How many libraries....

[CHuckmott]

Are you more experienced people involved with at any one time.....I mean juggling all at once. Seem if you are a part timer juggling, say, 4 -5 at once, are relatively new, and are treating each library as exclusive, it would take quite a while to get several tracks to each one if you are working with 4-5 at a time. SO what do our more experienced people, or what does anyone else , suggest as a strategy? Fill one , move onto another?

[Cruciform]

Not sure how 'experienced' I qualify as, but basically I juggle workload rather than number of libraries. At the moment I have three projects in the pipeline for one library. One of those projects will finish soon, another hasn't started yet (still waiting for the brief) and I already have the next gig lined up with another library. Aside from that, I have two other unsigned projects happening. One on the go now and the next in early development stage. Projects writing to brief (which is most of what I do now) generally have several months lead time so I know my schedule in advance and can reasonably plan.

There is another library that I send unused cues to and they have taken quite a few so far. They're good quality cues but just haven't been used elsewhere for whatever reason. I love these guys because they register tracks quickly, are getting placements and share blanket fees with their composers.

Aside from that, there are a couple of other libs I'm approaching but haven't broken into yet. When fully established I expect to be regularly working for about 5-6 libs. There are also a bunch that I have music with but am not continuing to feed because they don't fit my long-term strategy.

[Kolstad]

There is another library that I send unused cues to and they have taken quite a few so far. They're good quality cues but just haven't been used elsewhere for whatever reason. I love these guys because they register tracks quickly, are getting placements and share blanket fees with their composers.

That sounds like the perfect library!!!

[Cruciform]

Magne,

They're a very good library in many ways.

[CHuckmott]

I'm in four that seem to be pretty decent. Only time will tell though, way too early in the game. I think I want to consistently submit to all of them. I have a sense how all this is going to play out though as far as my strategy.

[suzdoyle]

I'd say I'm at a mid-level status, as a composer. I have about 350 songs (and 450 or so musical comedy ringtones) in 9 different production music libraries. When first starting out, I put many of my songs in 3 main libraries, on a non-exclusive basis, but that got complicated and confusing, so I've withdrew duplicate songs from the libraries that didn't generate as many placements, and am now focusing on placing songs exclusively.

Tracking where everything is, as well as co-writers/ publisher (whether it's me, or the library), ASCAP numbers, etc. can take some time -- so getting a clear tracking system in place before you get a large number of works is a good idea (I'm still catching up on that. Whew!).

One of my values as I move into a career as a composer, is to have a good life balance, so I'm intentionally building things somewhat slowly, so I can have good self care, which means having lots of "not doing" time each day and choosing to work more often (when possible) with production libraries that don't generate unnecessary stress. As I get more placements and deals and interact with my fellow Taxi composers, I'm learning how to lean into working for/ with libraries that do good work without being unnecessarily hectic.


And someday I just might finish updating my dang song tracking spreadsheets . . .

Suz