How much do Video Game Musicians get paid?

[yungboss]

Just wondering since a lot of people suggest my beats sound like video game instrumentals. Should this be an insult or a complement?

 

[Kontents]

It is what it is. You should never just focus on one specific area when it comes to production in music. There are a bunch of different options available to make money. If you think you could get your tracks into a video game then shoot for it.

 

[Shonsteez]

Honestly man, the majority of people who say that sorta thing to you are simply coming to that conclusion because of the sounds your using most likely. I bet if you chose more organic sounds to play with in your beats you would rarely ever hear that.

When I first started out in 2000 I had cats tellin me the same exact thing because I used a lot of really old school sounding synth modules. Later I started playing with samples and more organic sound choices like Rhodes, Strings, etc. and I never heard a comment about my music like that again.

Food for thought anyways.

But if you actually are interested in Game Audio - theres a ton of money to be made in that trade. One downfall though...You typically will have to do much much more then just make the beats/music for video games when your the composer. Most Game Audio guys have to know programming languages such as C++ as well.

 

[thedreampolice]

I do very well for myself in that space. Get paid how you can. Its all good

 

[yungboss]

Damn......so I have to learn a computer language to be able to format my music into a video game? That's to much....umma have to try working with better sounds..

A lot of down south music have Sythesized sounds and they dont sound like Video Game instrumentals. What's the difference between them and me?

 

[thedreampolice]

No I usually just send a .wav file of my mix and they convert it to whatever they want.

 

[yungboss]

No I usually just send a .wav file of my mix and they convert it to whatever they want.

What games your music is featured on?

 

[Shonsteez]

Thats why I said "typically" man...Because in many cases for a job like this you really will be either encouraged to learn, or already know programming languages such as C++...Theres the obvious exception like what Dream does apparently but I guarantee this is the case at least 75% of the time when perusing a career in this field. I dunno if you've ever searched for jobs like this before at places like Gamasutra, but if you have Im sure youve noticed a perquisite to UI or programing languages almost every time. But like I said, it just depends on the job.

 

[thedreampolice]

oh ya for sure, I just know some people who know some people. I have my stuff in a few flash/indie games etc and I get paid like $200 for non exclusive rights. if you want to ONLY work on music for games and work for a game company learning some programming is the way to go. I don't have the patience to be a hard core coder....

 

[Relic]

Just wondering since a lot of people suggest my beats sound like video game instrumentals. Should this be an insult or a complement?

Meh I have gotten that before too, just keep it moving, remember that nowadays is = to soundtrax because we aint talkin atari 2600 music anymore.

 

[lion-ucs]

When they say "sound like a video game" They're probably referring to the OLD video game sound. Video game music doesn't differ from plain'ol music. The only thing about video game music is you MIGHT only find it in that game and no where else (besides fileshares) Take halo for example, and the soul series (soul edge/blade/calibur). Develop better sound selection, but it is still good to know how to have that old video game sound, you might need that. Especially if you plan to do game music.