So Many Composers... Thread

So I've been making music for quite a few years now, and more recently decided to try and get into music business in video games. Now, while I have been lucky enough to work on a few projects, I find it almost impossible to find the right job. Everywhere I look, I feel like I just see tons and tons of composers just spamming there portfolio's and music, to a point where I feel like its too much. So I guess what I'm asking is that is there any other way to find the right game projects to work on without shamelessly creating forum posts? And does this constant posting of portfolio's ever even work? I mean, with so many people posting day in and day out, does anyone with a project even read these portfolios, or is all this posting for nothing.

Would love some answers from some more experienced composers. While I've been browsing and working with games for about a year now, I would love to hear some more efficient ways of finding music jobs. Thanks

Chris Heron

Youtube: Youtube.com

Soundcloud: Soundcloud.com

I'm looking for a composer for Doom Reborn to continue on from Neurologicals work if your interested?

Doom Reborn is a non profit project though so I can't pay you, this is all just done in are spare time.

Feel free to pm here on moddb if your interested

I've listened to alot of your stuff on soundcloud and I love it, I believe you could produce some awesome up beat Doom music with your own style I think you could make something epic

Edited by: gamehacker

Hey Chris. I listened to some of your pieces on SoundCloud. I really enjoy your style. Calm and cool, with a mysterious air. I haven't had the good fortune to lend my musical talents to an actual game yet, but I was able to get in with an indie publishing company by simply impressing someone I met on the show floor at PAX East with a short animation I had made. So my advice is to get to any convention you feasibly can and pass around some business cards. Face to face networking is a huge boon in this business and you'll be able to make a lot of connections, and then who knows?

So good luck, and keep making music!

Hey Chris,

I'm another small time composer. It's a frustrating situation, because the market is flooded with people wanting to write music for games (usually for free), and if someone DOES find a great way to get work, they're not going to want to share it.

In terms of finding actual work and not clogging up the forums with another post, I highly recommend just trying to be patient and respond when developers ask for composers. This is all my personal experience, but I've had almost no luck posting my own music and asking for projects. But I've worked on tons of projects through forums like this by waiting until I see a developer who needs a composer. Obviously you still need to be the right fit for that project and you have to compete against a ton of other composers. But it's a much cleaner way of using a forum like this.

The best way to keep getting work after that is by forming relationships with those game developers, hopefully working on more of their games, maybe getting connected to other developers through them, etc. And in the mean time, just work on music for yourself, or pick a game/movie you like and try re-writing the soundtrack for it. Projects that you can use to showcase yourself and your diversity when the opportunity comes. The other thing I've been trying to do lately is get connected with the game development scene in your local area. Not that you want to show up and just try to sell them your music, but try to meet some local developers, let them know you're around and you'd love to work with them if they're interested. Anything that makes you a better candidate for them to work with.

And keep it up! You'll get little breakthroughs every now and then, and one of those might end up being the breakthrough you need to get work full-time!

-Cityfires