If you are new in the game with little experience you are obviously probably going to have to settle with a lower rate. But never work for free!

Never compose original music for free

Let’s say this again, loud – Never work for free! It might stab you in the back for a long time. Of course it’s perfectly fine to exchange services with a client. But just don’t work for free… Just don’t!

A client who receives a service for free, will expect that service to be free in the futureu too.

Original music composed for student films

Educational practise does not equal work!

If you are an aspiring composer and currently studying music production. If one of your friends ask you to score their student film for an exam or whatever. This is your educational period, and while you are studying I wouldn’t really count the production as work. It’s practise, before you actually start to work in the industry. This is the time you are building up your portfolio. And the opportunity to educate yourself by working on a film project is excellent.

Film scores in your portfolio – grow your personal brand

Make sure you agree with the student film producer on your righs to use the final product, the film, for promotional purpose of your musical services. You want to be able to use the film on your portfolio website, youtube and for social media marketing.

You want to grow your personal brand as soon as possible to get a foot in the game- / film- industry.

How to price your original composing services?

I get this question a lot and it’s hard to give a solid answer since everyone’s experience and background is different.

Indie game music composers with experience and a credit list, will have prices within the range of $250-$1000 per minute of music. The more experienced and in demand a composer is, the higher they are likely to charge for their music and time.

Price will obviously rise with experience

The more experienced, “famed” and in demand you become as a composer, the higher you are likely to be able to charge for your music and time.

Some will charge per track, whilst other will charge per minute of music produced.

If it’s a big score. Like 20 music themes and sound design for a complete game. You might want to quote for the project as a whole. A full AAA game is quite the project and can often span over several years.

Charging by the hour of original music produced

In most cases, I’ve decided to charge for my time like any other contractor / freelancer (per hour of work).

…Rather than charging per minute of music.

The downside of charging per minute of music

The downside of charging per minute of produced music is that if the client requests several revisions. Which means more production time without any additional payment. You will probably go minus on such project.

Tech has changed drastically how films & games are made in the last 15 years. Everyone can make film (almost) these days. And everyone is making quality video. Insta, TikTok, Snap, YouTube etc. There are more game companies than you can count pumping out the next Candy Crush or Minecraft clone. ;D

Tons of opportunity.

Every kid with a laptop is making music

But everyone is also doing music…. Every kid with a laptop (Like deadmau5 said in a promo video…lol)

But if you can stick out in the noise, you can dig in to the sweet work. As mentioned, there are plenty of opportunity.

Orginal sound can help you rise above the competition

A good example of sticking out in the noise is swedish Ludwig Göransson (yes, you know him from the score to the famouse Mandalorian series). He has a very original sound poking out of the noise. Ludvig is recording many live instruments in his studio to get a very personal sound.

Personally my background is writing music in bands and releasing albums. Then I studied music theory /composition / arranging, and decided to start to produce music and sound for media (read games & film, commercials etc) with my company Morningdew Media https://www.morningdewmedia.com

In the beginning I did all kinds of wicked projects to build my brand. I was doing radio commercials, recording bands, jingles, writing for flash games / branding sites etc. All to build my brand and name and get to know the companies. I got to work on some really cool projects for E.ON, Scania, Statoil, IKEA, Apoliva, Fisherman’s Friend, Forsman & Bodenfors… and game music for Peak Games (Turkey) & Come2Play (Israel) etc. Fun times! …Building a brand and your name is probably the most important aspect and should be taken very seriously….

For me it was a long and winding path. And it’s still on-going. 2 years back I decided to stop scoring so many projects and build more on my brand, my own music, and do educational projects instead…like building this YouTube channel which is turning out to be a successful and fun journey. But back to the pricing.

What is the film budget for music production and score?

Talk with the directors and ask what kind of budget they are working with. Calculate the time it will take you to write the music. Does it take 4-6 weeks to finish the score? Set your hourly rate and calculate. Be sure to include clauses for maximum revisions etc. Or if the client wants to do changes they need to pay for the extra production time, or else you will probably go minus on your first few projects.

Working for hire – the client owns the music you produce

Sometimes you can do work as (work for hire) which means your client will own the rights to the content you produce for them. This means you can only sell the produced content to one client, and not use the music outside of that agreement. It’s all up to you and what you want to allow, it’s your music. Your rights!

Selling your original songs to a music licensing company

These days many film companies (series) work with music licensing companies. And thus they buy music from a large library. You can always start working for a licensing library to begin your career. But the sad part of licensing companies is that your personal brand will not grow that much since they use the licensing companies name (Epidxxxx ) in the film / game credits.

Licensing the same songs to several clients

The license companies sometimes let you sell the music outside of the agreement to other parties, but it can also be an exclusive deal. Make sure you read up on that agreement before you sign anything!

You probably want YOUR name to be in the credits if you want to grow your brandname.

The games industry is bigger than the film industry

I also suggest you don’t focus solely on film scoring. Broaden your vision and look for game projects. The game industry is 1000 times bigger than the film industry anyways these days. That means more opportunity for work. In my experience the film industry is also more “closed” and harder to break into. Games are being built everywhere. From the small closet-studio (read: indie studio) to the big AAA studios.

I hope this article is helpful to someone starting a career in film music / game audio!

You can learn more about making music for games in this article.

// Mattias

Conclusion – How much should You Charge To Compose Original Music

I would definitely recommend charging per hour of work for your music. That is the same payment scheme as any other freelance content creator, or design Bureau is going with.

The hourly cost is calculated like any other freelance business creator. You calculate your expenses like travel, hotels, material, insurance, studio rent etc. There are plenty of calculators out on google, but I suggest you look at your own personal costs as they might differ from other creators / countries / regions etc.

As mentioned earlier, charging per minute of produced music can ultimately make you working for free. And in the long run this isn’t viable for a healthy business.

The post How much should You Charge To Compose Original Music appeared first on Morningdew Media.

How to distribute music online?

So you’ve just got the final master back from the mastering service and it’s time to get those tracks out to the world. But as you browse the internet you quickly see it’s really a jungle of different music distribution services.

How do you know which distribution service to go with?

During the years I’ve been walking through a few of the big names in the distribution market. I finally landed on a platform called DistroKid.

DistroKid is now my primary choice for digital distribution and in this article I will explain why!

Why use DistroKid?

Firstly, I’ve been using DistroKid for many years to get my music to Spotify, iTunes and Amazon. In the past I’ve used several other services, but they are either too expensive (pay per album). Or they take too long to process my tracks. Some services are also very hard to navigate and the publishing process takes forever to complete.

I’ve published everything from game music soundtracks, to film scores and Future Bass tracks with GELHEIN – Fly!

The music publishing process

With DistroKid the music publishing process is very smooth. You just select how many tracks you want to publish and enter the meta data for the tracks. All the major streaming platforms are pre-selected with checkboxes. But you can always opt-out of specific platforms if you want.

You get to select the track price, genre and a release date.

Then you upload your tracks and album art.

Leave a legacy – earn royalties forever

At the bottom of the subform you get some extra options. One option is “Leave a legacy”. That basically means that even if you cancel your DistroKid subscription the tracks will still be on the streaming platforms.

And you will continue to earn streaming royalties from your music.
Even if you die…

Hyperfollow

After publishing your track on DistroKid platform. DistroKid will create a HyperFollow page for your song / album. The HyperFollow page contains all the links to the different platforms where your songs are available. It’s a great “one link” page which you can share on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Twitter!

HyperFollow URL will always stay the same so you will not have to update the link if your other streaming platform links changes.

I made a video explaining the benefits of HyperFollow which you can watch here:

You can see a sample of the hyperfollow page here.

The subscription model is very simple with DistroKid!

Pay once per year, and publish as many singles or albums as you want!

Subscription cost is currently as low as $19.99 / year (2019). That’s half as much as the competition. And with many other services you have to pay for every single release…

Get your music on Tiktok!

DistroKid now also supports TikTok, Tidal and around 150 other platforms! With DistroKid your music will be out on these platforms just within a few days.

Keep 100% of the royalties!

Furthermore, you also obtain 100% of the royalties from the streaming!

How about that?

Oh, I remember when the labels took 50% of the cut back in the 1990s…

You also earn royalty when someone uses your music on YouTube and TikTok.

In conclusion, I highly recommend DistroKid as it’s my first choice when it comes to distributing my music to the digital streaming platforms.

Sign up to DistroKid and get 7% discount!

Visit my VIP link and get 7% discount on your first year of subscription to the DistroKid service. http://distrokid.com/vip/mattias

What gear I use in the studio? Check out the Resources Page.

Join my exclusive community: https://www.patreon.com/gelhein

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The post How to distribute music online in 2020? appeared first on Morningdew Media.