Some general questions and possible quandaries....

[CHuckmott]

I branched out on my own back in April and had been submitting to libraries, and found they run the gamut from "We'll accept everything" to nearly impossible to get into. After the smoke cleared, I found a lot of the royalty free libraries somewhat easy to get into, but also managed to get into 2-3 "boutique" libraries that are going to be mainstays for me submitting to. One of the libraries seems to be a hybrid - a stock royalty free site that also considers themselves getting boutique style placements. WHile not seriously undercutting myself, several of the tracks have landed up in all 5. In the royalty free I got kind of enticed by the promise of monthly payments (I don't have many tracks in yet, so nothing has sold, kind of necessary info for my question). I am now in the position of trying to decide whether or not to close my accounts with some of the royalty free ones, as my understanding this could create problems if I have tracks in more boutique ones possibly vying for the same spots, with various price structures. I do have the option of pulling out of some of these libraries, removing tracks, closing accounts completely and just concentrating on the few I like. Plus of course whatever cool opportunities Taxi lines me up with.

My choices now seem to be: keep doing what I'm doing and find what works. See where the sales come from. OR scrap many of these places I normally submit to to, and go with a chosen 2-3 and write exclusive for them without the types of concerns I laid out above. With the possible downside that nothing sells. But as it stands right now I really don't know what the more boutique places are trying to sell my tracks for - so it seems silly to be able to go into some of these other sites and see them priced really comparatively low compared to what library x is selling them for.

So, a strategy for a budding composer? There appear to be two general business models in this biz: 1.) Go royalty free, slam as many royalty free libraries with as many quality tracks as you can, hope to see regular sales from all of them combined. Write frequently to keep your name at the forefront. or 2:). Write less. Focus on better , more boutique libraries. Treat them as exclusive. I'm kind of feeling like I am standing at a crossroads as to which way to take this.

The short version of the question: Close accounts at some so they don't potentially cause problems with the others? Or see what materializes?

[brentmagstadt]

Great questions - great quandary.
I don't have the answer (or experience) to point you in any specific direction, but I can share my approach: I write for both exclusive and non, and I keep my tracks strictly separated out into two different buckets. For the non-exclusive pitches, I generally don't have a concern about overlapping, but I also don't have that much out there. I do figure, however, that if they (the library) are non-exclusive and say so, then... they must be aware that other libraries may have those tracks also. Similarly for the people who purchase from non-exclusive libraries - if they shop there, then non-exclusive probably isn't an issue and their expectation (hopefully) is that they would see that track elsewhere.

The part about a non-exclusive library that pitches itself as boutique... hmnn... that's... paradoxical.
Anyways, hope you get some value out of any of that.

[eeoo]

I tend to concentrate on the publishers with whom I have actual relationships with. The ones who know and like my music and reach out to me from time to time. These relationships take a while to develop so in the meantime nothing wrong with getting your tracks out there where you can but I wouldn't make any "career" decisions until you're in the game for a while. Maybe target some libraries you'd like to get into and have that be your next goal?

eo

[playagibson]

I'm with eeoo, work towards building relationships with the quality Libraries and put less emphasis on the others.
The good libraries don't like it when you put your music in the cheap libraries.
They are trying to get as much money as they can for you and when you have the same song in another library on
sale for ten bucks they go crazy and who can blame them.
I've been told this personally by one of the libraries I'm signed with.
Better to aim at being part of a more exclusive group rather than one in a billion .
It takes more work and there is more rejection but the payoff will be better.

Rich.

[CHuckmott]

And that's what I'm getting at Rich. While I'm not selling for $10. TO be more blunt, I have tracks in production libraries as well as others who consider themselves boutique. I tend to favor the ones where I talk to s specific person. One of the RF seems to be pretty high end though, and has some good composers there. SOme folks will know to whom I'm referring. I think I need to focus on the three - and writing some exclusive stuff for them. Hard though when you are starting and don't have a gauge really where the sales are. Welcoming more thoughts. Thanks guys.

[DesireInspires]

Relationships are GOLDEN.

No matter how great your music is, you will always be underpaid without the right relationships.

[mikeymike2000]

my 2 cents is that you should focus on quality libraries and build your relationships with them.

There are going to be people who disagree with what I am about to say but I understand what is good for the goose is not always good for the gander. So feel free to disagree if you wish.

However, I personally avoid any library that says "royalty free" in their title or tag lines. I also avoid libraries that offer "blanket licenses". I have a specific figure in mind that I will accept for a single license and if said library does not charge that amount or more I don't bother.

I sent in a physical CD to a library almost a year ago and just got an email today acknowledging that CD and that I will find out if I am "in or out" in about two weeks time. - I am happy to wait this long and to have gone through the trouble of sending a physical CD in the year 2013 because I know this is a bonafide library that services all the major shows.

In the past I had one of the owners of a library call me within hours of sending some stuff in online and that made me feel really good but after some research I found the cost of their license to the end user was what I considered to be insulting, so I did not proceed.

I guess the point I am trying to make here is that this takes TIME. No matter what. Unless we are talking a Taxi forward or someone you already know, if it happens fast it is most likely not that exciting.

we could talk about different libraries servicing different markets and what-not but for me, I am only interested in one market when it comes to libraries.

[CHuckmott]

I did get value from all the comments here guys. I appreciate it. If there are guys here who do take advantage of the non-exlclusive royaltly free libraries, while still wriing stuff for submission to what would be considered higher end libraries (and treating those as exclusive) I would certainly welcome your experiences or direction doing that. Think that may be the direction I am taking for now. Thanks. Thread is here for anyone's benefit who wants to comment on it or gain knowledge from it, so definitely feel free to continue to comment. Thanks all.