Jonah-B

So I recently finished my demo reel for stuff that I've composed throughout 2012. I feel I've made a great deal of improvement over the years, but there's always room for more. Up until this point the only professional work I've done is selling stock audio to various companies. I've never actually created an original soundtrack for a paying client, but lately I've been pushing the envelope and trying to gain my first client. So far there has been no interest. The whole thing is a bit on the scary side, and it leads me to wonder if I'm ready for such a big step. The last thing I would ever want is to take on a job then fail to deliver something satisfactory. What do you guys think of my work? How did you guys know when you were ready for a step like this? What sort of things have you done to get your work out to potential clients?

 

Here's the demo reel:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4xocHT7LAM

 

I originally made a post about this in the music forum because I didn't realize GameDev had a business and law forum. It didn't get much of a response, so I'm gonna ask here since this forum is more appropriate anyway.

I'm a hobby game music composer thats recently made a transition to selling stock audio through a third party licensing library called AudioJungle. I've had a decent amount of success with this, so I've been experimenting with the idea of directly licensing the stuff myself. Now, law isn't a subject that I have a lot of experience in, so I've been trying to wrap my head around how licensing works from a legal perspective.

Now, the system I've implemented into my personal website is designed to make it fast and easy for a potential media developer to purchase a license for one of my stock audio tracks. The user selects the track, chooses between two general use licenses (commercial use or non-commercial use), then he pays through PayPal and is returned to my website where a custom license is generated containing the purchase information along with a unique purchase ID. I'll keep records of purchase information and the ID to verify purchases in the future if it's ever necessary. I also make buyers aware that customized licenses and contracts are available by contacting me directly.

This sort of automated system is what AudioJungle uses. Is an automated system like this a good idea? It definitely makes it easier on both parties, but will it scare away music managers that want signed contracts and direct correspondence? How often do composers sell music like this?

Here are examples of my automated licenses. Are these ok?

http://jonahsmusic.leadhoster.com/sample_basic.txt

http://jonahsmusic.leadhoster.com/sample_commercial.txt

Any advice on the subject would be awesome because I'm still new to this whole thing.

So I've been selling through AudioJungle with a some luck over the last several months. I'm ready to start experimenting with direct licensing, skipping the middle man. After all, AJ is keeping %50 of MY sales. I understand that a big part of selling is attracting the buyers, and thats the role AJ is playing, but ultimately to be successful I think I should be attempting to take on this job myself

I've found very little information available on the subject of direct licensing audio though. The only example I have to go by right now is AudioJungle's. I want example licenses and contracts, legal information, how do royalties work, how pricing should be determined, and general advice from you pros at GameDev. To start off, I've been experimenting with integrating Paypal into my website. I've found this to be pleasantly easy.

I've also been experimenting with a simple royalty free system like AudioJungle's where the user selects a track, selects the type of usage license they need, payment is made, and then a custom license with purchase information and a unique purchase ID is generated for the buyer. Is this a smart way to go? Should I focus more on direct contact with buyers instead? Are special contracts and agreements necessary, or will they deter potential buyers that need music immediately?

It just seems like there are so many different ways to do it and so many unanswered questions. I want more examples and advice before I start focusing on hunting down buyers and selling future tracks on my own.

-Thanks!

Hello! I'm a rare poster here, but I thought this would be a good place for a discussion that I wanted to have.

A couple of months ago I started selling some stock tracks through Audio Jungle. I've been told that AJ sells for relatively low prices, but their high popularity generally means more sales. They're selling my stuff and giving me fifty percent of the profits, and so far I've sold around $160 worth of music. It's far from paying my bills, but I'm doing it for the experience more than anything. I've found that it's encouraging me to record more and improve the quality of my work. I've really become addicted to the whole thing because this is the first time I've ever made any profit from my work. It's nice to think that my music is finally reaching a level of production quality that allows it to be commercially viable. I'm hoping to work my way into doing hired work, but I'm not sure if I'm ready to make that leap just yet. For now I'm going to focus on the stock audio thing and see just how far I can take it.

As much as I love AJ and it's wonderful community, I'm beginning to wonder if it's the wrong place for my style. The majority of it's buyers seem to be looking for a corporate advertising kind of sound. My influences are more on the side of game soundtracks. Perhaps I would reach my audience better if I switched to a place that was more geared for my kind of style? Are there any stock audio libraries in the vien of AJ that specialize in game audio? Have you had any luck with them? Would you recommend switching?

Maybe I'm relying too much on AJ to sell my stuff for me. I would love to be able to reach out to game developers and point them to my AJ profile, but I'm just not convinced that it works that way. When a game developer needs to buy a stock track I'm sure that they have some specific places that they look. Those are the places that I want to be. Unfortunately, I don't know where those places are!

Any advice or discussion would be awesome! I'm still new to the whole idea of stock audio and I want to know what my options are! Here are a few of my AJ tracks in case you're wanting to know just what I mean when I refer to my style of music.

"Spring Step"

http://audiojungle.net/item/spring-step/2616696?WT.ac=portfolio_item&WT.seg_1=portfolio_item&WT.z_author=Jonah-B&ref=Jonah-B

"Nutz and Boltz"

http://audiojungle.net/item/nutz-and-boltz/2327503?WT.ac=portfolio_item&WT.seg_1=portfolio_item&WT.z_author=Jonah-B&ref=Jonah-B

"Rain Temple"

http://audiojungle.net/item/rain-temple/2346996?WT.ac=portfolio_item&WT.seg_1=portfolio_item&WT.z_author=Jonah-B&ref=Jonah-B

Thanks!

Hello! I'm a relatively new recording artist stuck with a budget computer. Software wise I tend to stick with Reason and Sony Acid Pro with Rewire. Reason on it's own works fine. I rarely get slow down or choppy playback. Booting up Acid Pro is where the problems begin. The bulk of my mixes are usually created in Reason, with guitar tracks recorded in Acid. Every guitar track that I record slows down the playback. With four or five somewhat lengthy guitar tracks my playback becomes so choppy that I have to toggle tracks off to work with it. I like to use the Guitar Rig 4 VST to add effects to these tracks. While that does make playback even worse, I still have playback problems when I don't use any plug ins. This really limits the number of guitar recordings I can work with. Here are some specs.

OS: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (Build 2600)
Memory (Ram): 2039 MB
CPU Info: Intel® Pentium® 4 CPU 3.00GHz
CPU Speed: 2928.0 MHz
Sound Card: SoundMAX Digital Audio
Hard Drives: C: 465.8GB | F: 465.8GB
Hard Drives (Free): C: 98.8GB | F: 51.3GB
C Drive: Maxtor 7h500f0 (7200 RPM)

The other drive is a Seagate USB External drive. I have a Line 6 POD x3 connected to my computer that is used as an external sound card so I don't know if the SoundMAX Digital Audio card plays any role in my playback quality. I'm looking to make some upgrades to this computer to make it more suitable for recording. Any advice? Should I just go with a new computer entirely? Thanks!