What does it all mean?

[Jed]

Congrats to everyone, I have been reading under success stories and was wondering. I hear alot of I got a forward, my song was added to a library, or I got a placment. When does it mean money? Not to sound like that is all but so you get a forward, nothing concrete yet, You get placed with a library, doesn't that mean that someone basically says "Yes, your music is good enough to sit in this library of about 1000 songs and maybe someday I will use it?" Again to all who are getting any action congrats! I am just trying to figure out when is it concrete. At what contact level do you say, "Cool, I will be getting some royalties for this one!" LOL

Just starting so be gentle.

[bassman]

Hi Jed

I think you managed to ask a very difficult question in a very diplomatic way.

The truth is there's never any guarantee that your track will get used by getting a library deal.
Your chances are obviously bigger than if you've got no deal.

From personal experience I've had a couple of tracks that didn't make any money for 6 years
and then suddenly I got a cheque for $1200.

I have less experience from Taxi placements as most of my revenue and deals are self created but
I'd say I've probably made around $1500 through companies that Taxi introduced me to so far.

I started writing library music about 7 years ago and back then I couldn't understand how anyone would
be able to find my music amongst the millions of tracks out there. I remember going to a big radio station
and they showed me a room where they kept their library cd's and there was thousands. It was overwhelming.

Anyway, point is, somehow people started using my music and it's been used all over the world. How they found
it is a mystery to me.

There are things that make your chances of getting usage better: Great tracks have longer shelf life.
The major libraries will always make you money.

I also think it helps when the publisher takes an active role in guiding the music.

One of the buzz words in this business is "it's numbers game". Personally I can't get inspired by a number.
Much better to focus on writing solid music and let the numbers take care of themselves.

Just my opinion of course of which I have many.

[crystallions]

Congrats to everyone, I have been reading under success stories and was wondering. I hear alot of I got a forward, my song was added to a library, or I got a placment. When does it mean money? Not to sound like that is all but so you get a forward, nothing concrete yet, You get placed with a library, doesn't that mean that someone basically says "Yes, your music is good enough to sit in this library of about 1000 songs and maybe someday I will use it?" Again to all who are getting any action congrats! I am just trying to figure out when is it concrete. At what contact level do you say, "Cool, I will be getting some royalties for this one!" LOL

Just starting so be gentle.

Jed,

A forward means you have a foot in with a library. Your piece has been forwarded to someone to listen to. Placed with a library means that your music is now at a place where it is likely a producer / music supervisor will run across it - and if it fits their project they may use it. To have a placement means that it has been placed in a project (TV show / film / commercial etc) and usually a placement means money whether that is up front and /or royalties.

So, all of these are steps along the way.

Hope that answers your question.

~ Lydia

[Jed]

Thanks for the honest reply bassman. That is kind of the way I am taking it. I am 40 years old and only over the past couple years been writting songs. More recently I have been experiemnting looking at smaller ditties for comercials, and other tv/movie avenues. I have fun creating stuff musically and "think" I have, or can have, some great stuff to add. So once a company agrees to put you into their library the best way to get placements is to get MORE stuff into their library and become, to quote some taxi members, a "go to guy" known to offer great quality stuff on a regular basis. Although, just the fact of knowing someone, somwhere else in the world besides your own back yard thinks your music is worthy of being included in the library is a really cool and great feeling I am sure. I am in this for the 360 turn around and for the fun of it. The 360 turn around is Write it, forward it, like it, use it, pay me cycle. LOL As is everyone I know.

Would love to retire with some decent royalty checks poppin in on a stady basis so that is why I am interested in trying Taxi.

Thanks again,

Jed

[Jed]

Thanks to you as well crystallions, I see the process now. One has to happen before the other in most cases so all steps are good. LOL I can't wait to get my stuff going. Still working on my recording gear and the cash to get with Taxi. I admire all who are in this process.

Good luck to you and thanks again for the answers,

Jed

[mazz]

Another thing to keep in mind in the production music world is that a great piece of music ultimately is only as useful as how well it is classified in the database. Music supervisors don't say "send me some great music", they say: "send me some 80s synth pop a la Human League", or "I need a trombone and piccolo version of Beethoven's Fifth", etc. The way a supervisor or even a library person finds these things is by doing a search in their database. If your piece is well categorized, and sometimes it's your responsibility to categorize it, it's up to how the library does business, it will come up in their search. As usual in this business, it's not just about the music, in fact, it's almost never just about the music!!

So assuming that your music is great, it's categorized properly and the library has processed it into their system (which can take, days, weeks months or up to a year sometimes), it has to somehow reach the edit bay of the producers/editors/supervisors of whatever show or project they are working on. Then they have to decide to use your piece. Let's say they do. Great! Then they fill out a cue sheet with the names of all the composers, their PRO affiliations, the length of the usage, type of usage, etc., and eventually they file the cue sheet with the PRO (they are supposed to, anyway). If everything goes without a hitch, somewhere around 6 to 9 months after the PRO receives the cue sheet, they will write you a check.

Some of us here have had the good fortune to write for libraries in a "custom composer" capacity. In this case, the music we write, if accepted by the library, goes directly to the clients and eventually ends up in the library, kind of the reverse of the usual setup. The great thing about this is the music could be put into the show right away. I had something in a show around a month after I submitted it. One thing to remember about this is sometimes they are producing 20 or more shows at a time so if your piece gets in episode 18, it may be several months before it airs. Add several months to get paid to that and you can see why it's really important to keep feeding the machine with pieces so that eventually you have a solid flow of placements. It starts out as a trickle for sure.

Hope this helps,

Mazz

[Casey H]

All good points made...

It really is a numbers game... acutally, quality + numbers is the key. The probabilty of any one track in a library actually getting placed is small. The probability is greater if it's of high quality with quality encompossing many things--- production, performance, music, lyrics, often how contemporary, mood setting, etc... Mazz brought up a good point that part of quality can be how "taggable" your track is as far as who it sounds like, instrumentation, style, era, etc.

But nevertheless, the odds of any one track getting placed, even with great quality, is still relatively small.

That's where numbers come in. You want as many of these low probability events out there working for you. A hundred library tracks obviously give you great odds of a placement somewhere than five.

How much money might a single (assuming TV right now and not custom work) placement earn you? This varies all over the board depending on factors including whether there are upfront license fees or not, how much of the track was used, what type of network, and how often the show is re-run. A network TV placement might get you $1000 upfront and hundreds in PRO royalties. A library that blanket licenses in mass to cable channels might get you a placement that pays no upfront fee and only earns you $40-$50 in PRO royalties.

Casey

[bassman]

Another thing to keep in mind in the production music world is that a great piece of music ultimately is only as useful as how well it is classified in the database. Music supervisors don't say "send me some great music", they say: "send me some 80s synth pop a la Human League", or "I need a trombone and piccolo version of Beethoven's Fifth", etc. The way a supervisor or even a library person finds these things is by doing a search in their database. If your piece is well categorized, and sometimes it's your responsibility to categorize it, it's up to how the library does business, it will come up in their search. As usual in this business, it's not just about the music, in fact, it's almost never just about the music!!

Sorry for hijacking this thread

Mazz presumably you're talking about non-exclusive libraries here? I am curious about this model as I've only used non-exclusive libraries on a couple of occasions. Being a UK based composer, the majority of the work I do over here is with exclusives.
I am slightly unsure what my question is but let me improvise for a bit.
In England there are libraries that will get Hollywood composers out of retirement and hire a Symphony orchestra. They'll Get Glen Matlock of the Pistols to produce a punk album or even get Quincy Jones to produce RnB. They'll get it mastered at Abbey Road to make it sound rude loud and proud. The revenue they generate is big money, consistently over a 20-30 year period.
Question: How can smaller libraries or non-exclusives compete? Why would a production company go to a small library when they can get superior quality at the majors?
What's the draw? Price?

You may not have the answer but any thoughts, experiences would be welcome.

[mazz]

I'm actually not talking about exclusive or non-exclusive. The tagging issue is the same for both: how do clients find what they need by searching a database? It's really more about the markets they serve. Keep in mind that there's a huge market (my friend matto says it's an even larger market than broadcast) for music for projects that never get broadcast on cable, network etc. This market is corporate training videos, in store promos, wedding videos, and on and on and on. Often the libraries that service this segment of the market sell their music as buyouts where the customer pays once and has unlimited usage of the music as long as it's not for broadcast. At that point they would have to file a cue sheet or make some other payment or whatever agreement they have with the customer at the time of the sale of the music (matto is way more up on this than I am). That being the case, there's no way a library that paid big bucks to get recordings of a real orchestra is going to sell a whole CD of that stuff for only 200 bucks! They aren't even going to try, they are shooting for the top end of the market where there are big sync fees and the potential for big back end. These big companies usually have whole marketing departments and connections with production companies and networks around the world. Smaller libraries of course can't compete with that.

But a couple of the libraries I write for have good connections with production companies that produce reality shows. These shows, even though they are broadcast on cable, don't have big budgets for Quincy Jones music, for instance, and they also use A LOT of music per show. So it's better for them to work with libraries that don't ask for sync fees and can provide tons of excellent music written to their specs. So the tradeoff for the composer is no upfront money but the potential for continuing back end royalties. Since each placement on cable doesn't pay ultra high (particularly for background music), it's necessary to have a lot of pieces in circulation.

So no matter what type of library you're in, the time frames are pretty much the same. It's the clientele and the money that seem to be the difference. Any of us would certainly love to have our music recorded by an orchestra at Abbey Road, but for now I'll settle for placements on "Say Yes To The Dress" while I hone my craft!

Cheers!

Mazz

[bassman]

O.k, that's really very informative and a great answer. Thanks.

A few more questions if you don't mind.

1) You mentioned the non broadcast sector of the market (Corporate training, wedding videos etc.) Any backend royalties on these types of placements or is it just a buyout fee?

2) Also I think what you're saying is that we can potentially earn money over a 10+ year period regardless of how big the library is but the difference is the major libraries pay better. Is that correct?

Best