Blog of Bruce Edward Smith, composer and producer of music for commercial use and personal enjoyment. Stay up to date on Bruce's latest releases and projects.
I have a new item in the portfolio: 'News Current Events Intro.' This track is an intense, driving musical opener for hard news, current events or current affairs programming. Add dramatic flair to your news-oriented podcast or broadcast. To sample this item, check out the video below/
'News Current Events Intro' is available now to license with four versions to suit your needs.
Here's the video for my new stock music item "Realize The Dream." I plan to go into detail later about how I came up with the animation, so please stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy.
I woke this morning to an email from Envato informing me that my recent submission, 'Realize The Dream', was hard rejected. This means that I can't make changes and resubmit it for reconsideration. Sometimes, they'll do a "soft" rejection, where they'll tell you there's a specific problem that you can fix and then resubmit. Once, I got a response saying they liked what I'd done but thought it should be louder. I pumped up the volume, resubmitted the item, and it was quickly accepted. Occasionally, the rejections will include some reason that it doesn't work for them.
Mostly, though, you get a form response:
"This item does not meet the general commercial quality standard required to be accepted on AudioJungle."
Maybe there's something they don't like in the mix, or they think they've already got too much of "that", or something or some other unfathomable issue.
There was a time when I would get very upset about rejections. I tend to emotionally invest myself
in my work, and that may not be the best thing to do. When it's rejected, my first reaction is to take it personally. The same thing can happen if something is accepted but doesn't sell.
Recently, though, I've started to take a different approach. I started going back to items that were rejected by AudioJungle and asking "what can I do to improve them, and maybe submit them elsewhere?" There have been a couple of occasions where I've made some relatively small changes in an item that was rejected, upload it to Pond5 or MotionElements, and it ends up doing pretty well (or at least selling a license or two).
So I went back and made a few tweaks to the mix.
First, there's a synth mallet part, a key element of the track. I was a little concerned even before I submitted the track for consideration that it might be to dated or otherwise out of place. After the rejection, I decided to replace it with a more bell-type tone and set it back a little in the mix. I also wrote a new line for it that I thought would clash a little less rhythmically with the strings.
Second, I reduced the volume on the electric guitars overall, and then pushed the volume of one syncopated line near the end. I also increased the high end in that section.
I made a couple of other small changes, backing off the bass a little and rerecording a bit nearer the end to give it a little more interest leading into the climax. I also punched the strings up a little in spots. Finally, I decided that the tempo at 120 bpm (beats per minute) was maybe a little too frenetic for this track. So I slowed it down by about 5 bpm. I think that gives it a little more 'oomph', especially at the end.
Here are a couple of excerpts to give you a sense of the "before and after." First, a little of the track I submitted to AudioJungle.
Now, roughly the same segment of the track after I tweaked it.
I know the tweaks I described may sound like a lot, but once I had a good sense of what I wanted to do, it didn't take very long at all. "Realize The Dream" is already live at MotionElements; you can check out the complete track here. I plan to submit it to Pond5 later today.
And that is how I try to take lemons and make lemonade. Sometimes, one person's trash can become another's treasure. I hope that will be the case with this track. I still get upset at rejection, but now it stings a lot less.
Yesterday, I finished and uploaded another new stock music track to Pond5 curation. I call this one "Hybrid Action," and it's a fast paced two-minute track with big hits and accents from both traditional (cello, low brass) and synth instruments. I hope to add this to my "cinematic and dramatic" collection upon approval. Here's a thirty second sample to give you a flavor of what I'm going for here:
Keep an eye here and on my Twitter feed for more info as to when this will be available to license.
I'm excited to share not one, but two new items (one with variations). If you've read my latest weekly update from a few days ago, you know I was trying to come up with a title for a short track I had recently completed. Well, to make a long story short, I gave up and took the path of least resistance. So, here is "Dark Tense Interlude." It's another electronic/hybrid track with pads, strings and heavily delayed/reverbed piano. It attempts to evoke an atmosphere of tension hanging suspended in your scene. Here's a 30 second excerpt.
Just today, I finished and uploaded "Lifestyle Intro" (yes, another punt on a title). This is yet another item for my podcast intro collection, although it's got a bit of a corporate vibe too. This one comes in 30 second, 15 second, looped, and six second bumper versions. Here's a preview of the 30 second version:
As always, stayed tuned here or on my Twitter feed for updates as these and other items come on line. Or don't, in which case maybe I'll just give them away. (Note: I said "maybe.")
I'm pleased to announce a new collection of music clips edited specifically for six second bumper ads of the type that are gaining popularity on YouTube. These are special versions, including from some of my best selling work, that I've cut down to run in six seconds. No further editing is needed; just plug the audio into your project and go.
I'm starting with fifteen items in different styles, including rock, pop (corporate), cinematic (epic), kid and family friendly, and electronic. I plan to revisit more of my prior work to evaluate for editing to the six second length. In addition, going forward I intend to make future bumpers or logos I write as variations of new pieces conform to the six second length as well. Here's a sample.
I have new production music items now waiting in curation at Pond5.
The first new item is yet another intro for my collection of podcast music intros. This one is called "Retro Horn Band Intro." I created and uploaded four versions: a full (30-second), shorter (14--second), outro (4-second), and a looped version. This would be a great high-energy music choice to intro your comedy or topical podcast, broadcast or vlog. Check it out:
The second item in the pipeline is a plaintive music background I call "Wistful Reverie." It's very sad and mournful, but also has a warmth and sweetness to it.
Check back here and on my Twitter feed for updates as to if and when both these items are available to license.
Effective immediately, I have registered all the music in my Pond5 portfolio, except for certain arrangements of public-domain Christmas music, with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). I had previously registered selected works from the portfolio with ASCAP, but this week extended that to most of my catalog.
For those who aren't familiar with ASCAP, it's a performance rights organization, or "PRO." PROs like ASCAP and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) in the United States, or their counterparts in other countries, collect royalties when music written by their members (for example, composers like me) is "performed" in public. Performances can be live or recorded, and include film and television, radio, night clubs and the web.
What this means for you
If you're licensing my work for your personal, private use (say, for a family video), none of what I'm writing about here applies to you. You don't even need to read beyond this point. (But thanks for sticking with me this far!)
However, if you license my work for use in a film, television, radio, a website or other public setting, you need to fill out a cue sheet. This is a document that tells about your project and what specific music you're using for it. If you've never done this before, a good resource to help you get started figuring things out is this page from Pond5 on PRO tracks and cue sheets.
What it means for me
This is very important to me, because it gives me a better opportunity to share in the profits from public performances of my work. Except under certain circumstances, as a media producer there is no extra cost for you to fill out the cue sheet. For example, in film and television the broadcaster, not the producer, is responsible for paying the actual royalties. I suggest you do some research, starting with the link I provided, to determine the requirements for your specific situation.
I hope you will understand and support this decision. I feel strongly that my future viability as a musical artist depends on being able to collect as much of the available royalties for my work as possible. Again, if you're interested in licensing any of my stock music for personal, private use, this change has no impact on you.
As always, I thank you for supporting me and my work, either through licensing stock music, downloading or streaming my commercially available work, or just stopping by to read.
The eclipse has come and gone, and my own big event went well too. Now it's time to look ahead, to a long weekend and beyond . . .
Excelsior: Volume One Online
I don't know about you, but I am definitely doing my 'Happy Dance' over the release of Excelsior: Volume One. The release went off without a hitch Thursday, and I've created a page for the EP where you can preview the trailer and download or stream tracks. The only site I don't have a link for yet is Microsoft Groove, but if you have Groove you may be able to search for it from within the app.
You can download from Amazon, iTunes or Google Play and stream right off the page from Apple Music, Spotify, or Tidal. There's a link off my official home page, or you can go to http://bit.ly/xlcrv1. I hope you'll check it out and enjoy!
Stock Music Update: Time to Get Ready for the Holidays
With that out of the way it's time to think about Christmas. Late last week someone licensed one of my royalty-free looped orchestral versions of "Jingle Bells." Guess some folks are getting an early start on promos and other media for the holidays, so I should follow suit. I'll be starting to feature my Christmas collection in my promotions beginning Monday.
I also want to work on some new arrangements of Christmas classics to add to that collection, and hope to have some new material by late this week or early next.
Meanwhile, I'll continue to promote Halloween stock music for at least a couple more weeks, and then more sporadically through mid-October. You can check out the full collection of chilling, spine-tingling tracks here.
If you're a podcaster (or know one), don't forget I have a pretty big collection of intros and loops for all kinds of podcasts, including:
Rock
Pop
Country
Jazz
Metal
Corporate
Light Classical
Baroque
Electronic
There's something for everybody, and I'm not finished creating new ones, so keep an eye on my podcast music collection at Pond5 as the weeks and months progress.
Other Stuff
If you have Spotify, please stop by my artist profile. This week my artist pick is one of my favorite drummers and genre-spanning musician Bill Bruford. If Summer Had It's Ghosts is a unique collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Ralph Towner and bassist Eddie Gomez that celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
In addition to that, I have a new playlist on the profile. I call it "Excelsior Plus" and it features all of the tracks from the Excelsior series single and EP, plus my single "Dream Catcher" and some feel good instrumentals. Those are from the great Larry Carlton, Bruford (this time with his self-titled group from the late 70s), and Booker T and the MGs. If you want a lift on your commute or lunch break, please check it out.
And with that I am finished for this post. Have a great week and please keep the poor folks on the Texas Gulf Coast in your thoughts as they endure Hurricane Harvey. Take care.
Today, I've launched a new collection of royalty-free stock music for your spooky Halloween media projects on Pond5. This curated collection includes some of the scariest music from my portfolio of more than 500 Pond5 items, including some of my top-sellers and some tracks that are less well-known.
In addition to the 20 items in the current collection, I have a previously unreleased soundscape in the pipeline that I hope will get approval shortly. It has a nautical theme and is, appropriately, titled "Haunted Pier." It evokes a mental image of long-dead pirates of old coming back from Davy Jones' locker to haunt all of you poor land lubbers. Assuming that goes through, you should be seeing it soon on my Twitter and Google+ feeds.
I suspect everybody in the US is now back from the Independence Day break, and we're all getting ready to roll into a new week. So am I.
First, I have some new music in the pipeline. I submitted a new corporate/motivational track to AudioJungle. I should hear back from them in the next week or so. Either they'll accept it or reject it, in which case I'll submit it to Pond5. AudioJungle is very picky about what material they'll like and what they won't. I'm trying to build my portfolio there, but I've learned to take rejection in stride. Besides, I've had more than one track that AudioJungle rejected that I then submitted with minor or no changes to Pond5 and had multiple sales. One person's trash, as they say.
I produced and submitted a couple of things to Pond5, too. One of the new submissions is an intro for podcasters and other media projects in a house music style. It comes in full (:30), short (:10), logo/outro (~:04) and looped (:15) versions. The other submission is a short (just under :30) "film noir" style cue with muted trumpet, piano and lots of reverb. I hope to hear some news on those as early as tomorrow, although at this time of the year P5 often has folks on holiday and curation times can slow way down. So we'll see.
My single Quest for Transformation is now live at five different outlets as of this writing: Amazon, Google Play, Groove Music, iTunes and Spotify. You can get more info on all that from this post on the blog or at the main web site. Speaking of which . . .
I've added my latest promo picture on the main home page, replacing the old logo that used to serve as a banner there. The banner is still in place on my About and Samples pages, but I'm thinking it might be time for an overhaul of the site. Drop me a line if you have some ideas.
As always, I'm very appreciative of everyone who takes time to stop by and find out what's going on. Please check out the slightly revamped official web page There are links to the different places where you can download and stream "Quest," including an embedded Spotify player for Quest for Transformation. Have a great week, and do peek in from time to time as you never know when I'll get some new crazy idea and tell the world.
Recently, blogger Steve Goldstein published an interview with legal expert David Oxenford describing the problems with using commercial music in podcasts. Legally, you can't use recorded music in your podcast without getting permission from the person who wrote the music and the person who recorded it. Mr. Oxenford lays this out in detail, and if you'd like the full story, you can access it here.
However, the fact that it's difficult (and potentially expensive) to secure the right to use music in your podcast doesn't mean it's impossible - or that it has to break the bank. There is a way, but before getting into that think about why you'd want to use music in the first place.
Using Music to Set a Mood
Certain songs bring to mind a certain mood or image that you as a podcaster want to create in support of a particular episode or series. It may also bring to mind an era associated with the music. The mood you're trying to set may be deadly serious, or it may be light, fun or energetic. Think about how filmmakers use popular songs in their movies to set a tone for a scene or a whole picture. You're trying to do exactly the same thing.
You might want a rocking intro for your sports podcast or a dramatic orchestral theme for your topical or news podcast. Your arts or discussion podcast might benefit from a stately classical or baroque piece. Maybe you want to convey an edgy, urban vibe. You might want dark ambient music for your true crime podcast. Certainly, music goes a long way toward helping put your audience in the mood, grabbing their attention and holding it.
Using Music to Set or Enhance an Identity
Going hand in hand with setting a mood is the idea of giving your podcast a unique identity. If you're a business marketing to other businesses (B2B) and want your podcast to convey a sense of efficiency and effectiveness, you would want to pick music that establishes that identity in your audience members' minds. As your audience listens to your episodes, they associate the music with you. This helps them to think of you as a trusted supplier or business partner. The same can also be true if you're marketing directly to consumers (B2C).
Choose Royalty-free Music
So how can you set a mood or establish an identity for your podcasting episode or series without going through the hassle of securing expensive performance rights?
By choosing good quality royalty-free music. You pay a single fee up front, and can use the music in your episode, worry-free. You can find music that sets the tone just as well as that popular song without all the headaches.
I hope you'll consider my royalty-free collection of music created especially for podcasters. You can find tracks in different lengths, ranging from just a few seconds to 30 seconds long. There are different styles to set the mood or enhance your brand, including corporate, rock, pop, dance, jazz, urban, classical and more. Many have seamless loops you can license to repeat over and over in the background if you want music to talk over.
I hope everyone is in fine fettle has we head into the next week. Rather than just look ahead in this post, I'd like to take some time to look back as well.
Something interesting (and good) and happened last week. If you've read my blog in the past, you may remember that I did a little experiment where I created a stock music track based loosely on a formula for a "feel good" song developed by Dutch cognitive psychology and neuroscience professor Jacob Jolij of the University of Groningen. At long last, that track "Driving Uplifting Rock," has found a buyer! Who knows, this may be just the beginning of something great (but I'm not holding my breath).
I've also experienced a significant surge in licensing revenue over the past month, including the last few days. A lot of that is coming from the podcast intros and loops I've been working diligently to develop and market since the end of January. I analyzed the sales of my podcast music thus far and wrote about my conclusions in the post from last week that I've linked to above. Since then I've had yet more podcast sales and they continue to follow the pattern I identified in that post: preferences skewing toward the longest and shortest versions.
On my Twitter feed this week I'll be featuring tracks that sold last week, and expressing a lot of gratitude to the buyers who have licensed my work. I have one loop in the pipeline. It's more of a typical stock music track than my recent podcast music intros and loops. If you're on Twitter and not following me now, please do so (@thisbrucesmith). I'm a lot more active there than I am here. Also, please check out my latest featured stock music track (it's epic!) and have a great week.
This morning I'm rolling out three freshly-approved tracks for podcasters. Two are short (:10 and :12) attention-grabbing electro tracks. The third is a sort of lo-fi surf rock thing in three versions: a full (:19), a slightly shorter (:12) and a looping version (:23). It's an option for folks with retro or nostalgic-themed podcasts. I'll featuring them on my Twitter feed all day. If you're looking at this on my blog page, just look to the top right to see my tweets.
I hope you enjoy your Friday and your weekend. Don't forget the last post of my series "Gloriously Baffling" drops tomorrow morning.
I have some new podcast intros online now at Pond5. The new batch covers mellow, electronic dance pop, and modern jazz styles for topical, arts or lifestyle podcasts, plus another "breaking news" themed intro. There's also an uptempo rock loop in a style reminiscent of the mid 80s. I'll be featuring them on Twitter throughout the day, so if you don't currently subscribe to my Twitter feed, I hope you will.
Also, don't forget that all my podcast music is available in my Pond5 podcast music collection. It's quickly grown to over 30 different items in various styles and lengths, including looped versions in many cases. I'm working hard to ensure that, whether your topic area is sports, news, politics, business, lifestyle or others, you'll find something that works for your podcast or vlog. Please check it out!
Today I'm rolling out a new collection of royalty-free music for podcasters. These are short tracks designed to be an attention-grabbing opener or closer for your podcast. Some are in longer lengths that you can patter over or include additional introductory voiceovers on top. Some are under 10 seconds and get straight to the point. Several have alternate looped versions available if you want to do segues or patter over them and fade into your main presentation. All tracks are sold separately at this point, but I may offer all the tracks in a single file at a discounted rate later. All tracks are offered royalty-free, without YouTube Content ID to make it easier on all of you video podcasters. Please check out the collection at the link above and get a sample from the video below.
I just got approval for several new tracks yesterday at Pond5. If you follow my Twitter feed, you may have seen the videos going up to YouTube as I uploaded them. I'll be featuring them and my updated new music collection on the feed today. One of the new tracks I'm promoting today is another "ambient mindfulness" loop.
Once again today, I'll be featuring royalty-free stock music tracks from my Romantic collection. You can see them in my Twitter feed here on the blog or on Twitter. Some of these are sort of exotic:
Others are more retro. All are worthy of consideration for your Valentine's Day video.
I hope you'll check them all out and stop back often for updates here.
I think today, instead of focusing on a specific collection in my Twitter feed, I want to highlight some tracks that are positive or happy. Most stock music web sites push specific genres most of the time, like corporate, ambient, and cinematic (which is why I do that too). But sales are not going very well at the moment, so I figure I might as well have some fun with it.
Everything I'll be tweeting today is available royalty-free for your posivibe media projects, so I hope you'll check them out and find one to license for your next video. That includes my latest at AudioJungle, Driving Uplifting Rock.
I just received approval for five new tracks at Pond5 yesterday. I put together "album cover" videos last night, and will be uploading them to YouTube this morning. The videos will also be on my Twitter feed today.
Three of these new tracks I would describe as "mood" tracks. They're designed to set a mood or to be an aid to meditation. I even titled one of them "Ambient Mindfulness Loop." Two others are new members of my "Dronescapes" collection. One is very deep and dark, while the other has more noise and glitches. The last of the new tracks is a simple piano and orchestra underscore that's actually already out there. I featured it in the background of a simple video I did of a reading from one of Theodore Roosevelt's speeches.
Watch here and on my Twitter feed next week for more on these new tracks and on my new music collection at Pond5.
I woke this morning to an email from Envato informing me that my recent submission, 'Realize The Dream', was hard rejected. This means that I can't make changes and resubmit it for reconsideration. Sometimes, they'll do a "soft" rejection, where they'll tell you there's a specific problem that you can fix and then resubmit. Once, I got a response saying they liked what I'd done but thought it should be louder. I pumped up the volume, resubmitted the item, and it was quickly accepted. Occasionally, the rejections will include some reason that it doesn't work for them.
