Hi guys, I've been in the biz since 2014 with my music house and am making $50K+/quarter from production music right now. Won a few awards, been nominated for nearly a dozen.

The state of the production music biz right now = lower upfront fees, less royalties, less well-paying jobs

I'm thinking of venturing into custom music.

Anyone here have experience in this field? What's your experience?

Also down to pay well for a consultation, feel free to message me.

Cheers

I’d say look to write music for up and coming artists.

If you’re real and not an AI bot, and making that kind of money in production music, educate yourself in investments and compounding - you’ll make more by age 50 than you’ll ever make doing custom scores

lol 50k a quarter! yeah right pal.

It’s not impossible.

A good sized catalog of the right music can definitely pull in 50k a quarter.

But for the OP, I’d say link up with some up-and-coming Pop and Hip Hop acts. Instead of chasing everything and everyone, focus onto getting in contact with the gatekeepers for the artists you like.

Hit songs for these artists can make large money. And since you are pulling in good money from your library catalog, you could take a small upfront fee and get more on the backend.

You know the business, so now you need to link up with the right people.

nope it's impossible especially from music, don't be ridiculous, get your head out of the clouds man and come back to earth, he is suggesting he makes 200k a year, it's laughable and delusional until I see the evidence, I want bank statements, ledgers and accounts that prove he's not lying.

I know a few household names who are not making that kind of money!

In the UK you'd make about £25k a year if you were lucky. A top person doing lots of TV and film could double it.

Many moons ago you could get about a 10k advance on an albums worth of "whatever was fashionable that week" style of music.

The wars of the middle east allowed me to make a lot of pseudo Arabic sounding stuff that was probably quite offensive to people who actually knew the culture and music. I laugh as it pops up every now and then on TV.

Laugh all you want.

Whether or not the OP is earning that much (or is even a real account), is up for question - but that income is definitely achievable - on the networks - it’s just much harder to come by today than it was 20 years ago - thanks to many factors.

You can do your own research by giving ASCAP a ring - they’ll explain how royalties work via “day parts”, repeats, duration, network vs cable, vs streaming etc.

In my late 60s, I’m still producing custom scores for network drama shows and network forensic documentary formats, but I’m doing it at my own pace these days - I invested well and have set myself up nicely for retirement - and I did it all through writing music for network television over a period of years in my 30s - 50s

Appreciate the help guys. No, not BS lol. Production music is at a super interesting spot. Interested in seeing where it goes in the next few years.

how do you make $16,666 a month? do you pay tax on that? you realise that's $547.34 a day don't you, must be great to be in the top 0.1%? cheers.

Why you pocket watching, bro? ?

I enjoy numbers and breaking things down, it helps everyone understand the numbers in more detail.

Took lots of hard work. I'm blessed. Still would like to achieve way more. I hope you achieve the level of success I've reached and even surpass me 10x! Cheers.

Awesome!

Which music libraries or sync agents have you worked with to achieve this level of success?

yingyang Sounds like a scam promo.

how hard did you have to work to achieve that level of wealth? how old are you?

I think so, too - you don’t get just quarterly payments, you get seven a year (if you’re ASCAP), plus another round of publishing statements if you’re lucky enough (as I am) to hold some of your publishing - these payments are domestic and international. Then there are needle drops and mechanicals, plus digital, and whatever you can negotiate on the front end.

The OP is brand new, had one post and provides scant info as a tease - the truth is, there are many ways to make that kind of money, but quarterly payments from one source in that range, which were common in circa 2001 -2012, aren’t so easy today, you’ve got to stretch.

Pretty much all the majors and big indies who pay upfront.

Haven't worked with Extreme though, they've eluded me for 10 years now. Haha.

I have probably like 2,000 tracks out.

Can anybody guess who I am hahaa

what is production music it sounds obvious yet vague - does this mean TV?

I’m curious. Who are you?

are you Erran Baron Cohen?

I have an idea. But I will not spoil the fun.

Thank You Friend. :-)

I see the credibility of the Music For Picture forum continues to decline.

just tell us who he is then

No, the OP will have to do that.

Besides, does anyone have any advice for the OP regarding doing custom music? That is the point of the whole thread.

I believe him. I’ve got maybe 100 tracks and make a good living. If I had 2000 I’d be absolutely loaded.

OP- the best custom fees I’ve seen have been attached to artist projects. As in you’re not going in as a no-name composer, you’re going in as an artist.

Link one of your placements. Curious to see... as 2000 tracks has long been the rumored number where a catalog generates a modest middleclass revenue.

To answer the OP... I like custom music more than production. For the last 10yrs ALL of my custom jobs range between 5k and 10k for commercials, and film scores are random budgets but much more artistically satisfying. Production Music is just trend chasing and lottery odds. It can make "decent" money if you win a good spot in a good catalog with a sound that trends... but in general that market is FLOODED with low prices and mountains of cheap content. Not to mention royalties have been declining for many years.

Honestly... I don't believe your making $50k a quarter.

actually the point of this thread was to brag about how much he earns then leave, that's the impression I get.