Do customers really need all these music tracks?

Envato Authors AudioJungle
#1

First of all I think everybody who is contributing with new high quality tracks should tap themselves gently on the shoulder. New items recently won the customers interest over the best sellers in this experiment.

So the good news is that new music tracks are in demand and of high relevance. More good news is that the average price for single track music licensing are steadily going up on other stock music sites, and I would be very surprised if the average price is not going up on AudioJungle as well. It’s easy to spot the reckless price dumping, but it seems to me that more and more authors are realising they can earn respectable earnings on their music.

So what is the problem with new tracks? The problem is that just in the last day 511 (!) music tracks were approved on AudioJungle. For anyone who has been following the experiment with the category pages, one can clearly see how much the category pages affects the visibility and sales of new items on other market places. If you look at the most high traffic genres, corporate and epic, the first 2-3 pages are filled with tracks from the latest day. Which means we are not talking about days for new items on the first page of the category pages, we are talking hours.

The last year 119 238 tracks have been added to AJ. The total number of tracks since 2008 is 500 558. That means 23,8% of total tracks were published just last year. This is just wildly insane. The other 76,2% were published the previous ten years or so, I assume with increasing intensity each year.

From a customers perspective, they clearly want new and fresh items. They also want better discoverability to help them find the perfect track for their project. So the question then arises, is it helpful for the customers flooding them with options? Would it actually be better for sales conversion with less options and stricter upload control/less submissions? Would 50 music tracks approved each day be better for customer experience than 500?

From an authors perspective, do the current over saturation just encourage more over saturation? I know that for quite some years many authors see pumping up tracks in relentless quantities as the chosen strategy to grab some visibility. That may have worked well in the old days, but does it really work in the same way nowadays? Or does it just make the situation worse for both customers discoverability AND authors earnings per track? Does it create a market and a search engine that favours quantity over quality in an evil endless circle?

I assume Envato have thought about this and are hopefully planning some actions that can deal with what seems to be the biggest challenge of all now at AudioJungle.

But I am curious what authors think about this. One thing is for 100% sure, AJ needs stricter review process for new authors ASAP. Maybe something similar to what was recently implemented to stock footage?

As for upload limits I personally think these should be reduced for every author, new and old, Elite or not. At the very least in the more high traffic genres. This would free up time for the reviewers to do other tasks, like for example reviewing new authors, reviewing/removing old low quality portfolios, inactive portfolios, delete copycats, etc etc.

Another tweak that can be done is creating more sub categories, in Funk/Groove and Hip Hop for example there are no sub categories.

To introduce a Game Music category with sub categories would also target a huge market (especially mobile games) and also help authors think a little outside the corporate box. More categories would for sure be an easy tweak to help customers quickly find their perfect track.

Please share your thoughts as well, if you agree or not.

Thanks!

7 Likes
#2

Wow, I’m glad AJ hasn’t gone the way of the other sites by defaulting to best sellers.
I can understand on the graphics and templates sites that people want the social proof of quality work to download, but, being new to AJ, couldn’t be happier that the proof of the pudding was in the eating with this test for new works over best sellers in music.

Yes, customers do need all these music tracks, it would seem :slight_smile:

#3

Some great thoughts here @MojoSoundtrack. I agree with a lot of the points you’ve raised. The market feels highly oversaturated. Unfortunately, it seems that this is a multi-faceted problem with no one clear solution.

From a business perspective I understand that each track Envato lets through is a potential dollar on the bottom line. Envato would be silly to say no to expanding their markets and I understand that they might be hesitant to alter a system that has made them successful.

I haven’t been around AJ for very long so I can’t comment on how well regarded the authors are here, or whether this relationship has changed (especially considering all the Elements/experiments talk). But if Envato is truly an advocate for the artists, they must recognise that artists are the lifeblood of their business model. Some common sense measures to help the multitude of problems raised in the forums would be so appreciated!

I really like your idea of limiting uploads. Perhaps it doesn’t have to be a blanket limit, but a per category one? Whichever category is oversaturated has a lower limit per month, categories light on content get more. I also like the idea of expanding the different sub genres. I think it would encourage people to stop pumping out clones and copies and open up new markets to both authors and consumers. Cracking down on generic copies ripoffs would be amazing too. I’m sure there’s some type of software that could ID copies of existing tracks in the system as part of the review process.

Great conversation and point to bring up!

1 Like
#4

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, I agree that this problem has many sides and not a single solution will fix it. And @megatalented congrats with the best author name in AJ :slight_smile:

Just to be clear I think new items and healthy good competition is very important for a marketplace to grow. My questions are just if it has gone to far now, if it’s totally out of balance in terms of new item approvals.

I also realise that this is delicate topic which may step on many authors toes, probably also reviewers toes who wants to keep working. So I am just curious what the general author opinion is, including reviewers. Could the reviewers time be spent better branching out to other tasks? In addition to already mentioned tasks, take handpicked and themed collections of tracks for example, this requires some constant work and deeper dedication but would give great payback in terms of customer discoverability.

I am basically just asking if the huge influx of tracks really is for the greater good.

#5

If Envato expands the audience of its customers and sees a constant influx, then of course it is advisable to increase the number of new tracks and new trends. Any sold track means an extra “$ 1” in the Envato money box. We are far from 1 billion tracks so everything is in order. :sweat_smile: Early to sound the alarm. :smile:

#6

Well that’s true. My wife is VO artist and we notice that every track she gets given to voice over is almost exclusively AJ. I know that wasn’t the case a few years ago. So whilst latest figures suggest that a massive percentage of tracks on the system are new, that may very well reflect the growth in Envato? And surely even the punters are fed up with the ‘meet Bob’ Ukulele - things, especially music, evolve.

1 Like
#7

Hi @MojoSoundtrack. Great post. Good conversation starter.

As an AJ author, the growth in uploads reduces my items’ visibility and increases the competition for customers’ ears and budgets. But, that’s the nature of selling music. We’re only discussing AJ here, but we’re also facing dramatically increasing competition from other marketplaces, too.

Making significant income (what constitutes “significant” depends on who you are, where you live, etc.) from selling RF music in 2019 is a big challenge. If you’re an author that is able to do it, you have really accomplished something.

As a customer, I don’t see the current number of new uploads as an obstacle to me being able to find the music I need for my video projects. For me, it does not worsen the search experience. I’m not saying that it enhances it, just that it doesn’t affect my ability to find what I need.

In my opinion, reviewers are the key to AudioJungle. Given the huge increase in uploads, they have a lot of responsibility. I think they are underappreciated. If they are making the right calls as they sort through uploads, the search experience is better, and customers find more of what they want faster.

I suppose you can make the argument that too many uploads might compromise the reviewers’ ability to do their job the best. I understand that.

But again, the reviewers’ ability to read the pulse of customers’ desires and reflect that in how they approve and reject incoming submissions is a huge piece of making AJ’s customer experience superior.

#8

Thanks for your input as both author and customer, always appreciated!

Just to clarify, I personally think reviewers are doing a super job, I am not criticising them at all, I can not imagine how much “ear terror” they have to listen to as well :slight_smile: I think the quality of AJ music have increased A LOT the latest years, it has never been higher for sure. I don’t think this is an issue of music track quality and as you say increased competition is something one must accept both in and outside AJ, I totally get that.

But I personally think it’s out of balance, right now it is rigid old bestsellers with to much exposure and way to many new items with to little exposure. At least this is how I see it.

I don’t want this thread to be about Elements which is a common trend nowadays, but it’s easy to understand why a strict author pool control is made there. 0.5% or something of all AJ authors? If the gates would open for everybody that business model would not work, as the income would be diminished.

It is a fact that we have an increasing amount of Elite authors who are also struggling to make ends meet here, because of a lot reasons of course, but it seems to me the huge influx of new tracks is the number 1 reason.

I have started to research several stock music search engine’s lately and there can be very big differences how they work. Some you start without visibility at all, and then slowly get more visibility if you sell, and steadily build your track up in the search engine. The cool thing about AJ is that it is meant to give new items exceptionally great exposure in the beginning, I do think that model is starting to fail when you have such a huge influx of new tracks as we have now.

Anyway, thanks for all the input and different thoughts, it’s not necessarily the most interesting discussion if everybody agrees…!

1 Like
#9

I didn’t get the impression at all that your earlier post was critical of reviewers. I was just thinking that with the current state of affairs, reviewers’ jobs are important to the success of the marketplace in terms of their choices making the customer experience better.

In my opinion, the problem with the “marketplace” system, in general, is the very delicate balance of trying to appease the marketplace operator, customers, and artists all at once. From what I have experienced here in ten years, it is a hugely difficult, if not impossible, task.

In describing the balance between old sellers and new sellers and the exposure of both being out of balance, I agree with you as an AJ contributor. It is detrimental to artists who are trying to get even a slight opportunity to expose new work to buyers. I completely get your point.

As a buyer, I can easily adjust search parameters and look for new music, and I do it all the time.

So, although it is a bad experience for authors, it isn’t necessarily a bad experience for buyers - or for Envato.

The problem for authors, in my opinion, is that Envato is currently very customer-focused and revenue-focused, and less author-focused. That is my perception, based on a few years of being here.

So, as their policies and decisions (heavy promotion of Elements as an alternative to music sold on market by non-Elements exclusive authors, changing sorting on other Envato sites to favor best-sellers over new work) make it more difficult for new work to get any traction - authors cannot rely solely on Envato for their items to get exposure to potential customers.

Authors need to focus on marketing their own work externally more than ever before. And when you do that as an exclusive seller on Envato marketplaces, then what?

If you’re an exclusive AJ author and you spend money on a Google AdWords campaign to promote your music, do you direct buyers to your profile page where they are immediately greeted by an Envato Elements banner at the top of the page that tells them they can have unlimited music for just $16.50?

You have paid Google to direct buyers to your profile page where your “partner” Envato has immediately and aggressively tried to move those buyers away from your portfolio.

Very challenging times for exclusive authors here, in my opinion.

As long as authors sell through a third party between them and buyers - any third party - they are at the mercy of that third party’s business decisions.

If your work is extraordinary (and this is an important point, because I really think it has to be extraordinary in order to have a chance), and you market yourself wisely, the best course of action is to not sell it through a marketplace if the marketplace’s actions and policies are hurting your business.

The amount of time and effort devoted to lobbying for change here could be better spent creating new work, and finding the best methods for getting it directly in front of buyers.

3 Likes
#10

Hi @promosapien in the last their topic, if you read yesterday, where launched a discount campaign, Envato removed restrictions on rating and sales (for participation). I think this is the first signal about what they want to do in the future, not only top tracks(old top) everywhere, but also to pull up new tracks from other authors for promotion. My thoughts. :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#11

I wonder about the quality of the music - I certainly would want to purchase music tracks that are created by well-educated musicians / composers who can provide deep, textural music rather than the cookie-cutter tracks that many amateurs produce.

In full disclosure, I have a son who creates music and sound effects for the gaming industry which are unique because of his many years of study, music degrees and wide experience. I will not mention his name or website, I just wonder if buyers know the different levels of track creators.

Thanks for indulging me.

#12

Hi, thanks for sharing your thoughts. With some digging you can find a lot of outstanding talents on this site for sure, not all authors do the “cookie-cutter” tracks.

Check out this author for example, speaking of deep textural music: https://audiojungle.net/collections/4247211-experimental

#13

don’t forget how many were deleted!

#14

Unique and deep work should be payed accordingly, not $10-$15. Nobody would work a day (or even a week or more) for this. People are making what sells well on this particular market, or selling their high-tier works elsewhere for a far higher price, because every good has it’s own market to sell. Just my opinion.

1 Like
#15

Don’t get me wrong, but this question is like :slight_smile:

Do people need to listen to new artists anymore?
Do people need to watch new movies?

1 Like
#16

hi i am not in the music marketplace so here is what i think in a general way
1- variety and number are an advantage , and same goes with a huge catalogue of items
2 - categorizing items in even a better way would help to choose from a huge selection
3- authors no matter what is the marketplace should be restricted to 2 accounts
4- the number of daily submissions should be limited and the weekly one too, that would reduce considerably the number of submissions and new items and help focusing on quality rather than quantity

1 Like
#17

The number of submissions is already limited to 5 tracks in the queue (10 for elite). With review queue lenght about 12 days it’s about one track in two days. And even with this restrictions the number of tracks grows exponentially. I think the only solution could be to raise the quality standard significally higher, but it could result in mass exodus of customers who needs this typical Epic arpeggio tracks, this corporate “cookie-cutter” tracks, Uplifting Ukulele, and so on, and so forth. What can we do about it? If there is a demand, there should be a supply.

#18

People are making what sells well on this particular market, or selling their high-tier works elsewhere for a far higher price, because every good has it’s own market to sell.

100% true

#19

@Theo_Sound
so this is a major difference with GR …
i personally do not believe in raising standards , as for i could witness they end up having more and more quality items being trashed and the same old poor things to keep on going through …so that ultimately the market’s level is lowering … more work would to be done as regard to getting rid of old items tat have never sold or really outdates styles (this one for music this makes sense way more than or the other ones in my view, i may not say the same for GR to say the least)

@WIDE-VIEW
LOL well , in a dream world , u are probably right lol but in reality this is a very different story indeed … try if u wish to find a decent place to sell flyers apart from him and we will talk about this again … LOL in many categories, i do not know what all this is all about , when it comes to music, i admit it, this is really not as u or theo sound described , u simply do not have a decent (and efficient) alternative , there is a situation of quasi monopoly …

#20

if u ever know what sells well , pls let us know lol the whole world has these marketplaces in their fingertips and u think that between countries, cultures, religions, personal behaviors and backgrounds, some differences are not making people to all be different and potentially expect for something else than "their neighbor "? let’s face it , even the staff here they are not knowing what sells and what is not … if such a consensus was existing , then no item approved would make it and get no sale at all because items would necessarily face the kind of customer base that may be interested in the concerned items