Licensing and Publishing of piano music

Hi Folks

Im often told that my music is cinematic, or works well with the moving image, so Ive been looking into the possibility of licensing my music for Film and TV.

Does anyone know of any music publishers or licensers who specialise in piano music?

or have any general recommendations of quality publishers/synch agencies?

My music is contemporary but classically influenced, think a mix of Glass/Einaudi/Debussy

thanks

Rich

 

Rumblefish and APM Music are two large libraries of music available for licensing.

I haven't done this myself. I do know that CDBaby and Rumblefish started a collaboration in which CDBaby artists can get their material into the Rumblefish libraries... but the artist gives up the right to negotiate his/her own fee! So you get what you get, whatever the film or TV producer feels like paying you. (Therefore I didn't do it.) I do not know if that's the case whenever you work with Rumblefish; I only know about the CDBaby collaboration.

 

Hi Rich,

This is a question that is also of great interest to me as an amateur film composer and pianist.

I think there are many different avenues. You might try adding your work to stockmusicsite.com. I imagine indie filmmakers and radio stations are looking for material all the time. But the next question is if you want to make this your one main profession, I think you should make a reel. Then approach film forums where filmmakers are looking for music composers. You might find a project you like and it could go from there.. if you decide to try some royalty free music site, if I were you I wouldn't pay them anything to host your music. I did that with a photography website a long time ago. I thought I could make $1,000,000s selling my photos. It was not to be! It was a waste of money (though a good lesson learned). You might talk to film producers who may be looking for a different composer, only piano would be interesting. Though they might only take you if you are the jack of all trades composer and sound designer for their project. You have to learn how to do folley. Like when a character walks down the sidewalk you have to record that "footfall" sound in a studio. Simple dramas only require simple folley, so it shouldn't be so hard.

playing piano for a film sndtrk certainly has been done well before. In the film the social network, which is a favorite of mine, in the opening credits we hear a descending m6 on a piano. It's a simple line, but to me brings out the idealism of the young college student in the story. By the way, that score which was wrote by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross brought home an oscar for best original score.

Good luck! What am I saying good luck for?! Maybe we could team up and be another Ross/Reznor team of film scorers?! :wink:

 

Hi hreichgott

thanks for your message. Yes there are literally hundreds of music libraries around (over 400 listed at http://musiclibraryreport.com for example). Many of them as you say offer very little except a small chance (as they list thousands of works) of making a small amount of money.

Im more in the hunt for a specialist, whom my music will particularly suit and with whom I stand a better chance of making some progress

best

Rich

 

Hi Riley

thanks for your tips, they sound like good ways to get started at the grass roots end of the spectrum. Id be a bit wary of placing myself in that bracket at the get-go, rather than aiming for a relationship with a professional agent. As you say, solo piano has worked well as music score for a few films now, some quite big ones have either entirely, or prominently piano, so I think theres hope for us yet, tho the competition is no doubt fierce.

If you come up with a possibility of a suitable collaboration, do let me know, tho from what ive heard you can compose fine piano music yourself

best

Rich

 

Rich,

Thanks,

I was half-joking about a collaboration. Joking because I don't really know where to start. but also atticus ross and trent reznor have notoriety. I definitely don't, I think. Yes, i think you're right getting a professional agent is good way to get your foot in the door in the business. I also think, the way it works is, you do one gig then you do another.... and it snowballs into other work, "work begets work" as they say. Also by listening to a video of a famous composer he said that the key to the biz is connections, the people you meet and how comfortable they are working on projects with you. Good luck breaking in!

EDIT: the beginning theme was a Major 6th not Minor 6th haha.

 

thanks, good luck to you too

Rich