This topic has been coming up a lot lately and also I had the opportunity to hear about this from some of the bigger libraries recently and thought I’d weigh in on it.

In my experience, most non-exclusive deals are also re-titling, where the library creates a “derivative work” simply by giving your piece a different title. Now they control the publishing for that music under that title, but the exact same music can still be marketed to other libraries under a completely different title with that other library also controlling the publishing (same music, different title)!!

I’ve also seen contracts where the music is signed to be exclusive in the markets that the library competes in but the piece can still be sold by the artist on their CD (itunes, etc.). This seems OK to me as long as the artist is going to be on the ball enough to refer any requests for licensing the music (someone hears it on itunes and wants to sync it, for instance) to the library that owns the rights for synchronization.

Then there’s exclusive, which is totally fine with me. (Keep in mind that I’m an instrumental composer with an ever expanding catalog of music, not a songwriter with a much smaller catalog. I’m not going to speak to that because it’s a different kettle of fish altogether, IMO.)

With exclusivity, both the composer and the library have more skin in the game. The library is probably more picky so if you get in, you’re smarter than the average bear, and the library owner places more value on their catalog because you can’t get this stuff anywhere else. That’s good for everyone, even the clients, because they would also like to think they’re getting something special. Everyone likes to think they’re special, right? You can’t go to some online library that takes anyone and find this quality of music. That’s what makes it special. (the next level up is getting hired by a library to create a collection for them, which means they have even more motivation to push your stuff!!) Remember, a lot of these libraries have excellent relationships directly with supervisors at networks, etc. They also have a quality standard to uphold and having pieces that no one else has is a great selling point.

At the beginning of my foray into library music, I signed a few pieces with a couple of different places, but I started looking into it more and talking to composer friends and discussions here and elsewhere, and I made the decision to treat every non-exclusive deal as an exclusive deal. I intend to write several hundred pieces of music in my career so it’s more important to me to have a diversified catalog in several excellent libraries than it is to have a small number of pieces in lots of libraries at the same time.

Let’s not forget watermarking and fingerprinting technology that is right around the corner. Whatever technology gets generally adopted, it will be possible to detect any piece of music by it’s unique signature, which will obviate re-titling, because that piece of music is really just one entity, not a bunch of titles referring to the same music. Re-titling will eventually go out the window, I predict.

So what value do you place on your music? You might actually be doing yourself and your library clients a disservice by placing your pieces in several libraries at one time because it will end up competing against itself and instead of making a nice sync fee, it might lose out to itself to a lower priced library. Same piece gets lower price because it’s in more than one library? Doesn’t make good business sense to me.

Think about it.

Recently my music was forwarded to a high powered game composer agent.  I heard him speak at the TAXI road rally in Nov. 2009 and he explicitly said that he didn’t need anything he already had, and to avoid sending him anything like that.  In the process of doing research on game music in preparation for writing for the listing, it struck me that I really couldn’t get away with parroting various styles from different game scores I heard.  Of course, one has to be in the “ballpark” stylistically when submitting to something like this, because getting in the door this way one has to show some stylistic “fluidity” as a professional composer.

All of this thinking led me to the realization that the best, most successful, composers have mastered the art of writing what the client wants and at the same time bringing something of themselves to the music.  This is a delicate balance and it’s easy to get caught in the trap of thinking that the craft is the art.  The craft is what supports the art, and some of the music will sometimes be a larger percentage of craft than art, depending on the circumstances, but there’s always something of the artist embedded in the music.

Basically a client can “smell” when something isn’t authentic, and I don’t mean authentic stylistically, but authentic in it’s intention and creation.  It’s easy to call up a synth patch and put on an arpeggiator, it’s infinitely more difficult to put one’s own stamp on that relatively simple material.

So what’s the secret to bringing one’s “voice” to the table in everything one writes?  I believe it’s beyond the music, and it’s the way a composer lives and thinks and considers their art and craft.  With art, I believe that a true artist is an artist in every moment of their life, whether it’s taking out the trash or talking on the phone or composing a 1 minute piece for a commercial or a 15 minute symphonic tone poem.  If the composer, no matter what style or gig they are engaged in, brings their entire self to the proceedings and doesn’t mentally or emotionally diminish the work depending on what they’re asked to do, then automatically the work will be infused with something more than just the surface elements of style, groove, etc.

There’s a lot of talk at times of “being in the moment”, and I think the act of practicing that “in the moment” consciousness is what makes the difference between a pedestrian, competent piece of commercial music, and something that moves the listener in some way.  The awakened composer will, even if they don’t realize it, be putting some extra special energy into the music that will make it stand out from the crowded lists of music on production music library websites.

Call me a utopian, or just plain nuts, but I believe that we can bring the sum total of ourselves to bear in every moment, if we’re only willing to let go of preconceptions and past conceptions.

Cheers!

Here’s a free download of a moody, electro/orchestral piece. As always, I hope it evokes images and feelings for you. Enjoy!

http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/2268920

I actually upgraded my website before I started the CyberPR blog contest/challenge and now I’m catching up with my blogging so here goes:

Welcome to my new, updated, optimized website!! On Ariel Hyatt’s recommendation, I hired Nick from Skyrocket Websites http://skyrocket.me/ and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

I’m going to make a few tweaks here and there and continue to update it. Please visit the music pages and have a listen.

Any comments welcome and add your website address so I can come and visit.

“Evocative Music for Media. Electro/Orchestra, Ambient, Electronic. Emotional, Dramatic, Powerful, Quirky, Soft. John Williams meets Trent Reznor at Bernard Hermann’s restaurant for lunch.”

That’s my 15 second pitch. Does it give a good impression of who I am and what my music sounds like?

It’s tough to boil it all down to a simple, concise statement, but that’s what’s necessary these days.

Comments welcome and you can put yours up too if you want.

Ah, those pesky goals!  I’m participating in Ariel Hyatt’s 9 week blog contest based on her book and the first week is the goal setting week.  How propitious that this is happening at the end of the year, right when lots of folks do their New Year’s Resolutions.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with goals my whole life, I’ve been a free flowing California slacker and an intense, driven entrepreneur and everything in between.  I’ve had goals and I’ve had lots of time when I had no direction or sense of direction at all.

The funny part about all of this is that everytime I’ve actually written down goals, I’ve achieved nearly all of them, even if I didn’t look at them for the entire year!!  I realize that there’s a magic in goals that is fairly well documented and known, even in circles that would poo poo The Law of Attraction and it’s Woo Woo brethren.

I’m not going to share all of my goals for 2010 here because I feel that sharing them with the wide world dilutes their effectiveness, although I do feel that sharing them with a small, supportive group helps give them power.  I don’t know everyone that will possibly read this blog so I want to be more general here and more specific with my close peeps.

Here’s a synopsis of my goals:

Lose some weight, write and place a few dozen pieces of music, organize my studio better ergonomically, make more money, set up a better time management program, make relationships with at least one “player” in the music business, do more collaborations.

There.  Not too specific but hopefully you get the idea.  I’ve also made dates by when I want to accomplish most of the goals and I’m still refining the ones that I can’t seem to figure out how to put an end date on.  Those will probably end up being tasks instead of goals because some are ongoing maintenance type things.

Have a fantastic 2010 and see you next week for the next chapter.