Im fortunate enough make a reasonable living via music and trading. Generally, royalties account for roughly 20% of my total annual income. It's far from stable as APRA/AMCOS collect from global affiliates in a seemingly haphazard manner, making it difficult to predict what and when I'll get a worthwhile cheque.

Songwriting accounts for less than 2% of these amounts whereas TV/Film composition accounts for about 85-90%. Subsequently I have little interest in songwriting beyond my own pleasure.

Just wondering how others manage their careers and to what extent royalties play into your income. Im also interested in other collection agencies and how, as a composer, you find them. Personally, I find the Australian agency APRA AMCOS to be both helpful (including legal issues and arbitration - Ive been unsuccessfully sued twice) and a lifesaver when it comes to distribution of royalties.

 

i don't generate any income...i tried taxi.com in the past but my compositions were kinda not up to par with competition
have you tried taxi.com? it seems like a good place to connect to libraries and work directly with them if you manage to get forwarded and get placements a few times.

 

So many of those places. Ive signed up with a few of them and sold some stuff, but it really doesn't pay. The only way Ive managed to make real money is getting in with TV production houses and (less so these days) advertising agencies. Im not much good at selling myself so I have an agent. He's pretty in with the agencies and a few directors.

Thanks for the Taxi tip, Ill check it out.

 

sure thing, check all their vids here...their owner makes videos often with very interesting subjects, they discuss income and all of that quite deeply

TAXI Independent A&R - YouTube

 

They say you need around 500 tracks to have an ideal annual income.

 

Yeah. Which is precisely why I chose to move into film and television. Initial payments for a locally produced show including theme and incidentals will garner 5 figures but over the following years from overseas plays - particularly Western Europe you can expect to see closer to 6. If you can hook into an ongoing series or two that amounts to serious money and the best thing is that it pays you when you're not working. Im still getting payments from Europe for an Australian show (2 series) that I wrote in 2012.

Honestly, I can't see how anyone makes any money from production libraries or Spotify and its ilk. They pay virtually nothing.

 

I'm into film music too. I have many musicians friends and they just earn money while they're performing. I feel kind of a lucky or chose the right direction. Being into film music is a networking business. You know more directors and producers year by year. Then you got new (more) jobs to earn more money. I tried for publishing an album before, I don't spend my energy for it anymore.

 

you make 5-6 figures from tv per year? and thats 20% of your income? i don't know if thats what u're saying but seems pretty good to me!

 

Lol! No, I wasn't clear.. In an average year royalties might amount to 20-30k.If a show ends up in prime-time Europe you can do better than 110k AUS. It's always a good idea to negotiate with producers for a great percentage of your publishing, even if that means taking a fee cut.

 

thats pretty good man, well done! i don't have the patience or skills to do that i think

but also audiojungle etc? don't u sell there? i heard ppl making some bucks there too.......i mean its passive income anyway if any sale unless and u can sell it as non-exclusive or exclusive...but depends on what contracts u made with other companies too

 

Audiojungle used to be ok, now its just like the rest of them.

 

In Germany the GEMA is collecting all royalties in behalf of the artists.
The artists can thus generate direct income from the sale of recordings (usually in conjunction with a label) and live performances, but also significant income from the royalties of GEMA.
Although the opinion from the artist scene is mostly reduced to complaining about GEMA, the artists often forget that they alone would hardly be able to generate any income from royalties. For that, they would have to have their own collection- and legal departments.
From this point of view, GEMA's cost ratio of around 15% is not bad at all. Mathematically, each member of GEMA in Germany receives an average of about 12,000 EUR (~ 1 Billion EUR div. by 80K GEMA members). In fact, the distribution is based on a key, which is based on statistical evaluations. The amount is thus - somewhat fairly depending on the performance of the artist (repertoire, performances on radio, TV, online, etc.) apportioned.

Whether all this is really fair is a matter of more or less heated debate. Without GEMA, however, the artists would receive much less from the royalties.

GEMA Annual Report (2019, the last one without Corona's influence): https://www.gema.de/fileadmin/user_...chaeftsbericht/GEMA_Geschäftsbericht_2019.pdf

 

15% appears to be the standard for distribution and administration costs. I agree with you, whenever Ive had to sign up with publishing for a film or TV series you may as well be paying to play. Netflix is the worst. Their deliverables and contracts are impossibly difficult to deal with.

 

I can imagine that. Of course, this is also due to the fact that the big labels are constantly pressing spotify and begrudge it its earnings thinking they could make more money without spotify. Therefore, the contracts are significantly influenced by the labels.

But the good news in your strory is that even if you're a small artist, you're able to make a decent living if you actually tap into all possible sources.

 

I'm planning to move into film and television.

Would you offer please some useful suggestions?

 

It isn't easy. It's really about building relationships with directors and/or producers. Typically its who you know.If you're just starting out Id approach existing established composers and offer your services to them on the cheap (not too cheap and never do anything for nothing). The point of this exercise is to (a) learn, and (b) get some introductions.

 

My friend works for an agency that makes music for ads. The agency has a team of musicians that they send briefs to, every musician gets paid $500 for making music for the brief, then only 1 musician will get their music selected for the ad, and they'll get paid thousands. The most my friend got paid was $10,000 which happened recently and he's been doing this work for years.

It's a good option, but you have to be committed to it full-time cos you'll get a message saying "here's a brief, deadline is tomorrow" so you gotta be constantly ready to work, and work fast

 

Hmm.

That's the "new" agency model.

Back in the day you'd be asked to "pitch", which would mean creating an example of the intended track for $500-$1000. Basic revisions were free. A rewrite could incur a few more bucks but a "re-brief" means the whole process started from scratch and the agency would wear the costs. Jobs ranged from about 8k up to about 30k depending on the requirements. I had most of the SSO and EMI booked for a sport show package once, that was closer to 50k.

Those days are long gone, unfortunately and this new cynical (and incredibly lazy) model that you mention is akin to slave labour (IMHO) and I won't be a part of it.

If you value your work and have a modicum of self-respect, my suggestion is to say to them you either like what I do and you are confident in that you know what you want or fuck off. That is the entire point of having a showreel.

 

I'd just like to say that my briefs are also available for $500.

 

Cheap at half the price.