# Ever actually MAKE money from your soundtrack release?



## bdr (Feb 16, 2011)

I have had a release through Mikael at Moviescoremedia, it is sold through itunes and I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I've earned through it. Even less of a heavy hitter than anyone.


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## Andrew Aversa (Feb 17, 2011)

Video game soundtracks sell pretty well. I've self-published two soundtracks to indie games I've written for that have sold a decent amount, and I know some composers like Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy, Canabalt, etc.) make far more.


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## mathis (Feb 17, 2011)

bdr @ Wed Feb 16 said:


> I have had a release through Mikael at Moviescoremedia, it is sold through itunes and I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I've earned through it. Even less of a heavy hitter than anyone.



which one is that?


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## bdr (Feb 17, 2011)

mathis @ Fri Feb 18 said:


> bdr @ Wed Feb 16 said:
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> > I have had a release through Mikael at Moviescoremedia, it is sold through itunes and I have been pleasantly surprised at how much I've earned through it. Even less of a heavy hitter than anyone.
> ...



Half Light


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## Marius Masalar (Feb 17, 2011)

bdr @ Thu Feb 17 said:


> mathis @ Fri Feb 18 said:
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Sir, if you are Brett then my hat comes off to you — that love theme is one of the sweetest and most succinctly moving in recent memory. One of those pleasantly surprising customers was me and I'm very glad it was available.


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## booboo (Feb 17, 2011)

bdr - This is very interesting news. Thanks for sharing. I'm now embarrassed to say that I've been approached by Mikeal and sorta blew him off in favor of Lakeshore Records. Big mistake, I guess. Even if you've only made $100, that $100 more than Lakeshore or Varese paid....

Zircon - 
Good to hear. Were you able to get it on itunes directly, or did you have to go through CDBABY or sometihng?


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## midphase (Feb 18, 2011)

A couple of years ago I wrote the score to a film which I get someone e-mailing me about how to purchase the soundtrack every few weeks. This has been going on quite regularly and I think by now the sales would have actually amounted to something (not huge, but more than a few hundred $).

Anyway...when I contacted Mikeal his complete aversion to anything non-strictly orchestral was quite a turn off and needless to say my soundtrack (or my style) don't qualify to his definition of film music.

It's a shame when there are people who value music and who are willing to actually pay for it and not pirate it, and the distros are so narrow minded.


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## bdr (Feb 18, 2011)

Mathazzar @ Fri Feb 18 said:


> bdr @ Thu Feb 17 said:
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Thanks for the nice words Marius. I am indeed me.


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## Andrew Aversa (Feb 19, 2011)

bdr: I previously used CD Baby as a distributor, as well as a PayPal/e-junkie based store on my own site. But I'm also on Bandcamp now, which, according to Danny B, is really a good place to be.


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## mathis (Feb 19, 2011)

bdr @ Fri Feb 18 said:


> mathis @ Fri Feb 18 said:
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Mine is "The possibility of an island". But I think noone buys it... 

Midphase, Mikael is a publisher and he can curate his catalogue however he wants. His specialty is orchestral film music, that's what the label is known for.


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## midphase (Feb 19, 2011)

Mathis,

Thanks for pointing out the obvious.


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## booboo (Feb 20, 2011)

Bandcamp seems interesting, but after a little research I'm looking hard at Tunecore to get the digital DL thing happening on Amazon and itunes.

I'm a little confused though, because I'm not fully understanding why I don't just have a direct dialog with Amazon and itunes...no matter what I'm only uploading the album once, right?


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## midphase (Feb 21, 2011)

booboo @ Sun Feb 20 said:


> I'm a little confused though, because I'm not fully understanding why I don't just have a direct dialog with Amazon and itunes...no matter what I'm only uploading the album once, right?



As it was explained to me, Apple doesn't really want to deal with thousands of incoming audio files of various formats and with dubious copyright documentation. Companies like Tunecore function as a safety valve for Apple, someone who can make sure that the incoming files are the correct format and that will take the blame should a copyright issue arise.

This is also true for movies, except even more stringent since so much more could go wrong.

Interestingly, Apple has decided to manage the iApp stuff themselves by screening and reviewing the apps themselves.


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