Okay, it’s been a dog’s age since I’ve actually talked about music at this site so let’s end the pity party, send the violin player home and get back to talking about what this site is about…music.
Have you ever actually BEEN to Audio Jungle? Yeah, I know…stay away from the music content farms. I never even considered putting my stuff out there. But as you know by now, times have been tough for me financially because of the bastard named Google and some bad chicken salad.
So the other day I went to Audio Jungle just to check out some of the “artists.” I figured that maybe there might be a few with a sale here and a sale there.
Boy, was I ever freaking wrong.
If you take a look at the top sellers, there are some who have sold thousands of copies of their royalty free tracks. Weekly sales for some of these folks are astronomical. I was honestly stunned out of my birthday suit. Or is it into my birthday suit? Whatever.
Anyway, today I’m going to actually start to listen to some of the bigger sellers. Why?
Okay, here is a marketing lesson for all you wannabe royalty free music producers.
For starters, and I didn’t know this, Audio Jungle has to approve your track. That’s right. You just don’t upload it and that’s the end of it. If it doesn’t cut it, it gets rejected just like the cat rejects your sloppy leftovers.
Point is, your music has to be really good. How good? Ah, that’s where scoping out the competition is so important.
But exactly what are you looking for? What’s going to give you the best clue as to what you need to do in order to get YOUR music sold at the site? Well, here are a few tips to get you started. If you take these to heart, you’ve got a good shot at actually selling some music.
First thing you want to do is check out the top selling genres. Like it or not, some genres are going to be more popular than others. If you write party music for the kazoo, I seriously doubt you’re going to have many buyers.
What I’ve personally noticed is that movie trailer, or cinema type scores, are very popular. I haven’t had the time to actually check out the quality of these scores but if there is an approval process, I’m going to bet that they have to be pretty darn good. So let’s get to the quality part. What exactly do you look for?
Let me start out by saying that “good” music is subjective. Not every “great” piece of music is going to come off as such to every individual. But, and as much as I hate to admit it, even genres that I don’t like, such as rap, have excellent productions. When you hear something on the radio, it doesn’t sound like it was recorded in somebody’s garage, even if it was recorded in somebody’s garage. Music that gets played, bought and sold is, for the most part, well produced.
And it’s also well played. You won’t hear timing mistakes or wrong notes. Oh my God, that would immediately get you banished to “don’t ever submit another piece of music here again” land so fast it would make your head spin. No, the playing has to be near flawless.
What about the sounds? Well, most movie trailer music that you’ll find at these music farms are produced on the computer. The sounds we have available to us today are nothing short of amazing, whether it be the blistering synths such as Omnisphere, Massive or Zebra 2, or the pristine samples of symphonic libraries like East West Quantum Leap or Vienna.
This stuff just flat out sounds amazing.
And the DSPs (EQ, reverb, compression, etc.) available are better than what was available back in the stone ages of rock and roll. Even the free processors sound amazing. Okay, at least some of them do.
Point is, the sound is very close to what you hear when you got to the movie theater. Maybe not quite, but these guys are working in $100,000 studios. we’re talking about $300 DAWs and maybe a few grand worth of equipment.
But there is something else. And this is the one thing that so many people leave out when they’re creating their royalty free tracks. Know what it is? Okay, I’m going to tell you.
Personality. Something that makes the whole package uniquely you.
I have been told by numerous people that I sound like The Beatles, The Kinks, The Pet Shop Boys and on and on. Notice that these are all English groups?
News flash.
I am NOT English. No offense to you chaps overseas. The Brits are swell people. At little stiff and I don’t always get their humor, but a fine bunch.
But I digress.
Point is, I have made a style for myself that, for whatever reason, comes off as British Invasion (when I do vocals). I’ve lived with this label since 1979 and I embrace it. It’s what makes me uniquely me. An American who sounds British.
Isn’t that a kick?
You have GOT to find someway to make yourself stand out from the crowd because it is a BIG crowd out there. You’re just a very tiny fish in a freaking monsoon. The competition will eat you alive if you don’t have something that makes YOU uniquely YOU.
Am I saying that you should now consider content farms like Audio Jungle? No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that, according to my research, there appears to be some potential there if you’re very, very good. Are you that good? I have no way of knowing and self evaluation is a bitch. Trust me, I know. But if you think you’ve got what it takes and you don’t yet have the SERPs bringing people to your site in droves, you might want to consider submitting a few tracks to Audio Jungle just to test the waters.
Because you never know.
For The Love Of Music,
Steven “Wags” Wagenheim