I have accepted that I cannot upload regularly to AudioJungle due to work and family constraints.
I have a passion like others here for making music but is there any point in pursuing music for AJ, to attempt making minimal sales with random uploads? I think it has to be regular in terms of the process.
If I try and spend more time on music it becomes stressful in other areas of life.
Maybe chill out and upload to Soundcloud and enjoy creating without pressures.
I assume many here find themselves in the same situation and are fine with it, but it can become a frustrating pursuit.
Has anybody else pondered the point of this?
When I started uploading here it was just (and still is actually) just for fun. I accepted that I’ll probably never earn enough with this to live from, even though my sales increase every month for the past few months. Just the fact my music is being used in so many projects makes me happy. It’s not about the sales for me, it’s about the passion for music and sharing it with others. And AJ is a really great platform for it.
So just create stuff on your own tempo and occasionally upload something. Even if only one person buys it, it’ll have been worth it!
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Thanks for the reply.
You are definitely uploading much more than I do and I’m sure that makes quite a bit of difference.
There’s probably a cutoff point with approved tracks where if you are regularly discoverable it has a knock on effect with sales.
But I do agree, maybe just create for fun… but still, getting some sales…
I’d say the number of authors on AudioJungle who are actually making a living wage through their sales is pretty small, although an important factor will be the dollar exchange rate with the local currency. Therefore, most of us are in the same position of having to balance time spent on creating music for AudioJungle with many other things, including the basic need to earn a living!
For me, there is a real fascination in seeing if I can produce music that people want to buy which I wouldn’t get from just posting stuff up on Soundcloud so I still get a lot of enjoyment out of my AJ work, whatever my sales are, and hope to get better at it. But I do also have other musical outlets that are more artistic in focus (again I think many other AJ authors will be in the same position).
Yes only a few make a real living so it’s pocket money for many authors with those spread in-between, probably a lot of part time authors, but few able to look after a family and pay the mortgage!
346 sales in a couple years isn’t a bad start!
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It’s not. But it’s far from enough to make a living off. I’ll just keep uploading tracks and see where it takes me!
Hi, guys. I’ve got the same situation. I’m a sound designer and sound mixer for a local films as my main career. If you know someone who works in the “post production industry”, you’d see how busy we are. Plus I have a little lovely two year old girl that I want to spend the time with. It’s quite difficult for me to find the time to compose music to upload. I want to make $1,000 per a month but according to my calculation, I have to upload around 10 tracks a week which is impossible. Now, I upload around 2-3 tracks per a week, I make only around $500 per a month, but it’s not too bad as a pocket money. Talking about make a living by selling the music on AJ, I’d never plan to do that. I love my main job, AJ is one of my hobby that I enjoy with it.
Cheer!!!
Sam…
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If you are feeling a little burnt out, just make the type of music you want to make and make it awesome. Don’t worry about whether it will be approved or get sales. The pressure of making something only for sales will build over time and start to cause writers block. Don’t give up trying to license your music though. Make the music you enjoy, and maybe it will find a home here. If it doesn’t that’s fine too, take it somewhere were it will be accepted. If the music is fire and it doesn’t get approved, that is not your loss. Work on finding that balance where you are happy with your home life, and are happy with the music you are making. The rest will fall in place over time.
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Thank you, that’s encouraging
While there are some that argue against my way of using AJ, for me the best way to go about it is this:
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maximize your efficiency. I personally aim to produce every single AJ track in 1-1,5 hours from scratch. In my opinion spending more time than that can be frustrating and pointless because the sales / acceptance is so random. Volume is more important than value - IF you can create good enough quality this way.
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Consider non-exclusive and spread your tunes across various places if your AJ sales or so neglible that the extra percentage doesn’t really matter. I’d personally consider going exclusive on AJ only if I’d start to get something like 1000-1500 dollars every month with no exceptions. Before that level of sales, you’d probably gain better sales by using couple of libraries.
Good luck!
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I recognize this situation and I am in a similar situation where I’m trying AJ out to see if I can make a living out of this in combination with a life as a musician and quit my job as a teacher. The most frustrating thing about it is that I can see a clear progress but it obvious that the earning I make from AJ is WAY too small to invest too much time into it. In a good month (with 65 items in portfolio) I make 350 usd which in Sweden is about the same as one gig as a musician. The problem is that, even if I can see it’s almost pointless to believe in this, I can see a progress which makes it very hard to just quit since I enjoy making music and there still is a fraction of hope that someday in the future it would be possible to invest ALL my time in what I love to do.
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My philosophy is that you should always be trying to monetize your efforts, so if you are making music anyway, why not upload it? That being said, stock music is a grind, and I’m not sure it’s something I’d even want to do as a full time job. If someone desires to make a living from music, it’s probably better to put effort into film/video game scoring, producing/marketing albums, engineering, ect. Music can be a fun hobby that nets you some extra cash, or hard grueling work that you make a decent living at, and anything in between.
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Thanks, the last 3 posts have been helpful in looking at AJ from different perspectives…
not sure if I could produce something in 1 hour though!