Let's be realistic: the music streaming market is oversaturated beyond measure. The number of tracks that artists from all over the world publish daily on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music has exceeded 100,000. It’s like if you were in a supermarket and went to the bread aisle and found 1,000 varieties of bread and then to the cheese section and found 1,000 varieties of cheese and on and on. You wouldn't be able to try even a quarter of them.
And so you find yourself in a place where if all you want to do is write music and you want to do it for the rest of your life, it's worth considering: will I be able to offer a listener on Spotify the right variety of "bread" that’s going to stand out? Can I give them something which he or she can't live without right now?
And the even bigger question beyond that: am I sure that the listener will even find my "bread" on Spotify among the piles and piles of other bread?
It might not stop there either. People may have other issues that are compounding the massive problems artists already face. For example:
There are many possible personal circumstances that might prevent talented people from appearing on stage: a fear of public speaking that could not be cured; biological features that are hypocritically disapproved of by society; maybe you even come from a country where there is no big stage to be discovered, or one where there is a war going on, or a dictatorial regime is flourishing, and so on and so forth.
Even with all this going against you, you still hear the siren song of music calling out to you. You still have a desire to turn from an amateur into a composer who does something worthy. Should you continue, as is often the case, to have a non-musical day job, and practice music at night and on weekends? No, you shouldn't!
Usually, one of the the first things novice composers learn about as an alternative way to earn money is the royalty-free music market, aka the "stock music" market. Please stay away from this. In 2024, we can say for sure: this market is cursed. It would be great if we all woke up tomorrow and it was just gone.
Even 6-8 years ago, music producers on "stock music" platforms could get fair deals with a 50/50 income split. With enough perseverance, people could sell online royalty-free licenses in big enough quantities that this could amount to a reasonable amount of additional income.
Today, the largest platforms take 70% for themselves and give 30% to the composer. And that's just the beginning of the trouble. Almost all stock music services have introduced subscription plans for customers. This means that for a small monthly fee, they can get licenses to hundreds or even thousands of tracks.
In fact, there are three main ways to earn something substantial by writing original music (in ascending order of professional requirements):
These sectors of the music industry overlap in part. For example, trailer music can even be licensed as part of the soundtrack of a TV series. One recent notable example occurred in some episodes of Stranger Things.
But normally, each of these sectors has its own specialized music publishers. And the income of composers is formulated in different ways. The main thing to know, at the very beginning, is that you have to become a member of a performance rights organization (PRO) such as BMI, ASCAP or others.
They collect blanket license fees from businesses that use music, entitling those businesses to play or sync any tracks from the repertoire registered by composers and publishers. And publishers will not cooperate with a composer who is not a member of the PRO.
There is a one-time fee of $75.00 to join BMI as a songwriter or composer. ASCAP charges a one-time fee of $50 to join as a writer member.
Some commercial companies (in fact, many) prefer to have music without vocals in their public spaces so that the lyrics do not distract or annoy customers. So could you become a creator of music like that instead of working hard at an underappreciated non-musical day job?
There are intermediaries between composers and businesses. They are called music publishers. Today, the most advanced of these publishers combine the business of syncing music on TV, in TV series, advertising, etc., with the business of providing companies with licensed background music that can legally be played in public places.
Publishers use different models for calculating the composer's share in the use of their tracks as "elevator music.” Some intermediaries count the number of audio streams, as Spotify does, but the payment for a single stream, for a composer, may be higher here. If you're lucky, of course.
Do a little research using Google (or, if you are really busy – or overcome with laziness – ask ChatGPT) to find music publisher sites that are related to "elevator music." Find the sites of those publishers who invite composers to submit their music to them.
Then submit your instrumental music to those publishers. Oh, you haven't actually written it yet and you're just wasting your time reading music blogs? Then you should know the following:
According to Vantage Market Research, the annual volume of the global background music market in monetary terms amounted to 1,489.51 million US dollars. And by 2030, it is expected to grow to over 2 billion.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been declared over. The music industry has begun to recover, including through the restoration of public space attendance, the restoration of film and TV series production, etc.
And so perhaps 2024 is the right time for an aspiring composer to immerse themselves in the business of "library" music and "elevator music.”
One day, you may hear experienced composers telling you that the grass on this side of the fence is never as green as it was in the good old days. But at least there’s still a place on it where you can graze.
Some more valuable information can be found in professional communities on social networks. For example, a Facebook community has developed around the book "A Composer's Guide To Library Music" by a British music publisher named Dan Graham.
If you get into this community, try to remember some decorum. You should not come barging in and immediately ask people naive beginner's questions. Those questions have been asked hundreds of times before you. When you’re just getting started, use the community post search to find answers to your questions.
Here’s the long and short of what you need to know about library music: it's VERY slow money. If you released an album of instrumental tracks today and things went well, you could start receiving royalties in about a year and a half.
Credits: Felix Wong CC BY 4.0
This is due to the fact that content producers for TV and streaming platforms like Netflix do not pay direct royalties for placing music in their works. They just put your track there in one form or another. You don't even know about it. Then the TV channels and other broadcasters fill out cue sheets and send them to a PRO like BMI. They collect royalties, and only once they collect, will you receive your money.
The path of a "library" composer is a marathon, not a sprint. You will have to have a day job for a couple of years and write music in the evenings and on weekends (although you do that anyway, right?).
But if you are persistent enough and do not give up, in a few years you will create a catalog of tracks that will feed you for the next few years. The life cycle of "library" music lasts from five to as much as 10 years.
Here is some more important information about the income division of the composer and the publisher. A fair deal in this market looks like 50/50. If you are offered less as a composer, do not cooperate with such a publisher.
And be afraid of the word "buyout" when discussing the terms of collaboration with the publisher. Some music publishers will take advantage of the poverty and inexperience of novice composers and offer to buy the rights to your tracks from you for one-time payments. Doing so will force you to give up the opportunity to receive royalties in the future.
It’s a pretty cynical game.. You will receive hundreds of dollars for tracks that, if you agreed to wait patiently, would bring you thousands (sometimes tens of thousands) in the long run.
Among experienced composers, publishers practicing buyouts tend to have bad reputations. To put it bluntly, the community of library composers is often full of anger towards them.
As for "elevator music," there are several companies on the market that can give you the first trickles of income pretty quickly. Some of them transfer money to you once a quarter, depending on the number of audio streams your tracks received during the quarter in public places. Rare (read: very rare) publishers might do this once a month.
We deliberately aren’t naming specific companies here, so as not to create reputational advantages for them. If you are interested in making money on "elevator music," the internet has the answers for you with the right search. Just look for doors that you can get your foot through.
We also need to talk about music for movie trailers. This is a truly special, completely wild, and very democratic world, open to composers from anywhere on the planet.
In the movie trailer sector, if a track is synced in a trailer, the composer receives a one-time payment. And these payments can reach 15, 20, 25 thousand dollars (sometimes even more!). Talk about enticing!
The movie trailer music industry deserves a whole separate detailed article, however. And we will definitely write about it. We’re just saving the best for dessert! Follow our blog for more.
We spoke with Los Angeles producer and songwriter David "Davix" Foreman, known for his teamwork with Grammy-winning producers such as Brian Kennedy (Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Chris Brown), Kuk Harrell (Beyoncé, Justin Bieber, J-Lo), and Hit Bangaz (A.I., The Jacksons, RiRi Basim). We asked David: “How different do you think the world of soundtrack music production is from pop music production?” Here is the answer:
“Pop songs tend to be more vulgar and allow for greater freedom of expression, often being shorter. Soundtrack music, on the other hand, is usually tied closely to the subject matter of the movie. It often has a general concept that can be applied to various situations. For example, a pop song like Prince's "Little Red Corvette" might be widely played because it's a great song, but it would only fit in specific scenes of a movie, such as one where someone is driving a red Corvette. In contrast, soundtrack music is more contextual and tailored to specific moments in the film”.
We also asked David: “What professional qualities do you think a composer of production music should have?” And that's what he replied:
“Confidence. Discipline is also important because you need to work even when you don’t feel like it. Additionally, having a strong sense of taste and confidence in that taste. Just as someone needs to know the best places to take someone on a date, you’ve got to be in the know of current trends, cool sounds, and new melodies, and what appeal an artist should have.
Another key quality is the ability to handle constructive criticism. Many people want credit for their successes but shy away from acknowledging their mistakes.
Lastly, you need to stay connected with younger people to keep your ear and taste fresh. As a 40-year-old, I’m always keeping young people around me to make sure my ear, my taste doesn’t get old. An older person’s taste, shaped by years of experience, might differ significantly from that of a teenager. While I might not enjoy chicken nuggets and ice cream at 80, I understand their importance to my business. The only people that are successful after their 30s or 40s are those who stay connected to younger culture. These are some of the essential qualities for being a great producer”.
