# Music commissions?



## Python Blue (Mar 23, 2013)

Sorry if this thread is not a prolonged one, first of all.

Has anyone ever succeeded with music commissions? If so, was it a one-time thing?

Personally, I really need money right now due to the probable chance that I'm going to lose my job, only to find out that when I advertise myself on FA, dA, and Weasyl, no one cares. Few even bother to respond. The only way I've even been able to get frequent downloads on Bandcamp at all is by classifying my music as completely worthless (free), which is obviously not a good idea of you wish to make money off of your music.

This thread is also open for personal experiences regarding commissions for music, if one has had any.


----------



## Teal (Mar 23, 2013)

Giving something away for free does not mean it's worthless.
With music you got to get a fanbase before you can really sell anything.


----------



## Kalmor (Mar 23, 2013)

I don't do them at the moment, with a lot of work in school and such. I was asked on FA if I would do music for some kind of French/Canadian web show for x price. I said I may be able to give it a shot but I haven't heard any confirmation or reply since (this was like, 4 months back). I haven't started it and no money has changed hands (also, it looks like his/her account is dead now as they haven't been replying to anything). My bandcamp only has a few sales on it, but it's only in the region of a few £.


----------



## Namba (Mar 23, 2013)

Music doesn't at all work the same way visual arts do as far as sales. People don't click on music that often on FA because they risk the chance it may suck and it takes patience to listen to the whole thing, something people seem to lack these days, whereas with art you can usually tell by the thumbnail. With art you can open up commissions within just a few weeks of having an FA, dA, or Weasyl account (protip, dA couldn't give two fucks about user created music, and they don't even have a category as far as I know). Music takes a lot more time and tenacity and a HELLUVA lot of creativity to let other people know you're making something worth listening to, and takes even more time to make people want to pay for it. I hate to be this blunt, but that's pretty much how it works. It's incredibly hard to market your music with all the stuff floating around on the internet.


----------



## Kalmor (Mar 23, 2013)

Just had a thought that links in to Eyal's comment above. Try and ask some small podcasts and/or radio stations (can be standard or web) to play your music and get your music "out there". Anyone that's genuinely interested may search you up on the internet. Also another thing, put your stuff on youtube and on other sites. If you insist on making a very small sum of cash then you can monetize the videos. Just some ideas.


----------



## Python Blue (Mar 23, 2013)

Thing is, this general consensus contrasts severely with the opinion of the composer for the recently-advertised Delura, someone I happen to have known before it even started. Whether he intended to do so or not, he kind of made me feel like I'm stupid and worthless because of his boasting about never needing to work for free. Call it jealousy, but I'm sick of having it rubbed in my face about how unlucky I am.

This is not to say you're all wrong: what I'm saying is that I don't know who to trust about this.


----------



## ownbones (Mar 23, 2013)

commissioning music just feels odd to me, but that's probably because of the policy i have towards things: my work is completely volunteer-based and free


----------



## Teal (Mar 23, 2013)

Python Blue said:


> Thing is, this general consensus contrasts severely with the opinion of the composer for the recently-advertised Delura, someone I happen to have known before it even started. Whether he intended to do so or not, he kind of made me feel like I'm stupid and worthless because of his boasting about never needing to work for free. Call it jealousy, but I'm sick of having it rubbed in my face about how unlucky I am.
> 
> This is not to say you're all wrong: what I'm saying is that I don't know who to trust about this.


 Right now you are not well known so freebies will help get you noticed.

If that guy acts like that why are you listening to him?


----------



## Kalmor (Mar 23, 2013)

ownbones said:


> commissioning music just feels odd to me, but that's probably because of the policy i have towards things: my work is completely volunteer-based and free


Eh, it happens more than you think. Webshows, podcasts, some random series on youtube, etc all need music. On the more extreme end you have television, movies and Hollywood stuff.


----------



## Teal (Mar 23, 2013)

On FA I have exaclty two pieces of music favorited. Why?
Because unlike are where you can take as little or much time to look at as you want music requires more dedication. You have to have time and the attention span to listen to 3-6 minutes of music you don't know if you'll even like.

The reason I even listened to those two in the first place was this.
The first turned up in a search and the art it had with it caught my eye.
The second was featured in one of Cerberus's animations.

Without those things I would have never noticed either of them.


----------



## Kalmor (Mar 23, 2013)

Teal said:


> On FA I have exaclty two pieces of music favorited. Why?
> Because unlike are where you can take as little or much time to look at as you want music requires more dedication. You have to have time and the attention span to listen to 3-6 minutes of music you don't know if you'll even like.
> 
> The reason I even listened to those two in the first place was this.
> ...


That's the way it is sadly. Really if you're a musician or a writer that wants to get popular then it's harder to do so than say, art (for reasons mentioned above). You really need to put so much effort in to even get noticed by a few people.


----------



## Demensa (Mar 23, 2013)

Well, I've taken a commission for a video game soundtrack, but I felt that since it was my first time doing something like this, I offered to do it for free rather than get paid.  I said that if they thought it was good, then they could tip me something.
Getting people to listen to your music is tough. I've lost quite a bit of money sending people demos and commissioning people for album artwork, etc. 
My motivation for making music is firstly for myself to enjoy it.  Secondly it is for as many other people as possible to find some enjoyment in it.  I'd say money would come somewhere after that. (Granted, I have no shortage of money right now, so it is not so much of an issue)
So, for me, I don't see myself making money in the forseeable future and I don't intend to, unless I gain a fanbase. 


 Anyways, I'd say advertising your music outside of furry sites and visual artwork oriented sites would do you some good as well, like Raptros said.  Other music forums and even places like 4chan are good for letting other people know that you exist.
Other than that, I don't really have much good advice. Making money and getting noticed for your music is extremely difficult; even more so if you don't play live. All I can say is to just keep making music that you like and hope that someone else does too.
Oh, and please don't let this discourage you from trying to make money. The market may be completely oversaturated, but if you keep trying you can get somewhere.

E: I forgot! I think you can monetize your tracks on Last FM. I'm not sure how much you get, but it might be worth a try.


----------



## pukedshark (Mar 24, 2013)

Unfortunately, FurAffinity is not the place you want to be if you want to get noticed for music. It can be used as a tool for widening your fanbase, but it shouldn't serve as the place people go to view your music. If you want a really good setup, here's how I do it:

On Soundcloud, post everything, WIPs, things to keep your fans satisfied by updating with either tracks you make for fun or previews and things like that.
On Bandcamp, post things you want to sell.
On Youtube, post things that are popular, or want to get popular.
Use other websites (FA, Tumblr, Bookface, etc.) to link back to these, and your traffic will increase, especially if you advertise a wee bit. Make sure not to overadvertise though, as shoving things down people's throats never works.


----------



## Python Blue (Mar 24, 2013)

pukedshark said:


> Unfortunately, FurAffinity is not the place you want to be if you want to get noticed for music. It can be used as a tool for widening your fanbase, but it shouldn't serve as the place people go to view your music. If you want a really good setup, here's how I do it:
> 
> On Soundcloud, post everything, WIPs, things to keep your fans satisfied by updating with either tracks you make for fun or previews and things like that.
> On Bandcamp, post things you want to sell.
> ...



Already am doing that for the most part, which is why I'm trying to see if there's interest in commissions. The only place that's even close to as active as I need insofar as listens is Soundcloud. In addition, one of the problems with YouTube and Bandcamp is that they require amazing visuals, which I don't have the ability to design myself or the money to pay others to do, in order to make even the slightest impression.

As for overadvertising, frankly, I sometimes think I have to go that far just to get people to notice, let alone pay. I'm starting to think my music is terrible, I'm so neglected.


----------



## Kalmor (Mar 24, 2013)

Python Blue said:


> Already am doing that for the most part, which is why I'm trying to see if there's interest in commissions. The only place that's even close to as active as I need insofar as listens is Soundcloud. In addition, one of the problems with YouTube and Bandcamp is that they require amazing visuals, which I don't have the ability to design myself or the money to pay others to do, in order to make even the slightest impression.
> 
> As for overadvertising, frankly, I sometimes think I have to go that far just to get people to notice, let alone pay. *I'm starting to think my music is terrible*, I'm so neglected.


I feel like that all the time yet there's almost always someone who likes something of mine that I didn't think that was actually that good. You should be using this as motivation to do even better. On the YT/Bandcamp issue, not really. I mean, the banner I use for my bandcamp (www.cm-music.bandcamp.com) was made by me throwing stuff into GIMP and a free request sketch I managed to get. My youtube one is just a semi-artistic shot of the texture of my violin (www.youtube.com/musicman1551). The videos themselves only have a related creative commons image in the background as I want the music to speak for itself. I may get around to doing actual music videos but I do not have the time nor the skills to.

Just post your music anywhere you can, and then people who're interested will come. You may also want to consider helping other musicians out by giving critiques and/or shouting them out to help them get noticed, they may do the same to you.


----------



## Teal (Mar 24, 2013)

Be active in the community. I guess that would be like music forums or something.

You don't need a slideshow for a youtube video, one image will do.

You can do it yourself with gimp, which is free. Or you can pay, it's not like you need the most amazing art ever. Just because something is only $5 doesn't make it completely un-eyecatching.


----------



## pukedshark (Mar 24, 2013)

You don't need to be an amazing artist or designer in order to make something that looks cool!

Like for an upcoming thing I'm doing, I literally just put some filters over a picture I doodled in paint and slapped some text on it.


----------



## Demensa (Mar 25, 2013)

Python Blue said:


> Already am doing that for the most part, which is why I'm trying to see if there's interest in commissions. The only place that's even close to as active as I need insofar as listens is Soundcloud. In addition, one of the problems with YouTube and Bandcamp is that they require amazing visuals, which I don't have the ability to design myself or the money to pay others to do, in order to make even the slightest impression.
> 
> As for overadvertising, frankly, I sometimes think I have to go that far just to get people to notice, let alone pay. I'm starting to think my music is terrible, I'm so neglected.



If you ask nicely, I'm sure people will be able to help you out with visuals for cheap if not for free. 
I asked on Reddit for people who just felt like drawing something for an album and I came up with a huge amount of friendly people who wanted to help. (For free)

You have to remember that it isn't the music that is bad; it's the oversaturated market.
And also remember that while you might not be where you want to be in popularity, there _are _people who like your music. Think back to that when you start to doubt yourself.


----------



## Taralack (Mar 25, 2013)

pukedshark said:


> You don't need to be an amazing artist or designer in order to make something that looks cool!
> 
> Like for an upcoming thing I'm doing, I literally just put some filters over a picture I doodled in paint and slapped some text on it.


/graphic designer hat on

That looks cool. I reckon the text could afford to stand out a bit more though, make it white or if that's too bright a very slight off white. The font for the band (I think?) should be an actual font just to keep consistency.

/graphic designer hat off


----------



## Kalmor (Mar 25, 2013)

Demensa said:


> You have to remember that it isn't the music that is bad; it's the oversaturated market.
> And also remember that while you might not be where you want to be in popularity, there _are _people who like your music. Think back to that when you start to doubt yourself.


Yes, this. The scene is oversaturated beyond crazy at the moment. There's so many new, good music that gets pushed under the rugs and doesn't get noticed because of the amount of "stuff" out there. As I said, you really have to make the effort to get noticed.


----------



## pukedshark (Apr 1, 2013)

Toraneko said:


> /graphic designer hat on
> 
> That looks cool. I reckon the text could afford to stand out a bit more though, make it white or if that's too bright a very slight off white. The font for the band (I think?) should be an actual font just to keep consistency.
> 
> /graphic designer hat off



i don't know how to work photoshop; the logo is a picture not a font, and i don't know how to change it's color :< i made it by stealing my sisters tablet for 5 minutes


----------

