Is Library Music still a thing, and how do you get on it these days?

[Tomás Mulcahy]

A friend has produced some music that would be perfect in kid's cartoons so I thought a library would be the best place for him to try- any suggestions from the more experienced folk here? By the way his material is genuinely good. He's a bass player, reads music, groovy player and the material has a humour to it.

[hz37]

Most of the edits I receive for post production audio contain tracks from BMG. They are very friendly too and will listen to your music.

https://bmgproductionmusic.com/

Good luck!

Hens Zimmerman

[progger]

It is indeed still a thing, there are a couple libraries I know who do reasonably well (and who have gotten some decent placements for some tracks of mine when I was being more aggressive and consistent about cranking them out!), but I find that the good ones are already pretty set for their composers and it takes some in-person introductions to establish new relationships. Gotta know somebody who knows somebody, etc.

I'm very curious to see where it all goes in the near future, though. Most of what I think of as "library music" is the ripest of applications to be filled by AI.

[Tomás Mulcahy]

Thank you for the answer. Interesting that there were so few!

[Wonks]

All the people who I know who do well from library music who were once on SOS (like The Commander, Chris Salt and Buma Angel) left the forum quite a few years ago).

[iliketomakemusic]

A friend has produced some music that would be perfect in kid's cartoons so I thought a library would be the best place for him to try- any suggestions from the more experienced folk here? By the way his material is genuinely good. He's a bass player, reads music, groovy player and the material has a humour to it.

Hey there. Season' Greetings and all that!

Library music is still a thing, yes.

How do you get in on it? Identify the best library companies, make some contact (ideally face to face or phone) and then send them some incredibly original, wonderfully produced material - that they haven't already got in their catalogue! (that last bit is important).

Kids music - trouble is it doesn't earn much due to the genre, the time of day it's shown, the channels it's on and also the music doesn't easily transfer to the more popular genres.

Kids cartoons will often have their own composer doing bespoke music. Your friend could make a showreel and then contact companies who make kids cartoons directly. That might be a better option?

Cheers!

[hz37]

Another thing your friend could try is bundling it all up in an Arcade Output instrument. That's sort of half way between a software instrument and a music library. As a horrible musician myself, I often use Arcade to create music for children's television if the client wants that.

https://output.com/get-arcade

Hens Zimmerman

[Tomás Mulcahy]

All the people who I know who do well from library music who were once on SOS (like The Commander, Chris Salt and Buma Angel) left the forum quite a few years ago).

Oh wow, I thought there were still some left. I miss The Commander, I knew he left but was never sure why.

[iliketomakemusic]

Another thing your friend could try is bundling it all up in an Arcade Output instrument. That's sort of half way between a software instrument and a music library. As a horrible musician myself, I often use Arcade to create music for children's television if the client wants that.

https://output.com/get-arcade

Hens Zimmerman

If you are going to do the library thing seriously it should be noted that alot of good libraries aren't going to want music created with things like Splice and Arcade.

[hz37]

Agreed, but that's not what I mean. The talented musician can try to create music for Output Arcade as a business endeavour.

Hens

[iliketomakemusic]

Agreed, but that's not what I mean. The talented musician can try to create music for Output Arcade as a business endeavour.

Hens

Ah, right. I see what you mean.

[forumuser819180]

Does anyone know if there any music libraries out there who actually do more left-field, non-generic music? I don't mean full-on atonal avant-garde music, but popular music that at least has some colour and character....

I'm aiming to get into library music myself: you always hear music library supervisors talking about 'authenticity', originality, how you should just produce the kind of music that you find inspiring etc.... HOWEVER, when browsing even the top libraries, almost everything sounds pretty generic. Impeccably well-played and produced of course, but kind of forgettable and probably about to be done just as well by AI within 5 years or so. Even the few libraries who do market themselves as being 'avant garde/left-field' really seem to mean "We have lots of Billie Eilish knockoffs".

So am I being unrealistic in trying to pitch music that (if I do say so myself) sounds genuinely original and distinctive as well as accessible? All advice, however blunt, would be gratefully received....