Silly question

[Ocmesnod]

When a listing says “ They’re not looking for artists that can only submit one or two compositions a month, but composers that can create an album’s worth of material.”

Where most ‘albums’ run 45 minutes to an hour, or 12 to 15 songs or so (of standard 3 - 4 minute songs). Are these libraries looking for an ‘album’ of 30 90 second cues? Or just a a dozen, or so, at a time.

It’s not a problem for me either way. I’m just curious when I see this pop up in a listing from time to time.

Thanks

Don

[cosmicdolphin]

Are these libraries looking for an ‘album’ of 30 90 second cues? Or just a a dozen, or so, at a time.

I just delivered a Library Album at the start of the month which is just getting released ( they have to make artwork etc ) and it was 10 cues of 90 - 120 seconds plus 2 or 3 Alt mixes per track.

YMMV from library to library and project to project. Sometimes they may specify a 2 minute minimum and want 12 tracks..I think 10 @ 90s is about the minimum expectation. Plus you'll have all the alt mixes to do which could include cutdowns.

So why would they not want just the odd track here and there ? Well some do actually but there does seem to be a shift towards albums as that's how quite often they present them to their clients along with good metadata, cool artwork etc. I think it's good for the composers as well as if every track on the album is yours then you could have more chances at a placement. Some Libraries do compile albums from multiple composers but you can understand how much extra work that is dealing with 5 or 6 people on a project instead of just one. It's partly about streamlining their whole ingestion process. You can always collab on an album if you want to share the load as it can be tough when you're making tracks towards the end and feel you've already used up all your best ideas.

So when a listing says “ They’re not looking for artists that can only submit one or two compositions a month, but composers that can create an album’s worth of material.” it might seem a bit daunting if you've never done it before but I can totally understand why they would say that, it's just too much admin to deal with only one or two tracks per writer.

You'll probably be allowed a decent amount of time to make the album, as I have a family and a day job I try to do no less than one track per week if I've promised an album to a Library, I maybe shoot for two tracks each week but it's not always feasible although Covid has definitely made more time for music and my production output has increased over the past few months. Since delivering the Hybrid Orchestral album on the 1st June I've written another whole album of 10 Tension cues which are almost done, I'll speak with the Library owners I work with and see if any of them want to take them when completed. However...I had to put them on the back burner as I am working with a good friend and co-writer on ANOTHER album which is Hybrid Americana type stuff that we started making last year. One of my Libraries is expanding and reached out for new material so I sent a playlist of unsigned tracks and he came straight back and asked for an albums worth of them. I expect they will be done by the end of July and then I'll be back to finishing up my Tension project.

Sorry for the ramble but I hope that gives a bit more of an idea what the Libraries are expecting.

Mark

[AlanHall]

Sorry for the ramble but I hope that gives a bit more of an idea what the Libraries are expecting.

Mark

That's good insight into the process, something I really needed to read. Plus a clue of what will be (routinely) expected from composers in the near future?

[Ocmesnod]

Thanks for the info, Mark & Tom. Much appreciated.

[JannieM]

Mark gave really good explanation - it was well worth reading.