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Selling music

Madame Peccato

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Hello, my fellow fastlaners.

I got myself a copy of FL Studio a month and a half ago, I purchased a MIDI Keyboard, and I've been practicing making music almost every day.

I want to start selling music eventually (I don't know how long it will take me to get good enough, but that's beside the point, I think that I can become good enough to get paid for it in 2-3 months, maybe even less), but not in the typical way (making songs isn't really my thing).

What I am looking into instead is providing music services. Specifically, music for video content (webinars / ads / brand videos / any kind of video really). There are probably other ways of making use of this skill which I haven't thought about, but those will come later.

I have three questions about my plan:

1) Do you think this is a viable idea? Even if it ends up not working at all the skills I learn could be transferred to making regular music which is still fine, although it's not really my interest at the moment.

2) Where could I learn how to produce more "corporate" type of music? YT is plagued with "how to make a fire trap beat", and it seems impossible to find good tutorials for other types of music. I know I can listen to music that is currently around and figure it out by myself, but I'm wondering if there is a more direct approach.

3) Where do I find people who need music, aside from the typical freelance sites and platforms such as AudioJungle? Video agencies? Ad agencies? Anything else?

TL;DR: I'm learning how to make music and want to offer a valuable service to people through it.
 
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Lex DeVille

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Yes it's viable. There's plenty of people who've made careers of it on AudioJungle.

If I were doing this I would mimic what already sells well on AudioJungle and build from that.

YouTube may be a strong outlet for you. I've listened to music on YouTube and followed the link in the description to purchase it for my own videos.

Some people make music for free and share with other YouTubers. I've seen them end up collaborating or at least getting mentioned by the bigger YouTuber with a huge following. That's another way I've made my way back to the composer and purchased their sounds.
 

Andy Black

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3) Where do I find people who need music, aside from the typical freelance sites and platforms such as AudioJungle? Video agencies? Ad agencies? Anything else?
What are people searching for on Google?

What big Facebook groups exist for (paid?) software that creates videos, or podcasts, or content for the web?

I’m looking at Doodly and it’s got 53k members in its Facebook group.

What video creation software is out there? Ideally a paid for one? Camtasia, Screenflow, Doodly, Toonly, EasyVSL, promo.com, lumen5.com, clipman.com, etc.

Hotels. They want nice music if they have a video on their homepage and/or in their YouTube/Facebook/Instagram ads. Check out the video I got from a client so I could add better CTAs in the first post here:

“Who already has your customers?” (Jay Abraham)

As you already mentioned, video ad agencies, creative agencies, web designers, copywriters, digital marketers (Google Ads, Facebook Ads, SEO even), podcast services, YouTube services, etc.

What are all the podcasting platforms? They’re often paid for on a monthly basis.

What about the productised services for all of the above? The Design Pickles of the world?

They may all want original music for their clients.
 

StrikingViper69

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Those are some cool ideas... I had never heard of Audio Jungle before.
 
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srodrigo

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You might want to take a look at this:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mWSwupftOQ

He talks about freelancing rates. TL;DR: he recommends less $500-$1500 per minute of music for experienced composers, and less if you are starting out.

I can't find another video I saw where he talks about Audio Jungle, but that's what he suggests for passive income.

He's got a free Udemy course too, which I haven't checked out, but looks interesting: Free Music Business Tutorial - BUSINESS 101: The Modern Film, TV, & Game Music Composer

I recommend the above given I got a Udemy course by this guy 1.5 years ago, on video games music. It was quite good, and he seems to know what he's talking about.

I've got a question for you though: I saw you are a translator, is that correct? In that case, what's the underlying reason to switch or expand to music if it's a skill you don't master yet.

I'm not asking this to be the "go for your only skill" guy, I don't believe in becoming insects. But learning how to compose and produce music is not an easy task and will take years before you get really good at it. I studied music for a decade and left the professional path long time ago, but I could become a composer with relatively little effort at this point compared to someone new, and it would still be a LOT of effort and time. I actually play around with Musescore and would love to get Cubase to make something cool, but understand that I need to focus on something "more fastlane" using my current skills. If you like music, or somehow it fulfils you more than other things, that's cool, just make sure you want to get into it for the right reasons.

Just a personal perception: you'll have better luck if you avoid the games industry, as I heard (also the guy on the video I shared) it's pretty hard to charge good rates there. Not surprised, as most clients will be broke indie game devs. Some composers made good bucks with revenue share and then they made a name for themselves if they made the music for a game hit, but that's pretty rare.
 

Madame Peccato

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I'm not asking this to be the "go for your only skill" guy, I don't believe in becoming insects. But learning how to compose and produce music is not an easy task and will take years before you get really good at it. I studied music for a decade and left the professional path long time ago, but I could become a composer with relatively little effort at this point compared to someone new, and it would still be a LOT of effort and time. I actually play around with Musescore and would love to get Cubase to make something cool, but understand that I need to focus on something "more fastlane" using my current skills. If you like music, or somehow it fulfils you more than other things, that's cool, just make sure you want to get into it for the right reasons.

Thanks for the video, I'll make sure to check it out soon.

Music, like every other field in this world, is a hugely deep field, but I'm not after some idealized concept of "becoming a good musician" (what even defines good in art anyway?).

All I need is knowing enough to produce a track that sounds good, and that conveys a specific message/mood/atmosphere. I don't need nor want to become a top composer or anything like that.

I care a lot about communication, and as I see it, it's a way of communicating your thoughts and ideas to other people, that's why I'm picking it up.

As with every other industry, you don't need to be an expert to create a good-sounding track; you need to be able to "observe" (listen in this case) and understand the message.

I'm not a translator anymore. I have worked as a translator for about a year but recently switched to writing due to numerous reasons. Translation was not my specialty nor my passion, and I did not study to become a translator. I just happened to be good at it due to life circumstances and I could find people to help out with it.

Which is what I plan to do with music, except I do not "happen" to be good at it...not yet at least.

Thanks for your answers everyone else. The path is a little clearer now, although of course first I need to get better at the craft.
 

Kid

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2) Where could I learn how to produce more "corporate" type of music? YT is plagued with "how to make a fire trap beat", and it seems impossible to find good tutorials for other types of music. I know I can listen to music that is currently around and figure it out by myself, but I'm wondering if there is a more direct approach.
Solve that one on your own, package it as a video course, sell.
Interesting niche btw.
 
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Ing

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my son made some music testing a new program some years ago. he is not good at this, but he did. I forced him to upload it to spotify.
he still gets some cents from that though he thought, that never ever someone would listen to that.

So I think spotify is a cheap way to make musik accessible, too.
 
G

GuestUser4aMPs1

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There's also a lot of Sync Licensing money floating around, i.e. individuals or corporations paying up to $300 per non-exclusive license, and $30k-$120k+ for exclusive licensing of songs.

I personally have had a hard time finding any websites who are straightforward on earnings, so that's the best I could find. I haven't broke into those numbers yet but the model is fascinating.

Good luck!
 

JordanAvery

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As for me, it's a great idea, and as Lex said, you can collaborate with Youtubers and spread awareness about your music. This is a very efficient way, and it doesn't require a lot of finances or a music manager. I'd like to eventually find your tracks on mp3juices or on any other music website. But if you don't want to go in that direction, and you want to provide music services only, you can try different events like weddings or birthdays, you just need to find the appropriate way to get into this area.
 
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Martzee

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Hello, my fellow fastlaners.

I got myself a copy of FL Studio a month and a half ago, I purchased a MIDI Keyboard, and I've been practicing making music almost every day.

I want to start selling music eventually (I don't know how long it will take me to get good enough, but that's beside the point, I think that I can become good enough to get paid for it in 2-3 months, maybe even less), but not in the typical way (making songs isn't really my thing).

What I am looking into instead is providing music services. Specifically, music for video content (webinars / ads / brand videos / any kind of video really). There are probably other ways of making use of this skill which I haven't thought about, but those will come later.

I have three questions about my plan:

1) Do you think this is a viable idea? Even if it ends up not working at all the skills I learn could be transferred to making regular music which is still fine, although it's not really my interest at the moment.

2) Where could I learn how to produce more "corporate" type of music? YT is plagued with "how to make a fire trap beat", and it seems impossible to find good tutorials for other types of music. I know I can listen to music that is currently around and figure it out by myself, but I'm wondering if there is a more direct approach.

3) Where do I find people who need music, aside from the typical freelance sites and platforms such as AudioJungle? Video agencies? Ad agencies? Anything else?

TL;DR: I'm learning how to make music and want to offer a valuable service to people through it.
My post will be off-topic and brings no value. Just wanted to say - wow... if you can do it go for it. I am tone deaf and all I can do (maybe start a business using my ability) is to empty the place I start singing in...
So if anyone is looking for a place emptier (like after the church service you want people to leave fast), I can do that!
Keep us posted on your progress and now and then drop a tune in here :)
 

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