Exploring the Online World of Selling Music

This post is going to be be a bit different than the rest of the posts on this blog. It is geared much more towards being a composer in this contemporary age of music production/composition. This will also be by far my longest post as of yet. 

Here Goes:

In June, I finally found my way into a profitable medium and outlet for all of my Logic Pro X composing. I've spent a lot of time over the past 5 years adapting and developing my craft using Logic. I was originally classically trained as a composer, but have ALWAYS enjoyed listening to film music and also really enjoy music production. For I while I thought that it was just a fun little hobby, and most of the tunes I wrote in Logic didn't go anywhere and I didn't use them for anything. That has all COMPLETELY CHANGED.

I discovered a couple of Stock Media Sites (I use them for sync-licensing music) called Pond5 and Audiojungle (these are the two that I focus on the most because I've found them to be most easy to use and most profitable). 

Click Here for my Pond5 Portfolio if you're curious how it looks

Below are some tunes from my Audiojungle page. 

These sites have been just what I've been looking for!! I'm able to cook up a variety of different tunes and upload them for media makers to buy. It's actually a very easy process and writing music in a DAW like Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Cubase, etc streamlines the writing (differences from Sibelius/Finale will be another post). I'm a total fan of these websites because I've been able to get my music out to people who would have no access to my stuff. 

Here's my process: I get surf these websites and find what seems to be the most in-demand style (at least of the styles I can/am willing to write). If you checked out my Pond5 page, you noticed that it's full of "suspense" and "epic action" and "epic drumming" music. Well, aside from the fact these are fun to write, its what people are purchasing. I really can't believe that as of now (2014), one of my "Rising Suspense" clips has sold about 40 times. It literally took me 30 minutes to write (granted its only 15 seconds long). 

My next step is how to get my tunes to the top of the lists, where people are regularly purchasing my music. This is the hard part because I can't really find a whole lot of consistency. For example, I wrote at tune called "Film Noir," and it sold 10 times in two weeks! Awesome! So I wrote another one. It has sold a grand total of zero times. I decided not to write a 3rd tune in that style. 

I also find myself reading how to optimize key word searches, getting friends to get me some views, and honestly just churning out more tunes. I figure the more tunes up there, the more likely they are to be found. The best part about sync-licensing music is that once I upload it, I'm done with that tune. 

Needless to say, this is a very exciting development in my composition career...the first step from changing it from a hobby to an actual job. If nothing else, I now have funding for my music projects and samples. It can be hard finding my way into this world of professional composing. I do love it and I'm interested to see where I can take this lifelong passion. Happy Composing!