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Where to go from here....

Posted by Stef Savastio on January 15, 2012 at 5:23pm in The Business of Composing

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:

https://composersforum.ning.com/music/playlist/popup?playlistUrl=http%3A//composersforum.ning.com/music/playlist/show%3Ffmt%3Dxspf%26id%3D773368%253APlaylist%253A169566%26mdate%3D2011-02-13T23%253A13%253A18.509Z%26nik%3D3p5561350ik8i&playlistType=user

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

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Replies

  • Chocolatedog February 1, 2013 at 9:50pm

    I would start with realizing that your music is worth way more than 55$ a song. And for that matter any engineering work you do as well. Fivver isa great site for getting quick things done. I use it myself for one or two things but it also going to devalue an already devalued industry even further. 

    Audiosparq is a good idea. I have a friend that makes a good $500 a mont in ringtone sales from there, although i must say i have never used the site myself. 

  • Chocolatedog February 1, 2013 at 9:52pm

    Be verycareful with what stock libraries you sell you music with. Some do not allow its members to be part of a PRO (ASCAP, BMI,SESAC,PRS) Which is a great tip that your getting ripped off. 

    Anders Christensen said:

    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...

    Where to go from here....
    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 l…
  • Stef Savastio February 6, 2013 at 4:52pm
    Reply by Chocolatedogon Friday

    I would start with realizing that your music is worth way more than 55$ a song. And for that matter any engineering work you do as well. Fivver isa great site for getting quick things done. I use it myself for one or two things but it also going to devalue an already devalued industry even further

    Wow.... you like my stuff? I am very grateful... thank you much. But I do thank all of you for this valuable input I would not have gotten anywhere else  :D

     

    I like the suggestions with avoiding the scammers, by the way. I never even knew to look for that sort of thing. 

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  • Stef Savastio February 11, 2013 at 3:47pm

    Hello again guys,

     

    As always, I do thank everyone for their input - and I do thank those of you who think the songs I put together are worth more than $5 :D

    I'm actually just looking to see what I can do with royalty-free websites for starters. Now Michael S. Weber posted a link for the website http://www.musiclibraryreport.com earlier in this thread... Ok, now what I'd like to know is: Has anyone joined this site where the fee that they charge is worth it? I'd like to be able to get hundreds of songs that I've composed (many of which are classical and heavy-metal-oriented) to about 100-200 libraries. The site says 400 libraries are in review over there. If I could make (hopefully) about $50 a song, then I'm hoping that for every 300 songs I have, about 10 would get downloaded per month and per library. Does this sound doable?

  • Anders Christensen February 11, 2013 at 4:41pm

    Musiclibraryreport is not a service that can post your songs. In other words you have to sign-up and upload songs yourself at each music library - uploading and tagging your music for 300 libraries is not realistic.

    MLR list the the libraries and a few facts about them. People can then rate and comment. If you have no idea where to upload your music paying for access and looking around is worth the money. It can give you an idea of which libraries are good and what terms they have.

    Also, most libraries review your music before you can upload and sell. Often they are looking for a different kind of music, music that you might not have in your portfolio.

  • Stef Savastio February 11, 2013 at 5:36pm

    Well yeah I figured they didn't upload songs for you... I'm just saying that if I have 300 songs and I just kept uploading and uploading to various libraries, does it become profitable or a waste of time if people have already seen your material on the last library they visited?

  • Anders Christensen February 11, 2013 at 7:44pm

    You just have to test it to find out :-)

  • Michael S. Weber February 11, 2013 at 7:52pm

    As others have said, I would REALLY REALLY REALLY pay close attention to what is already selling on these libraries.  If your music is not of the same style/genre and AT LEAST the same production value (if not better) than what is selling well, don't expect to make (m)any sales.  You could have 3,000,000 tracks, but if they are of a style or sound that media professionals do not have a use for, you won't make much money from them. 

    And its not just a matter of "this library sells orchestral trailor cues, I write orchestral trailor cues, so its a perfect match".  There are very specific lengths, structures, cuts, builds, endings, etc that music editors like the music to have.  Not to mention the orchestral trailor music industry is VERY competative, and if your tracks don't sound just as huge and bombastic as the Tranformers 3 soundtrack your tracks probably won't get picked.

    Not to discourage you or anything ;)

  • Stef Savastio February 11, 2013 at 9:13pm

    See that's just it... as to determining what sells and what doesn't, that becomes a big problem. Some people have songs that sould just like big sellers, yet they don't do nearly as well as other people who are making many downloads per month. What exactly is it we're looking for?

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