Thanks everyone for your feedback on Envato Studio’s new category launch- we appreciate it all and I have shared it amongst our team.
We’ll continue to add AudioJungle authors to these services as we review and approve form submissions. If you are submitting a registration of interest and are are not sure what to put in the ‘Portfolio’ link, you can simply link to your AudioJungle page.
Providing a service or services on Envato Studio is designed to be a complementary offering for your existing content on AudioJungle. Envato Studio service providers have control over all aspects of their service including the scope of work, number of revisions and price. Each category has a minimum and maximum pricing range, with the Music Production category range set at $100 to $2000. The remaining Audio categories have minimum and maximums of $40 to $2000 respectively. These have been created to take into account the variety of services that can be offered as part of these categories.
Envato Studio uses service provider-driven pricing and has done so since our launch in 2013. We’ve found letting service providers set their prices doesn’t create a race to the bottom but rather an assortment of different services with varied levels of scope and pricing. Our Logo Design category is a great example of a wide range of creative offerings with unique add-ons (extras) offering a world of choice for customers.
Service providers on Envato Studio are able to assess orders placed by buyers and accept or decline based on their brief, which is submitted when an order is made. Pre-job enquiries can also be sent and custom jobs can be proposed when a buyer’s brief is not within the scope of a provider’s service listing.
Envato Studio’s User Terms can be found within the registration of interest form which I linked to in my initial post. Our terms contain Envato Studio’s Services Agreement, which outlines how licensing works between service providers and buyers on our platform.
As with any newly launched category, we’ll be tracking progress closely and will be taking all feedback on board as it continues to evolve and grow. Thanks again everybody for your input so far.
I really appreciate your feedback - yet I still want to be more precise about my criticism:
The minimum price for custom music jobs is way too low. There simply is no custom music job you can do for $100 and still make a profit. From my point of view this is just one more proof for the fact that Envato doesn’t know too much about music production and/or the music industry. Producing music is a time-consuming and complex process.
The fact that you want people to give away exclusive rights for the custom work (as stated in the Envato Studio Service Agreement) makes the low minimum price even more disproportionate. I too sometimes offer clients lower prices for custom jobs (if for example their budget is small but I like their work or it’s for a good cause…) - but only if the license is non-exclusive. This way I can still make some extra money with my work after the job is done.
One more thing: The fact that service providers can deny jobs on Envato Studio is completely beside the point.
Clients see those prices and get used to the idea that you can order custom music for $100 anyway. And once this idea takes hold, you’ll never be able to convince them that the work you’re doing is worth far more.
There will always be someone who is willing to work for less (especially in the music scene), and there’s no way of avoiding that. Time will tell if authors can manage charging rock-bottom prices whilst earning enough to break even - my guess is that it won’t be sustainable in the long run anyway.
In theory, one could work for prices that low, but quality will always suffer, so it’s up to the author to decide what they’re worth, and how much time and effort they’re willing to invest into the job. If nothing else, low prices will communicate low quality, and high prices will communicate a premium service.
Absolutely. Buyers should get informed why Authors here are offering their service for 500$+. They are not only paying for the music, but for the investments, education and time behind it. It is one thing to sell stock for 19$ to Youtubers, but custom music is a different game, that’s why there are contracts involved.
A fixed minimum price is needed, for non-exclusive service.
I was going to stay out of this because it is sooooo tiring trying to change people’s minds about this stuff. It’s really not AJ’s fault. It’s composers! For some crazy reason, there are just too many of them that think $200 is a fair deal to write a custom track for 10 to 30 hours and then lose the copyright to the client buying it. Remember the thread where from one month ago a customer came on and said I need to do an artist direct deal because AJ can not supply the license for what I a need to do for my app? Well I inquired as many of us did. The customer came out and said I am willing to pay the full broadcast price of $308 for what I want to do. Offer the song within his app so people can make videos easily and use tracks in his app. Shoot a family video for example, then add a track. He said “I am willing to pay the broadcast license” Well guess what, the tracks he selected were licensed for $150 and $200. Is that AJ’s fault?
Even VO folks are not willing to under sell themselves in this market. They want $150 for 1 hour of work based on what I have seen. When they say “I will record a 2 minute VO for you and allow 1 or 2 revisions for $150” They are basically saying I want $150 for 1 hour of my time! And guess what? They get it!
So I have to ask all of you guys advertising for $200 a score…why bother? Do you really want to work for $7 to $10 per hour and lose control of your copyright? Do you really think that customers will respect your skills when you advertise at that price?
What AJ can do is recognize these points that we all are making, that this is a serious problem. I suggest making the minimum price $1000 for a 2 minute original score and the max $3000. You may actually see some people buy. Maybe I spoke too soon about the VO folks. But that needs work and clarification too. I see one person advertising at $40. $40 for what? 30 seconds of VO, 60? 2 Minutes? 30 minutes? then I see Briefing Details Send me the script and I’ll send you a quote. It comes across as “bait with a low price, then switch after the script is revealed and you realize …Oh man…this gig is going to take all day!” I am curious about where VO is going here because I buy VO services in multiple languages all the time.
Today I’ve pulled my service. So far there has been only one Author who actually pulled a job on land, he offers his work for 100$ and up to 15 minutes. I don’t think I’ll come back to Envato Studio.
At least you were lucky enough to be envolved in this studio. Lots of regular authors like me dont have a chance even try themselves working on this studio.
May be $ 100 for 15 minutes is bs for you, but belive me, there are lots of authors who are ready to compose, mix and master audio, which will fit for customers needs, because in some places of world $ 100 is a nice ammount of money.
You should appreciate envato for it, because me for example made registration even from start of this campaing in early 2016, and then I have registered again in the end of March 2016 - still no results/answers, etc. And I am not alone here! Thats funny, because its kinda strange envlove favorite authors (whos generaly made a bit of success on aj), who refuse then working on their studio, and do not give a chance for people who are ready to work even for $100/15 min. Weird strategy, from my pov. Like I said, there are lots of countries, where you are not able to get $ 100 per day, I would say even cost of living lower than $ 100. And now envato do not see obvious things, like poor composers and sounds designers will work so f__kng hard, like no one from choosen authors would do, because $ 100 per/15 min makes HUGE sense for them.
Just my 2 cents.
P.S. Yeah and this post not directly to you mate, it is just description of how envato makes things here, so I hope no offense
Hey Titan Slayer, I’m absolutely not offended! It would be even better if Authors here wouldn’t fear Envato or other Authors and actually share their honest opinions. Respectfully of course. I really applaud Soundroll and Martijn for sharing their views on the Search and Piracy situation!
I can understand your standpoint very much, but what makes sense for the individual ultimetaly destroys the industry in the long run. The race to the bottom isn’t just a phrase, it is happening right now. I don’t want to go into detail here, but let me just say that the major problem with this current economical situation is that it’s based on growth. Without growth no profit. And most of the times the only way to accomplish this Credo is by lowering the prices, over and over again. 19$ for a youtube video is OK, 250$ for a broadcast license not.
Envato made two crucial mistakes by launching music related services on Envato Studio:
1.) No bottom pricing limit and
2.) no non-exclusive work.
This way people who don’t do this for a living might tend to offer very low rates while professionals and semi professionals are bound to not give away their music exclusively for so low. In the end (and that’s speculation) average Audiojungle customers got so accustomed to those low 19$ prices that they didn’t even want to buy a minute of custom work for 100$ (and keep in mind that envato would get 30% of that).
I sincerely hope Envato will work this out properly before enabling Author based pricing on Audiojungle. With Envato Studio, they didn’t.
To a person in India, Honduras, Argentina and so on, the low prices are a huge tool to compete with composers from the first world.
You mention globalization Tunediver, and there’s a catch to it which you might have overlooked. While exceptional talent is found everywhere, years of living and doing business in US & EU, an environment where fierce competition is the standard and the subsequent excellence it generates produces flawless music will still be highly valued by clients in the same market. There are guitarists from Argentina who will blow your mind, composers from India that will seriously make you reconsider your self confidence, raw talent from the country side of Honduras that will melt your heart but they are not thousands, not even hundreds. So low prices are set either by people with low quality standards or just a few geniuses from developing countries who’s number is finite. Judging from the high quality of your music and many others in here who we all know very well I wouldn’t worry much for the time being.
On the long run I wouldn’t bet my ass on it tho.