Music Library Report

Welcome to VI Art.

Seems like a promising resource - looking forward to seeing this progress .. as long as any negative comments posted there regarding libraries are not actually coming from any key members of competing libraries with an agenda of wanting to snipe one another anonymously. Watch posts closely and hunker down if there is a firestorm.

I like this concept. Well done Art. I will be most curious to see how things pan out.

Music Libraries. I thought at first this post was to announce a website with review of Sample libraries. Aren't music libraries those things that productions reach for when they don't want the hassle/cost of hiring a single composer for a specific project? So is this a website where composers' comments can assist companies in getting rid of composers? And shouldn't it be producers/directors making comments? After all, they are the users, not us, I would think. I know that I, for eg, wouldn't see the point in posting comments about a music library.

@Ned,

I think the idea is in helping composers decide if they should work with a certain library based on their peers experiences. It can be difficult to determine if a library is legit and running an honest business or not.

I think this is an excellent resource...great idea!

Music libraries have a little more reinforced business model than a lone-wolf operation. Any going pro music book will tell you need agents, lawyers and an entourage. They meet much of these demands on a broader scale.

Musicians really don't have time to look for the jobs all day, they do this everyday. They also find really obscure opportunities because they are more out there in the business world.

Before I joined a decent music library several years back, I was excited to get 10-15 hits on my ascap sheets. Then I joined a bigger one, now I get hundreds of hits and I get paid by them and ascap as well as getting paid a bit upfront. I kinda feel like they're too good to be true.

They're still kinda shady at the moment. A little more spotlight on matters could help clean them up and possibly make them less able to lowball, and cheat artists making it more competitive for the lone-wolves. Also some of the comments posted to his site are from professionals other than composers.

Being self-employed is not much of business model. Especially when you grow ill and there's no one available to cover for you or sell your material. Music libraries work on a larger scale, and offer more opportunities than lone-wolf operations. Here in America there's no support for musicians from the government, and things like libraries and ASCAP are as close as we can get at the moment to support for people from many different backgrounds who can all have a fighting chance at BEING themselves musically. A person can just be great at making the music they like to make, and not have to be so preoccupied with: deadlines, directors, movies, organization, auditioning for work, appointments with film crews etc...

It's not deadline oriented music. It's not an "old buddy" network. It's who is king shit of cues. Who's the tip of the spear in what they do. And that can mean different things to different folks. Magic happens somewhere in the shuffle.

Long term it'd be nice to see them mature so composers can have an actual reliable place to find work. That'd be the main drive. Hi I'm a composer who makes jingles, ok here's some projects, pick one that you can do well based on your level of experience.

Right now it's like this:
Hi I work on jingles, got any work?
-no. hell no.
How about for half the price?
-maybe no.
1/10.
-Warmer,...I'll set you up for a cattle call.
Thanks my wife and kids will be over joyed!

I think its a great service. I just used it and probably saved some of my time, something i'm happy for.

It's a great idea, shame there's so few comments.
I know quite a few of the libraries by now as library music is pretty much the only way I see myself making any sort of money in this rotten business these days.

I appreciate this, or any resource, that can help me navagate the music library mine field!

Music Library Report Update

Hi Folks,

I've just updated the look of http://www.musiclibraryreport.com and I think it's much easier to navigate. There is a proposed new layout for each library page, including the addition of general information for each library. There is a link on the home page to that proposed new layout. Any feedback would be much appreciated!

We now have over 150 libraries and 400 comments in the first month of being open so it's been very active. Thanks to everyone for all of their comments and suggestions.

Take care

Art

It's a great resource. Found some good discussions about libraries and therefore I could pick out some more reliable names and so far that seems to turn out nicely.

Thanks for this setup!

Thanks Jaap, glad it's helping. It's been a great resource for me, as a composer, also.

Art

I regularly check the site out. Great resource. I would like some way to see whether a library has comments though. Just like eg. (3) after the library, cause I keep clicking on libraries just to see if there's any new comments or any comments at all, but with most of them there isn't.

@r.soul. I know what you mean. I've been looking for a way to do that but haven't found it yet. I'll keep looking though.

Art

Good idea, Art!

Is the German "Sonoton" listed? http://www.sonoton.de

I will visit your site.

Gunther

This is a really REALLY cool resource!

Hi Gunther, I will put Sonoton up.

Take care

Art

I believe Sonoton was purchased by APM.

Art, if you really want to cover as many libraries as possible other than US ones here's a big list of UK libraries. I eg. noticed that you don't have the 2 I have tracks with on your list.

http://www.prsformusic.com/users/productionmusic/libraries/Pages/default.aspx (http://www.prsformusic.com/users/produc ... fault.aspx)

Is there no html guru's around here who can help sorting out a way to display which libraries have comments?

Hi,

I have all the music libraries at http://www.musiclibraryreport.com updated with much more detail, including links to each library's web site. Some of the libraries web sites are more transparent than others but we are making progress in learning as much as we can about each one. If you have any information to help further a library's information screen it would be appreciated.

I have also added a more in depth searching capability. As an example, you can search just for libraries that are accepting submissions.

There are now over 160 libraries on the site and over 600 comments. Lots of great info there about music libraries in general as well as individual libraries.

Please come by and visit and if you can add to the knowledge base it would help us all!

Take care

Art