It’s no secret that I’m trying to get my music out in as many places as possible. I just spend a week searching for the best music libraries out there. When I search for music libraries there are number of factors I look at:

  • They music library must be non-exclusive, meaning that I can sell the same tracks elsewhere.
  • The selling price must be decent. If I overall make less that $15 per sale I wont post my music. The $15 per sale is to be seen as an average of all license types.
  • If I don’t make at least $15 per sale I will simple stop posting at the music library and focus on the libraries that makes me more money.

Does all the good libraries review your tracks?

Most of the established libraries do review your tracks. It also seems like they make the most sales. You therefore have to compose some decent music else you wont get approved.

Basically the best libraries don’t want their customers to go through thousands of bad tracks to find the music they need. This also means that you have to use good samples, microphones, mixing and so on. Now it’s not like you have to be an expert, the best way to find out if the libraries like your music is just to sign-up and see if you can get approved.

This week I have signed up to a new bunch of libraries. Some libraries want you to send them an email with a link to your music (preferably your soundclud profile), others requires you to upload 2-4 tracks for review.

I am now waiting to be approved at the music libraries

From the hundreds of stock music libraries out there I picked to the following eight stock music libraries. Hopefully I will be approved for all of them.

  • Buystocksound.com Approved. 10-10-2012
  • Pumpaudio.com Green lit. But you have to mail them your tracks on CD’s! Not sure I will spend my time on this, it makes no sense that you cant just upload the music. 11-10-2012
  • Muziko.com Not approved. They liked the music, but are mainly looking for quirky/fun music for web and corporate music. 15-16-2012
  • Neosounds.com Temporarily not accepting new submissions. 16-10-2012
  • Jinglepunks.com Not accepted. In the mail they said nothing about what kind of music they are looking for just “We appreciate your interest in Jingle Punks. Unfortunately we will be unable to add your music to our library at this time” and ” feel free to submit again in the future (after a 60-day waiting period) ” 31-10-2012
  • Themusicase.com (Approved. 08-11-2012)
  • Beatpick.com Not accepted. In the mail they said “Your music submission is much appreciated, however after reviewing your tracks, we are are sorry to inform you that BeatPick has decided not to select them for its online catalogue” 25-01-2013)
  • SoundImage.eu (waiting for an answer)
  • Stockmusic.net (waiting for an answer)
  • Shockwave-sound.com (waiting for an answer)
  • Musicloops.com (a minimum of 50 tracks to be considered)
  • AudioSparx.com (a minimum of 30 tracks to be considered)

I send all of them my best 2-4 tracks so now there’s not much to do, other than waiting for the answers. I will keep this post updated with the answers so you can get an idea of how hard it is to get approved.

Do you really need to sign up with that many libraries to make any money?

You need to figure out which libraries that make sales and which that don’t. There’s no exact science to this. One composer can make many sales at a library while others make nothing at all.  It all comes down to the style of music your write and the general quality of your tracks. It’s a lot of work that’s the only thing you can be sure of.

So you basically have to sign-up at a lot of libraries, get approved, upload your music, optimise your track titles, tags and descriptions and thereby learn which libraries that make sales.

How many tracks do you need to make a decent amount of money?

There are a lot of factors that comes into play, so telling you how many tracks you need to make a living from selling stock music is not easy.

  • How much do you sell your tracks for?
  • How good is your music?
  • Does your music fit a niche where there is high demand but little supply?
  • Does your music target people who have money to spend (corporate music etc.)
  • Are your track titles, tags and descriptions optimized?
  • How many libraries are you signed up with?
  • Are you listed at the best selling libraries?
  • Do you promote the music yourself?

People who make a living selling music for the stock libraries say you need around 1000-1500 tracks, to make it happen. But based upon all of the factors above this number could be much higher or much lower. Of cause the more tracks you have at the libraries the better the chances of being found and making a sale.

I personally don’t think I will need 1000 tracks to make a living from stock music, but my approach is probably also different from most.

I believe that choosing the right libraries, promoting my music outside the libraries, optimizing track descriptions and deliver high quality music is the way to become successful. Only time will tell, but these are the main points that hopefully will lead to selling lots of music.

[starrater tpl=10]