2 years ago I’ve made here a prediction about the future of music on Envato and the need of allowing broadcast use in Elements.
Let me do a little update after these 2 years. Everything I wrote is happening, just like I predicted:
AudioJungle earnings are already dramatically low and are still falling
Elements Earnings fall as well (though not so dramatically). And it’s still falling.
This fall is happening due to lack of competetiveness of music quality AND use/license flexibility. Professionals from the broadcast industry almost stopped using music from Envato.
AI is incoming and it will definitely step in the sync licensing. E.g. Meta, Canva etc. are introducing tools which generate No Copyright music in their reels and video projects. Of course professionals will still use human music but gues who will use AI music? Simple content creators which are (were?) the main target for Envato.
Broadcast licenses are really rare now on AudioJungle. You should realize that our PRO royalties will be much lower after few years (now we’re collecting cumulation of high royalties which “were generated” by broadcast licenses sold in the last few years). Lack of broadcast use = lower visibility in the internet = lower CID and streaming servies royalties as well.
HUGE number of new AudioJungle authors were invited to Elements, just as I predicted
Enterprise Elements plan allows the broadcast use already (that’s good!)
Again, I will say: we need to add a broadcast license use to Elements. Without this our earnings will be falling. With broadcast use allowed we will save audio on Envato and we’ll start earning REALLY BIG royalties.
One big commercial broadcasted many times in a country like Germany can generate 10k-50k $ royalties. Once commercial I had it a few times from a single broadcast license sold on AudioJungle (yep, these are my numbers). Imagine that Elements could be a place were video editors could routinely use music for commercials. Just like they do with the publishers catalogs. Many composers give such publishers 50% of their rights and do not get upfront payments, they only wait for the royalties.
I agree with all of the above and agree that the use of a broadcasting license should be added to Elements. most likely, this innovation will be only when it will be beneficial to Envato itself
Well, I agree with most of the above but with a major difference. IMO, Broadcast use in Elements was tremendously harmful for us authors. Actually, broadcast use is already allowed in Elements, just that it’s negotiated directly with the customers behind our backs.
Is what they call the Enterprise Plan. Very recently a customer wrote me asking me for the ISWC and PRO of one of my tracks she purchased through this “Enterprise Plan” which allowed them (supposedly) to use it on a mid tier documentary. I still can’t figure out how can a customer know our PROs and IPI numbers within Elements. I just don’t see it anywhere. Ok, add a PDF, but that way we can only hope the clients will even check it.
Aside from that, I agree with most of the above. In my case, extended licenses have almost dissapeared and we have no way whatsoever to know how many enterprise users are downloading our music.
You already have great stuff in your catalog, which is also fairly extense. I’d say, just keep composing and trying to improve the quality of your tracks and mixes. You’ll get that invitation sooner or later.
I don’t understand that. How additional $10k-100k per year in royalties could be harmful for you?
Traditional sync licensing on stocks is dying. Even well known huge publishers share their catalogs for a funny small subscription fee, because they earn big royalties. If they do that, why can’t we?
I know, I understand. But when the first batch of authors were recruited one of the points of negotiation was leaving broadcast licenses out of the Elements deal. During that period I still got one or two monthly extended licenses on AJ which was what kept things at least decent. Since they introduced Enterprise licenses (I don’t know if priorly discussing it with an author group or not) those last extended sales almost dissapeared.
BTW, I wish I was making 10 to 100k yearly on royalties but I’m light years away from that.
Anyway, just an opinion. I do think that we deserve a way to track the Enterprise uses in Elements, though.
I doubt if this is Enterprise effect. IMHO the main reason is the decreasing number of professional audio/video creators from the broadcast industry who use music from Envato. How many people making tv commercials with AudioJungle music you know? I have a few friends in that industry. A few years ago many used Envato. Now maybe only one uses AJ from time to time. Even I recommend Artlist as a stock with authentic music and flexible licensing. That hurts me.
Yep, because your tracks aren’t distributed efficiently to broadcast content creators. This is what I am talking about. Your portfolio could easily generate such royalties if broadcast use were allowed in Elements. You even had an example with royalties generated by “your” Enterprise client. Royalties for nothing. Cash is laying on the street, we need to pick it up.
Thank you for the kind words! But it seems to me that they are guided by the number of sales. I have a problem with that))) Somehow they are not increasing, sales… But there is still hope.
Hi! They definitely need to do this as soon as possible. Then the music will be distributed more and they will get more subscriptions for the broadcast.
I am in agreement that a broadcast use should be included with Elements subscription. I have seen a dramatic increase from PRS distributions since I became part of Elements and broadcast use should be encouraged.
Without progress of the Elements, whole Community will collapse. This is actually happening already due to a poor performance of music in Envato. How the rest of authors are going to be invited to the Elements if audio on Elements doesn’t perform well? I think they would prefere to be invited sooner or later instead of staying on dying AJ.
And guess what? You, me and all of us started to sell tracks on stock many years ago when stocks were a middle finger to the rest of music industry (because it introduced a drastically low prices). Don’t you remember the shitstorm about stock price damping? Did it destroy the industry after all? No, the industry has evolved and improved.
Whole industry is going into subscription deals, including big publishers, which have similar deals already. Why we do not sell broadcast licenses anymore? Because publishers overtook the market with such a deal. We will not introduce them, we will simply make same move.
All we can do is to rely on PRO and other external royalties because stock sync fees are going to be even smaller. Without broadcast use in Elements we will become excluded from the PRO royalties almost at all.
I am so surprised that so many authors doesn’t realize how this step could improve our situation. That’s the most crucial and natural step imho (besides solving way too quite audio volume on the Elements by introducing volume sliders).
BTW seriosuly the volume level is still way too quite on Elements comparing to AudioJungle and ALL OTHER stock services. Why? How long this technically incorrect solution will reduce the quality of listening? There should be a volume slider!
Yeah… As I said, I understand your point of view. I don’t emotionally agree, but your vision makes more practical sense.
Very true. I can appreciate the ironic boomerang.
It has improved as in it opened the market to many more lower tier customers. But regarding higher tier advertising agencies, I failed to see how going from 10% of a project’s budget to a few bucks (or much less) is an improvement at all. It’s a huge stream of revenue that simply stopped flowing towards music authors.
Anyway, don’t mind me, I 'm a defeated grumpy old man, I’ll try and keep my outbursts at a minimum.
That’s because the broadcast use has gained tiers too. There are many productions which need “good enough music for a low price”. Simultaneously same projects buy expensive music from recognizable artists or order way more expensive custom music.
The golden era of stock has ended. That era introduced an anonymous well earning stock composer. In fact, free market define whose music is expensive or cheap. Let’s be honest: prerecorded random music on stocks isn’t the most demanded one. Especially non-authentic Envato music (I hope it will change). There was a time when there were only few stocks and the demand was huge; that’s why stock broadcast licenses were so “expensive” (in fact they were much cheaper than industry standard). Now the media market is oversaturated with cheap or even free music which satisfies the demand and lowers the price.
If you want to sell sync licenses for a bigger price, you should sign a deal with publishers who specialize in such projects or make your artist brand recognizable. These are the tiers with high pricing. Stock music is a low tier gap filler in terms of sync license fees in the broadcast industry. Same as “standard” TV publisher deals etc.
