I just came across an image that made me smile: Doesn’t it feel like that for us all sometimes?! Ha ha. There’s food for thought here though. The interesting thing regarding writing music for income, is that whilst you’ve got to enjoy the process of writing it of course, it doesn’t have …
There are a lot of things that can result in people not making a success of achieving an income through library music. A lot of the time the issue I hear is, “Oh, there’s so much competition, libraries just aren’t taking tracks any more.” I can tell you that’s bulls**t. Yes there is competition. There’s …
Breakdowns are often important elements to a library track, but how do you give your breakdown just a little bit of background sparkle and magic? When done well, it’s a lovely trick, even if you’re not going for a magical angle – it just adds a nice element of sonic interest that can set you …
When we run comedy type listings for the Music Library I co-own, one of the biggest issues that results in us turning tracks down is that composers try to make the music funny. That may sound counter intuitive, right? After all, the client will be going to the comedy album to look for funny music, …
Ever bought a sample pack with melodic loops, only to find that the performances are locked to a specific tempo? In those situations, you can often find that writing a track around those loops can be the easiest way forward. You need it to feel natural and not that the melodic loop was forced into …
When starting your journey as a library music composer, you’ll need to write a bunch of tracks in preparation to send to prospective libraries. You know one of the biggest challenges about writing library music for sending to these companies before they’ve shown any interest? Finishing. I know that if you’re anything like me, finishing …
This post is super short. It’s also very important if you’re writing Production Music. I had a great email this week from a composer who has taken the “Library Music That Sells” course and watched the recently added “Deep Dive” video walk-through of one of my tracks that has done well for me regarding …
“There’s a secret that real writers know that wannabe writers don’t, and the secret is this: It’s not the writing part that’s hard. What’s hard is sitting down to write. What keeps us from sitting down is resistance.” -Steven Pressfield Ever found yourself avoiding sitting down to make music, even though you love doing it? …
You’re probably looking at the title of this post and thinking: “Both.” And in an ideal world, you’d be right. You’d pump out a large quantity of stunning music each month. Or each week. Yet for most of us, our higher quality tracks take us longer to write and produce than some of the other …
What’s dull, confusing, but a must for composers, producers and songwriters to understand? Music rights! Ok, I admit it: there’s no way to make this appealing or alluring. But give me just over 5 minutes and I’ll explain to you all 7 of the major music rights that you need to know in a clear …