Hello Composers!
Have you ever published an Album of instrumental Cinematic Music?
Please share your thoughts, experiences, results etc.
Does it do well on the streaming platforms?
Has it opened any doors and business opportunities?
Did it boost your personal brand as a composer?
Did you get new professional connections from it?
Reason for my question: I have been considering doing an entire album of cinematic music, mainly orchestral but with hybrid influences.
PS. You are allowed to post a link to your album in your reply to this post, as long as you provide your thoughts, insights, experiences, results etc. I ask for.
I have only one solo album I released in 2014 itâs called âCinematicaâ https://open.spotify.com/album/06KgNX5yIwi8dAOhMiCT15?nd=1
The story behind this album is no good! I was looking for the right label to publish this album but that time in 2014 I didnât have much experience of working with labels so found some on the net. They took my album and released it but I didnât make anything out of it, they sent me a contract I singed it in 6 months or so they closed their web site but album is still available in all digital stores so someone still makes money out of it! So you always should ask some money upfront from any label.
Now if I will be working on any cinematic, trailer album of mine Iâll be releasing it myself via distrokid to control all income!
Also once I tried to write an album of trailer music for âSongs to Your Eyesâ Trailer Music library at first they liked my music in 3 months later they changed their minds so again I didnât get much. And for one of the cues I wanted to have a voice of Felicia Farrere so label paid her 500⏠but when I changed only one note in entire cue where I used her voice she made a big scandal and didnât allow me to have her voice on the cue cuz according to her opinion if I changed one note in the cue itâs a another cue and I have to pay another 500⏠to her to use her voice in the cue! So it also was not really good situation and I guess âSongs To Your Eyesâ was offended with her behavior cuz they paid her 500⏠so she could sing on my cue and after that they didnât want to work with me anymore. But it wasnât my fault cuz changing a single note in the cue itâs not composing it right from the very beginning. So next time Iâll be composing, producing, mixing and releasing everything myself with no labels. Or if Iâll be asked to compose any piece of music for a label so Iâll ask them to pay me upfront no more free music for any trailer music labels because sometimes they have no logic in everything they do. Lol
Wow that was a tough lesson in how the music industry, labels and other artists (vocalist) can screw you totally. I am really sorry to hear this, but I hope it can give some insights to fellow composers so we can try to avoid the same mistakes, and instead remain in control of our music by releasing it ourselves.
And yes, if making music for a trailer label then get upfront money.
Are you planning to do a new album yourself soon Alexey?
The main and huge problem about trailer music is their supervisors. Because I had a long time business relationships with some supervisors and I came to the idea that most of them donât understand anything about music. Because their advice just donât work in a real music world. I donât wanna give any names letâs be polite here as much as possible. But according to my experience they all have different understanding of âsuper sound qualityâ for trailer tracks. First of all trailer tracks are not real Orchestral music and even if we talk about sound design cues so there is a huge difference about production of a trailer cue at home with some plugins and at professional studio with a real mixing and mastering engineers who mostly use analog gear. In this case the final âsuper duper huge cinematic soundâ is very subjective. And some people in trailer music industry are trying to run around 10 trailer music labels at the same time, in this case they donât care about really good sound quality of a trailer cues because imagine yourself Mike as a supervisor and publisher who has 10 labels and even if we talk about releasing / publishing 10 trailer albums in a row , so each one of them will have around 20-50 tracks, can you handle such a huge stream of music and control the final quality of each and every track, of course not. So in this case itâs very subjective, the biggest mistake of all labels that there are no any âladders to successâ you can compose music for 6 - 7 even 10 years for them and wonât get a placement in any trailer campaign, but other people will be getting placements in each and every trailer. And in this case I donât understand what the difference is. Cuz letâs be super honest, letâs forget about cinematic music and letâs say focus on pop music. And letâs imagine you , me and other composers here are writing songs for big artists like Michael Jackson, Christina Aguilera , Jlo, and so on. So what Iâm trying to say, when you compose a trailer cue for any of libraries so some of them may give you a green light and will accept your track on their upcoming album, but you wonât get any placement. And the only thing you can deserve is that your cue will appear on some album. So if you do everything right, and especially you follow tips and advice of supervisors so I guess if you have just one piece of a brain you should get just one placement maybe only once but anyway, cuz otherwise why they accept your music on their commercial albums if to be honest is not good enough? And someone always will be getting a reward, and you can tell everyone only that yes there is my cue on this album. But again if you write songs for famous artists in this case everything is much fair, cuz if your song sucks so Xtina will never perform it, but if you are experienced musician, producer and composer and now you have a chance of writing your music for such artists as Xtina so it should mean something. And again itâs always about production, most of Trailer Music now sound as shit in comparison to real songs of real artists. So I better be doing everything myself and mixing my music with a help of pro mixers when it comes to huge projects than keep composing for trailer labels and keep following stupid supervisorsâ tips. I guess after 6 years of hard work I deserved my trailer cue to get a placement in some trailer just once in a lifetime lol
Yes, sadly I think that is the case for lots of labels these days to be honest. Itâs not about the music, it is simply business, marketing, networking, who you know etc. I mean, of course you have to have good productions with music that delivers to the mood, structure etc. that works for trailers. But there is simply so much competition out there, with subjective decisions having to be made in a few seconds per track.
I would love to do an album just as an artist first, then try pitching it around after I released it myself via Distrokid. I know the labels donât want this, but I am sure some library would. I mean, itâs still a complete package in one particular style and mood, right?
When I first starting composing with a sample library Miroslav philharmonic , I did a short album of 4 songs, released it at Christmas. Doesnât sell on iTunes , but surprisingly its been streaming pretty well on spotify and apple music, go figure.
Feel free to check it out its easy background music and was my first go at stuff so the mixing and mastering was non existent but was very happy with it even so.
Published it myself on Distrokid as i also write pop music so releasing my first album through there soon. Very easy to use.
