More than 2 years ago I posted this TOPIC. It was words of happy man who could create music and earn money without going to awful office job. I was so much obliged Envato and AJ for that opportunity. But times change. Envato Elements has come, sales go down and…I am still very obliged.
I am not specialist but it seems market in 2016 is much different than nowadays. Too many authors and people who come from offline jobs to online. Excess supply - slump in demand. I don’t know what require from Envato, perhaps they know what they do, and I hope their decisions are right, measures are reasonable, and everything that happening is the least-evil solution.
Sure we (authors) in a little panic. Many of us relied on Audiojungle and it was the only source of income. Many of us have families and kids. But this February was the first “wake-up call”. For example my sales down 50-60%. And it is a serious blow. And now I am lost in thought. What to do next? Should I start searching a new place to earn money? Who can give me a new opportunity to make music and get salary for this? Or I have to go back to awful office??? (No, no, no, noooo,…NO!)
And I still have no answer. But the only thing I know that authors have to be strong, we have to adapt and we must survive. This market is oversaturated by pseudo-musicians, ppl who want easy money, ppl who just copy tracks and are not fairy players. And unfortunately many guys engaging in predatory pricing. In this difficult situation we should remain humans. Times change but we stay.
Why am I writing this? Just emotions and try to calm and motivate myself and others. Maybe this is the time to push out from the comfort zone, necessity to improve quality (I believe that professionals always are much-in-demand). But my main message to Envato. I really believe they are not only about business (i hope) and all decisions about Elements and ADP (when not fairy author can sell tracks by 5$ - are forced. But please try to control this situation and don’t forget about hard-worker authors, try to hear our ideas and comments. We all love and are obliged Envato and AJ for these happy years and…we hope that it is not the end.
Office is not the worst job. It may be worse to work at a construction site, at a factory, on cement, exactly in this direction talented people are rolling right here and now! Definitely need to change something and it all depends on ourselves and the site administration! I would also not like to exchange music for a bag of cement!
Yes men, it’s true. I support your words. February was challenging month for me as well. I really hope that situation will improve in march. Will see what happens next.
Thank you! But I see that you did not understand that you will be there too!
This is the script for all of us in this case!
Resistance is not useless @Wavetoys and other authors knows this very well!
To be frankly and as I already said - I don’t know what to do in this situation. But I understand that everything what happening is nature’s way. I really hope that Envato don’t want to hurt authors, because this company has good reputation of a place for creative people and I think that they just HAVE TO do such things like subscription. On the other hand there are some things they need to fix (dumping and too much Envato Elements ads). And I have no plan, it seems that now we have difficult time with more authors and less clients, and Envato also don’t know what to do, and they just need to balance it somehow.
Also there is a main thing for authors - not to upload their best items to Elements and stop dumping. That is all we can do. …And sure - do not stop working and develop quality
Hey there @Feetmusic. I hear you, I really do. Sadly the market is changing. Into a direction which makes library or stock music less and less profitable. I’m not even talking about streaming royalties. Everytime when there’s a middle man involved (like Envato in this case), there’re compromises to make in order to increase earnings. They are offering the webspace and the branding, WE however deliver the goods. which keep this system and ultimately them alive. And yet Envato is coming up with elements. It’s idiotic. Like the Matrix, but more idiotic.
A desk job isn’t bad at all. I whish you and your family all the best.
Desk job…oh…if you are talking about something like sales manager in a bathroom fitment store…NO - it’s awful for creative man. I mean - I already passed such level and I can’t back to this. Thank you anyway for your comment. We need to be strong, we must be musicians. Horses for courses…
Come on! No! This is not idiocy! Look at the markets of competitors! We are all interested in why Envato introduced subscriptions to compete with other markets (which have not yet closed) .This was a step to compete with other markets (subscribe, and lure all buyers here to offer everything for 16.5$). Otherwise, the market Envato could not compete with the markets on which the subscription!) It’s terrible that we live in an era of change! But on the other hand, we are not obliged to support the survival of the market, but to suffer and sit without sales!
So to say long-term survival, without loss of interest Envato! Moreover, I know that the Elements are not the main goal of Envato (I am sure of it)!
The main goal of Envato traffic and unexpected changes to the subscription conditions on the Elements! IMHO!
Look. It’s great beeing a musician and earning money this way, but supporting your family is far more important. It’s not about you anymore when you have a family. Either get a day job or learn to code.
Hi, just look for new ways to earn money with your music, for example Adrev and royalties from PRO. Also you can have an extra money if you start a hard promotion of your music in YouTube, soundcloud, etc., and earn money from referrals. Try to create an album with your audiojungle music and use a digital distributor as Reverbnation to put your music in the most important places as iTunes, spotify, etc. In that way you can receive earnings from other sources and not only from audiojungle. Good luck!
@E-soundtrax
I understand you have no problems with by innovation Envato, which are hostile to authors (not elite authors).I think this does not apply to you! I think that you are not in our “saucer”!
Good luck!
Yes,these sources are good for musicians, but you have to be a very popular artist to have income on these marketplaces. I have a rock band but we still have just peanuts there.
I also have a drop in sales, but I don’t depend of my audiojungle sales, in fact at this moment I doble my audiojungle earnings with adrev, PRO royalties, iTunes, etc. My point is that you can’t only depend of audiojungle.
You know we live in volatile times when “learn to code” is seen as a controversial statement (talking about the twitter bans at people for saying it to journalists). Even more scary is that it’s probs the wrong advice, AI will be able to code probs before it can be an original artist. My advice to anyone would be to keep at music, get a part time day job if needed, but never give up on music… this next decade is going to be a complete mess for ‘day jobs’, and the creative industry is one of the safest from automation (for now), so stick at this as much as you can but try to spread to other areas of the industry too.
I’ve said this with that knowledge in mind. Live is tough, everyone has his own fight going on. You can try to work full time as a musician, but the moment you become a father, everything changes. You’re NOT the most important person in your life anymore. I don’t say that you shouldn’t pursue a career in music anymore, but your family comes first. If you can’t support your family with the income of your music, then get a day job for gods sake.
