What happened to Audio Jungle a year or so ago..? Fake, Echoed, Sampled Guitar Harmonics Over a Clichéd I, IV, V?

Why does all of the Audio Jungle music now sound the same now? This happened a little over a year ago… Just awful… I can’t use the website anymore. Have had to move on. It sounds like all of the music is not being written by a composer… but by an AI program or computer programmer who has downloaded templates and maybe has changed a few notes and figured out how it will make them $? It all sound identical. Unfortunately as a music seeking producer, I’m forced to move on. The fake sample, guitar harmonic (with tapped U2 style echo?) over a cliche chord progression is now what my clients hate. Thanks for a nice run but moving on now.
Thanks
Anodecathode

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Yeah, I’d been saying that for a long time. I’m a customer at Themeforest and Videohive and I come to this forum to talk about music licensing with other musicians since I also write music. I do my own music for media clients, but when I need music I can’t write well myself, I go to actual music libraries, not marketplaces like this.

Most of the music on digital asset marketplace sites sounds like it comes from hobbyists or young people just getting started. I think too many are just copying each other and not really listening to what’s going on in the upper level music library business. But, this is what you get with one-stop-shop digital asset sites. You can’t really expect but so much.

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Very true. But it sounds like something different is going on. It sounds almost like some are using templates or something. They sound almost too similar. If you do a search these 4 will be on the first page. 4 completely different composers yet all of the songs sound nearly identical, with the exception of key and sounds.
Very strange.

Here are 2 more on the first search page that are very similar:


It just seems to me like some of these artists are using some kind of template software and just changing values. Though I can’t confirm what is being used. But it makes it very difficult to find music when it all sounds the same. Especially the corporate / tech music, which is what I mostly look for.

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There are thousands upon thousands of tracks that sounds nothing like this on Audiojungle.

The corporate category is literally devoted to that style, no wonder it all sounds the same to you. If this is not what you’re looking for, simply browse other categories and you’ll find different music.

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If you are interested in creative “technology” tracks, you can also look in my collection. I hope you find what you are looking for… Good luck searching! :wink:

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How contemptuous!

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I am afraid it is just that when you see the numbers… the first song you mention has been sold more than 12.000 times… so many composers are tempted to reproduce this…

I am not of those, and I am like you, a bit desperate when i see all the identical tracks that are still approved here by the review team… :frowning:

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It’s just an observation… based on composing for music libraries for nearly 20 years. I did say “most”, not “all”. I hear some people here much better than me and can’t for the life of me figure out why they’re selling their music here for so cheap.

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It’s interesting that you would consider these tracks to be nearly identical. I think it’s a matter of personal taste. I love 80’s and 90’s old school hip-hop. De La Soul, Tribe, Beasties… All phenomenal. A friend of mine however can’t stand the genre, and he says to me, “How can you listen to that sh!te? It all just sounds the same to me.” How a Beastie Boys tune can sound anything like a track by A Tribe Called Quest is way beyond me, but that’s what he feels, probably because he has no interest in the genre what so ever.

All genres have traits that you could say make the songs within it sound similar. I guess that’s the nature of categorising music. The similarities are amplified in the Corporate genre because the music of this style is a catalyst used specifically to convey pretty much a generic feeling of well-being, positivity, prosperity etc. The whole idea of corporate videos is in it’s self, quite a specific formula.

My wife and I run a filmmaking company and we make the occasional corporate video, and as clients go, you can almost guarantee what style of video brief they will inevitably go for, even after trying to convince them to be more creative or groundbreaking with their thinking! It has to be said that a similar thing is true when going through the pains of music selection/creation for the video. Corporate clients, more often than not, want the tried and tested ‘feel good’ chord progression with the positive, inoffensive melody and the easy on the ear rhythm. Naturally, because this type of track sells so well, there are lots of authors writing in this genre which is why it’s so vastly oversubscribed.
I believe Envato are taking steps to remedy this though, by rejecting new tracks within the genre unless they are exceptional or offer something fairly unique. I can’t say this from first-hand experience, since I don’t sell my corporate tracks online, but I’ve read other author’s experiences about it.

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Don’t you think it’s better to observe which styles of music sell on popular sites rather than boutique libraries? Sure there are some nice ones around, but I doubt any of them have the opportunity for authors to earn $2000+ per week from a single track. We’re all sick to death of making corporate music, but if that’s what sells, then that’s what we’re going to write.

Strange that you’re using a different account this time. Why’s that?

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I don’t mean to be negative (or an AJ hater, after all I’m truly grateful that i found this market place and I’m learning a lot since day one) but looks to me that this $2000+ / week reality is not the average over here.

I know some composers earn that and its well deserved, but even don’t knowing what is the average here, my guess is that it is drastically lower than that.

For me, at least, it is.

Don’t get me wrong, i have a lot to improve, but i´ve seen people more talented than me selling even less than me (and i don’t sell a lot).

I´m using this end of the year to rethink everything i´ve done here.

Like i said, I’m really grateful, but I’m feeling that this cycle is coming to an end.

In this month i created 4 projects to upload here and could not finish any (and believe me: I’m not that type of guy). And my last uploads here where far from the best i can do and i just can’t do better than this right now. Feels like I’m stucked!

For my personal clients (i have a recording / production studio for artists) motivation is on heaven and projects are getting finished.

Maybe that’s it! Maybe AJ´s already gave me their contribution. Maybe is time to take a break and come back later. Maybe it´s time to look at libraries focused in royalties and placements.

I don’t know! But my point is: Doesn’t look like an easy decision to stay here for most composers because we cannot be too creative (at least on some genres) and creating generic “copy” / template tracks isn’t paying off also.

By the way, i really like your work! You don’t know that, but your posts here helped me a lot these years. Thank you very much for that!

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@AurusAudio

Let me get this issue of accounts out of the way first. You’re a moderator, so I’m sure you have access to my IP information. If you want an explanation, I’d be happy to make it public and everyone can read it. The other account you’re probably thinking of was already an account I had been using to buy web templates, AE templates and other things at Envato before I came to this forum about 4 years ago. However, it seemed to imply that I sell here because “music” is in the name and that’s a business logo that looks like I’m an author. I would prefer for it to be clear that I’m not an AJ author so that people understand my perspective as a fellow musician networking with others for what I think are honestly good intentions. Making it clear I’m not an author is to say that I am not a competitor (I no longer compose RF music), and I’m giving my objective view of what I see here. I’ve made what I think were some very positive and well received comments and suggestions and I plan to continue that using this account. I pushed and was very vocal, as were many of the authors here, about PRO registration and supported your arguments to Envato about several other things that have eventually been implemented or changed because I know how hard it is to make a living as a musician. That is why I’m here. I plan to continue to provide information I’ve learned from working with music libraries and licensing as both a composer and “behind the scenes” even though I spend my own time and make absolutely no money from any of this input.

I’m talking about the major libraries, not boutiques. Perhaps you looked up my other moniker to see what I’ve done in that identity, so I’ll confirm that I have old tracks in boutiques from several years ago. Sure, that’s a small part of my overall resume anyone can find under my old username, which is one of multiple monikers I’ve used. But I based my comment on the fact that I do actively listen to the major libraries all the time. I’m not hearing the same things selling in those libraries. What sells here is not what sells everywhere, even when talking about corporate tracks.

On the issue of corporate music and copycats, I have no problem with authors writing corporate tracks. But, there are many types of corporate tracks and the initial comment here was talking pretty specifically about the “AJ Song” we all know. I was not only addressing that, but the tendency for authors to basically repeat the top seller chart. I think @anodecathode made a pretty good point with some examples. This is not good for creativity, nor does it account for the sum total of what customers “want”. The argument I have made in the past that I will stand by forever as a someone who has marketed music is that customers will buy what you put in front of them when it’s on a pedestal with a big sign saying “Look over here!” as long as it fits their needs and they don’t have to weed through miles and miles of tracks. If you keep force feeding them the same thing in a prime real estate location on the site, that’s going to sell more and it’s going to create a “trend” that really represents what you’re promoting by having a top seller chart, not what customers would be willing to buy if they heard it. The search engine here is well known for being pretty lame. That being the case, your customers flock to the top seller list and sales just perpetuate from there. That’s where your $2,000/week figure comes from, which BTW is rare and far from being shared across the board by any means. There are numerous pieces of music on this site that are just as useful for their projects and of the same or higher quality, but they aren’t going to search for those common corporate keywords when the results all come back with 5,000 songs with the same name, then push every single play button.

In the past, I’ve made some suggestions on how to change the copycat syndrome and inspire creatively while offering your customers better material and getting more sales based on things that I’ve seen work for major libraries… that were not boutiques. Look for more of that…

Yours Truly,

Javier Lee (maybe, maybe not)

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Oh, not at all! I was just mentioning that it is possible, albeit very difficult, especially as of late. The average here is probably peanuts, but then again I’m sure it’s that way for most other large marketplaces.

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Fair enough! I just missed your old avatar!

Great points here. It’s definitely a catch-22 vicious circle type situation. Unfortunately I don’t think we’ll break feee any time soon until the trends change enough for this corporate style to become obsolete. Authors don’t like to venture into unknown territory, especially when it’s already difficult to make a decent revenue stream by making the music they know has potential to sell well. Luckily trends do appear to change over here, just super slowly.

“can’t for the life of me figure out why they’re selling their music here for so cheap.”
A race to the bottom… it seems like it’s happening with all stock these days and unfortunately artists are their worst enemy when it comes to knowing how to price their work.
I agree though, there are a few phenomenal composers on AJ, it just seems these days you have to dig very deep to find something unique that’s not a I,IV,V - with quarter note house kick and off beat house hihat over tapped echo guitars.
Cheap equipment = democratization of the stock industry… anyone can buy in now and create “beats” on their iPad/iPhone. Just go to a number of sites and download completed Garage Band sessions ready to be modified. It seems like templates and prefabricated work in general are making all art look/sound the same. Sorry, just my $.02 after a few IPAs.

I feel the opposite, the producing is top quality. It’s just the tropes / cliched motifs that annoy. I’ve heard some really mindblowing stuff on here with zero sales. I think buyers come here primarily for a specific purpose that dictates the music, rather than primarily for the good music.

Possible but l think it’s people, see below

I literally LOLed

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This happened on audio jungle 5 years ago. It was the relentless effort to write “4 on the floor, muted guitar with delay, I, IV, V, chords, uplifting and inspirational string swells and heroics.” The reality is that marketing folks need these tracks for tutorials and presentation videos…and will eternally.

Template writers: There is a lot of inexperienced ignorance that is rampant on this site coupled with foreign composers from countries that do not have real PRO mechanisms to work with. They are jumping on the same corporate bandwagon with what they are writing BECAUSE it sells. The goal to write corporate hits has exponentially increased for those reasons. It would be in Envato’s interests to re-curate the offering and present fresh playlists in a visually appealing way to introduce more genres/ styles to not lose customers and perhaps lure in customers with bigger budgets.

Lowering Prices: Well, I have been fighting that battle for years but composers like to work for nothing…still…I have stated over and over that you make more money by raising prices, yet everyone is in a race to jump on the “cheaper is better” model.

Market clearance/ deletion of rusty accounts and weak, dated, corporate music is probably a good idea too.

Playlist creation of multiple genres is desperately needed here.

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Spot on. There are in fact tons of great outstanding high quality music buried under the ocean of “mediocre noise” on this site.

Just to be clear I think most of the corporate tracks mentioned earlier in this thread are great premium corporate tracks. But Envato needs to expand their minds a little and assume that there are other music licensing needs on this planet.

Customers should not be underestimated, customers also come to AJ to find music they can´t find anywhere else according to this article: https://community.envato.com/audio-top-trends-insights-october-2018/

Improvements to the search engine and playlists can be quick fixes to this.

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I suggested on another thread (AJ's search algorithm is not sustainable. The Popular Files list is going stale.) the following:

Let visitors decide on which search algorithm to use, and offer 4 new algorithms:

  • Random (calling it “Surprise Me” is off-putting, I can’t explain why)
  • Leaning toward Newer Stuff (unlike sort by date ascending, it still gives a chronological mix. I envisage it being a sort of trade-off between what AJ’s directors want you to see vs. what’s strictly new)
  • Leaning toward Classics (like above, but … instead of AJ Directors’ Choices vs. Latest, it’s AJ vs. time honoured classics, even if they’re not trending high volume sellers, just as long as they’ve been doing alright thank you)
  • Leaning toward Safe Bets (= AJ Directors’ Choices vs. Songs that are indexed by some sort of quotient that takes into account: {price tier + sales + YouTube cameos + middle-age category for amount of time the track has been kicking around on AJ}

For each of the 4 categories above, visitor can additionally do the usual sorting witihn each algorithm’s results (sort by age, sort by sales, sort by price)

For this to have real meaning, add “Best Offer" functionality. So, the visitor has a compelling, no, overpowering reason to use one of these gourmet search methods (Example - use “Newer Stuff” algorithm: See results. OK, sort within the list by no. of sales. OK if it’s a high seller, and new, then don’t bother making silly offers. Old? But no sales? Submit a Best Offer, you’re doing the author a favour).

That should shake things up without need to manually re-curate anything (they won’t even tell you why a song was rejected because they don’t have the time, so l don’t think they’d re-curate the catalogue!!!)

Where will you move on to? I’m an AJ author who composes and records live, and most of my pieces are rejected. I’d love to place those rejected pieces elsewhere so a producer like you can find them.