I’m an author on AudioJungle for 2,5 months now, pretty much working full time on my productions, 13 tracks online so far, quite a lot in the queue.
All my uploads do get approved, and the whole process of uploading to a marketplace makes me productive and motivated! Besides it being a potential income, it’s a great way to build a portfolio. I’m balancing between taking inspiration from the top sellers and creating tracks with a more alternative twist, interesting for games I’d thought.
BUT although I know it takes patience, I’m starting to doubt more as my sales are very close to zero… After promoting them a lot on Facebook, SoundCloud and forums, after dropping the prices… After adapting more and more to the top selling works here too, but giving more ‘original’ options too.
So guys, honest answers only, have you got any suggestions for my tracks and portfolio? What am I doing wrong here?
I think your music is good, but it’s very specific. Why not try writing something more trendy. Tracks like yours are great for adding variety to a portfolio, they make it wider.
Yeah your production quality is very good… and I’m new here too so this is just a guess, but I think you would have more success with happier, upbeat music. There’s a reason why “Happy Uplifting Motivational Corporate” got you a sale when most of your other tracks didn’t.
The other comments are spot on I think. You have a portfolio full of tracks whose main purpose would be expanding your variety and range. But these kinds of tracks like “Epic Drum n Bass Synthwave” probably aren’t going to earn you the bulk of sales. It’s a great track but just think of how many people are going to search for something ultra specific like that.
That doesn’t mean you have to only make corporate and cinematic tracks but just keep in mind what the market is looking for. Keep the chord progressions happy and uplifting. I recently went through all the corporate tracks on the best sellers page and more than 25% of them used the same exact same chord progression. So there is a formula to this and although there will always be variation and exceptions, you can usually predict what will sell well and what won’t.
I think you might do better if you took a few hours to watch some TV and take note of the kind of music that is playing in the ads, writing something that is usable in a broad range instead of a specific sound that might have a really small audience (ambient/atmospheric), not meaning you should dive into the guitar ukulele whistle clap-genre but write something you can easily place if you were a customer. Writing niche music is also a way to go but the customer base is very much smaller so you’d have to be the best in the genre to match up to the broader use music numbers. There’s always a market for all kinds of music but the differences between the demand of different genres might be huge.
Also, it might be easier to sell one track for $50 than 10 tracks for $5 (which would also still not make you as much money as the one sale of a $50 track), slashing prices has the benefit that it might give you more royalty opportunities later on, but I always consider royalties a kind of a bonus and I rely more on the license income. For the person who needs your track it doesn’t necessarily matter if it costs $29 or $39 (unless it’s a private non-commercial hobby thing), you make the decision which strategy is more important to you.
Sorry, I don’t have any advice but I just wanted to say I am impressed that you are getting so many things approved in such a short time frame. Good for you!
Thanks for your extensive answer! Okay, yeah really gonna focus more on that formula and then hold on to it. It’s easy to get seduced by taking other roads while composing. And yes, the only track I sold so far (the other sale was a sound effect) the “Happy Uplifting Motivational Corporate” does indeed have that 1 5 6 4 progression which I think you’re talking about?
On the prices, are you suggesting higher prices for the more niche tracks, as they’re so specific, or was it more of a general sales advice?
I’ve noticed a great selling author who sells his tracks for 5 euro’s in the first few weeks online, and then raises their prices gradually over time. I guess it’s a trick or experiment to give the tracks a head start for the sales, becoming more potential to become a top seller with a higher price later on? You guys got opinions on that?
Selling tracks for a silly price affects all authors as we have to battle against Elements as well. Pricing is down to the individual of course but under cutting others not only harms the community but also harms the author themselves in terms of revenue. You of course have to decide yourself your own pricing strategy but as a newcomer you will be earning a very small return for your efforts…you decide.
I’ve also seen many successful artists sell at a lower price in the beginning, probably just to get the track to sell more copies with less money and to get it to a trending list, after which they raise the price, that’s one strategy which kind of plays the current system where track listings are based only on sales number and not money generated (though since it’s not breaking the rules per se there’s nothing wrong with that even though it’s a bit shady).
I hope to see the listings changed to earnings based. Only you can set your prices, there are several strategies you can think of, selling with a low price point for more copies, selling at a higher price point for fewer sales but bigger rewards, changing prices according to track age or by seasons etc.
I myself keep static medium prices at the moment and will up them a bit while I get more tracks in my catalogue and start doing sales every now and then.
I just joined but I can say for sure I will never sell a track for $5 unless I spent 30 minutes or less making it.
I feel like $5 tracks can work in the short term, but think what kind of customer that attracts: the kind of person that will only pay $5 for your music.
I’d rather build up a reputation with a client base willing to pay a reasonable price for my music (and there are many people out there who will), rather than undervalue myself in the short term for a few extra sales. But that’s just my own take on it.
I did a discount on some Christmas idents for three weeks. Priced at $5 I did a total of 5 sales making me after fees - $13.10. The only winner here is Envato.
Your titles are too long to be effective within the Audiojungle search engine and its odd requirements, so your tracks are not reaching a wide base of potential buyers. Look at how Top Tracks are titled, then try to apply a similar strategy to your tracks moving forward. Depending on the keywords you choose to target, you could achieve good visibility with new releases, and with that visibility, hopefully, good sales.
@AceAudio Hm yeah it’s a complicated issue, as you might say the sales number system is indeed a bit asking for it… they better change this soon. Not going for those low prices now though, spending way too much time on my tracks for that
Don’t know about all the previous remarks. I think they are all right in their own perception.
For me: just make more generic items when you want more sales. Your items sound great, but when you want more sales you have to find the commercial pitch. Good luck!
Let’s see!