WRITTEN BY KATE FINAN, CO-OWNER OF BOOM BOX POST
As many of you know, in 2017, we branched out from our post-production sound business, Boom Box Post, to start Boom Box Library. BBL (as we call it around here) is a sound effect library company which allows us to share our sound design work with other professionals, and also contribute to the creativity of our community members with custom-recorded libraries that we feel fill a void in basic materials. In short, our award-winning sound designers are creating sound libraries that we ourselves want to use.
For many of you who freelance or have unpredictable schedules, adding library creation to your business ventures could be just the thing you need. But, while recording or designing the sounds may be totally in your wheelhouse, there are a lot of other things that go into being able to sell your libraries. And that’s the end goal, right?
Now that we’re six years into our library business, we have some solid experience about what’s needed to get up and running. So, I thought I would share the basics of what you’ll need when kickstarting your library business. I’d also like to mention that starting a business can be a very slow burn, especially in the online store space. Expect to put time, effort, and money into it for quite a while before you start to see any monetary returns. But, you don’t need to break the bank to get started. Keeping costs low in the beginning will help you ride the wave for much longer until you start to turn a profit.
STEP 1: LEGALLY START A BUSINESS
I am not a lawyer or an accountant. But you should definitely speak with one or use a legal website to explore the best option for starting your own business. If you already have a business license for your sound work, you may be able to use a DBA (doing business as) for your library company. But, do your own research and make sure you’re on the right side of what needs to be done to keep your business above board. Inexpensive legal websites, like Legal Zoom can often help with gathering information and filing the necessary paperwork.
STEP 2: CREATE A LIBRARY
First, create your sound library. You will obviously want the sounds to be high quality and something that people want. Ask your friends what they feel is missing from their libraries. Ask yourself if there’s anything you need to design again and again instead of having a go-to library. Start there. If you need more food for thought, here are some of our past posts that might help:
Sound Effects Gathering: A Field Recording Guide
Inside Sound Design: Field Recording Backgrounds and Ambiences
Tips and Tricks to Recording Specific Sound Effects
Boom Box Post Lunch & Learn: Vehicle Recording
Sound Effects Microphone Shootout!
STEP 3: NAME YOUR FILES & ADD YOUR METADATA
Start looking at how other sound library companies name their files. Which files are easy to find in Soundminer (or your usual library software)? Which are difficult to sift through? What metadata do they contain? Be sure that all tags are spelled correctly, are intuitive, and won’t accidentally trigger unwanted search results. Then, read the manuals on how to properly add metadata to your files with your preferred software. This will make all of the difference in bringing your libraries to the top of users’ search results.
STEP 4: HIRE A GRAPHIC DESIGNER
You will need a graphic designer to create a company logo for you and a primary image (a product box or a cover image) for each library. There are lots of routes you can take for this: do it yourself if you’re able with easy online software like Canva, ask around for friends who could help with the job, put a call out on social media, post on Craigslist, or use an online site like Fiverr.
Like anything, you will get what you pay for. But there are certainly ways to make this happen inexpensively if needed. What’s important is that you have visual branding across all of your libraries. You’ll want your logo to be consistent on all products and on your website (more to come on that). You’ll also want the feel of your products to all be similar. Do you want to have an indie/homemade vibe? Do you want your library company to seem sleek and high-tech? Do you want to be dark and mysterious? All of these are possible with the right graphic design to tie your aesthetic together across all images.
STEP 5: CHOOSE AN ONLINE SALES METHOD
There are three options for selling your libraries online: start your own website, sell on a third-party site like A Sound Effect or Sonniss, or both. All of these have their pluses and minuses and different related costs.
If you start your own website, you’ll have total control. No one else will take a cut when you make a sale, and you be sure that your customers are getting the exact buying experience that you intend. However, it will cost a monthly fee to have your own online store, and you’ll also need to put in the time and effort to design, manage, and maintain it. You’ll also need to generate your own site traffic, which can be very difficult. A lot of online stores set up shop assuming people will come on their own, and then see zero traffic. So, you’ll need to put time and effort into promoting the store as well. If having your own store appeals to you, here is a list of options for building it.
The other option is to start selling on a third-party site. The pluses for this are that these sites already have their own loyal customer-base who regularly peruse the offerings. Plus, you don’t pay a monthly fee and do not need to manage the site. However, you will need to add your own products and manage them if you want to put them on sale or change prices. The minuses are that you have no input in the look of your product page other than adding your photos and text. You will also pay a percentage to the site whenever you make a sale. If the site is located outside of your home country, you may need to deal with currency exchange via your bank account. Finally, you won’t be able to control how many of the site’s customers actually see your products. There are a lot of vendors on these sites, so it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle, especially if your tags aren’t the right ones to bring you up in prospective customers’ search results.
If you’re feeling really ambitious, you can always do both. But, if you don’t already have a large following within the sound design community or an incredible flair for marketing and self-promotion, I would suggest starting with a third-party site, and then moving to or adding your own store when you have enough customers regularly purchasing your libraries.
STEP 6: PROMOTE YOURSELF AND YOUR LIBRARIES
This can be the hardest thing for those of us who are used to being a quiet member of a sound team. But, I can say with absolutely no hesitation that you will not have any customers if you don’t market your libraries. Online sales is not a “build it and they will come” sort of scenario.
Here are some no-cost ideas: start building your following on social media within the sound design community so you can pepper updates about your libraries between your usual posts. Start an email newsletter where you could share your releases. Reach out to an audio podcast to ask if you could participate and then say a little blurb about your libraries. Start a blog about your library creations. These things won’t necessarily cost you any money, but they will take considerable time and effort.
I hope that this helps anyone considering adding Sound Effect Library Business Owner to their resume. Feel free to comment below with any questions if you’re considering this path, or tips if you’ve already ventured into library creation yourself!