How to get my music noticed?

Started by Mymar, January 31, 2016, 03:00:03 PM

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Mymar

I know this isn't really the site for it, but I've been asking various places just in case someone had a good idea, but I've been looking to doing something with my music, like film or video games, or even commercials, I just want to be able to do something constructive with my music. Any ideas? Do I just send it to publishers like WB, or Bethesda and hope for the best? Or is there another way?

consortium11

Looking at video games specifically most publishers aren't directly involved with the music and scoring of a game, so it's best to go to the studios directly. And studio's don't "hire" on an on-going basis with it instead being a freelance contract on a game by game basis so you'll want to do a bit of research. Find a studio that's developing a game that you think you could do good music for, find out who the audio director (or whoever is in charge) is and find a way to get in contact (getting past any gatekeepers as necessary). Then send them a showreel tailored to the game in question; don't send a showreel of your cute, cartoony music which would be perfect for a puzzle platformer to someone making a hack-and-slash action game or epic RPG... or vice versa. Hopefully you'll catch someone's ear and things can go from there.

In general, as redundant as it sounds, the best way to get noticed by the people who matter is to get noticed in general. Post your music on Youtube/Soundcloud/whatever other sites it may be appropriate for, have a twitter, maybe a blog, think about spreading it on any forums you use, places like Reddit, maybe get in contact with people who do youtube video content (be it fan trailers, series or anything like that) and see if they'd like to use any of your stuff (or make a custom piece for them). What you want is a library of works and a raised profile.

Mymar

Thanks! This seems like fairly sound advice, I did actually read someones blog on how they did it, and it seems similar to what you're suggesting.  Any idea on what a typical salary for a game might be?

consortium11

Technical/Pedantic point; a composer for video games isn't likely to earn a salary, but instead be on a work-for-hire/contracted basis; you'll be paid by the job.

From what I understand it's a "how long is a piece of string" type of question. The top (and I do mean top) guys can get between $1000 and $2500 per minute of music they do and when you think that some games need well over an hours worth of music that can add up to a lot. On the other hand if you're working on some indy team with a very tight budget? You're going to get a lot less... maybe $60 if your lucky. And that's composing a specific piece that you're also selling the rights to; if you're selling non-exclusive then obvious the amount goes down. You also have to factor in competition and an element of race to the bottom; until you've got some credit to your name (either from previous games or at least building up a good reputation in general) then you're competing with an awful lot of other inexperienced composers many of whom will constantly try to undercut their competition to get gigs.

It's certainly possible to make a living even without ever getting "big"... but especially to begin with it's going to be hard graft.




Another option to look into is AudioJungle. It's a royalty free music site favored by a lot of people who make games, custom videos etc etc and can be a pretty good place to make some money; for example the top seller on there has 9,154 sales at $19.99 (that's over $180k) in the five years it's been released. Now, obviously, $30k a year isn't going to make you a millionaire and that's the top seller but if you're regularly putting out new songs, each of which then passively provides you with an income it can be a nice base to work from and as well as make some money build your reputation.

Mymar

Thanks, I'm not looking to get rich or anything, I just have something I want to do something with from time to time, and I am not the kind of music writer that would write for say a pop star, I don't understand how to write that kind of music, though I've been told I should try...