![]() Lyu was recently amused to learn that someone had used one of his pieces, an electronic track called Breaking Down, on the YouTube trailer for a raunchy-sounding novel called Attracted to a Woman, about a seemingly perfect, churchgoing couple secretly addicted to “fortune and flesh”. Occasionally, however, they will stumble upon something they wrote. One possible downside of this line of work is that the composers often don’t find out who is making use of their music and what they are doing with it. “I am hired to write tracks, so the workload and how much I earn varies each year based on the volume of music I create, along with any other external jobs I get outside of the libraries … I aim to make around 60 tracks a year for the two companies, give or take a few private projects taking over.” Lyu says that last year he earned about £24,000 from the work he did for Shutterstock/PremiumBeat, plus some external projects. He works in a number of genres, including electronic, folk, rock and hip-hop, and has built his own studio in west London. Oliver Lyu: ‘I aim to write 60 tracks a year.’Īnother of the company’s UK contributors is Oliver Lyu, 22, who graduated from the University of West London last year and works full-time as a composer. He says: “I’d rather not go into figures with how much I make, but I can definitely say that working with Shutterstock/PremiumBeat enables me to support myself financially and stay up to date with industry standard studio equipment.” He adds: “If you are very proactive and your music is in demand by the site, then you can earn an income of about $30,000-$40,000 a year.” It has popped up in real estate videos, wedding videos, etc. Middleton says he is “fortunate to be among the most popular artists on the site”, and adds that his music has been used in a variety of places, “but definitely a lot on YouTube and Vimeo”. The contributor is paid a fee and the track is added to the library, where it is available for people to buy for £34 ($49), which is the cost of a standard music licence. How it typically works is that the company will commission a contributor to compose a track, based on the types of music that its clients – which range from creative agencies to individual YouTubers – are looking for. It’s less clear what Shutterstock/PremiumBeat contributors receive – a spokesman for the company says it is cautious about issuing information about how much it pays. ![]() It claims to offer the “highest royalty split in the industry: 65/35”. With Productiontrax, meanwhile, you get paid every month – 65% of the price you set – when your music is bought by someone. For example, with Pond5, when you upload your work and it has been approved you set your own price and earn 50% of each sale, while The Music Case offers 43% commission on sales. So how do people make money – and how much can you earn? There are lots of music libraries out there – Pond5, The Music Case, Productiontrax and Audio Network are just a few of the bigger names – many of which say they are looking for composers. I’m fortunate in that the music I most enjoy writing is requested and is currently in demand.” He says he provides music to the company every month, “and I love it. “The websites provide numerous genres, but I tend to focus on indie pop/ambient music as well as film score/trailer music-style tracks, as these are the styles that I love to write,” says Middleton, who started working with Shutterstock/PremiumBeat in November. He has been producing and recording bands and creating his own music for the past decade, but early last year started taking a closer interest in the world of music licensing. ![]() Middleton is one of a number of UK contributors signed up to the US company Shutterstock, which specialises in providing licensed imagery and music to businesses, and its Canada-based music library arm PremiumBeat. The 27-year-old, who is based in Manchester and works with a number of companies, says writing and producing stock music is now his full-time career, and he makes “a good income” from it. It might be a short clip or a long piece, or take the form of a simple keyboard motif, an epic orchestral track or anything in between.īusinesses and individuals looking for the right piece of music to underscore a particular shot or moment will often approach a music library – and this is where people such as Elliot Middleton come in. Stock music can pop up everywhere – you might hear it playing when you are in a shop or waiting to be put through on the phone, or listening to your favourite podcast or meditation CD.
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