I’m trying to produce stock music and would love to get feedback from you, especially those with experience with stock music markets.
Genre: Corporate
Mood: Accomplishment, Uplifting
Instruments: Guitar, Piano, Strings, Brass, Bass, Kick & HiHat
There is a “complex delay” on the guitar and strings, which is created with routing in Reaper DAW.
The name of the song is a descriptive name, as it makes the song easier to appear in search results.
How do you feel about the track, do you think it has a commercial viability in stock music market? What would you advice me to improve in composition, recording and mix?
Thank you very much!
I like the song very much and I think you did a great job. I have no real advice to give since I like the track as it is. Well done! Hope you succeed in your goals!
Hello Homulus, I like the overall track, very corporate/inspiration type of sound!
Perhaps adding some more “high end shimmer” could add a bit more energy, like shakers for example. It could also use a bit more variation throughout the track, adding instruments/parts etc.
PS. Could you please update your name in your profile so we can see your full real name, like mine is Mikael Baggström. I try to make this community as family/friends-like in atmosphere.
That’s right! My real name is Adam Mihočka, nice to meet you guys and thank you very much for such a nice feedback! I will try to focus more on aspects you mention. It looks like in this type of music one have to produce frequently, so “the next chance” comes often
Great Adam, nice to meat you here. And yes, quality comes from quantity, it is what I believe. Keep making more music in a specific style (like corporate in your case) and you will improve a lot!
But you should try sending to Audiojungle, Pond 5 or other stock music libraries also, perhaps you have?
Yes, I’ve done a proper research of stock music sites and I contribute where possible. I can send you the excel with markets if you like. The curator review system on these sites differs - for example Pond5 seems to accept everything, but AudioJungle is very strict. My music did not sound very corporate at first and after AudioJungle rejection I realized that it really lacks “commercial viability”. So now I’m trying to get closer to what seems to sell good. We have to produce what the customer wants anyway
Thanks Adam, I already did my research but appreciate the offer. I find that AJ and Pond 5 are still the biggest by far. Unless you are willing to go into the “membership” based royalty free music websites like: https://artlist.io
Edit: In fact you gave me an idea to start a new discussion topic about this!
That would be great Mike. There’s a lot to discuss about, because the markets are so different. With “membership based” you mean that the site does not work like a market where you set the price? Or the terms of exclusivity? I was not accepted by Artlist.io, they said they dont have a spot for my music now. But I plan to try again with more commercial portfolio
Yes exactly, they charge customers per month, so I guess they calculate some kind of “royalty” for use artists depending how many people used our tracks. Artist is only one company I know who has this model. I just created a new topic in the forum btw, please share your thought in there!
Hello friends composers! So I’ve taken Mike’s advices to heart and created a new song, which hopefully has more commercial viability in stock music world. Please have a listen, your feedback is very appreciated!
Nice Adam, to me it has a very mellow, inspiring and calm vibe. If I were you, I would spice up the drums more, as it feels more “dance-like” with that 4/4 kick in focus throughout the track. Do you use Logic? If so, I would simply try adding the drummer on an acoustic kit and try some grooves with it. You also need more fills/rhythmic changes in the percussion I think. I hope my feedback can be of value to you, I only wish you well!
Thank you Mike! I was very cautious with the drums, because when I listen to those best-selling tracks, it feels like it’s forbidden to make the kick different than 4/4. On the other side, as a drummer, I have a strong temptation to overcomplicate it, so I rather kept it super-trivial, but ended with a dance tune again. I will try to experiment with it, as well as with the percussion. Your feedback is of big value of course!
I think you can keep the 4/4 groove but add some tiny fills here (perhaps with toms, doesn’t have to be the kick) every 4 bars is standard for drummers, right?
But I more importantly missed more focus on the rest of the drum kit to be honest. The hihats to me is what adds more excitement and energy, and they felt a bit low in the mix. Also, perhaps more focus on a snare or clap. I heard some snaps, but I really miss something that makes people “clap along” too…which usually is a snare drum or claps. Anyway, great job, I just wanted to give my suggestions. Keep making more music in this style and I believe you will totally make it work on AJ!
Thank you. Nice song. Like the “calmness”. Good rythm. I personally like when drums doesn´t take over too much which they don´t here.
I don´t really have any critique but if I were to look for something to say it would be that maybe somewhere in the song throw in a little more variation somewhere. Maybe a bridge starting and ending with a short silence between. Maybe a short tempochange. But if this wasn´t the idea than all is good.
That’s a very nice vision Mike I will try and try. I see that this type of work is an iterated process, where you can always make it better next time. And it’s also thanks to suggestions here. It helps me a lot!
Definitely agree with what’s been said already. This is very corporate sounding. In terms of what you should do with this, id suggest going to a library that specialises in this sort of music and take it down off social media so you can make some pennies off it.
If you were to just keep it on social Media then I’d agree with the shakers and top end dazzle, but for S library piece you wouldn’t need to as there would probably be dialogue infront of this.
That’s a good question - should I remove a particular song from social media like SoundCloud, when I upload that song to stock sites as well? I have non-exclusive licence with them, so I am allowed to use the song elsewhere and I would like to have it in my portfolio.
And what about older tracks, which don’t represent what I am doing now and they don’t sound so professional to me anymore - should I hide them everywhere or is it OK to show my evolution?
Yes, you shouldn’t share your stuff puplically, most libraries want your music to be exclusive to them which is a good and a bad thing st the same time.
If you get a good library it’s great, but if it’s in a bad library you won’t get as many syncs.
Most libraries won’t even consider you if you’ve publicised your tracks
Let’s be more specific about the libraries - the biggest ones, AudioJungle and Pond5, offer non-exclusive licencing, so they allow me to use the songs elsewhere, for example at SoundCloud or my friend’s real estate ad video. This is the purpose of non-exclusive licence, isn’t it? Of course I disabled the free download option at SoundCloud, let there is no (legal) way to download and use the songs.
Other libraries (Audioblocks, AudioNetwork, Filmstro, Marmoset, MusicVine…) require an overall approval of my music first, so in the registration process, they want a link to my portfolio, sometimes explicitely a SoundCloud link. So I see I have to have a public portfolio somewhere and SoundCloud is very good for this.
So do you think that if a song is supposed to be a part of my public portfolio, it can’t be sold at any library anymore? Which libraries did you mean by those good and bad?
