Five Things To Consider When Choosing a Music Library

When it comes to choosing music for your production - be it a brand marketing piece, a local commercial spot, feature film, or anything in-between - there are definitely no shortages of available options to check out. However, there are a lot of factors to consider before deciding to sink your hard-earned money and time into a particular library. Here is a list of what I've come to think of as the top five considerations when choosing a music library.

1. Is The Music Easy To Find?

There are literally billions of songs available for license and content creators are releasing more and more each day...that's a good thing, except if it takes you an extraordinary amount of time to find the perfect track.

When choosing a library you want to first make sure it's easy to search their database. Be it through playlists, charts, search terms, WAV forms or even better yet on-staff Music Supervisors, make sure that the library offers you plenty of ways to quickly find the right song.

Personally, I'm a fan of libraries that offer live assistance. Much like everyone hates talking to the computerized on-hold assistant, real actual humans who are adept at what they do can go a long way into making your job a snap.

2. How Much New Material Are They Producing?

You know the saying...content is king and that's definitely the case when choosing a music library. I can assure you that you don't want to partner with a catalog that isn't releasing a substantial amount of new music. The trick here is to make sure the library you are considering isn't retitling or repackaging old tracks and that they are focused on new content so that you always have the most up-to-date styles at the ready for your pickiest clients.

It used to be that 100 albums or about 1,200-1,500 songs was a decent benchmark, but that has changed and now you want to make sure you have access to 3,600-4,500 new titles per year.

You also want to make sure that your library of choice is providing you all the extras...if the tracks don't come with underscore or narration versions, multiple edits and available stems, you should be looking elsewhere.

3. Curated or Crowd-Sourced?

The debate over curated(***) or crowd-sourced(**) music is a more recent phenomenon, but 100% one to consider. Every Tom, Dick and Harry thinks they are music producers, but you wouldn't let a random Tom, Dick or Harry fix your teeth or even much less do your hair, right? So why would you trust a library that is accepting crowd-sourced music as a solid option to impress your clients?

That's not to say that every crowd-sourced song is a bad choice, but you are far more likely guaranteed GREAT music from libraries that curate their collections. These libraries are choc full of highly-trained musicians, composers and producers who know how to write and produce for film, advertising, social media and even corporate videos. Curated libraries consider only the best writers for the work they are producing and deliver results that will make your edit job much more simple (see above about multiple edits, underscores, stems, etc.).

4. Who Owns The Rights?

This practically goes hand-in-hand with the Curated vs. Crowd-Sourced debate above...

Needless to say you want to make sure your ass is covered. Over my 15 years in music licensing, I've heard countless stories of well-meaning (yet naive) businesses who think they have the rights for the music only to find out by letter of attorney and threat of lawsuit that they don't. This is an expense and a pain you don't want to face and unfortunately one you run the risk of when partnering with a crowd-sourced library.

Because of the nature of their business, crowd-sourced libraries are basically just online trading posts where individuals can submit their music...the business itself doesn't actually own the music or the rights and while they do vaguely represent the artists, they can not truly indemnify you as a potential rights holder. This is simply because they don't know who is submitting the music and they are not overseeing the production to ensure it's actually for them. If you go to a handful of crowd-sourced sites I would bet my lunch money that you see the same songs over and over on multiple platforms making it a real hassle to prove that you are covered.

5. How Much Does It Cost?

This is million dollar question, right? You don't wan't to sink your entire post budget into music, but you don't want your clients to think you skimped on the music either. After all you are wanting to fully impress them with your work so you can get repeat business.

With the billions of available songs and hundreds of catalogs, there is no set menu price for how much a piece of music costs. That said, in my experience it's really easy to mindlessly start buying songs online for anywhere from $20-100 a pop because it's "simple." The unfortunate part to that is that those mindless purchases quickly add up and you may have had the opportunity to subscribe to an unlimited use package from a curated library for a lesser cost. Again, curated libraries are far more likely to provide multiple song versions saving you time in your post edit and I'm certain your time is worth something.

Don't be afraid of blanket licensing and month-to-month or yearly subscriptions. These have proven over time that they are easy to use, easy on the pocketbook and provide excellent options when it comes to music. Depending on your needs, you can find well-heeled unlimited use subscriptions for as low as $85 per month.

In Conclusion

Reach out and touch someone...

People who work in the music business are passionate creatives who care about your output and have your best interests in mind. Take the time up front to do the research...read about the reputations of particular catalogs, find out about their customer service and make sure they will cover you if a situation gets sticky...follow these five tips and I can assure you your productions will sound great, be cost-effective and your clients will love your work.

**examples of crowd-sourced music libraries include Audio Jungle, Premium Beat and Pond 5, etc.

***examples of curated music libraries included Megatrax, APM and West One, etc.

Chad Huffman is all about music - he's worked in music journalism, ran an indie label, toured in punk bands and for the last 15 years worked in music licensing. Feel free to reach out at 940-395-1936 or chuffman@megatrax.com.