How much to charge for music?

[Steve_Kaetzel]

I am a classically trained composer new to the game industry searching for contract work in game audio. My studio, website, demo, etc. are ready to go, but now I've come to the dredded question of what to bid. I have been trying to come up with a good pricing scheme for my services but am not exactly sure what the market will bear.

Writing music is indeed a difficult skill to master, and composers should be charging what they are rightfully entitled to. However, I see people giving away their music for next to nothing just for the chance to have it on a game. How does one find the comfortable medium where the composer is adequately compensated while remaining affordable to the developer?

Any feedback on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

Steve Kaetzel
Composer/Audio Engineer

[Christian]

I would say, choose your clients wisely. Some clients will only accept "cheap" to free and no more, some others will pay for good value though. You may want to spread your network of clients to not only indie v-games, work with the ones who pay good money :)

[papillon]

A lot of people making indie games have little to no money. Games have been completed for an entire budget of less than three hundred dollars. That's everything, not just music. You can imagine that charging anything resembling a decent rate won't go too far then. On the other hand, there are some people around these parts who have budget, and pitching yourself as 'practically free!' will make them dismiss you as amateur.

If you want to hit the widest range of people, my suggestion would be:

Make a range of premade, non-exclusive, royalty-free music that anyone can buy and put in their games for, say, $10-40 a track. This will let you catch the cheap market. At the same time, heavily promote your custom music, but don't say rates publically, ask them to contact you and talk to them privately about how much budget they have and what they want for it. It's mildly annoying, but it's also somewhat traditional in business.

[ChiefRedThunder]

As a start up garage game company, I wouldn't be able to pay you no matter how amazing your skills as a artist are. However in my situation, you'd have to be a flexible artist, and if you see the value in the product that I am creating then we'd have to sit down to work out some sort of payment scheme. I think in this industry you don't really know who is doing what and going where so you should always be weary, feel out your prospective cliental, and work with them to achieve a proper balance that you can be happy with.

Its a tricky tightrope... and in the end you'll always feel like you over charged.

[Steve_Kaetzel]

Thank you all for the comments. I think I have a better idea of how the whole bidding process works now.

[Fastestmanintheworld]

Steve:

AAA budgets pay composers anywhere from $500-1000/minute creative fees-only, then will cover all recording/production costs, which can include full live orchestra, full choir, mixing/editing/mastering, cutting stems, etc. These gigs are difficult to land, and are much, much more complicated than they may seem - requiring many, many more skills than simply composing/orchestrating. Consider what these budgets are purchasing: absolutely world-class audio (no getting away with a MOTU Traveler, a few Fatheads and some KRKs), delivered in multiple stems, in multiple formats (7.1/5.1/2.1//etc) - just the mics, pres and converters/clocks for this type of recording can run into 20-40k... and that's before hiring world-class musicians, decent recording rooms, etc.

Of course, the vast majority of projects don't need this type of audio production, so budgets such as these aren't necessary. Many AAA composers make music on a regular basis anyway, for demo or artistic purposes. These 'orphaned' tracks are usually all virtual instruments (no live players), made in the composers' own studios, during downtime. Many choose to license those tracks as non-exclusive to different projects they like, retaining all rights to re-sell those pieces of music to anyone, anywhere, anytime they'd like. Usually, these simple licenses could run from maybe $50 - $500 a track(piece), depending on everything from the composers' abilities (say, music-school student v seasoned game audio composer) to the amount of investment that went into the track (for example, a small 8-bit MIDI "80's rpg-style" track might license for far less than a live-orchestra track a composer put his/her own money up to produce) - and the composer can generate some income each time they re-sell the music. In some cases, the dev will need a truly 'custom' score, and insist on a buyout (which means no re-licensing for the composer), because they intend on selling the game to a publisher. In these cases, if the dev has a decent track record of selling games, and the composer believes the game will sell, the professional composer could work out some sort of "milestone" agreement to allow him/her to be paid a reasonable amount if the game were to generate serious income. This could take the form of a "30 minutes original score, $1k upfront, $300 for live soloists, then $1k every time the game sells 10k copies until a total of $10k is paid out" kind of thing, or whatever the composer and developer choose to agree upon. This makes everyone happy - the dev gets wonderful, custom music for far, far less than he'd have to pay for a regular custom-score buyout, the composer gets some work done (and a little income) during a downtime, the game ends up sounding great, and if the game becomes a success, the composer can still make a reasonable profit. Many experienced, professional composers (some of them on this forum, for example) are happy to work on a variety of interesting projects during the downtimes between larger gigs, for many reasons outside of simply money, including how much they like the game, the challenge of scoring outside their 'comfort zone', love of indie games in general, etc.

Of course, there's another side to this, too - many composers are simply kids learning to record a few tracks in Reason over a few Acid loops, or copying obscure Uematsu MIDI tracks - and these resulting tracks simply, in the end, aren't worth $500/minute + milestones. No one wants to talk about this, because there's no reason to be anything but encouraging to young composers, and who can put a price on something as slippery as music? It's safe to say, though, there's a certain element of you-get-what-you-pay-for here, and sadly, with the shitstorm of 'experienced composer, will work for nothing' ads, it's very easy for a new dev to come to the conclusion that *all* music should be available to them for the price of a decent steak dinner with the woman :) Luckily, most professional devs realize quickly that a smart, experienced, professional digital-game composer can help them realize their vision for the project quickly, efficiently and professionally - and many of these composers are willing to take a financial gamble along with the devs on the project's worth down the line.

So, it's up to the devs and composers to work together to find the right level of quality needed for the project worked on. Many devs are newbs too, still in the learning stage, so there's no reason they should have to put out giant money for music. In the end, it's about matching the right people with the right people - but sadly, many devs get caught up in the "I don't have any money, so I'm certainly not *paying* you for this music" thought-process. Of course, this thinking is just silly - if a dev has no budget, and wants a buyout, and you're willing to cut a 'milestone' deal for them, taking the risk along with them, and they're *still* not willing to budge, just run away.

And many composers get caught up in the "Ubisoft's paying George McComposer $1200/minute creative, I could have written that, so I'm charging the same" thinking, too. Of course, this is silly too - ol' George worked for years and years to build up the trust that allows a huge multinational to entrust him with something as important as that score - and he's probably one hell of a better composer, too.

Worst, many young composers get caught in the "if I just get a few game credits, I'll be able to charge big $$ and make a living at this, so I'll give my music away for nothing" thinking. This is the most silly thinking of all, as most big projects come as a result of the trust built in long-term relationships - and the composer simply broadcasting the fact he'll work for nothing - and training the devs they can get what they want for nothing, as long as they use newbs(!).

So there you go - in the end, there's no reason at all not to license your tracks non-exclusively for $10 or $50 or whatever you'd like - but there *is* a reason to avoid offering them as buyouts or exclusive licenses at the same rates. As the composer, you're responsible for deciding what your music is worth - and if you sell it for less, you should at least be able to get the full worth, plus some, down the line - as you're taking a gamble either way. Non-exclusive licenses allow you to recoup with multiple licenses, but if the dev is looking for a buyout, you'll need to convince them to either pay you the full amount, or make up milestones or royalties - because they're asking you to *invest* the remainder of your music's worth after the upfront in their project, *just like a financial investor*.

Sadly, it's impossible to 'standardize' art - in this case, music per-minute rates and a general lack of understanding of how composers make a living, along with the overabundance of 'bedroom' composers living in Mom's house has made it, in many cases, difficult to open a good conversation. Hopefully, this post can open a conversation itself - I'm certainly interested in what everyone else in this forum has to say, and their perceptions on these issues as the digital-game industry evolves at light-speed, right in front of our eyes. Please take this in the spirit it's offered - as one composer's view - and good luck with your work!

Duncan