Hoping to sell your SFX library online? Not sure how to go about it? Production Expert’s Damian Kearns asked A Sound Effect’s Asbjoern Andersen how to successfully sell a sound effects library.

I’ve been buying sound libraries for more than 20 years, long before I went freelance nine years ago, initially as a hedge against losing my job. Now at nearly 150,000 sounds, my personal SFX collection eclipses the collection I used at my prior place of employment in terms of both breadth and scope. Though I have recorded thousands of sounds myself, the majority share of my collection is purchased libraries from recognized vendors. When I first went freelance, I had to assure some nervous clients that I owned properly licensed sound collections, since it’s not usual that anyone new to independent operating should have so large a collection of legally obtained SFX. Back then, all my libraries came in disc or HDD form, so it was a simple matter to pull out the box with all the original hardware in it.

Over the past nine years my buying habits have shifted to favour downloading more “boutique” offerings. This shift occurred in 2016 when I discovered asoundeffect.com, now my main source for independent sound libraries. This led me to seek out other sites and meet the individuals who gather and curate wildly differing recordings which has resulted in a major change in the way I acquire the raw materials for my work. Few developments in post production audio have had the paradigm-shifting impact that independently-produced sound libraries have had on our workflows over the past decade. I can’t think of anyone I know who hasn’t purchased an independently-produced SFX collection.

I was curious about how A Sound Effect was started, how to prepare a library for distribution on a site like this, how to get paid for sales and what sorts of libraries sell best. To find answers to my questions, I asked Asbjoern Andersen to talk to me since he’s been at the forefront of the development of this emerging delivery system. In this article, he shares wonderful insight into this otherwise hazy world of independent SFX sales.

When And How Did You Come Up With The Concept For Your Website?

Back in 2013, I had started to notice some really great sound effects libraries released by independent sound creators, and I told one of my sound designing colleagues to check them out.

I sent him this big list of links to SFX library creator sites for him to explore, as that was the only overview I could find at the time. But with just company names/individual sound creator names to go by - and no info about the libraries that awaited once he clicked through to all those sites  - the process was really cumbersome. That made me realize that finding all this great content was a lot harder than it needed to be.

That gave me the idea to do a catalogue that allowed the user to easily find out what the indie SFX community had to offer—without having to spend hours ploughing through a lot of sites. To make the site more useful to people in the community, I also added a blog where I could share sound stories and sound-related news I found interesting. Down the road, I realised that it could be really practical to be able to get all these indie SFX libraries in one go as well, so I launched the shop part of the site.

How Did You Attract Other Library Owners To A Sound Effect?

While my wife was travelling for 3 weeks, I put together the first version of A Sound Effect which effectively catalogued all the libraries I could find out there. I'm no coder or designer, so it wasn't the prettiest thing on the planet, but it did something nothing else could do at the time: It gave a birds-eye-view of what was out there. It also demonstrated that there was a targeted, affordable and fascinatingly fresh alternative to the established SFX libraries in the industry.

Before going live, I emailed all the SFX creators that I had listed and asked if they were okay with me doing this overview. Thankfully the vast majority of SFX creators were positive about this but for both me and the SFX creators, it was an experiment with an outcome none of us could predict. Would people even use the site? Thankfully, they did, and as the site evolved, I started to hear from SFX creators that they saw a large increase in sales, which in turn inspired new SFX creators to join in as well.

What Sorts Of Metadata Do You Require In The Files You Host? Can You Tell Me What UCS Is?

I recommend that people use the Universal Category System, championed by industry veterans such as Tim Nielsen and Justin Drury of Soundminer. The challenge with metadata has always been that there was no set standard for naming, grouping and keywords in general. That has particularly put indie SFX at a disadvantage compared to larger libraries, where everything is compiled, handled and tagged by the same team. This is what UCS is built to solve - and while no system is perfect for every scenario, I think UCS offers a great standardized way to get metadata consistency across a number of different SFX creators. And ultimately, having a standardized system makes it easier for the sound users to find what they need, which is what metadata is of course all about.

What Sample Rates Are Ideal For Sound Effect Libraries?

I recommend that people capture the source recordings at as good a quality as their equipment allows (24 bit, 96 kHz or higher, for example) for three reasons:

1. A key aspect of high sample rates is that they get you much better results if the sound users want to pitch shift, process and manipulate the recordings.

2. While high sample rates may be overkill for what's currently needed out there, who knows what we'll need in the future.

3. As indie SFX continue to grow, the sample rate and the quality of your recordings could be what makes you stand out from what else is out there.

What Does It Take To Succeed As An Indie Sound Creator?

There are three essential steps:

The first one is to familiarize yourself with what's already available - this should absolutely be your first step, before you start recording anything. Independent sound effects have come a long way since I started A Sound Effect in 2013, and some sound effects categories have gotten quite crowded, making it a lot harder for sound effects creators to stand out and attract customers for new libraries in those categories. This particularly goes for sound sources that most recordists have access to, like water, wind, footsteps, etc - and for libraries that are particularly fun to make, like gore/horror and EMF releases. Chances are that a lot of others will have done similar libraries.

I've got a search page here, for those who want to explore the current selection

Once you start brainstorming ideas, look for gaps in the market, and think about types of content you can record that others might have a hard time capturing.

The second step is to realize that getting into indie sound effects is a marathon, not a sprint, and that if you want it to be a viable business, you can't just release one library and be done with it. It'll take time and effort to build up a good catalogue of sound libraries and to establish your reputation in the sound community.

To avoid frustration, it's also important to be realistic about creating sound effects libraries: For a lot of people in the indie SFX community, sound libraries aren't their only source of income - for many, it's one part of their freelance audio business, or something they do as a supplement to their in-house audio work.

If you do manage to build a strong catalogue and a name for yourself in the community, it can be a great source of revenue and a good way to insulate yourself from the ‘ups and downs’ of the audio industry by giving you a steady source of income.

The third step is to think about building your brand as a sound effects creator: Sound creators like George Vlad (Mindful Audio), Thomas Rex Beverly, Mattia Cellotto and others put great effort into staying visible in the sound community and it really helps keep them ‘top of mind’ for people looking for sound libraries. Of course, it doesn't hurt that their libraries are fantastic! - but the point still stands: If you put in the effort to promote your content and remain visible on an ongoing basis, it can have a substantial impact on your sales and the success of your indie sound effects adventures.

A Sound Effect Doesn’t Have A General Library? Is This Something You’d Consider Doing?

I don't have any specific announcements to make here, but I'm always thinking about ways to get those indie SFX libraries out to more people, and to get them out there in ways that make sense for both the SFX users and the SFX creators.

Can You Tell Us How Someone Might Get Paid For A Library?

My current setup on A Sound Effect is based around Paypal for customers and SFX creators, and everytime there's a sale, payment is sent to the SFX creator. However, Paypal is an absolute behemoth, and a slow-moving, often unresponsive one at that, so I'm looking into alternatives too.

What Does It Take To Get A Library Onto A Sound Effect? 

Be sure that your library is ready for publishing. This means having some great, well-recorded and focused sounds, a cover image, an audio demo and a good description. If you haven't added metadata yet, the Universal Category System (UCS) is the way to go. And for me personally, I’m really interested in content that isn’t well-covered already. Once you’re ready to publish, drop me a message.

Thanks very much for all of your thoughts, Asbjoern. I get the sense that as much as file management is key to making a library user-friendly, a good deal of thought and research has to go into what kind of library would be worth creating and how to tag the sounds so that they’re easy to search for inside a library program. I really appreciate the time you’ve spent being interviewed for this article.

A World Of Sound Libraries To Explore

There are, as Asbjoern mentioned, plenty of great independent sound effects libraries sources out there. Some of my other favourites are (to name a few):

Hiss And A Roar by ace sound designer Tim Prebble. Tim’s sounds first came to my attention when I needed to recreate the sounds of Netflix’s “Stranger Things” some years back and read that his seal vocals sounds had been used extensively in creature creation.

Pole Position Production offers up some amazing vehicle sounds, as well as other sound design building blocks. PPP’s offerings are available through asoundeffect.com as well.

Pro Sound Effects brings together a lot of indie libraries and also offers up general use libraries. Their offerings are also available on asoundeffect.com.

Sonniss has pages and pages of libraries to explore. I personally own a number of their sounds.

Free To Use Sounds is an indie source for free libraries but also offers up some reasonably priced ‘premium’ sets.

freesound.org is an alternative to conventional sound libraries. This open database is requires only a free membership to start uploading and downloading its content and can be invaluable when commercial libraries don’t offer arcane or geographically unique content.

There are also social media groups dedicated to independent sound designers and their libraries which are worth looking for and joining, if possible.

I think the business model Asbjoern Andersen conceived in 2013 has helped to democratize and establish internet-based sound libraries sales. As a long time SFX buyer, I still use established companies like Sound Ideas when I’m looking to purchase general libraries, collections from larger companies or traditional sound effects content. That likely won’t change for the foreseeable future. What an independent library offers me (which is priceless) is a la carte, targeted purchases so I can get the sounds I need, without having to buy a lot of other stuff I don’t want.

The pictures I’ve used in this article represent some of my favourite offerings on asoundeffect.com.

As with any sound design element, it’s vital to identify a need for something, then figure out whether to purchase or record the sound yourself. There’s a wide world of creators out there and we live in a time when connecting with them is easier than ever. We have options, and that’s a great thing for those of us who piece together the worlds inside the stories we’re tasked to bring to life.

Photo by Vladislav Smigelski on Unsplash