AudioJungle has become a quite popular platform for buying stock music online. There are lots of sales happening, their website is easy to navigate and overall it seems like a very stable platform.
The commission has recently been raised to 45% and is no longer one of the lowest in the industry. They let you set the price yourself. Extended licences sold are less than 10% of sales total.
Before you sign-up do notice that, if your music is listed at AudioJungle, other sites like Musicloops, Audiosparx and Shockwave-sound wont have you in their catalog. They state this on their websites and should be taken serious, it’s not just for show.
Because of the recent changes i will start uploading my music a AudioJungle. If successful in selling tracks on their platform, I might even go exclusive with some of my new tracks.
Many composers are successful at selling their music at AudioJungle, so its definitely worth considering. Now and then it also seems to happen that composers get custom jobs because of their presence on AudioJungle.
AudioJungle Review
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Help & Support
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Income potential / ability to sell
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Ease of Use
Summary
Great music library that will be able to give most composers regular sales. The only bad part about AudioJungle is the massive amount of tracks, you have to compete with.
Reviews Submissions: Yes
Re-Titles Tracks: No
Exclusive or Non-exclusive: Both Options
Set Own Price: No
Commission Split: 45% / 12.5 – 37.5%
Tracks Approved In: 15 days
BTW, just noticed that AudioJungle just raised their price from $14 to $17 for their standard license.
yes, just today.
but commission for non exclusive author is still SOOO low… 33%!
totally agree!
as i previouslty said, I think i both love and hate AJ.
love it because it is a beautiful website, well organized, there a excellent link between all the marketplaces (photos, video, web templates…), there is a “social” approach and a busy forum. I sold a lot here: 102 sales with 107 tracks in aout 8 months. a lot of help came from a videohive author which used one of my audiologo for his video. that is my bestseller with more than 30 sales.
tracks are approved now in about 12 days. I got just a couple of track rejected, and they approved only some tracks i did “on the fly”, not intended for distribution (i.e. some demo for me, some experiments…) but i must say that some of them indeed were bought.
the hate part is the very low commission. you seem to sell a lot but your earning are very very low. now they have increased the prices so maybe things will change.
the real happiness comes from the extended license sale but, even here the 33% commission is crushing your earning.
buy i feel a lot of buyers are here. just look at how many tracks are actually sold compared to the other websites with “open” data about sales (e.g. pond5).
so, you can sell a lot here, with a low earning per sale, but when you do the multiplication it can be convenient! 🙂
my main concern is: you should place your music where buyers are, not where royalties are higher.
and my answer is always that the majority of buyers are at audiojungle (no, i’m not a AJ employe!!!)
on AJ you have 70000 songs (on “music” section) and 2377 pages. if you go to page 1250 you still see songs with 1 sales. that means that an average song has 50% probability to get at least one sale.
so, a lot of songs has been bought on AJ, much more than all the other libraries… sad but true!
That low commission really kills it for me, though if you go exclusive you can get 50% and up commission but then your music is only at AJ and at very low prices. I understand that if you’re making money that’s what matters, but this degrading of music down to junk food, really irks me personally.
I may compose some tracks for them exclusively and try them out though, as income is income..If there were only 48 hours in a day…
Hi InLight-Tone and welcome to you 🙂
Yes I am totally with you on this one. I spend 3-15 hours on a track and then selling it for a $6 profit or less feels wrong to me. I probably spend 10 years (on / off) self learning to compose, selling my knowledge and time for $6 is not good.
Who is really making money on this – the answer is easy AudioJungle. You do the work they earn the money (77%). I have nothing against their business model and respect the success they have gotten. Of-cause they have expenditures for staff, their excellent support and web site, but 33% commission is plain lousy for the composer – no matter how much you sell. Luckily it’s up to our self to decide whether we find their terms fair or not.
Composing some tracks in half an hour and then posting them exclusively is the only way for me to go into the “jungle” 😉
well, for me the situation was quite different since I had a lot of songs composed in the previous 10-or-so years in my hard disk, for my leisure and for other project.
so actually the majority of the songs were not “composed for audiojungle” but indeed they were sold…
recently i have recorded some more song specifically for royalty free use, but i do not consider it a work… i’m always happy when i am able to make some music in my free time and for me the royalty free market is a nice side-income. i have no time or strength to promote myself and i’ll never be a full time composer, so for me getting some $$ now and then is more than sufficient.
of course i would like to sell 10.000s of dollars a month like tim mc morris , but i also know that this will be impossible! :D:D
A minimum of $5.61 is sadly very low… but so far I have sold more on Audiojungle than anywhere else in only 10 days – 7 tracks. You wonder how many buy the standard license but then use the song illegally for other purposes.
David, are you putting up the same tracks you have in the other libraries at AJ but at the lower price they require? Congrats on your sales so far!
yes, i figured the more places i have them the better. hopefully. i might go exclusive on some tracks in the future and see how they do. i have several more libraries i want to join first. i’d like to have my music in at least 10 places.
the real problem here is time!!! I simply have no time to upload and tag all my music on so many marketplaces…
some of them were useless… musicrevolution, for example, was a complete waste of time (0 sales in 5-6 monts) and also revostock is really slow (1 sale – 13$ – in 4 months).
Yes it’s very time consuming to tag and upload to libraries. My hope is than if we all keep posting comments on the libraries and share what kind of music we sell, our time can be better spent.
It’s really hard to find out what kind of music will sell on which libraries. At RevoStock I have decent sales and with corporate music, epic trailer stuff and others genres as well.
Tagging and uploading is really boring and a time consuming part of this royalty free music business, I totally agree. When I have more tracks I will probably hire a virtual assistant to do it for me.
after almost a month i’m still waiting for my tracks to get approved on revostock. they said they are way behind…. maybe i could get a job with them! i was approved with luckstock today but not sure they are big or well known enough to spend the time uploading with them. thoughts?
I just put in 15 tracks at Revostock, hope it doesn’t take too long to get approved! Keep us informed…
the BIG hassle with audiojungle is having to apply the watermark yourself to tracks. that is crazy! and also having to upload a preview and a zip file makes it more work, too.
I just put in my first 3 tracks (exclusive, yes I’m crazy) to AJ. Ya, the watermarking, the zip file thing, I’ll let you know how it pans out. The good thing about them that I see is that with their entire family of websites, it seems that those doing business on the web and web media creators cater to their network, meaning lots of active buyers.
i’ve thought about doing the exclusive route with them… but can’t figure out which of my 120+ tracks to make exclusive….
remember that exclusive / non exclusive applies to the entire portfolio, not to a single track!
reg. revostock, try to send them a reminder email. i had the same problem at the beginning… long waiting, then I sent an email and they approved the tracks very fast.
I don’t think that’s true:
Q: Is exclusivity based on the author or the individual file? Meaning, could I sell one file here and sell a completely different one on my own site?
A: Exclusivity is on a per file basis so yes, as long as the files are completely different, you could sell one here and one on your site.
oh… didn’t think of that. will stick with non-exclusive for a while and see how it does. i sold another track on audiojungle today. seems to be the place with most action… least payout. 🙁 thanks.
I’m starting to wrap my head around the idea that I will make $10 average per track for now across the spectrum of libraries including AJ. I actually pulled my 3 tracks I submitted to AJ because they’re too epic filmic for that market. I’ve got to learn to write more backgoundish material for the YouTubers and the business market but it’s tough for me to do simple material.
The thing I like about AJ is that they have their family of websites for video people, photographers and so on so that those who are putting together a project can buy all their assets in one marketplace which is why sales are good their.
Okay now to dumb down my material….
yes, me too. most of mine are full songs never really meant for media use. but a number have sold for some purpose. i’m starting to compose shorter pieces that might do better on AJ. i’ve only had my music there for 2 weeks and have sold 10 songs so far. one sold for $2 more just today… any idea why it was $19 instead of $17?
question for you guys… so far, all i’ve uploaded are 320k mp3s. do you think it’s advantageous to also include a wav file version on places that accept them?
After 3 months I finally had an extended sale on AJ. Still only $28 commission but much better than the standard $5.61!!
Congrats David, you’re on your way! I take it you are non-exclusive at AJ? How many libraries are you in at the moment?
I’m in the libraries below… but some don’t have all my songs yet.
Audiojungle, Audiomicro, BuyStockSound, Luckstock, Million Ducks, Musicase, Pond5, Productiontrax, Revostock, Soundcheque, Tunefruit, Tunesociety, YouLicense, Zukkio
Oh, and so far I’m non-exclusive everywhere.
Well, live and learn! After selling non-exclusively on AJ for 6 months I just found out you can’t do so if your songs are registered with a PRO, which mine are (BMI). I thought it was just for exclusive sales. So…. guess I will be saying goodbye to them. I was only averaging $55/mo with them anyway.
After 6 months with AudioJungle, I still get more sales consistently with them than any other music site. Too bad the commission is so low.
Update: I decided to try an experiment with AJ. I created another account, this time exclusive, and only feature new tracks in the 30-60 second range with a focus on corporate/media use to see how well they sell. I uploaded about 14 tracks to start. They aren’t live yet…. but will keep you posted.
Cool. I’m going to make some short SFX (epic trailer sounds) and see how they will sell. It wont be on AudioJungle, but will let you all know how it goes 😀
Funny, a 30 second piece I did for an ad agency listing was forwarded to them, which means it was pretty good. Never heard anything so submitted it to AJ. They rejected it saying it didn’t meet their production criteria!
Yes, sometimes I also wonder why some of my tracks are not approved, when tracks of the same quality are the approved same day. This also happens to some of my tracks that sell really well on other sites.
things are slowing on audiojungle, too….
after several months in which i got consistent sales (about 20-25/month), in february i got just 9 sales, and there was a long period during mid-february in which nothing happened.
from the forum i knew that they were changing something in the sarch engine, and that definitely killed many sales for many people.
now i just hope that the old trend will return… :-/
reg. audiojungle i’m doing an experiment.
i’m monitoring the total sales of different authors with different amount of sales.
the experiment is still going but i could anticipate that the feeling is that selling on AJ is quite a statistic process, almost predictable in some cases
.
you have more or less a linear increase of sales in time but the amount seems to depend on total sales you have.
so, the more total sales you have, the more you will sell per day.
i’m posting some preliminary graph to explain this:
sales per day vs. total sales :
https://imageshack.com/i/kqdNeupwj
https://imageshack.com/i/ezlBmEJEj
sales during time for different sales amounts:
https://imageshack.com/i/ez4JPhjdj
of course not all the trends are so perfect. i observed that towards lower amount of sales there is more scatter. but at higher sales (>5000) there is a nearly perfect linear behaviour.
I choose both top seller authors and several random authors with lower sales, trying to represent all “total sales” categories.
i cannot give indications about how to increase sales, but it seems to me quite possible that the more you have sold in the past, the more you will sell in the future.
You observations are very much like my own. The more sales you have the higher you will be listed at most music libraries. Also some buyers will come back and purchase more of your tracks when they like what they hear- It’s always easier to sell to someone who has already bought a product from you.
It’s really nice you have taken the time to do the numbers and I’m convinced that the sale graphs will fit other libraries as well.
interesting… but i can see your point. i have been selling more this year than last…. let’s hope it increases. as low as they pay, i still have more consistent sales with them than anyone else.
I abandoned AJ. I wasn’t sure, I thought I was making a mistake. But, guess what, my total earnings increased significantly since I did. I think there is a clear reason for this. Many buyers shop around. If they see a track that they want in library X for YY dollars, then they look for it in other libraries to see if they can find a better price. In AJ prices are so ridiculously low, and commission even worse, that actually by abandoning AJ increased my earnings. I’ve been observing this for a few months. On average I have slightly less sales (because not ALL buyers shop around), but significantly more earnings. Until at AJ they change their pricing / commission policy, I won’t go back – and I won’t sell at libraries where my music is devalued.
I can totally relate. Selling a track for a profit of $6 just don’t feel right.
So far I have been convinced that most buyers don’t shop around, but checking if the track is on AJ before making a purchase does make sense (since they are one of the largest libraries out there).
Great that you have been making more money from you tracks 😀
I have contemplated canceling my AJ account several times but the fact is I sell more consistently on there than any other place. They did just recently change things and now offer 4 license levels.
I am the featured author on audiojungle this week.
so far, 2 days of exposure and zero sales!
beside this, sales on AJ seems to have stopped since several weeks. don’t know the reason! :-/
So was I last year and I had zero sales for the entire week! Call it your 15 minutes of non-fame. 🙂 I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am not seeing the sales I used to see on all the sites I have music on (Pond5, Productiontrax, Musicase, Revostock, Tunefruit, Tunesociety and a few others). AJ is the only one that consistently sells but, ugggh, their payout is pitiful. Wonder what’s going on?
Actually i’ve got quite regular sales on P5 (except at the end of december), about 1-3 a week.
mostly are SFX (2$!) or audiologo (15-20$).
I strongly suggest to upload a whole bunch of “interesting” SFX or short audiologo on P5. I think that the fact that i sold quite a lot of them increased my ranking (now i’m at 216 sales at P5).
someone in P5 forum says that the more sales you have the more high is your rank in the search engine… so the more you sell the more you will sell.
maybe i was just lucky but when i uploaded several SFX there was a period in which i had almost 1 sale/day. I feel that this helped me a lot for future sales!
i don’t know about AJ. i think that here is the same: the more you sell the more high is your rank in the search engine. since end of december i was used to sell about 1 time every 1.5-2 days in average. this was quite consistent.
but in january sales almost stopped… and now they are really really low.
i came to the conclusion that there are no understandable patterns. I thought i had found one but i was obviously wrong! :-/
Yes Pond5 have always given me sales now and then without much effort on my part. Actually the most stable library I have signed up to.
At other libraries I rarely get any sales. Revostock was very good for me a few years back, but now I never get any sales. I do however seldom upload new tracks these days.
And most sites seem to factor in previous sales, so the more sales you have the better placements you will get in search – I totally agree with you in this aspect. 🙂
After long consideration, I’ve decided to delete my music from AudioJungle. The fact that they take 67% of the income is just not justifiable in my opinion.
Sure they get a decent amount of sales and are great to start off and actually get some money for your music, but in the long run it’s not worth it and just dickish to the composers in my opinion, since their work is being greatly undervalued. How can any marketing or hosting be worth 67% commission, seriously?
I guess, if you can get up to 70% revenue share (as an exclusive seller with over $75,000 (!) of total sales), it’s okay, but I, personally, wouldn’t want to solely commit to and rely on one marketplace for my whole library music income, especially with their random music rejections, or rather:
Quality standard based on the mood of the curator. I’ve had some of what I considered my best music to date (hard) rejected, while many of my older (and really shitty) tracks got approved without a problem.
The fact that they don’t allow P.R.O. registered music doesn’t help either, since it rules out any backend royalties to compensate for the ridiculous commission split.
The sense of community they have is great though.
I only have 14 exclusive tracks with them but with their new tax rules may do the same thing.
If you already have the music on AJ i would keep it. maybe switch to a non-exclusive profile.
i have the same music on different libraries and I sell on each of them. i don’t think there is competition.
if you think there is competition just chose a different user name and different song names! 🙂
for example the same tracks are on AJ, pond5 and melodyloops.
AJ has now almost double sales with respect to P5 but they generate the same revenue. melodyloops is very slow but why i should rule out the possibilty to get some extra money? 🙂
if you already have the files, leave them online.
if you make any new song, upload also on AJ. it’s not a huge effort…
AJ share is veeeeery low and now you also get the tax for US sales (not my case) but it’s really the most active library. I must say i like and hate it (a lot) at the same time for these reasons… low revenue share but high sales and traffic…
Hello guys. I know this is an old post, but it nails EXACTLY the issue I have with AJ. I submitter 5 tracks for review. I wasn’t worried because the tracks I submitted are of excellent quality and just great to listen to. REJECTED….lol. Something is wrong with this library, is all I can say. The reviewers are worthless because they let slip through as they please. Once I received an email that the song they rejected was “poor commercial quality” I knew then this was a site to steer clear of and pulled the rest of my songs. This song in particular, was mixed and mastered by a top engineer in Nashville and he loved the track. To say, I was extremely depressed for several days until I relistened to my tracks submitted and could find no faults, it’s just an enjoyable song to hear. Obviously, AJ doesn’t read to community boards or they would see there is a problem. Even their top artists like Pinkzebra has weak tracks but yet, they are pushing this guy. What I’ve heard on his site is just subpar music, nothing wrong with it, I like his stuff, but it’s not better than a lot of music they reject, as I’ve went and listened to it. Pond 5, productiontrax and several others I’m a member of never treat their artists this way. Never will I have anything to do with Envato.
Hi. Sometimes they reject music because they have to much of that kind of music in the library. Often is has nothing to do with the quality, but the genre. I would not take their “poor commercial quality” to serious, probably its just a pre-written comment. 🙂
I just had my first sale at AudioJungle, very nice as I only have 9 tracks in my profile so far. As my first uploads was approved, and I can now upload 30 tracks a month.
I have decided to upload all of my music, as they now let you set the price. It is kind of a hassle to make previews and zip all files, but I think it is worth it. 🙂