The HARD TRUTH About Stock Music, Royalty Free Libraries & Music Licensing

[@Steven_Beddall]

✅ FREE ‘Intro To Music Licensing’ Course ►► www.freemusiclicensingcourse.com 🎹 Join The Production Music Academy ►► community.productionmusicacademy.com 🎼 Free Sample & MIDI Pack ►► freesamplepack.productionmusictools.com 🥁 Tools For Composers ►► productionmusictools.com

[@AlexBtvmusic]

I appreciate your honesty, Steve. This video can save a lot of people from the frustration of getting small (if any) results from stock libraries. Anyone who claims that a person who's totally new to stock music can make from $500 to $1000 a month nowadays is a fraud. Stock libraries, like you said, are good training grounds but they're limited in terms of earning potential as there's very little that we can control inside them. We're anonymous contributors to them, just numbers on a screen. We don't build relationships with them. And this is just how that kind of business works. We can't complain. Keeping an open mind, honing our skills and being on the lookout for new opportunities is the key to pursuing success in music licensing. It's a bumpy road but it's one worth taking if you love making music and seeing it being used in video productions. If you're doing it for short-term money results, you'd better do something else.

[@musicbysazid]

Thanks for the honesty. You earned both my trust and subscription.

[@Steven_Beddall]

Appreciate that 🙏

[@klevakeys]

i have 350 tracks up on as an exclusive artist on a library, all metadata done. im new to licensing (5 months) had 2 sales already, hopefully as time goes on things will build. but i work and have a proper job so im not reliant on it. thanks mate.

[@brettclarinmusic]

Considering that there are more KZbin videos and videos in general, it’s bewildering that demand for music for these videos has taken such a drastic nose dive. My only guess is that there is already so much music that the total amount being used is higher but the use per song is way down.

[@osynthwrfmusic]

Great video, I like that realistic approach, especially about Artlist / MA, as you said, nothing last forever, it's important to see the big picture, be ready for the change, and just keep to evolve and dig for opportunities :D. As always your vision is very precious and help a lot ! Thank you !

[@therealdanguitar]

Thank you for such a great video Steve. It’s not only useful but extremely honest and you don’t mislead people from the truth whilst also pointing them in the right direction. This is why I love your videos and the support in the academy.

[@Steven_Beddall]

I really appreciate that Dan, thanks for the comment 🙏

[@QuincasMoreira]

KZbin Audio Library composer here, my experience is very different…

[@Steven_Beddall]

How so?

[@PhilippeStevenson]

Care to elaborate?

[@QuincasMoreira]

I can’t say much due to NDAs, but suffice it to say, KZbin is not a typical sound library. Their main interest is having free music for use in this platform, which also acts as a strong springboard for promoting my work. They pay well but mainly my songs benefit from the ubiquitousness of KZbin which spontaneously pushes my songs so they become popular everywhere and generate revenue in all platforms and countries. It’s very different from traditional music libraries.

[@Steven_Beddall]

Where do I apply? 😀

[@QuincasMoreira]

They find you ;)@@Steven_Beddall

[@genuinefreewilly5706]

Heck of a way to make some spare coin. I finally made some music sales on Pond5 and it was 'not' production music, pretty left field material. How and where it could used, is a mystery. For myself one piece a week is about all can muster, its still a lot of work I am late (old) to the production music field anyways. I might as well double down on more adventurous compositions .

[@CloudMomotang]

Thank you man this is very helpful and encouraging, I was starting to get down on myself for not having a certain income stream by now, but slow and steady wins the race hopefully

[@mikel917]

Thanks! Good info. I agree, it’s about the validation, first and foremost.

[@wishonmusic1]

Great content, Steve. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on this topic.

[@bobbyhallmusic]

Thank you for posting this video. I am considering this as a second income and the attitude that you described in this video is healthy. As you know, having the right attitude is so helpful. Great video!!

[@CaveWomen88]

I have 214 files on pond5 of all different generes and I’ve made $15 Canadian this month so far and that’s a GOOD month. I haven’t sold a song on audio jungle in a year. I don’t think I have the inspiration or what it takes to get into those other more active libraries.

[@Steven_Beddall]

Thanks for sharing

[@CaveWomen88]

@@Steven_Beddall You’re welcome. You videos are always insightful and helpful. Thank you.

[@carcamovmusic]

Have you tried on other libraries? (Motion Array, 123ref, Audiosparx, etc)

[@bjornark]

Agree with everything. The time when you could earn 500 USD a month from a stock music library... I wont say its impossible. But it would require a huge amount of work. That huge amount of work could be used elsewhere IMO. For myself, I am working on Spotify and my YT channel. As you say, its important to have other options. Good video!

[@Steven_Beddall]

Thanks for watching man, yeah there are a lot of things we can pursue, it's important to explore all options!

[@sethaustinmedia]

This video is definitely a bit of a wake up for me! I appreciate you sharing Stevie

[@vancestreetmusic]

This one line sums it up "I work way harder and longer now than when I had a 9-5 job"

[@MakeMusicIncome]

Yeah, but a lot more FUN than that non-music 9-5.

[@Steven_Beddall]

@MakeMusicIncome Absolutely 👍

[@HochiOrrillo]

@ProductionMusicAcademy Thanks for the video. A question. How do you make money with Artlist? What is the business model? because with Audiojungle and other platforms I understand that it is a percentage of the sales you achieve. But with Artlist and others it is not clear to me. Maybe it would be interesting for you to make a video where you describe each business model of the most important royalty free and licensing music platforms.

[@Steven_Beddall]

Basically they pay you a percentage of their net revenue which is determined by how many downloads you get. They also have buyout deals where they pay upfront for ownership of the music and share a percentage of performance and streaming royalties.

[@gerarddewar9710]

Great stuff! really informative and realistic outlook on the current sync music landscape. I'd love to know how you can make connections to sync agents, we don't really have them here in the Uk, but I'd love to try and find them for US rep. Anyway good luck and all the best. Gez

[@joenelson5145]

Thanks for sharing knowledge from your journey.

[@TonyThomas10000]

Thanks for the honest overview. Much appreciated!

[@Steven_Beddall]

Cheers Tony, thanks for watching!

[@TonyThomas10000]

@@Steven_Beddall Anytime...appreciate your honest input and excellence. I would love to see more videos on targeting your music to the folks that actually use it and how to build relationships with them. I did an interview with Alan Silvestri back in '86 and the secret to his success was developing a relationship with film maker Robert Zemeckis. I also did another interview with a guy I knew from my hometown, Alan Howarth, who did the same with John Carpenter. Often, it is not what you know but who you know as you stated in the video.

[@cazhken9423]

Thanks for the video! When you upload your songs to Artlist and MotionArray do you also register those songs to your PRO? Or is that not possible in the non-exclusive space?

[@Steven_Beddall]

Yes absolutely, anything that's non exclusive for me also gets uploaded to my PRO 👍

[@NicolaDonchev]

What about the exclusive tracks in exclusive libraries and sync stuff? @@Steven_Beddall

[@jeguerra84]

Thanks for the great video Stevie. I also upload on MA and several libraries but my issue right now is the lack of inspiration to write tracks. Sometimes I compose a track and find out it is completely similar to another I already uploaded, and that´s heartbreaking LOL. I have uploaded so many tracks over the years and in so many genres that I don´t know what to compose anymore. Do you have any tips to come up with new ideas, chord progressions, melodies? Thank you!

[@Steven_Beddall]

Yeah that's a tough one! No easy remedy for lack of inspiration but I do personally find that cycling through different genres, or trying something completely new and different often gets me back into the right mindset! Try writing something that is totally and completely foreign to you.

[@jeguerra84]

@@Steven_Beddall sounds good, thanks!

[@TheTheimpossible]

Steven your mediocre is my goal. 😄 Thanks for helping me get there.

[@mansij_cycling]

Great content Steve! I can relate to so many things you have said here!

[@vitaminfian]

Thank you for this 🙏🏻

[@nathangproducer]

Hi Steve, thanks so much for sharing your experience with us in this video! I'm preparing to apply to Artlist but have a question about whether, if accepted, it's better to upload tracks to Spotify first before I upload them to Artlist, or if I should upload to Artlist first before uploading that same track to Spotify...? I'd love to get your thoughts on that if you have some time. Cheers! Nathan

[@Steven_Beddall]

It depends, because Artlist offers exclusive and non exclusive contracts. If you want to work with the Originals program you'd be better off not uploading them to Spotify because they'll want to distribute them for you. If it's a non exclusive contract then it's all good to upload them to Spotify on your own. Unfortunately you don't really know what they're gonna offer until you pitch them.

[@nathangproducer]

Ah, I see! Thanks for your response. I'll have a little research and see what's best. Cheers! @@Steven_Beddall

[@JJShalashaska]

Hi Stevie, thanks for this video! I think that, as for everything on the artistic field, if we stay consistent and dedicated, results can always come. About artlist and MA, can I upload there music which has been distributed with content ID for KZbin or Facebook? I may seem to understand that they don't accept those kind of songs. Excellent channel anyway!

[@Steven_Beddall]

See tomorrows video 😊

[@JJShalashaska]

@@Steven_Beddall thanks man, you're giving me lot of info and I'm excited to start this journey. I feel like I can give a second life to an old album I'm remastering!

[@Eighty8Music]

Very well said Steve! Still positive but also very realistic and balanced it's very needed

[@kamenbiz]

Good Video …. 👍🏽

[@thejawshop-AdventureRecording]

a humble update to those that are indeed embarking on some kind of fishing expedition. I would take it one step further and suggest that the key word here could be culture. Where the fish are hanging out is also where the lines get tangled and snagged. The question; are we releasing them or filling the freezer, barbed or not barbed is the hook?

[@atmmsrrecords]

salute