hiring someone to mix and master your tracks.
8. Not too short, but not too long. Your tracks should be at least 1 minute long.  2-3 minute tracks are good.  It’s probably not worth the time and effort to produce tracks longer than that, especially if you’re introducing new parts past 2 minutes in.  Most tracks won’t get played that far.  Barely any tracks will be previewed that far.  Plus, music supervisors may cut up your song and loop only the first 10 seconds.  You want to strike a balance between producing a useful length, and not wasting your own time producing tracks that are too long.
9. Watch and learn. While you’re chilling out and watching some television, pay close attention to the background music of the programs you’re watching.  This is where you want your music to be placed.  Take note of the instrumentation, arrangements, dynamics, moods, audio mix, etc.  Watch the commercials!  Don’t flip the channel or skip with your DVR.  Commercials feature background music that is quite interesting and often times very well crafted.  Mixing and matching styles is very common in advertising spots.  Grab musical ideas from the stuff you hear on TV.
10. Find a productive groove. Making money with production music libraries is all about quantity.  The more tracks you have out there, the more potential for placements in broadcast, the larger your royalty checks are.  Get into a working groove for your composition process.  You should be able to quickly knock out a quality music for picture track in just a day or two.  Do that for a month and you should have a solid 20-30 tracks ready to push on production music libraries.  The more your produce, the faster you become at making compositional decisions and mixing and mastering your audio.

Your Thoughts…

Share your production tips for composing music for picture.  What has worked for you?  What hasn’t?

photo by fotographix.ca

Production music libraries are a hot topic these days as folks are looking for a ways to earn extra cash.  Emerging music composers as well as music for picture industry veterans can benefit from submitting music to production music libraries.  It’s one of the easiest ways to get your music played on television, film and other media and earn continuous income from performance royalties.

This is the first article in an extended series on music production libraries.  Many of you have been asking how to break into composing music for picture and earning performance royalty income.  These articles will provide you with a well-rounded road map for utilizing production music libraries.  Be sure to subscribe to free email updates or the RSS feed to keep up with the series.

This series will cover the following areas:

1. Introduction / What are production music libraries?
2. Producing tracks that sell
3. Copyrighting your music
4. Registering with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO)
5. Submitting your songs to production music libraries
6. Leveraging your music placements to gain future music for picture work

What are Production Music Libraries?

Production music libraries are collections of music tracks that television producers, film makes, video game producers, and others use in their productions.  These libraries are packed with songs covering a wide variety of genres and styles.  Their purpose is to provide media producers with a vast selection of music that they can use as soundtrack material, background music, theme music, etc.

Many of these libraries are web-based.  Later in this series we will cover which production music websites to use and how to prepare and submit your songs.  I have already listed a few in this previous post.

How Do I Make Money from Production Music Libraries?

When your music is used as part of a television or radio broadcast, you earn performance royalties.  These royalties can really add up over time, especially when your song is re-used in lots of different broadcasts.  Production music libraries offer your music the opportunity to be used and re-used for years, generating a continuous flow of performance royalty income.

Selling the license to your music directly to television producers and advertisers is the other source of income (and a very lucrative source indeed!).  However, this will only comprise a very small percentage of your earnings (if any at all) when you utilize production music libraries.

While it would be great to able to secure these lucrative licensing deals, the reality is most of us are unknowns in this industry.  We don’t have the contacts to make these deals happen.  We’re happy to give our music away, on a non-exclusive basis, in order to gain exposure and generate sizable performance royalty income.  This is my attitude anyway.  Why let your music sit on the shelf waiting for that big break when you can earn hundreds, even thousands of dollars for music you composed years ago?  In my opinion, it’s a no-brainer.

So Let’s Get Into it…

I plan to contribute to this series at least once a week. As always, please offer your comments, tips, experiences, and questions as we go. Be sure to grab the email or RSS feed to keep with the latest!

Do you compose instrumental tracks that could be used in film, television, video games, or other media? Looking for a super-easy way to place your compositions in these outlets?

There are quite a few production music libraries out there that provide stock music to producers of TV and films. Many of them openly accept applications and music submissions from all artists. The chances of being accepted into one or several libraries are far greater than attempting to license your tracks directly to clients like HBO, Paramount, or EA Sports.

And it pays! When your music is used by a broadcast production, you get paid royalties for the performance of your material. Just make sure your songs are registered with your performing rights organization (PRO) so that your cash is collected and distributed to you.

If you have a pile of recordings just laying around collecting dust, why not let them earn for you?! I’m still pulling in extra cash from tracks I produced over three years ago! Music libraries are an excellent way to let your songs earn and keep earning for you over time.

Making your tracks available on one or several production libraries is also a great way to easily earn credits. When your royalty statements arrive, take a look at where your songs were used. Then display these credits in your promo materials, website, bio, etc.

It’s a truly great feeling when you suddenly hear a song you wrote pop up on television. Sometimes this happens while you’re actually watching! This happened to me a few times now.

For more in-depth information, check out the extended series of articles on making money with production music libraries.

On with the list:

freeplaymusic.com – This has been a great earner for me. They have been around for a while now, which draws in lots of TV and film producers, but also a lot of composers. Be sure to give your tracks bold descriptions and name your collections wisely.

audiojungle.net – A fairly new service from the quite awesome envato blog network.  They have an interesting pricing / earning structure and it’s been a decent earner for me.

pumpaudio.com – This is a popular service.  They provide all of the musical content for the excellent user-driven television channel, Current TV, along with many other outlets.

estockmusic.com

smartassmusic.com – I don’t know much about it, but the name is great!

mymusicsource.com

productionmusiclibrary.com – This one seems to focus mostly on urban music, but still quite diverse.

I’m interested to hear what your experiences have been with any of the services on this list or others.  There must be other great services out there ready to be tapped.  If you know of a good one, leave a comment and let it be known!