Are Music Publishsers and Libraries the same thing?

[Ken3]

Hello to everyone my name is Ken. I am brand new on this forum but unfortunately my body is not...it creaks a bit you know....
I am not yet a Taxi member but am working full steam on my music and getting to the place where I will shortly have some of my songs finished. Then I will join Taxi. I have many songs in various stages of completion and am now at least moving in the right direction in that I am getting to know my home studio well enough to push my songs out faster.
Now to my question if you don't mind me asking? I did use the search engine but could not find anything on this subject.
As my subject title says. Are music publishers the same thing as music libraries in that they can keep your song on file but do not have to use it? I ask this because if a publisher takes your song and you have signed a contract with them then they may sit on it for the next 20 years and do nothing with it right? If a library takes your song then could they also sit on it for the next 20 years as well and do nothing with it if they liked?
I know that a person has to get their songs out there to be heard etc but I am wondering if a library can take a persons songs/music to just fill up their collection with but have no real motivation to pitch that song. Sort of add it to the pile which is good for the library but not good for the artist?
Forgive me if my question sounds harsh and negative I never meant it to be. I really want to know from the succesfull people on this forum if being signed to a library is something to aim for? Is it financially rewarding to be signed on or do any of you have songs that have been sitting in the library for many years unused?
Sorry that I could not word my question better than I have. I think need a new brain...
Pleased to meet you all.
Thanks
Ken

[stevecollom]

welcome Ken,

it all depends on the contract you sign, exclusive means they have exclusive rights to that song, for whatever the term of the contract is ect

(this is the way they look like they are heading)
Taxi has awesome ustream videos out http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/5648479

these are soooooooo helpful.

anyway hope this answers one question

again welcome and YES join taxi ASAP. they will help you with your journey.
best 300 bucks i have spent on my music

[mojobone]

They're not the same, but for the most part, you can treat 'em the same. (meaning investigate them carefully to see if they're a good fit for you and your music, heh) They serve different markets, but are similar in operation. Some are simply huge repositories of online digital music files that seemingly do very little to work your catalog or even help their end users find what they need by tagging the files with appropriate keywords, and are more interested in having everything than pushing anything, so the quality bar can be set pretty low. These outfits are often non-exclusive. Others are smaller, some are newer and more aggressive in working their (and your) catalogs, have close working relationships with music supervisors and other industry types, and are more selective about what they sign, and their contracts are often exclusive.

There are many similarities and areas of overlap, but the difference is that libraries are looking for tracks and publishers are looking for songs. Generally, libraries will want a finished piece of (often instrumental) music to drop into a production as underscore or source music (a jukebox plays nondescript 50s C&W music in a scene set in a smoke filled coal-country honky-tonk, for example) Publishers usually want great hit songs that will be re-recorded by a recording artist, usually with vocals.

HTH, and welcome to the forum, Ken!

[Ken3]

welcome Ken,

it all depends on the contract you sign, exclusive means they have exclusive rights to that song, for whatever the term of the contract is ect

(this is the way they look like they are heading)
Taxi has awesome ustream videos out http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/5648479

these are soooooooo helpful.

anyway hope this answers one question

again welcome and YES join taxi ASAP. they will help you with your journey.
best 300 bucks i have spent on my music

Thanks for your answer Steve. Yes I will be joining Taxi as that is my aim and purpose. My wife supports me and I am working on my music but have been having quite a time learning my DAW software. Being of "older stock" I am no whiz kid with computers but now I am finally getting it all to flow.
I used to have the old analog 16 track Fostex etc back in the early 90s and then I moved and had to sell everything. Now I have bought some modern stuff am relearning everything.
I will check out that link that you gave me and thanks again.
I am pleased to be here.
Ken

[Ken3]

There are many similarities and areas of overlap, but the difference is that libraries are looking for tracks and publishers are looking for songs. Generally, libraries will want a finished piece of (often instrumental) music to drop into a production as underscore or source music (a jukebox plays nondescript 50s C&W music in a scene set in a smoke filled coal-country honky-tonk, for example) Publishers usually want great hit songs that will be re-recorded by a recording artist, usually with vocals.

HTH, and welcome to the forum, Ken!

Thanks for the welcome mojo and the explanation of how things work. This will help me decide which way to aim. I am already sensing the way but will do as you said and do some more investigation.
Ken

[devin]

Reading the listings carefully can help paint the picture of what a "publisher" vs a "library" are looking for. Finding out where you music fits best is key to targeting your song submissions today, and (much more important when starting out) will help determine the improvement path necessary to meet the specific requirements of your target clients in the future.

Disclaimer: I've only done this a few times, so I'm no authority on how well this approach works...but I firmly believe it is the trend. Find out where your music fits, who the clients are, and then put in the time to become one of the client's obvious choices.

After that, it's a numbers game to find success. Pitching 4 "great" tracks is much better than pitching 100 "OK" tracks...but the goal should be to eventually have 400+ "great" tracks working for you. This is because, at any one time, a few great tracks will get stalled out, locked up, or overlooked. So the more tracks placed, the greater traction the group of tracks will get, with some tracks being used over and over (Pareto at work ).

HTH?

[Ken3]

Reading the listings carefully can help paint the picture of what a "publisher" vs a "library" are looking for. Finding out where you music fits best is key to targeting your song submissions today, and (much more important when starting out) will help determine the improvement path necessary to meet the specific requirements of your target clients in the future.

Disclaimer: I've only done this a few times, so I'm no authority on how well this approach works...but I firmly believe it is the trend. Find out where your music fits, who the clients are, and then put in the time to become one of the client's obvious choices.

After that, it's a numbers game to find success. Pitching 4 "great" tracks is much better than pitching 100 "OK" tracks...but the goal should be to eventually have 400+ "great" tracks working for you. This is because, at any one time, a few great tracks will get stalled out, locked up, or overlooked. So the more tracks placed, the greater traction the group of tracks will get, with some tracks being used over and over (Pareto at work ).

HTH?

Thanks Devin. You make a lot of sense with what you said above. Targeting...that is a key word and will stick in my brain from now on.