Hello everyone,
I've been on fiverr.com making $5 per song or from engineering sounds for clients since May 2011. I'm obviously not able to make a living from composing, but I was wondering if it's possible for me to make an extra $500 a month doing this somehow? Here's my link to some of the things I've done so far:
My question is, is it really possible to make an extra income beyond $5 a song? I've never heard of anyone who's done more than this, but I hear about it off and on anyway. It doesn't seem like anyone's really willing to pay more than $5 for a song these days so I was wondering if anyone knows what I'm apparently not seeing or haven't been seeing as to being able to make a nice "part-time job" out of this sort of thing.
Thank you much
Stef
Replies
$60 ??? That's 12 songs worth of what I'd do on Fiverr.com ! 100 songs sold a month = $6000 !!!! However there'd be taxes, the percent owed to the royalty free sites, etc.... but still, that's more money than I make in almost 6 weeks !!
I like the notion of advertising, however I would probably set up a blog and have as much google-bound SEO for it to function well enough for valid capital.
The things I'd have to know would be:
* What kind of competition is there that demands you write X number of songs to compete successfully... or should I say, how many songs should you write to make any substantial money on royalty free sites where the other 200,000 composers are left behind?
* What genres are making it big on the market right now?
* How unscrupulous are the other composers? Do they use things like sabotage for your channel or stealing your songs and putting them on their own channel to wipe you off the map?
* How many months/years can you expect to make $X on these sites?
* Do people come to you for custom composed songs where they DO offer royalties?
Thank you much! I'm now back in the grove for cashing in on composing!
Stef, there are several good books you can check out here http://www.fishercreativegroup.com/FORMcatalog1.htm?
You can learn composing and production through lessons. A good song on a royalty-free site would keep selling to multiple users so you wouldn't need to write 100 songs a month. The music that's selling is like what you hear on films, commercials, etc. Unscrupulous composers????? Stealing songs? Your time is better spent composing and mastering your craft.
Royalties are a good source of income and while they most often come from face-to-face gigs, they don't always.
http://audiojungle.net/item/clouds/95370?sso?WT.ac=portfolio_item&a...
3166 puchases it says on the right side of the page... and it's only been there for 2 years. What is going on with this song of his that did so well in so little time? These are the real questions I'm asking. Again, I do thank you all for the repsonses.
I can see why you're questioning that number. It certainly seems out of place. I suspect it's an error.
I don't think it's an error there are lots of songs on audio jungle that sells that much. http://audiojungle.net/category/music?utf8=%E2%9C%93&sort_by=sa...
Why it's popular can be hard to spot, but do notice that he has other tracks that also are selling quite well. Maybe it's the title, the instrumentation, the structure, maybe the track has been mentioned at a lot of other sites or been advertised, maybe the track hit a whole in the market at the right time and so on.
Also some of his tracks sells almost nothing. It's all about getting a lot of music out there, some tracks will sell others won't. You can of cause increase your chances of making a successfully track in many ways - the best tip is to listen to what sells and make music similar to that.
Also don't make tracks that are too complicated. Simple music is better because most of the time a track will be used as an underscore. This is also shown by listening to the best selling tracks at the music libraries.
You could also take a look at this great site where Emmett answers many music library questions. http://www.filmandgamecomposers.com/guides/common-music-library-que...
YEAH !! Now THIS is what I'm talking about !
What exactly sells and how do you do it..... we need to all start discussing this sort of thing because this is what counts above all else. We need to give these guys what they want, not what WE want.
Now what we should begin this dicussion with after we've read such articles regarding what sells in music these days (As the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche stated, "only crazy music") we need to discuss:
* Do we need to advertise a blog or a website with our links on royalty free sites?
* Will people copy our songs close enough so that they start getting our business?
* How long can we expect downloads of our songs to continue for?
* How many songs should we have in our portfolio?
Etc. Etc......
The problem is that you can't get a definitive answer to those questions as there are too many variables and that some of them change all the time. The answers will among lots of other things depend on:
The more exposure you get the more you will sell, so be in as many places as possible. I'm on Soundcloud, YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, have a blog, are working on another website for promoting my music and is of cause listed in many music libraries.
Well guys, these are some nice clues and information that I see you're all willing to contribute so openly and freely... and I am most appreciative. I would, however, like to keep this conversation going so that all that we've discussed can be expanded on more and more.
Let's see.... Syncopation and the groove even, "Loud, Fast and Simple to the point of brain dead", Changes in the market, what libraries you're listed at, etc. etc.......... ok, is there anything else we can add to the mix?
Sorry... I mean to also ask this above all else....
Can we have a list of respectable non-exclusive royalty-free websites to post these songs to? Let's try to get as many as possible so we can know where to go for better exposure.
For THE definitive list of music libraries, check out http://www.musiclibraryreport.com/
A huge wealth of knowledge is on that site.
Stef Savastio said:
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