Building a Sound Library (For fun & For a living)

Question

Hello everyone. I am sure everyone of you must have thought of it when you first started off in this field. We do what we do, first, because we love it and ,second, because we hope we make some money out of it. I am at present building up my own sound library. I'm recording as many sounds as I could of as many different objects and ambiances and trying to put all of them together. Since we have a lot of experienced sound recordists here, I wanted to know how did you go about and what all things you did and kept in mind while monitizing your sounds. Any specific tips, do's and don't you would like to share. Thank You.

Answer 1

Some links:

• http://www.jetstreaming.org/2011/09/30/selling-sound-effects-how-to/
• How to make money with sound design.

This is your competition:

• http://www.sounddogs.com/
• http://www.soundrangers.com/
• http://www.airbornesound.com/
• http://designingsound.org/sfx-independence/
• http://www.sound-ideas.com/
• http://www.pond5.com/sound-effects/1/*.html
• http://www.prosoundeffects.com/
• http://www.blastwavefx.com/
• http://www.hollywoodedge.com/
• http://www.soundsnap.com/
• ...

I personally would try to join/set up a collective, or team up with some friends, rather than trying to stitch together a library and/or a delivery channel independently. For example, SoundDogs (more of a distributor nowadays) and Soundrangers are made up of groups of people, and they have volume, in addition to pro quality.

Volume (the amount of sounds) is one selling point, but the other is quality, usability and uniqueness (for which you need a solid ideas that people want/need, some sort of "marketing strategy" and a well thought delivery channel). I wouldn't waste time doing something that's done clearly better or more cheaply already. You'll definitely need to find specializations to focus on, i.e. filling what is either missing or what you think you can deliver better or more cheaply.

Or you can always go the "FOSS" route and make the world a better place :) : http://www.freesound.org/

Answer 2

I'll also recommend checking out Mark Camperell's DIY SFX libraries: A Guide To Your First Sound Effects Library - it gives a lot of practical hands-on tips, advice and insights from someone who's already done several libraries. Hope you find it useful :)

Answer 3

Another library for quality production is the marketplace RapBeats.net where you can get tons of quality beats. They also offer some free beats, just check the link I've posted.