Do you compose instrumental tracks that could be used in film, television, video games, or other media? Looking for a super-easy way to place your compositions in these outlets?
There are quite a few production music libraries out there that provide stock music to producers of TV and films. Many of them openly accept applications and music submissions from all artists. The chances of being accepted into one or several libraries are far greater than attempting to license your tracks directly to clients like HBO, Paramount, or EA Sports.
And it pays! When your music is used by a broadcast production, you get paid royalties for the performance of your material. Just make sure your songs are registered with your performing rights organization (PRO) so that your cash is collected and distributed to you.
If you have a pile of recordings just laying around collecting dust, why not let them earn for you?! I’m still pulling in extra cash from tracks I produced over three years ago! Music libraries are an excellent way to let your songs earn and keep earning for you over time.
Making your tracks available on one or several production libraries is also a great way to easily earn credits. When your royalty statements arrive, take a look at where your songs were used. Then display these credits in your promo materials, website, bio, etc.
It’s a truly great feeling when you suddenly hear a song you wrote pop up on television. Sometimes this happens while you’re actually watching! This happened to me a few times now.
For more in-depth information, check out the extended series of articles on making money with production music libraries.
On with the list:
freeplaymusic.com - This has been a great earner for me. They have been around for a while now, which draws in lots of TV and film producers, but also a lot of composers. Be sure to give your tracks bold descriptions and name your collections wisely.
audiojungle.net - A fairly new service from the quite awesome envato blog network. They have an interesting pricing / earning structure and it’s been a decent earner for me.
pumpaudio.com - This is a popular service. They provide all of the musical content for the excellent user-driven television channel, Current TV, along with many other outlets.
smartassmusic.com - I don’t know much about it, but the name is great!
productionmusiclibrary.com - This one seems to focus mostly on urban music, but still quite diverse.
I’m interested to hear what your experiences have been with any of the services on this list or others. There must be other great services out there ready to be tapped. If you know of a good one, leave a comment and let it be known!
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12/17/2008
12:42 pm
Outsider
MyMusicSource is kinda greedy. “. Compensation: (a) Composer shall receive fifty percent (50%) of Net Receipts derived from the exploitation of the compositions. “Net Receipts” is defined as Gross receipts received from all sources less an administration fee of fifteen percent (15%) retained by MMS for its own account.”
By my calculations, that makes 50% of 85% = 42.5%. The industry standard is max 50%, although if you have a big name you can get even more.
05/18/2009
5:35 pm
Mary
Thanks so much for this great article. I found it after reading your other great post on Freelance Switch. I submitted some stuff to Audio Jungle and sold a track last week! Really appreciate this great information and look forward to your future posts.
05/18/2009
5:44 pm
Brian Casel
@Mary - thanks for commenting. glad you found it helpful and way to go on selling some tracks!
09/4/2009
11:24 pm
Mike Brown
Looking forward to working with everyone.
~Mike
10/1/2009
2:30 pm
Jeremy Luzier
estockmusic is now istockaudio.
istockaudio says “Like all of iStockphoto’s royalty-free media, iStockaudio is offered under the royalty-free model. Because all audio on the iStock site is royalty-free, contributors to iStockaudio cannot be members of a performing rights society. This is because performing rights societies such as SOCAN, ASCAP, PRS, BMI and others take responsibility for collecting royalties on their members’ compositions. Therefore all creations by a user that is a member of a performing rights organization cannot be considered royalty-free, and would be subject to licensing fees which are not part of the iStockphoto model.”