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Music related work idea
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My illness sort of dictates I can only work from home now. I've been racking my brain to try to think of something I can do to get out of the U.K. Benefit trap. Hopefully some of you guys and gals can help.
I've been thinking about sound design and sound packs for software synths. I'm sure it's not a hugh market, but could it be big enough to get me off of benefits in the future? I do have some experience with programming synths and some computer knowledge. I know that I would have to retrain to be able to run a web site etc.
I'm looking for help with these questions:
1: What is the minimum equipment I would need to start with?
2: What computer could I get away with? Mac mini maybe?
3: do you think the iOS market is big enough for sound packs if done well?
4: Would I need a lot of money to market them, or are their cheap options to start off?
5: what basic controllers? Midi keyboard controller?
6: what online resources are their for designing, running, learning about websites?
7: is this just a mad plan and should I just resign myself to selling my body on a street corner?
I have studio monitors, an iPad Air2 and a basic 5 octave keyboard with midi outs. I have an old copy of photoshop on my laptop that I could use to create artwork, but the computer is not up to running a small business from as it's unreliable.
Any help on any point would be appreciated.
Comments
My sympathies regarding your illness and restrictions. I can relate. I know it can be a real struggle, but keep the music fire burning as much as possible. Don't go selling that body just yet.
Here is a recent video I received via email. Been meaning to have a sit down and watch on my Apple TV with the missus ASAP, because gigging is not really an option for me right now. I think it might be a good start:
http://therecordingrevolution.com/2015/09/25/how-to-make-music-for-a-living-through-youtube-an-interview-with-peter-hollens/
But that's more for trying to make a go with your original music. DJ Puzzle (aka Jason Donnelly) over at iPadLoops.com does the sound design/loops thing quite a bit. Might be worth reaching out to him at his site. There's also a handful of forum members here whose presets I play with on various synth apps ... RedSkyLullabye and Sinapsya for starts. There's more, I know. Shoot 'em a message and see if they have any advice to spare.
Also, there's a living to be made writing "stock music" for Getty and such. Each 30 second or 1:00 loop that gets selected for somebody's commercial, video game, etc. earns you royalties. Still trying to figure sort that angle myself, so no real info to share ... yet
@eustressor
Thanks for the reply. Yep early days. I need to put a lot of thought into this, but at least I have plenty of time lol
Hmmm, it may be worthwhile to check out what some people are doing with Patreon these days...
https://www.patreon.com/
Yes another good idea, thanks.
I've been running various businesses full-time since 1997, currently I make my living from a mixture of illustration and selling tutorials online, but I've also sold my photographs, written for magazines, written a book, and done various freelance jobs ranging from storyboarding to graphic design.
Rule number one for generating any kind of sales is that you must offer something of real value to your customers. If you do this then the rest is much easier.
The danger of trying to monetise a hobby is that many people will approach this from a a slightly selfish perspective: I like doing music so let's see if I can make money from it. You have to approach it from a different angle altogether: is there something that people are lacking, that they need, that I can provide? That something can take many forms, a product, a service, knowledge, entertainment (etc), but it must be something that will benefit your customers.
Having said that it's perfectly possible to monetise a hobby if you take a customer-centric view. Of course doing a hobby for money is always less fun than doing it for, well, fun. But that comes with the territory...
So my advice is to try and find something that is missing in the marketplace, and see if you can offer it. Sound packs might be an option, but I worry that the market is too small. The devs that create many of the apps don't make that much money from what I can tell, so third-parties are probably in an even worse position.
Also I think it's a great idea to get started and get something out there - even if at first you struggle to generate sales or interest there is a massive learning curve involved in running a business and marketing etc... so just getting going is really crucial so that you can start learning as you go along.
Good and sensible advice Mister R.
Agreed * ^
Why not use the iPad Air 2 to also do your artwork? There's some great design apps you could use. There's a bunch of adobe products on the app store. Also check out Canva to start
@Fruitbat1919: Sad to hear your illness gets you there... i was and i am in the same trouble.... not sure what the future will bring. I don't think that iOS will give you much for sound design... there is a lot more in the desktop world but you need to have lots of synths. In general music buisness is a bad place for independent artists, sound designers. Of course with some talent, a lot luck and the most important thing connect to the right people it might work out after long time......
I tryed it some times in iOS and even free patches are not of much interest (at least my feeling).
That might change in a few years whil iOS grow maybe. But it's not there yet. The best would be famous synths like U-he stuff, Spectrasonics, building Kontakt libraries etc.
There is no buisness to get. Also you can't price it worth the work because the synths itself are so cheap (yes... that's not alwyas good
But that is a huge amount of works and maybe it will never pay out well.
However, i wish you good luck and all the best for your future!
Thanks all for your comments and advice. I'm looking at keeping the costs low and seeing how it goes. Maybe it works out, maybe not, but sure I will learn things along the way and have very little to lose, so I will start by just making some product and see what people think to start with. Maybe along the journey, other opportunities will arise.
A bottle of bubbly to set sail with maybe? Lol
I think as Richardyot said, having a number of strings to your bow can be good, with Soundpacks being just one. If you think of it as test marketing - get something out there and learn from the responses - then you can focus in and develop those ideas which are more promising.
I ofter wondered if there was a market for a knowledgable person to teach people how to utilise iOS music apps beyond the basics, I sometimes wish I could just pay someone to speed up the learning process, I might be wrong but I would guess there is a market for private lessons or community classes.
As @PhilW and @Richardyot said, it's a good idea to have a number of different strings to your bow. As well as my main web design/hosting business I supplement my income via other means - a bit of extra cash just in case my main work goes quiet. The thing is to be flexible - for example I did pretty well for a few years with my own sites containing Google ads, but ad-blocking software and lack of advertisers has meant this income has now disappeared. I don't think of this as a failure though, just a change in the market to which I need to adapt to. As long as you have a few strings though you should be able to fall back on another income stream while developing new ones. I'm lucky that my main work is really busy, but I'm still always on the lookout for a few extra strings, just in case.
I agree, adaptability is really important, the world is changing so fast that new opportunities and markets come and go within a few years.
Again thank you all for input and suggestions, it really is much appreciated.
One thing I was looking in to was making music for game apps, there are a ton of indie developers out there and even a few market places to sell music to them. I think the trick would be to write some tracks for specific purposes (eg. a medieval one) instead of just trying to sell the songs I make for fun.
+1 ^ Or a summer/winter camp. Im spending more time researching content to understand the technicalities of all these apps, midi, cc etc than trying to compose some tunes. Suggested this to John Walden after receiving one of his weekly newsletters. Watching work flow videos does help but would prefer someone looking over my shoulder educating, correcting & advising me. Good luck @Fruitbat1919
If you want to make sounds I would suggest making them multi format instead of just iOS so you appeal to a large audience. I have a couple of sound collections that include full loops, the loops broken down by instrument, and samples of each instrument. They are presented in the WAV, REX, and Kontakt formats.
And a Mac mini will work for you. I have a 2011 model that will run anything I throw at it.
So many good points.
Laptop I was trying to use has broken down, so a new comp of some kind as cheap as possible is needed.
I'm going to look at many different avenues and keep an open mind and one eye on future ideas.
Finance is holding me back, so for now I'm going to do my research and start planning.
People are spot on, too small a market to just make iOS sounds.
Maybe retrain to look towards app development with another person taking the programming role, while I concentrate on sound and graphics.
Lots to think about....thanks all.
Lots of good stuff in this thread. thanks for asking and thanks for all the answers.
I think iOS is actually potentially a big enough market to make some scratch with presets. The problem, and it's a big one, is the delivery channel. Were it possible to sell (quality, desirable) presets to customers directly through the app store (or, better, the app in question directly) I think someone could make a go at monetizing it. As it is, your sales channel is web only and your delivery channel is basically web+paypal+desktop download+itunes transfer to [APP HERE] which is way too much to ask of customers who are used to one-tap 30 second installs via the app store.
There are synth preset sites but even they have incredibly low traffic/usage as compared to total iOS synth usages. It's just still a pain to get stuff into apps.
It's possible at this point that you could create an app that houses IAPs for presets for various synth apps along with 'open in' or similar technologies to move the downloads into the app in question. That would help with the one-tap mindset but a) your sales channel is still web only and b) you're limited to synths that allow you to open preset packs via "open in" (et al).
To really make this work as a business for iOS I think this needs to happen:
Three and four are flexible (subscription could be an option) but the main idea there is that the best sales channel for a preset creator is directly within the app in question. Close to impossible to find, say, Cassini users in the wild but easy as pie if they're already in the app! The only other real way to do this is to make a deal with the app creator directly where they'll host your presets on their own preset server and promise to share any IAP purchase money with you. I know some people have done this but it's infrequent enough that I can only assume the arrangement isn't profitable.
Presuming my half-baked speculation is right, the business might not be making and selling presets but instead a system that enables others to make and (successfully) sell presets.
@syrupcore That my friend is a brilliant idea. Someone needs to jump on this immediately!
Making money from music and/or sound design is really a numbers game. You have to have a huge huge huge amount of material out there in order to be making decent money. This is true unless you are very very talented or very very lucky. Turning something you love doing in to your job can potentially suck all the joy out of it.
Don't want to discourage you from going for it but I would not spend a bunch of money on equipment in the hope of having a return on your investment. Would start off designing some sounds or music cues and try sending them off to publishers like Getty, Audiosparx, Magnatune and Pond5. You can sell music and sound design bits SFX for games on Unity Asset Store or Unreal and various other sites.
I am trying to do a bit of sound design and just started putting some free and paid stuff on Unity Asset store (This was all done on ipad https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/42983 ) I would start off putting some stuff on various websites and keeping adding to it until someone starts buying some, at that point you can decide if the effort is worth it or not. Even if you end up making enough to keep you in ipad upgrades every few years you are ahead. Apologies, feel like I just peed on your dreams.
This thread has wonderful advice, not just for myself, but also for others. All thoughts and information put on here are valid.
Nobody worry about 'peeing' on my 'dreams', as they are more contemplations of how to think outside the box for myself. This is not about my dreams of hobby becoming career. For myself this is about finding something work wise that can co-exist with my health condition.
If nothing else comes of this for myself, the experience and knowledge of others written here may benefit others, so thanks all who contribute.
First of all, let me tell you...GO AHEAD!!! Do it!!! Worst case, you are doing something that you love and keeps you joyful.
Said that....I would focus on two main areas (to integrate with iOS and Desktop environment):
...by the way, the above are the "only" areas which still get reasonable $$$$ (most of the rest, although high in quality is considered "free")
Here a list of potential websites, just keep in mind....1: take time to produce GOOD tunes; 2: it does not happen soon, but never know
@Ollimac73
WOW a big thanks....that's some list!