House of Tracks has just announced a brand new website with a wealth of new features. These include a filter based search engine and custom upload system and the site has been hit with an 85% increase in daily submissions since lockdown started. As people turn to music, House of Tracks is providing the perfect ally of producers everywhere. It offers vital ways for producers to monetise their work because what began six years ago as a ghost producer platform that mainly served DJs has grown into a worldwide supplier of royalty-free music for various industries.
The site is now the largest supplier of royalty free dance music limited to one copy, and so we spoke to the CEO of the company to learn more, and visit the site here https://www.houseoftracks.com/.
How are you, how is life in lockdown?
My life has changed quite a bit since the lockdown. Not only am I the CEO of House of Tracks, as a dad of two I am currently also a teacher and soccer coach. But we are doing very well. House of Tracks is also doing good, although our day-to-day changed a lot. We are all working remote, instead of together in our beautiful office in Zaandam. We absolutely miss working as a team. But we are doing alright, making good use of digital resources and try to talk to each other daily. The supply and demand of music is very good, we’ve even had an increase of both in the last two months. New producers sign up each day, and they are selling more music than usual.
- What makes House of Tracks unique, what are your USPs?
House of Tracks is the largest producer platform of royalty-free Electronic Dance Music, limited to one copy.
What started out as a ghost producers platform six years ago is now the largest supplier of royalty free dance music. About 95% of all tracks on our platform is fully royalty free. The other tracks have shared royalties.
Our buyers are very diverse: DJs and producers, YouTubers, the gaming industry, advertising agencies, editors, movie makers and singer-songwriters.
All tracks are identified and matched by our partner DJ monitor and its database with over 80 million tracks. This is one of the ways we ensure all tracks sold on House of Tracks are original and never released before.
All producers have to audition and are carefully screened before being approved on the House of Tracks platform.
- What was the original idea – are or were you a producer yourself?
For a long time, I had been producing tracks in my studio and performing on stage as a DJ. Some tracks I had never used. When the economical crisis hit the fan, I decided it was time to find new ways to earn a living and provide for my family. Being a husband and a father of two with a mortgage, I needed stability. And so, I decided to start selling the tracks that I never intended to release.
That idea turned out to be a good one.
In no time I sold all of my tracks and could not even keep up with the demand! There was only one thing I could do. I made a business out of it. I had done some research into ghost producing and found out that, although it had been around for many years, there was no online platform. A market gap. So, I wanted to go big, fast.
I recruited a designer, rented an office and assembled a talented group of ghost producers. And so, House of Tracks was a fact! The very first in our field of business. And now, six years later, House of Tracks has grown into a worldwide supplier of royalty-free music for various industries.
- What is your personal background, did you have tech experience or did you employ people for that side or?
I hired smart and talented people to take care of the tech side. We have a saying in Holland: Let the cobbler stick to his last. It means, do what you do best, and let other people do what they do best. I run the business and manage our six employees and try to be as involved as possible with all parts of the business, from tech to communication and from numbers to -of course- the music itself.
- What are the challenges presented to a service like this? How do you ensure quality?
The challenge is to stay on top of all trends, at all times. For example, two years ago it was all about progressive. Now the top 5 is: Pop, Techno, Tech House, Future House and Bass House. We need to spot and implements trends as soon as possible and we make it a priority.
Another challenge is ensuring quality. Every track is checked individually by our A&R team. It takes up a lot of time but for us it is a necessity to maintain the level of high quality.
- Tell us what happens to music that is accepted – where can it be licensed and synced?
Accepted tracks will be offered for sale on the House of Tracks website. We highlight some of them through HOT Picks (House of Tracks picks), our staff pick. Licensing and syncing is almost never needed, since 95% of the music on House of Tracks is royalty free. The other 5% has shared royalties so when used, the producer must be named. All of our music is limited to one copy and has never been released before.
- What are you most proud of when it comes to HoT?
I am most proud of the fact that House of Tracks has grown into a company with six employees and a beautiful office in downtown Zaandam. We have been expanding since the start six years ago and are still growing. I am proud of our team and what we have accomplished together.
- What has been the most rewarding thing about HoT?
Who would have thought six years ago that Techno and Tech House, two genres that evoked a lot of resistance back then, would be in the top three selling genres today? A lot has changed since then. The industry has transformed, and so did we. We had a though start because of the negativity surrounding towards ghost producing. But in the last six years we have grown into something way bigger. We are a professional producers platform with a diverse offer of high quality music.
- What else are you working on or looking forward to?
I am working on an exciting and very promising new project, which I can’t say too much about right now. All I can say is it will be something completely new, just like House of Tracks was six years ago. I’m hoping I can share more news about this soon!
