When I started out with royalty free music a year ago I asked myself: what kind of music will sell the most? I therefore searched a lot of music related forums for answers and found a few who said corporate music was one of the best selling categories.
I did not take this to hart and therefore only ended up composing a few cooperate / positive tracks. As it turns out I should have gone all in on corporate tracks.
You can take a listen to two of my corporate tracks below to get an idea of the genre.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/35218510″ params=”color=26ff00&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/49975145″ params=”color=26ff00&auto_play=false&show_artwork=false” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
What kind of music does the stock music libraries crave for?
If a music library rejects your music they very seldom tell you why. Most don’t even give you an answer after listening to your music. Due to the large amount of libraries I had signed up too I have however been fortunate to get some answers on what some of the stock libraries are looking for.
And most seem to be looking for corporate / fun / happy music. This is also confirmed by a few of the users in the comments here at EagleCinematics.
As the year has gone by I have read a lot more and have had a chance to see what sells best of my own music. There can be no doubt about it, the cooperate tracks sells well.
Another hint at corporate music is the way to go (if you want many sales) is given by looking at the sales at the stock music libraries. If you order by number of sales you always see corporate / happy music at the top of the list.
How do I compose a good corporate track?
As with most stock music there are quite a few things you can do to make your tracks more likely to sell.
- If you’re making an intro at all make sure to keep it short
- Use the same emotion / genre for the whole track
- Making a 30 sec, 60 sec and full version of the track can lead to more sales
- Having a long ring out at the end is always a good thing
- In general you should never fade out your tracks
- Using high quality samples is a must. Tracks made with low quality samples don’t make the cut anymore.
Corporate music is of cause not the only genre that sells. I regularly get sales in many genres, but my corporate does sell the most.
Corporate tracks has the best odds of selling
A lot of corporate stock music tracks are sold every day. As more and more companies are advertising online using video, podcast and social media there’s no shortage of buyers.
Another very important factor is that the buyers in the corporate genre actually have money to spend.
When it comes to making money in the stock music business, composing a lot of tracks in the corporate genre or even specializing in it could turn out to be a very wise decision.
If you produce some high quality corporate tracks, tag / describe them correctly and make enough of them you will get some sales.
You still have to get views at the libraries before you can make any sales, but the corporate genre seems to be on of the most visited at the moment.
Is corporate music the holy grail of the selling a lot of stock music?
Well it might just be! If you do it the right way, there’s no doubt about it – good corporate tracks can make a lot of sales.
I have to agree with you on this Anders. I too have noticed that the best selling, and repeat selling music that does well is “corporate” music. That makes sense as anyone creating and promoting an online business, would logically not use some dreary, depressing tracks to represent their image.
Then again, I think we need to clarify the different types of music libraries out there. Places like Luckstock, Audio Jungle, Pond5, Revostock etc., seem to draw the internet marketers and YouTube crowd looking to purchase appropriate music which would be the “corporate” style.
Libraries like Audiosparx, Crucial and the like are catering to Hollywood and television, and cues in a multitude of styles would do well there. I also think that these types of cues may not sell repeatedly as well as “corporate” music so you need a lot of tracks to do well in that arena.
Indeed, I am dividing my composition focus between “corporate” music for those libraries previously mentioned, and the broadcasting world where I have a little more freedom to not be positive all the time!
Yes I get your point. It’s unclear that the article should be seen in reference to libraries like Luckstock, Audio Jungle, Pond5, Revostock etc..
At libraries that are focusing on pitching the music for broadcast (TV, movies) the music sold will be more varied. Here the musician will also be getting more money from broadcast royalties.
But getting accepted in these libraries are probably harder and as you mention you need a lot of music.
Thanks for your in-depth comment!
you are probably right… need for “corporate happy” music is very broad. but also everyone has its own corporate track.. so the market is overcrowded and maybe you are difficult to find amongst 10.000 other producers.
maybe it is worth to have also a look at niche categories.
on audiojungle I uploaded tracks that i made years ago just for fun and just to “record something”.
such as these ones:
http://audiojungle.net/item/covered-spy-games/4351142?sso
just a sketch for a person who asekd me for a track for a platform game. it never contacted me again…
http://audiojungle.net/item/ceremonial-tribal-percussion-/3290885?sso
an experiment made with different kinds of percussion i have at home. not originally tailored for royalty free markets…
http://audiojungle.net/item/tuaregs-dilemma/2779322?sso
an experiment with a Saz. this one was entirely recorded using a Saz bought in turkey and a zoom h4n in multitrack mode (almost everything was one-shot-recorded, i did not even turned on Sonar to record this…). i never thought someone could buy it! 🙂
that actually sold (a few $ but someone was interested… and i was surprised in actually selling them!)
so even niche markets can have a role here…
my other suggestion could be: upload everything you have or you record! 🙂
When it comes to corporate music, I don’t agree with you that the market is overcrowded. There is a lot of corporate music available, but not much of it is well produced. If a composer was to specialize in composing high quality corporate music I’m sure he would become successful at the stock music libraries.
About creating music in other genres is of cause also a good idea. This way we can find niches where there’s is high demand, but little music available – then compose more music for the niche and test if it holds.
Like you I am also surprised when a get a sale for music I never thought would sell. A sale of a cooperate track is no surprise to me, but in other genres it sure can be 🙂
Right now I’m in process of uploading some piano music I made 10 years ago. Like you say – uploading everything we have rocks!
Why do composers feel the need to make so much money from their music? Unless a composer has a Masters degree in music, s/he should not expect to make a reasonable living at music.
I think the idea of having a long-term career in the music industry is a pipe dream. We can make music for fun and continue at our respective day jobs to pay the bills.
Music should be about fun and passion, never about work and business.
Every time someone buys one of my tracks it makes me happy. Instead of making music for myself someone actually appreciate it enough to pay money for it. And another bonus is that many more people will listen to the music and hopefully like it too.
Also I find it interesting to start businesses and combining that with my passion of composing music is just a great combo for me.
You sure can make a reasonable living from making music. I have no training in making the compositions I do and they sell pretty well. If I were more persisting in making new tracks I’m sure that I could make a living from selling royalty free music – within a reasonable time frame.
Running a business can also be about fun and passion – you just have to find the right concept and hire others do the work you don’t want to or are not good at yourself.
Is it easy to make a living from our music? Absolutely not, but it can definitely be done I have no doubt about it. Others have done it so why not you?
A battle uphill and finally making it into a full time living makes it even more fulfilling to succeed.
Thanks for commenting and welcome to the blog. 😀
exactly! i create music because i love to. if someone pays me then it’s just icing on the cake! i truly doubt i will ever make a 100% living just from music. i lost my full-time job last year but have a business digitizing old formats of audio, video, film, photo, etc. so with both combined so far i’ve been able to pay the bills for the last 12 months.
i also belong to film music network and taxi and have had some interest in my music from some of their clients. recently a client heard one of my songs via film music network and wants to use it for a corporate video from kaiser healthcare out in san francisco. it only pays $150 but it’s a little step in the right direction!
i was not sure where to post this note, but it seems interesting:
http://www.sellingmymusiconline.com/2014/01/06/how-to-write-a-corporate-motivational-track-that-sells/
“How to write a corporate track that sells”
Thanks. I’m by no means the only one who found out that corporate tracks sells well, but I have not gone into so much detail about how to make a corporate track that sells. And its always nice to see a new blog about selling royalty free music online 🙂