There are platforms in the world that provide commercial companies with access to legal catalogs of instrumental music – so that it can be publicly broadcast in cafes, shopping malls, stores, etc. Some platforms allow composers to directly upload their music and also directly pay them for streams, for example, Audiosparx (PRO membership required).
What is the Essence of Working on Platforms?
The essence of working on these platforms is simple. If you own all the rights to your music, you post it on your own behalf as an individual. If you are lucky and your tracks have a lot of commercial streams (public listening), constantly get into popular playlists, then you receive royalties quarterly or monthly.
There are no quick successes here either – you need to write at least several dozen high-quality tracks in popular genres and constantly expand the catalog. As in “library” music, you start not a sprint, but a marathon. And you will have to work for years to earn good money.
But the terms of work with the “elevator” platforms often do not imply exclusivity, and you can publish the same tracks on music listening platforms (streaming platforms) by choosing your distributor.
Many composers do not even realize in what strange ways people learn about music and why they listen to it. Sometimes authors really feed off of not very popular genres.
Here is one (admittedly slightly funny) example. In 2019, Japanese musician Michiru Aoyama came up with the idea of releasing… an album per day. This crazy project was launched on December 31, 2021. In a couple of years, he released 700 (!) albums. Each consisted of 8 tracks and lasted on average 20 minutes 27 seconds. In style, this is ambient, made quite simply. However, by December 2023, Aoyama was already earning $3,000 a month from streaming. It is not known whether he still maintains this rigorous schedule, but streaming platforms are still overflowing with his music in 2024. That’s what quantity does, even without the emphasis on quality.
Trailer Music
The highest barrier to entry for quality and production music and… the highest one-time royalties on the planet for licensing a track (excluding movies). A 30-second fragment placed in an advertisement for a notable film can earn a composer $3,000-5,000 at once. Fees for placing a full track (placement), and specifically the composer’s share, reach $20-25 thousand. At the same time, royalties for public playback (as in “library” music) are practically non-existent, although PRO membership is required.
The world of trailer music is ruled by about 50 of the most famous publishers, including Audiomachine, Colossal Trailer Music, Chostwriter Music, Totem, Elephant Music, Gothic Storm Music, Evolving Sound and others. Most of them are based in the USA and Britain. It is very difficult to get into the circle of these publishers, but they are absolutely democratic, friendly and ready to work with authors from any country, as long as they release a fresh, effective and competitive product.
The main obstacle to becoming a trailer music composer is the highest requirements for the quality of the tracks, their full compliance with the genre and production. Usually, it takes 3-5 years to learn how to create such music. This is also a marathon, in which large prizes await the most persistent. However, for production in most trailer subgenres, a relatively modest home studio with a fairly budget sound card is required. The main costs are for orchestral sample libraries, specific percussion libraries and trailer effect libraries. However, a significant part of the trailer sound (and in some subgenres, the entire sound) can be created using free sample libraries and free synthesizers. True, you will have to search for them for a long time and thoughtfully.
But the main thing is to understand the special, exciting sound of the trailer and how to make it from improvised means. Often, publishers help aspiring composers with this, if they managed to interest them in the demo. And there is also a friendly and responsive online community around music for movie trailers, where anyone can personally communicate with the top composers of the industry and find answers to almost all technical and organizational questions. Search one social network (we will not say which one) for a community called “Trailer Music Composers Support Group”, and a new world will open up to you…
Getting into it is both easy and difficult at the same time. More than half of the publishers indicate an email address for demos on their websites. From time to time, they listen to the tracks sent, and if some new author interests them, they start a correspondence.
The only thing left to do is to study the brightest albums and tracks of the industry over the past couple of years (preferably those included in trailers), understand how this sound is formed, how the dramaturgy of a trailer track is built. Then you will give at his own risk. The publisher releases your music in his catalog and presents it to special advertising agencies – “trailer houses” that create trailers and approve them with studios that shoot films and TV series.
If you are lucky, you get the coveted placement, and after a few months (sometimes after a year) you are paid your share. The right publishers in this industry usually split the shares 50/50. If you are offered less, you have come across the wrong publisher.
One track that has received placement in a film or TV series trailer can be re-licensed – by another studio, for another product, but in this case the license will cost much less. Quite often, reuse occurs in commercial advertising that is not related to cinema. The most delicious is, of course, the first license. And it happens that a composer receives as much as $40,000 (!) for the placement of one track. It’s definitely a rarity, but it’s worth mentioning in fairness…
Results
The most “expensive” genres are cinematic, hybrid-orchestral or live instrumental, which are especially difficult to make. Trailer music is the top money-maker, but there is fierce competition, a strong lottery element and very high requirements.
Read also: How To Download Music From Spotify Premium
