Envato Studio’s new Audio categories are now live!

This is exactly the case - i write for him music, he does with it whatever he wants (sell as his own, register it upon his name, collect royalties, etc. ), since he is the copyright holder, according the agreement :slight_smile:
So, I was considering to get in the Envato Studio, but I think I will pass for now :slight_smile:

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Oh no, there goes “Custom AJ bestseller by soundroll” service! :stuck_out_tongue:

Well it’s an interesting experiment. At it’s current scale it’s not going to upset prices anywhere else. It will be educational to see who gets the first jobs done, if clients who come here go for quality or price, and if those who sell themselves for crackers will endure in the long run. I was a bit wary about setting a fixed price for custom exclusive without knowing anything about the project, PRO or attribution details (as in “work for hire” more or less) but I figured I’d give it a go and set a reasonably low price for starters. Turns out my price came out the highest in the batch :sunglasses:

From previous experience, people who have contacted me through my AJ profile asking for custom work typically shy away from real world prices. I guess they figure that if a stock track is $19 then custom should be around $100 or less. Meanwhile, NON-exclusive NON-custom, NON-worldwide licences regularly sell at $3,000 or more in other parts of the galaxy.

My fear is that people familiar with stock music being a commodity priced like cheese conclude that custom music should be cheap as well. But as been pointed out, stock music production is a completely different ballgame. Stock is ready when you are, custom is ready when the client is happy. Not the same thing. :wink: Custom revisions can span anywhere from “lower the drums” to “change the genre”. The alternative cost for spending days tweaking everything to the client’s liking is counted in number of stock tracks I could have made instead, which could go on selling for years to come. In the end it becomes a race against time to make a project worthwhile. That’s why I fell in love with selling stock, no more deadlines or desperately finishing exhausting projects that went astray.

Anyway, I still enjoy the occasional custom work because it’s more immersive and interactive. It still needs to pay the bills though :sunglasses:

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If it is a “work for hire”, the copyright, by law in the US, is owned by the employer, not the composer. While not all commissioned work is “work for hire”, what @soundroll is describing is essentially the same as a “work for hire” agreement, which is why I made that comment. If a work is commissioned as part of an audiovisual work, even though you’re a freelancer and not an employee, then it is generally considered a work for hire. That’s one of nine categories of commissioned work falling under “work for hire”. So, even though this is “commissioned work”, if you are asked to compose for a film, game, TV program, and it is incorporated in that work, if they use the phrase “work for hire” in the agreement, by US copyright law, you do not own the copyright, the entity that paid you owns it. That’s why one should ALWAYS read an agreement. And if not careful, they can also legally claim to by the author and collect all royalties. Again, this is for the US. I don’t know if it is different elsewhere.

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Please remember that competition law prohibits the discussion of pricing on the forums. That was why your post was flagged :smiley:

Just edited my post. Removed the part where I actually name a specific number (which I guess was the problem?).

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It is indeed different elsewhere. In France for instance, a music author cannot give away nor sell out their copyrights/royalties. Authors will always retain moral and paternity rights.

Surely France is not the only country with such a policy. So what does this imply for EnvatoStudio?

Can everyone just think about this for a moment. Voice over folks are selling their services for what I see as an average of $150 to $200 to deliver a 2 minute VO soundtrack. Do you know how long that takes? 30 minutes and perhaps another 30 minutes if a revision is requested. I am seeing guys sell custom scoring services for $200 on this new platform? and then they lose the ownership of the composition? a Custom track can take 2 or 3 days to write, record, mix, master, revise, and finally deliver to the clients satisfaction. Isn’t it ironic that VO folks can get $200 for an hour and composers are asking $200 for possibly 15 to 30 hours of work on a project.

Then I am also seeing session musicians selling tracking/ recording services for $90, $120 etc…Laying down bass or drums on a tune probably does take an hour as you have to learn the tune, find a sound then do takes and make delivery.

So why such low prices for original composition “work for hire” services? This does not add up…

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Same here in Germany.

I can confirm that and think that this is pretty much the case in all of the EU.

No it does not add up, especially if you consider the real costs of running this as a business. Which leads me to think that these prices are likely made by people who do not need to look at this as a business. Maybe they earn their money with something else so they can invest in gear and software, maybe they don’t need to make money at all, living with their parents or whatever. In any case, this is hardly a sustainable business model.

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To be honest, I had not realized it :wink:

Hey, I’m one of the authors offering a service. However, I chose to only offer mastering to start. I believe I posted in the thread way back when, when these new services were being discussed, and my general plea was for authors to not undervalue their work. Unfortunately I’m not surprised by what’s going on. I’ve often had that experience where people ask for custom work from me, but because they found me through audiojungle, their pricing expectations are super low, and when I give them a quote they are shocked, haha. The problem is, pricing can vary so wildly based on usage, duration, complexity, whether it’s a song with vocals, what type of music (if it requires live instruments), whether it’s work for hire, term and scope of exclusivity, etc, etc, so I can’t see setting a fixed price that is also in line with customer’s expectations that wouldn’t ultimately make me feel bad once I was in the middle of one of these jobs. It does come down to how much you value your time - @SteelSound summed up perfectly the disparity when it comes to different kinds of services here. So I would make that same plea to not race to the bottom…raise your prices…as for me, I’m sticking to well-defined task-oriented services.

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To Staff, Stockwaves, and all other authors selling “custom music composition” …What if if a buyer comes into this market and buys the service at the advertised price and places this hypothetical order:

"I want a massive orchestral track with a real choir, at least 10 vocalists. I need a 2 minute piece that is majestic, epic, and sounds like an intense cinematic experience. I want it to kind of sound like Griegs “In the Hall Of the mountain King” see this reference track here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKrFkG4RdsU.

I need you to write the lyrics and hire the choir. If the track sounds synthesized, I want my money back.

When you advertise " We create music according to your specifications.
Submit reference music and/or a detailed description of the track you need:
Usage (e.g. for video, presentation, voiceover background)
Mood (e.g. happy, upbeat, inspirational)
Tempo (e.g. slow, medium, fast)
Genre/style (e.g. pop, rock, jazz, classical)
Track duration (e.g… 0:30, 1:00)
Any specific instrumentation, sounds or lyrics
Any specific dynamics (e.g. “slowly building up to a climax at 1:00”)"

How do you then say to the customer. Sorry I can’t book the choir and orchestra for the fee you paid me?

Look I know this example is over the top, but I do think Envato needs to tweak the rules of this game sooner rather than later and you should pretty much so tell the customer that live performers are not going to be part of the deal and that vocals cost a lot more etc…There are just way too many variables that make advertising a fixed price a ridiculous proposition.

I do think that Envato Studio is a cool market though. I think trading services like sound design, live session performers, speech editing, VO talent, mixing and mastering…that’s all great, but the original composition service is a mine field right now.

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As far as I know, authors can turn down jobs. You would tell them it’s not possible for that fee.

edit: I do agree with your other posts though. People are selling themselves short.

Can you post the link to the rules where it says sellers can turn down the job?

When the buyer first contacts you, it’s a proposal. You can turn it down. However, envato keeps track of this and discourages authors from turning too much stuff down.

Yeah well I did add this part:

“While spanning many musical genres, in some cases we need to turn down work because of specific instrumentation or genre knowledge involved. Please have a listen at our portfolio beforehand to get to know our sound and what to expect.”

I’d be the last one in here to make promises I can’t keep, or dive into shoestring budget, time consuming, unrealistic projects. Having been doing these kinds of jobs for some time now, I feel confident I’ll deliver production in par with the price point. My clients have been super happy 99% of the time, partly due to the fact I regularly turn down any work proposals that are out of range.

But you’re right, there’s always a kind of gap between expectations and end result.

We haven’t gotten any jobs yet on there.

I’m with a lot of people on here too. I was going to look into offering mixing, mastering and session musician services but for composing it’s too easy for there to be a race to the bottom. Even if you set realistic prices there’ll be hundreds more offering the same for a lot less.