I have been selling royalty free music for more than 10 years now. I receive composer submissions and demos on a daily basis. I also see what sells and what customers are requesting everyday.
I don’t often give advise to composers but thought I would post some basic observations in case it is of any use to composers looking to get into the royalty free music industry.

1. Be Prolific
If you want to make a living at selling your production music the first thing you need is a large library of music.
The composers who have large catalogs on our sites earn the most and earn very consistently. 75-300 tracks and up is considered a large library.

2. Create edits and loops with your full length tracks.
The customers on our websites love the fact that we offer not only full length tracks but edits, loops, underscores and alternate takes. You can also sell the whole package of full length track, edits for a higher price than the full length track alone.
This coupled with a large library will practically guarantee steady sales (as long as the music is top quality of course).

A typical package would be:
Full length track 2 to 3 minutes
60 second edit
30 second edit
15 second edit
2 or 3 loops.

3. Write What You Know
Professional production music composers are a very versatile lot. They can write music in many styles and can do it convincingly. However many of the demos I receive are from composers who are trying to be all things to everybody, writing in as many styles as possible with the majority of the track coming across as mediocre. We pass on these types of demos 99% of the time.
If you are an excellent New Age Music composer don’t try your hand at Nu-Metal just to fill out your catalog, write more New Age Music instead. Write the music you love to write, not what you think will sell.

4. Add Something Real
In this day of laptop studios, garageband and reason it seems that everyone is now trying their hat at being a “composer”. I may be old skool but back in the day musicians used to practice their instruments for hours everyday and went to school to study harmony and composition. Today it seems that anyone who can download some free drum loops from the web calls themselves a composer.
All this to say when you compose try adding something real to your compositions. Instead of only relying on your loop library (the one that thousands of other people are using) try adding some real guitar parts, or a weird vocal part, or a sax, get your friend to play harmonica, pick up any simple percussion instrument, even a tambourine, and record it live. Give your standard loop library composition a soul by adding something real.

5. Melody
Just like in popular music melody plays a big factor in royalty free music. Sure there are lots of instances where you want the music to sit in the background and not attract too much attention but according to our sales stats music with a good, strong, uplifting melody outsells all other types of music.

6. Holiday Music
Would you like a Christmas bonus every year in your royalty free music paycheck? Then do Christmas and holiday music in whatever style your composition skills are strongest. A hip hop version of Jingle Bells, an ozzy osbourne version of The First Noel.
This would go for all types of public domain music, a Nu-Metal version of God Bless America, a jazz version of the Star Spangled Banner, drum n bass Auld Lang Syne, etc.
Our customers just love this kind of stuff.

7. Structure
Make sure to think about the listener when you’re are putting together the structure of your royalty free music tracks.

a. Don’t have a 2 minute intro before getting to the main melody. You need to grab the listener quickly, get to the point as soon as possible (within reason of course).

b. Give them an ending. No fades. Give them a proper ending with a chord and cymbals that ring out. This is very important for the ends of commercials and radio spots.

c. Give them a B section, also known as a bridge. You can do the same thing with a breakdown if it is dance music. You need to give the customer some variety in the track, something to play with in editing.

Hope this helps. Let me know what you think.
I’ll be posting more tips for royalty free music composers in the coming weeks.
-Mark

The day started (for me) with a panel discussion on digital music and mobile distribution. This was in a separate room from the other discussion regarding podcasting. The mobile discussion didn’t have translation and the entire panel was speaking in Spanish. It was basically an hour long Spanish comprehension test for me. I was then invited to a panelist’s lunch by my new friend Sam Levin. It was great to be able to sit down and talk to the panelists over lunch. Everyone had great stories that I could really relate to (and would most likely be extremely boring to 99.9% of the rest of the population). Gerd Leonhard told me about his days at the helm of licensemusic.com during the internet bubble, spending tons of venture capital money with big offices in San Francisco only to crash along with the hundreds of other companies during the time. It actually sounded like lots of fun.

Simon Wheeler of The Beggars Group told me about his day to day accounting headaches. Sheets and sheets of invoices for royalties of pennies all to be added up, accounted for and paid out. We have the same types hassles at PIR but on a somewhat smaller level. It was a good warning to keep building good accounting practices as we grow.

Talked to a couple of people from Pitchforkmedia who I had never heard of before but their music site is apparently very popular.

There were quite a few representatives from various Catalan government agencies and when asked about what they do and how they promoted their service they answered “we have spots on the radio”.
Sam was incredulous, “have you heard of internet!? do have any internet promotion at all?”
To which they replied “we are working on building our website”.

If there is one thing I learned from this entire conference is that the Catalans (for the most part) are firmly stuck in the 80’s.
They go on and on describing how the internet is a terrible thing, people are stealing music! the government must do something to stop these people from stealing our music!! we have to go back to the old days when people bought CDs from us!!!

Good grief! Wake up!

Anyway, the panel on internet payments was promising in the beginning but turned into a “let’s go back to the old days and shut down the internet!” type of argument in due course.

The final workshop called Digital Distribution with the 7 major Spanish digital distributors was about as boring as they come, long Powerpoint presentations, people reading from their scripts with their heads pointing at their shoes.
I left after 20 minutes and enjoyed the rest of the beautiful sunny Barcelona afternoon.

All in all I enjoyed the Digital Music 2.0 conference in Barcelona, it had it’s good and bad points but it was great to be in a roomful of like-minded people for two days.
Oh yeah, there’s also a good chance I’ll be one of the panelists next year.

Here is an excerpt of some of the discussions resulting from the panels on the first day of Digital Music 2.0:

We need a Networked Music Business. We need a Web-Native Music Business.

What does Music2.0 look like:

1. Respect for the Creators and the Users, first and foremost
2. Based on Access first, then Copy
3. Based on Usage Rights, not (just) Copyright
4. Based on dozens of revenue streams, not just ‘selling copies’
5. Driven by Sharing
6. Driven by Syndication (and users marketing what they like)
7. Decentralized
8. Powered by an entirely new kind of Advertising
9. Multi-platform access but mostly mobile
10. Bundled in other services, basic access ‘feels like free’
11. Open and transparent

Kevin Kelly:

The key is to offer valuable intangibles that can not be reproduced at zero cost, and will thus be paid for:
1. Immediacy – priority access, immediate delivery
2. Personalization – tailored just for you
3. Interpretation – support and guidance
4. Authenticity – be sure it is the real thing?
5. Accessibility – whereever, whenever
6. Embodiment & Experience
7. Patronage – “paying simply because it feels good”
8. Findability & Curation

Today I will be going to the Podcasting discussion, the Mobile Content discussion, the online payments workshop and the final panel discussion called ‘Digital Distribution’.

The conference itself is pretty amazing as it is happening in three different languages. The panelists are speaking in either Catalan, Castalleno or English and they beam out instant translations via wireless headphones.
Very cool.

One of the many great things about living in Barcelona is that it is a popular place for all kinds of conferences and trade shows. We are attending the Digital Music 2.0 conference this week and I just came back from my first day.

It started off with a ‘where are we now?’ panel discussing the current state of affairs in the distribution of digital music. It basically boils down to people trying to figure out how to make money in a completely new paradigm.

I was surprised to hear how resistant many of the audience members and some of the panelists were to the idea of change. The fact that the record shop as we know it is probably a thing of the past as well as record labels. There is simply no money to be made in this world of $0.99 digital downloads and people seem to be holding on to the old ways for as long as possible.

Some of the quote I heard were “there are no examples of musicians successfully making it on their own using the internet”, “musicians and bands will always need us for distribution, management and marketing”.
I thought I had been transported back to 1996.

There were some great panelists too. The most impressive of the lot were Sam Levin, Gerd Leonhard and Rupert Davies from Virgin Records.

They spoke of new ways for bands to build fan their fanbase using social networking and widgets for promotion. Gerd was especially interesting with his mantra of “get the attention and the money will come”, meaning that people should not be so eager to put a buy button next to everything they upload to the web. Give your product to the people who are interested in it, build a following, get traffic, once you have this attention you will figure out how to monetize it. The goal is to make people want to give you their money instead of forcing them to buy your content before they even know who you are.

I think most of the people that are active in distribution understand this but it sure was a controversial idea to the people in the audience of Digital Music 2.0

Rupert also had some great insights into how tough it getting for record labels these days and that they are constantly dealing with huge changes in the industry and having to adapt to new marketing techniques.

Sam talked about new applications and ideas coming from Silicon Valley, he also gave our company a nice plug in his speech and reinforced Gerd’s comments using our business model as an example.

All in all it was a great time with catered coffee breaks and a cocktail party at a nice hotel at the end of the day.

Here are some links if you want more info:

Digital Music 2.0 website

Panelist: Gerd Leonhard (Media Futurist)
mediafuturist.com

Panelist: Sam Levin (Social Media Consultant)
samlevin.com

For the 2nd year in a row Partners In Rhyme has agreed to sponsor the Indie Short Film Competition with a big line up of prizes including collection of music and sound effects from our catalog.
If you are a filmmaker and think you might be interested on entering you can visit their website here

IndieShortFilms.net

Welcome to the 2nd annual Indie Short Film Competition. This innovative international short film and video competition is a great opportunity for aspiring filmmakers to advance their career, gain recognition and receive international exposure in the filmmaking industry. Entering this filmmaker friendly competition gives you a shot at being discovered by the right people and opening the right doors to get your short films seen by top industry professionals in the filmmaking business.

Enter your short films and/or videos in any of our 10 Categories: Comedy, Drama, Horror/Thriller, Animation, Action/Adventure, Family/Children, Sci-Fi, Documentary, LGBT, and Music Video. Winners will be selected by a judging panel of top industry professionals who are seeking the next generation of creatively talented filmmakers out there. Winners will receive awards, cash prizes , sponsored merchandise & services and also international exposure!

Here’s a great question that I found on the Film and Game Composer’s Forum from a member who is a roylaty free music composer:

"Does anyone have any kind of knowledge about keywords and descriptions on royalty free sites? Does it REALLY help sales? I mean considering the extra time required to think up and input these terms…"

I believe I have extensive knowledge in this area and yes, there is no doubt that good descriptions and keywords for your tracks have a big impact on sales.

"If it is a helpful tool, then what are some of the more popular techniques that are generally employed by composers and producers on Royalty Free websites…"

Here’s a list of general concepts that will help you to fill out your descriptions. If you answer most or all of these questions in your description plus add a little flare and creativity you will end up with a great description that compels the customer click on the play preview button.

Things to convey to the customer
what genre(s) it is:  jazzy, fusion, latin, rock, speed metal
what tempo: uptempo, slow,
type of feel: funky, laid back
instruments used with descriptive adjectives: real guitar, swirling synths, majestic strings
emotion: sad, lonely, happy, soulful, lost,
what type of use: children’s show, wedding video, corporate presentation, hollywood blockbuster
structure: is there a bridge, is there a chorus, is there a breakdown, etc?
sounds like?: name some bands that the music might be similar to.

Examples:

Michele Vanni writes great descriptions

Rearview
The road lies ahead, a new adventure, and in the rearview mirror we see familiar
places fading in the distance. The radio plays this happy and somewhat nostalgic
tune driven by 12 string acoustic guitars. The main theme is played with more energy
and additional electric guitar the second time around.

Dan Morrissey also writes great descriptions

Exit : Stage Front
Twisted synth sequences get this pitbull of a track moving, then massive guitar riffs
crash in with drums and bass to form an irrrestistable groove. Imagine a cross between
White Zombie and Kraftwerk. Contains drums, synth ,bass and lots of guitars!

Bjorn Lynne also knows the value of a great description,

Spellcraft
Depicting a magic fantasy world of fairies and deep forests full of magical creatures and
ancient adventures. Otherworldly, pastoral. Piano, vocal pads, tremolo guitars, mysterious
sounds and hand drums.

Customers love descriptions! It makes it easier for them to browse and gets them interested in the tracks before they even hear it. Remember that customers more often than not use the search function of royalty free music websites. If your description says "rock song" it will probably never be found or purchased.

Monalia Ventress is a composer / sound designer and co-founder of Partners In Rhyme, Inc., she is also an author and has her first novel, Horizontal Rain: Memoirs from Middle Earth, available for purchase on Amazon.com.

It tells the story of our travels through New Zealand, Indochina, Indonesia, Australia and more along with detailed and exclusive ‘making of’ stories about The Lord of the Rings films which I worked on while we were living in New Zealand.

Here is the jacket blurb from the book:

Mona-Lia and Mark are two ex-scenesters living in Hollywood who uproot their recording studio, two dogs and burgeoning Internet company and move to New Zealand where Mark has landed a visual effects job working on Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy. Both of their lives change completely for better and worse. Mark begins working inhuman hours and is swallowed whole by his new job while Mona-Lia travels around the Southern Hemisphere to escape the domestic stress and strain his new job causes. Mona-Lia and Mark rediscover themselves and each other in their quest to explore new and exotic lands such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Tokyo, Samoa, Fiji and Bali. This three year journey is filled with detailed accounts of the making of the visual effects of The Lord of the Rings films along with in depth observations on what it is they learned about leaving their home, friends and family in California to live and work in a new country.

If you’re interested at all in how Partners In Rhyme Inc came about and grew into what is today then check out Horizontal Rain: Memoirs from Middle Earth.

We all need a bit of stress relief now and then. For those of you who just need a quick fix while you’re doing the rounds on the web you might want to bookmark our Guided Relaxation and Stress Relief product page where you can get a free 6 minute fix of guided relaxation to wind you down and relax you so you can get through the next few hours of the day without losing the plot.

Check out this link for Free Stress Relief

With increased competition in the royalty free music marketplace there are lots of sites popping up that are selling music for ridiculously low fees. They are asking composers to upload their tracks promising them only 40% or 45% of a $10.00 fee. The composer would take home whopping $4.50 for a high quality full length track.
$4.50 will barely get you a gallon of gas.
These sites do not offer any backend royalties either.

I urge all royalty free music composers to avoid these types of sites or at least give some serious thought to what you are doing before you upload. These sites will only devalue your catalog and make it hard for other distribution channels to accept your music. If your track is on sale for $10.00 on eCheapMusic.com then it will make it very difficult for a proper site to justify charging a higher price for your music elsewhere.

Just my 2 cents but I know that many other royalty free music site owners agree with me on this one.

You can now download high quality royalty free classical music to use in your commercial project for a low, one-time fee at:
Royalty Free Classical Music

These royalty music clips were performed by a real symphony orchestra playing the most popular favorites from these famous composers:
Bach, Beethoven, Berlioz, Bizet, Brahms, Chopin, Debussy, Dukas, Dvorak, Elgar, Grieg, Handel, Haydn, Liszt, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Mussorgsky, Offenbach, Pachelbel, Paganini, Parry, Ponchielli, Puccini, Purcell, Respighi, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rossini, Satie, Schubert, Schumann, Smetana, Sousa, Strauss, Suppe, Tchaikovsky, Traditional, Verdi, Vivaldi, Von Weber, Wagner

Some royalty free music websites will charge you up to $370.00 to use this music in your broadcast TV show or film. Royalty Free Classical Music only charges $34.95.