# Some year-end statistics! Feel free to share yours!



## StevenMcDonald (Dec 27, 2018)

First off - please don't take this as a brag thread, and if you decide to share yours, please don't _use_ this as a brag thread. I'm not going to share specific numbers, just a percentage breakdown here. When I was first starting out as a composer, I always loved seeing things like this. Statistics are pretty fascinating, and I hope someone else finds this interesting.

A little exposition first - I primarily write production music for various libraries. I mostly write for TV underscore, but I also occasionally land placements in advertising. 2018 was my first year doing this full time as my only income source.







*Broadcast Royalties - 82.7%*
This doesn't surprise me, because I write huge volumes of tracks for US Reality TV shows. This is my bread-and-butter income, and it provides some stability.

*Sync Fees - 12.1%*
Some income from some very minor trailer/advertising syncs. I've got some cool trailer music in the release pipeline, so I'm hoping this is more like 50% next year 

*Library Up-Front Fees* - *2.6%*
Most of the library work I do has no up-front payment, but I do work with a couple libraries that pay a small amount per track. 

*Misc Freelance - 2%*
Occasionally I'll have someone with a super low-budget film or game find me from my website or youtube channel. This is only one small gig I did this year, plus a little chunk from a writing gig I do fairly regularly (still music/composer related)

*Royalty Free Sales - 0.5%*
I have a handful of old or misfit/reject tracks on pond5.com that sell occasionally. It's not much, but it's nice to have date night paid for every once in a while 



I hope this provides some insight into what a composer's income might look like. I also hope some of you others in the industry will share something similar! I'd like for this to be a chill thread to share this kind of info and learn from each other... or just geek out over statistics


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## R. Soul (Dec 27, 2018)

Interesting read Steven. 

I haven't done any calculations but off the top of my head I'd say upfront 50%, sync 20% and Broadcast royalties 30%.

If my broadcast royalties were 82% I wouldn't have beans on toast every other day


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## StevenMcDonald (Dec 27, 2018)

R. Soul said:


> Interesting read Steven.
> 
> I haven't done any calculations but off the top of my head I'd say upfront 50%, sync 20% and Broadcast royalties 30%.
> 
> If my broadcast royalties were 82% I wouldn't have beans on toast every other day



Hey you never know! That could be 82% of $700 for the whole year. 

I'd personally love to get my up front payments to make up 50% or more (as long as the royalties don't fall down). I get bad career anxiety waiting for quarterly checks that make up the vast majority of my income.


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## jonathanparham (Dec 27, 2018)

Thanks for sharing. Still learning. But good to see your production music get you to full time writing status


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## chillbot (Dec 27, 2018)

Mine income is

12% upfront fees
90% royalties
-2% gambling winnings


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## StevenMcDonald (Dec 27, 2018)

chillbot said:


> Mine income is
> 
> 12% upfront fees
> 90% royalties
> -2% gambling winnings



Gonna need to see a pie for that please.


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## Kyle Preston (Dec 27, 2018)

What a great idea of a thread, thanks for sharing your stats Steven! Here's my 2018 chart. The industry considers me more of a "recording artist" than a "media composer" and RF does well for me mostly because I value non-exclusive libraries over exclusive ones.



​


StevenMcDonald said:


> I get bad career anxiety waiting for quarterly checks that make up the vast majority of my income.




I know the feeling man. One of my bread and butter libraries pays only once a year. The waiting is.....utterly terrifying.


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## StevenMcDonald (Dec 27, 2018)

Kyle Preston said:


> What a great idea of a thread, thanks for sharing your stats Steven! Here's my 2018 chart. The industry considers me more of a "recording artist" than a "media composer" and RF does well for me mostly because I value non-exclusive libraries over exclusive ones.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thanks for sharing! The RF market has always fascinated me, but I always do so much better writing tracks for specific shows/requests from exclusive libs with references and such. I would struggle to keep up a good output with the total freedom of RF.


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## Desire Inspires (Dec 28, 2018)

Thanks for sharing!


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## gtrwll (Dec 30, 2018)

Interesting thread! Here's mine:






If it wasn't for the nice surprise from Teosto couple weeks ago, this would probably have been something like 95% RF sales. So it's nice to finally start seeing some backend income from placements 

I mainly write for non-exclusive RF sites, but also for exclusive libs that pitch for reality TV etc. Money from music is very much a side income for me, but it grew quite a bit from 2017 to 2018. I don't really expect it to grow next year, since I haven't got time to write new music for a while now. Anyway, thanks for sharing and starting the thread, statistics are always fascinating (statistics geek reporting for duty!)


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## EBicks (Jan 8, 2019)

Cool thread! For those of you that do this full time, how many years did you spend building this up as a side hustle until you were ready to take the plunge and go full time? Would be interesting to hear


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## Nick Batzdorf (Jan 8, 2019)




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## StevenMcDonald (Jan 8, 2019)

EBicks said:


> Cool thread! For those of you that do this full time, how many years did you spend building this up as a side hustle until you were ready to take the plunge and go full time? Would be interesting to hear



Three long and very impatient years as a side hustle for me.


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## StevenMcDonald (Dec 28, 2021)

I decided to revive this three year old thread because I felt like looking at these statistics again, but for 2021 

Here's my new pie chart. It's remarkably similar to the first one I posted in 2018, but overall everything has grown quite nicely when it comes to specific number. Back in 2018 I made it a goal to increase my sync and up-front money section, which I did! However for us BMI members, we ended up getting 5 payments this year instead of 4, due to some schedule shifting. The the royalties slice of pie has been inflated a bit extra.

I also dropped a couple sections because the RF market is insignificant to me now, and I haven't done any random freelance composing gigs in a while!





I'd love to see some more of these, especially from those of you who shared back in 2018!


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## chillbot (Dec 28, 2021)

chillbot said:


> 12% upfront fees
> 90% royalties
> -2% gambling winnings


This is still exactly accurate for me.


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## Mikro93 (Dec 29, 2021)

Cheers!


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## chillbot (Dec 29, 2021)

Mikro93 said:


> Cheers!


If you've bought any libraries this year shouldn't the "music" part be in the negative?


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## Mikro93 (Dec 29, 2021)

chillbot said:


> If you've bought any libraries this year shouldn't the "music" part be in the negative?


I dislike you.


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## DESmith (Dec 29, 2021)

I thought it would be interesting to look at my numbers since I usually don't look too deep into it. I've started transitioning from doing Album production to more tv/trailer music over the last two years, slow but steady! Should be interesting to see how the numbers look by end of next year.


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## PaulieDC (Dec 29, 2021)

My statistics: I told my dog how much I spent on libraries in 2021.


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## FrozenIcicle (Dec 29, 2021)

Any library companies that you can suggest to start pitching for tv/trailers syncs?


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## StevenMcDonald (Dec 29, 2021)

DESmith said:


> I thought it would be interesting to look at my numbers since I usually don't look too deep into it. I've started transitioning from doing Album production to more tv/trailer music over the last two years, slow but steady! Should be interesting to see how the numbers look by end of next year.


Very cool! It seems like you must have had some decent success from the albums! I'm guessing royalties in this case means album sales and streaming revenue.


FrozenIcicle said:


> Any library companies that you can suggest to start pitching for tv/trailers syncs


That's a whole different discussion, but it's always a safe bet to go through a major subpublisher's catalogue, like Warner Chappell, BMG, Universal, etc, and see what labels they subpublish. Then do some research on the individual labels once you know their names.

All you other jokesters - thanks for making this less boring! 🤣


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## JohnG (Dec 29, 2021)

Bitcoin trading: 10,000%
Fast cars: -4,500%
$100k bets on the Rams: -2,000%
Party time: all the rest


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## chillbot (Dec 29, 2021)

JohnG said:


> Bitcoin trading: 10,000%
> Fast cars: -4,500%
> $100k bets on the Rams: -2,000%
> Party time: all the rest


I don't know if you understand how percentages work.


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## Saxer (Dec 29, 2021)

I never really calculated all that. I think one half comes from TV royalities and the rest is a mix of live playing, producing playbacks, arranging, and additional tracks like strings or brass for songs.


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## JohnG (Dec 29, 2021)

chillbot said:


> I don't know if you understand how percentages work.


Yuh-huh


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## Mike Greene (Dec 30, 2021)

I'm still holding out hope that some new client might find my name in the phone book today or tomorrow, so this may be premature ... but as of now, 2021 looks like this:

1% Upfront fees
10% ASCAP
15% Ad revenue (and bribes) from a forum I won't name
74% From an unnamed sample library company that I'm embarrassed to be associated with


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## chillbot (Dec 30, 2021)

Mike Greene said:


> (and bribes)


I always told Jay Asher he needed to up his kickbacks but he just wouldn't listen.

#freehatjay


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