Hey all. I was SO hyped when I first heard about Audio Jungle. I’m, very fortunately, a full-time composer, but I had really high hopes for Audio Jungle being a genuine source of extra income. I managed to get up to $100/month average over 8 months or so, but that was because there was a bump in overall sales when one of my pieces was picked as a featured piece (which was awesome, thanks!) , then it eventually left that page as new pieces came into the queue. I’ve kind of abandoned ship.
Have things changed much this year? Is it still true that the composers that started right at the beginning and became the top earners then basically keep being the top earners? Is everyone copying the same corporate track of ukulele and claps? I promise, this is not jealousy or something. I’m a licensed trailer composer and a full-time TV guy, and basically I’ve gone from obsessed excitement to disappointment at how hard it is to be seen. It’s like you don’t exist.
It’s a shame to hear that. I hope your sales (and motivation) return soon.
Yes, AudioJungle is becoming very competitive, and yes, it’s still a very saturated marketplace. But don’t give up. The AudioJungle that you, me and all the other new authors became enamoured with is still very much in business.
Yes.
There has been a major search engine update that took effect around about the start of the year. Long story short, single-word titles are no longer required for a track to be found in the search engine. Descriptive, relevant titles are still the best way to maximise exposure, but you can now combine multiple keywords into your titles. For example “Action Cinematic Trailer”. This will mean more exposure in the long run.
Just a few days ago a new rule passed limiting the uploads of all AudioJungle authors to 5 items in the queue at one time (10 for elites). This should have a significant overall impact on the review times, allow new items to spend more time on the front page, and in turn mitigate the torrent of new tracks, encouraging quality over quantity in items. This was a great move by Envato.
Nope. Many of the previous giants are beginning to step down due to new competition.
I reached the top of the charts just last week, and @LumenMedia and I continue to battle for the first place each week. There are also plenty of other new authors rising up the ranks. It’s still everyone’s game.
There’s still plenty of room in the popular files list for new tracks, and opportunity for authors to become top monthly authors. Yes, the conquistadors like pinkzebra, soundroll and TimMcMorris are still high up on the list, but I think you’ll find things are changing. I’m certain there’s potential for music of your calibre.
I think that what you did on AJ in last months is absolutely amazing. You manage to get 2-3 of your tracks in popular files without featured item and through this saturation in probably the hardest time ever on AJ. I think if some of the old giants started when you did, they would not be able to do this. It’s unbelievable
It’s very easy to get over hyped and too disappointed here - but in the end it’s all in your head. You take a look at the bestsellers page and your dreams are alive again. You go to the forum and read about the doom theories, and all the sudden there is no hope for you any more. Is that right?
My best time on AJ was when I didn’t know anything about the business and most importantly, I didn’t know this forum existed. Everything was possible at that time and I was doing great. (but actually it was a very bad time for the business, I just didn’t know that).
The first thing to do is to ignore this forum, the second one is to check out some great portfolios so you can recover your motivation, and then just make the best music you can for the market. At least that’s what I do when I find myself thinking similar thoughts to those you just wrote.
I can’t really contribute a success story Lex, Sorry. But I can tell you this: I always tought when I work hard and do my best at beeing a musician it will somehow work out. What I’ve learned here (speaking Audiojungle and Stock particularly): No Success without the right items. Envato might grant you a head start at the beginning by promoting you (when you’re lucky), but without visibility (speaking top authors list, items with +1000 sales, quality, etc.) there’s not much you can do. As an Audiojungle Author you have to be 50% musician and 50% businessman.
It’s not like that only on AudioJungle. It’s the same on any market too.
That happened to me too and probably to any author, at least once.
If you give up creating new items or if you are not a constant presence here, your sales will drop. You have to be continuously present here, bring value (not quantity). You have to come up with something new. You have to keep yourself motivated. You have to like to create things. Just think that with each piece of sound you create, you send emotions and feelings to the person that listens.
Go see the sea or the forest, or anywhere in a place that inspires you and create something that is unique and which brings emotion. And I guarantee it will sell.
If you think about pinkzebra or TimMcMorris, you can see what I mean.
Keep yourself motivated. Don’t do this for money. Don’t think about money when you create items. Think about the pleasure of creating. Think about the talent you have to communicate feelings with music! I barely know the difference between do-re-mi, so consider yourself gifted!
I think you have decent sales for the type of music you are writing, and the number of tracks in your portfolio. I don’t think this site is super friendly to scoring/orchestral tracks. You can make money, but it’s not what the main customer base is focused on.
I think the best way to approach this site is to think of it as residual income, and try to build upon that residual income. By continuously adding items, one of two things will happen; either your income will slowly improve over time, or a track will become a breakout hit-seller, and you make money that way. Either way, I wouldn’t necessarily say either position is a losing venture. Even $100 a month is still $1,200 a year, $12,000 over ten years, ect. That’s the key to passive income - everyone in the modern world has been trained to accept a paycheck in return for time spent, but each track you make has the potential to continue to make money for you over time, so that something like this is more of an investment of your time than a quick payday.
You might want to consider going non-exclusive and sprinkling your tracks around a few other sites, you could probably double your income just by doing this. Some types of tracks just sell better on other markets. Also, if you are not referring people to your tracks/portfolio, I find this can have a huge impact on sales.
Hey PhotonicMusic, just basing my post on my own personal arc of experience here. I was obsessed with the possibilities. As far as reading doom and gloom posts, I have rarely visited the forums after they changed up the format.
A bud of mine was averaging about $700/month as far as I could tell, and that made it feel like you could make a difference in your income. Once my “featured” track fell off, so did my sales. Now, I do okay beyond AJ, but I needed to shore up my income for those odd quarters when things just drop randomly. If you really can market and find the buyers, I’d love to know how.
Hey LexBrownstone. Thanks for sharing this. Sorry for hearing that. As above many tells you how to keep motivation. I just wanted to add one simple thing try to focus on other markets as well as this one and you’ll see what happens. One day i was in your situation (not that big but similar) and now things change in better way for me. So keep up the good work and i wish you to catch the INSPIRATION
I’d love to know how too!!! I’m one of those who don’t believe in social media marketing and stuff like that, so I just make music and publish it on AJ and that’s about it. I try to live what Seth Godin says - today’s marketing should part of production process, so when the product is done it should be so good that it doesn’t need marketing any more.
On AJ I’m constantly bouncing between
“make a perfect track that market wants” and
“do what you really love and it will surely sell”
And it’s always the first point that brings sales and the second one only keeps me sane, because it allows me to free some additional creativity that I need to let go from time to time.
I just listened to your portfolio and your music is great, it’s probably just that your portfolio is not big enough yet to generate the income you want. And also prepare for the bitter truth about summer and winter months in the jungle Don’t know about others, but August and December are horrific months for me, and also some months around these two.
I agree 100% that you need to be constantly present here to keep the ball rolling, 5 - 7 tracks a month and I’m sure you’ll be quite happy with the results.
A lot of music I bought here I bought it because I found out about it buying videohive items which were using that audiojungle music. So maybe (just an idea) if you try to associate yourself with an author from videohive, that would increase sales a bit too.
I’m also a professional music composer that’s had hundreds of placements on tv this year and I can’t seem to get any of my submissions accepted on this site for some reason. It’s truly bizarre. I also can’t seem to get any real feedback as to why my music doesn’t seem to be good enough for this site but is good enough for real world tv and movie trailers. I’m going to have to just give up on this site which is unfortunate since it could have been a great source of secondary income for me. Bummer.
There are also plenty of other new authors rising up the ranks. It’s still everyone’s game.
