- In this video,
I'm going to share with you my tips
for writing library music
that will get you paid.
- I'd like to get paid to sit on my ass and watch TV.
- I'm going to start by giving you three tips
about what makes a successful library track.
And then I'll walk you through the Logic session
of one of the tracks
that has earned me the most in royalties
in this past quarter.
(upbeat dramatic music)
Hey everyone.
Welcome back to the channel.
If you're new here,
this is where I talk about the craft of writing music.
So I score films,
I teach composition lessons,
I write music for video games,
but easily the biggest source of income for me
is TV placements with library music.
- That's me, I'm on TV.
- I earn enough income through library music,
that I'm able to write music as a full-time job.
I honestly don't even spend that much time
writing new tracks anymore,
but the ones that I have written
consistently get chosen by editors,
placed in their shows and earn royalties.
I've had music in thousands of episodes of TV shows,
like The Bachelor, Dancing With the Stars, American Idol
and hundreds of others.
The most important advice I can give
for writing a library track
is to focus on a single mood.
The mistake I used to make a lot early on
was trying to tell an epic story
with every single piece of music I wrote.
So maybe it would start dark and brooding,
but at some point the hero would show up
and by the end everyone would be celebrating.
Maybe I thought the music would be more useful
if it told a story and plotted a trajectory,
I don't really know, but I was wrong.
When you're writing production music,
you really need to think from the editor's perspective
because they're the one who's most likely going to hear
and choose your music.
So don't try to build multiple moods into one piece.
When the editor wants a different mood,
they will switch to a different track.
What you should do is focus on a single mood
so that the beginning, middle and end of your track
all deliver on the promise of the search terms
that got them to find your track in the first place.
So if they're searching for something fun
and you have a great fun track,
but the first 10 seconds are contemplative,
they're probably going to hear those 10 seconds,
say, "Nope, this isn't what I need."
And skip and go to the next track.
In a similar vein,
try to keep your energy level within a limited range.
instead of thinking of your track as a novel,
think of it more like a postcard.
In the same way that a postcard captures a single moment,
but not an entire vacation,
your track should be about one thing.
The track that goes from an energy level of a 1
all the way to a 10
is actually going to be a lot less useful
than one that goes from like a three to a five.
I definitely think you need some sort of build
so your cue isn't just a static monotone
that never progresses.
I'm just suggesting that you keep your lows and highs
within a certain reasonable range of each other.
The longer your track,
the more you can push that energy.
So if you have a three-minute track,
you're going to have a bigger difference
between the beginning and end
than if you have a 60 second track.
And the last tip before we get into that logic session
is the less melody you can have, the better.
Remember that your track is going to be the background
to some other foreground,
and the reality is that the foreground is more important.
I tend to write tracks that have a little melodic figure
and then a long hold or a rest.
So there's still something to hear,
there's something for our ear to catch on to,
but there's a lot of space
for the dialogue or voiceover to come through.
If they try your music
and they find it's interfering with the voiceover
or the dialogue,
it's going to get cut
and they're going to go with something else.
A compromise you could do is bounce alternate mixes.
So you have a version with the melody
and then a version without the melody,
but you're kind of relying on the editor
being willing to hear it with the melody,
imagine what it would be like without it,
deciding to look for that alternate mix.
I think it's better to craft the track from the beginning
to not be super melody prominent to begin with.
The first impression your track gets
is probably the only one it's going to get.
- I didn't wanna make a first impression like this.
- So let's get into Logic
and I'll walk you through one of the tracks
that has been doing pretty well for me lately
and I'll show you how it's structured.
The MP3 and MIDI files for this track
will be available to my patrons,
so check out the link in the description
if you want to download those.
So, first of all,
I don't normally color code to this extent
when I'm writing.
This was from bouncing stems,
it just helps me find which stems go together
when I output alternate mixes.
So the first thing I want to point out
is I have these markers here,
30 seconds, 1 minute, 1:30, 2 minutes.
That's in my template.
This is all based on my template.
And the reason is because usually the assignment
is a track for a certain length of time.
So in this case,
it was a track between a minute thirty and two minutes.
So I just open up my template
and I know like, okay,
this is about where I'm trying to get to,
where I need to end the track.
The next thing is that
it isn't always composed necessarily in order.
Usually I try to come up with just a basic, simple idea
and then sometimes I might back up
and do a different intro from there.
So this was supposed to be
kind of a dark brooding, minimalist tension,
kind of gritty track.
So the main lick here
is actually this piano lick here.
(piano notes playing)
Notice then these four bars of rest and space
following that.
So that's what I was talking about
with that little melodic figure
that kind of like is something for you to hear
and latch onto,
but then there's all this space for talking, dialogue,
whatever else might be happening in the foreground.
So that little lick,
that just one little thing,
(piano notes playing)
became the inspiration to do the whole rest of the piece.
Then the rest of the piece is structured
in a way that we have...
Like an introduction, this A section,
a B section,
which is the same thing,
you can kind of see it's a similar form,
the same thing at a higher intensity,
and then an ending, a sting ending.
And I'll get to that when we get there.
So there's really kind of,
kind of there's three sections.
In a lot of way there's two sections
and an eight bar lead-in.
So probably what I did when I initially wrote this
was around this main idea,
Then I came up with other parts around it.
(dramatic music playing)
So I've got this bass,
(bass playing)
I've got this synth,
(synth playing)
and I've got the lower note
(piano playing)
in the piano
and then I muted,
I didn't use that harp. Let's actually...
I'm going to get rid of that.
I didn't use that harp
and I paused the strings there as well.
So let me run this from the beginning.
(dramatic music begins)
Hear how this is a... elements,
kind of accompaniment elements
that I've taken from what I use around the intro,
still has generally the same mood,
the same feeling as what's going to come.
After four bars, it's a slow tempo at 71.
So that could be eight bars at a faster tempo.
After four bars,
I introduce a few more things just to keep things moving.
Now comes the A.
I took a few things out,
so it doesn't necessarily drop the energy level too much
to take things out,
it just makes it feel a little fresher
to be able to kind of space these strings around,
space the base around.
(dramatic music continues)
Now I start getting the bass coming in,
subtly increasing the amount of interest.
Now we'll see, after another four bars,
we'll bring in the next group of things.
Here it comes.
(dramatic music continues)
That bass line is holding a pedal.
Things are changing,
things are happening.
Well, at the same time,
nothing is really happening.
We have a slight build.
Rest.
(dramatic music stops)
So, the reason for this rest,
So this creates a really nice edit moment.
Editors can find this,
if they decide they only need about 60 seconds,
maybe even 30, if they just want to use this thing,
they could do a pretty natural ending right there
(dramatic music continues)
(dramatic music stops)
and then move into a different mood,
a different track,
whatever else they need to do with it,
or cut straight to the ending.
This whole thing can be kind of a standalone section
because of that little break in there.
This riser is on,
it'll be on a separate stem
so they can choose to not use that stem if they want to
and if they want it,
this just be an isolated thing.
So I'm actually surprised, in this case
I didn't do it here.
Usually I would probably rest on beat 4 here.
(dramatic music continues)
Rest.
And then go into the main thing.
I just didn't do it this time,
but if I was tweaking this track right now,
I probably would fix that before I bounced this
to just that little bit of rest.
Again, making it very easy to cut around that.
It's just seamless to kind of use sections,
It's very modular in a lot of ways.
Also you'd be able to go from this to this very easily
with very little editing.
Video editors are usually pretty good music editors,
so it's not something to worry too much about,
but if you can help them,
if you can make their job easier,
they're going to see your tracks and be like, "Oh yeah,
I had a good time using this track in a different piece.
This composer's track,
I'm going to use it again
or use something else from that composer."
So let's see,
so then you see the,
the basic structure was that main lick.
Here it is,
(piano notes playing)
Then it repeats lower.
Down a step.
(piano notes playing)
Then down a step again.
(piano notes playing)
And this time we hit the half step there, but...
(piano notes playing)
That basically gets us through 60 seconds of this track.
It's very simple.
And then when we go
(dramatic music playing)
(dramatic music stops)
for the more intense version,
this time it goes up.
(dramatic music playing)
And it's a little more dissonant.
Repeat that dissonance.
So it's pretty simple.
Let's listen to this second section here.
(dramatic music playing)
We brought in drums.
I brought in...
We're continuing those other elements,
the synth, the strings, the harp
that have kind of amplified the intensity.
So then there's those taikos.
This is,
we've taken this from, you know,
a level two to maybe a level four.
This is not like crazy end of the world epic,
but it's definitely stronger than we had before.
But consistently at this level,
it's not ramping necessarily.
We're just kind of keeping this energy level.
So this could stay behind whatever mood they need.
And then I will build just for the very end,
we have this little string rise.
(dramatic music continues)
Rest again.
(dramatic music stops)
That little stinger at the end is pretty important
because maybe they want this to just end on a cliffhanger.
(dramatic music playing)
(dramatic music stops)
Maybe that's the cliffhanger and that's fine,
they'll go somewhere else.
But if you give them the option of an ending
and how I have it kind of standing alone,
I create the cliff hanger,
but I also give you the option of like, well,
if you want to end the track,
here's just this little thing.
And usually I'll do some sort of conclusive variation
of the main lick.
So the main lick is this.
(piano notes playing)
Now the ending is this.
(piano notes playing)
Which is a very just,
it's over, the track has ended,
this is the conclusion of it all.
I mean, hopefully what you're seeing
is that it's not that complex.
There's a lot of things to kind of get your ear.
There's a lot of layers as far as keeping it interesting,
so that it feels like a rich texture
and there's a lot happening,
but for 12 bars at a time,
there's not a lot of change.
The development and the variation is very subtle.
You know, we move down a step
and we get the base a little busier.
That's about it.
Move down another step
and we bring in this little col legno thing.
That's about it.
You know, it's just, it's about being patient
and focusing kind of on the subtlety
and just consistency.
Can we keep this mood going?
Can we keep this energy about the same
for an extended period of time?
Making these YouTube videos
and actually using library music myself,
I found that to be extremely important.
The longer I can just have a track
kind of just stay behind what I'm saying,
because what I'm saying isn't becoming super exciting,
What I'm saying is generally staying the same.
I want the music to be doing that too.
So I need it to consistently keep a mood,
consistently keep an energy level.
So yeah, like I said,
I'll put the MP3 and the MIDI for this on my Patreon
and so you can check that out.
Library music isn't the only way I earn income
as a composer.
If you want to learn more
about how to make money writing music,
check out this video here.
Thanks for watching.
And I will see you in the next one.