I see that Audio on Elements is live today and just wondering what arguments there exists to not have price options in the subscription model? I think after all our effort discussing this at least we can have an answer with a reason why not to implement this?
My first impressions are:
Good stuff (from a customer perspective):
High quality music
Big library of music
Very convenient to browse music in a smaller library, with a more consistent quality than AJ.
Great and modern design
Bad stuff:
No price options between companies/freelancers and private user.
Insulting low monthly price that shows increasing disrespect to even more Envato authors now.
Still no proper integration for Elements traffic —> Marketplaces (only opposite)
I am tentatively out of the music game as of five minutes ago.
I just saw a very popular and respected site I’ve been watching for several years with really great music from top composers (some very well-known) and singer/songwriters and bands start a subscription service that begins at $100/year for YouTube Creators with less than 5,000 followers (which is probably most YouTubers) and grants access to their entire library. It scales up from there depending on subscriber numbers and of course their business subscription is higher… but that $100/year for the average YouTuber is going to get a ton of attention. As for business with up to 50 employees, they are only paying $1,080/yr for everything, scaling up depending on business size. These prices do not include broadcast, but they can get custom licensing for that
Unfortunately, I can’t name the site here, but I think it’s got the best model I’ve seen yet and the best music on top of that. Their single tracks start at $49.99 (personal) and $199 (business), but with no limits on the subscription, most of their business will probably be from subscribers.
So, I think it’s time for me to move on and focus 100% on getting my visual media skills up to speed. Composing for libraries and marketplaces as a primary focus might be coming to an end. People can now get an entire catalog of great music for a year and pay what I used to get for a single track license a few years back. I’m not sure how profitable it’s going to be even at the upper levels.
Nothing lasts forever guys. I’m going to see what I can find out from another forum. There are some of the musicians writing for major libraries and the one I’m referencing here, so perhaps that will give an idea of where the future is actually going and how the money is flowing.
That website has great music and they tried to attract small youtubers. But I think small youtubers under 5000 subscribers will not mine using subscription things. There are a lot of free music on the web. With under 5000 subscribers you can’t really get money from adsense.