Finding the best production music libraries FOR YOU

I recommend this to everyone who is starting out in the music licensing business. Why?

Because Audiosparx requires a LOT of boring information that musicians often overlook but MUST be able to provide before they can expect to make any decent amount of money through production music libraries.

So yes, the Audiosparx process requires you to invest quite a bit of time upfront BUT it will give you a BIG competitive advantage when you send music to other music licensing opportunities in the future.

1. It will set you apart from the crowd when you upload your music catalogue on other production music libraries. Most composers don’t take the time to set-up more than 10 fairly generic keywords.

2. You will be a more attractive proposition when you reach out to music supervisors accepting music submissions. By taking the time to define clearly where your track will fit, you’re demonstrating how professional you are and making their life easier.

Careful though…. Audiosparx are a little bit annoying and have a lot of restrictions you should be aware of before you make a decision….

For example,

• You can’t take down the tracks they accept once they’re in their catalogue.
• They don’t want anything to do with tracks that are part of the Youtube Content ID system.
• They keep a list of stock music libraries that they don’t want to be associate with and refuse to take in tracks that are also in those catalogues.

That’s a LOT of restrictions so…… it’s important that you consider these elements and read carefully AudioSparx’ requirements before you go through and make a new track live in their catalogue. 

HOWEVER, the recommendation still applies: you can send a music submission and, once accepted, explore AudioSparx back-end without ever making any of your tracks live in their library….

You’ll then be able to benefit from their extensive experience in library music without compromising your catalogue if you feel AudioSparx is not the right fit for you.

One question I often get goes along the likes of: I write hip-hop music, can you tell me where to submit my tunes?

Sometimes it’s hip-hop, sometimes it’s folk music, sometimes it’s ambient music. You get the idea ?

Whatever the genre of music, the short answer is:

STOP worrying about where’s the “best” place to send your music

START actually submitting music!

That’s the only way you’ll learn what’s the best place for YOU!

I can’t tell you exactly where you should submit your tunes.

With a bit of research and a LOT more information about you and your projects, I could find out which production music libraries might be a good fit for your music.

But, right off the top of my head and with only a music genre to go on, most of the time I won’t have an answer for you.

I have soooooo many questions!!!!

The point is YOU need to figure out what you’re about, what you want to focus on and YOU need to identify your strengths and weaknesses.

No one else can do that for you.

The good news is that you can start getting your music licensed right away. You don’t have to wait until you’ve figured out everything and fined tuned your vision.

In fact, the more you put yourself out there and try to get your music licensed, the more you’ll learn about what works and what doesn’t work for you.

So again, I’ll repeat it one more time….

STOP worrying about where’s the “best” place to send your music and….

START actually submitting music!

Unless you want to hire me to get one-on-one coaching, that’s the best advice I can give you!

There are MANY, MANY stock music libraries that are generalists and would be happy to take on your music. Stop worrying and start learning!

You’ll hit and miss and that’s absolutely fine! ?

Having said that, when you’re just starting out with music licensing, I recommend a couple of things so you can experiment freely and stay out of trouble:

Ok, ok, enough about the theory!

I know you want some actual leads.

Here’s a list of top music licensing companies out you can start sending music to.

Please be aware, however, that the industry landscape changes really really fast and no two people would agree on what the best production music libraries are.

Library listings are great but nothing replaces research and common business sense when you’re choosing music libraries to work with.

Whatever stock music libraries you end up choosing, I recommend opening a free account with Songtradr as well.

This will give you 35 credits every month to submit your music to specific licensing opportunities curated by Songtradr.

Stick with the free plan and practice pitching to music supervisors accepting submissions.

This will force you to think about which projects would be a good match for your music.

Little by little, you’ll get a better idea of who you should get in touch with and where you should pitch your music for better results.

Once you have that experience, it will be MUCH easier to successfully…

Ok so you’ve submitted music to Audiosparx and got all your track descriptions and keywords up your sleeve.

You’ve submitted tracks to production music libraries and have a few tunes working for you in the background.

You’re starting to understand what these music licensing companies are looking for and how you can cater to their needs.

Now you can start focusing your attention on finding THE perfect music licensing company for YOUR catalogue.

As I’ve mentioned above, for me to make specific recommendations that will work for you, I’d need to know a lot more about your music than just a genre. I’d have to talk with you and find out what your goals are.

That’s one-on-one coaching stuff and I can’t address all of that in one post.

What I CAN do is give you a super simple step-by-step process to help you find that out for yourself ?

Finding Gaps You Can Fill

A couple of alternative ways you could find out about where to find music licensing opportunities for your niche:

1.Get in touch with the record label of an artist you sound like and ask them if they handle licensing requests themselves or use a music placement agency.

2.Research generalist libraries and identify gaps in their catalogues.

So there you have it, three steps to stock music library success!

Next Steps?

Download your Checklist and get to work!

If you’d like a bit more support and day-to-day guidance, you can check out the 30 Music Licensing Challenge.