RPGDX > Forums > General Discussion > How much to pay a composer for music

RedSlash · Mage Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 331

Does anyone have an estimate on how much it would cost to pay someone to compose a piece of music for your game? For example, a battle music theme. How much would you charge?

increpare · Blue Fillrect Joined: 19 Feb 2009 Posts: 43

you can probably find people to do it for free if your game is interesting enough and you won't be selling it. if you will be selling it, then...I don't know...it would depend a lot on the person; some might accept a portion of the profits, some might want a once-off payment; most would probably want a bit of both.

RedSlash · Mage Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 331

I understand that I can find people to do it for free. What I'm interested is under the circumstances where I'd want to purchase music, how much I would offer for it.
The condition of purchase would be a one-time sale and includes the purchase of copyright (so may be used for any purposes including commercial).
I just don't want to be like, I'll give you $200, and come across as being cheap.
Maybe someone could tell me how many hours one would spend on a short game loop music and I can deduce a figure from that.

mixzed · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 6:46 pm Post subject:

my brother does this kind of stuff, loops, beats etc. I don't know how professional he is but it is what he's good at (he's helping me put music together for my projects). I'm at work now but I can ask him when I get home how much he would charge and what the basis would be.
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mixzed · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 10:58 pm Post subject:

My brother says that it really depends on who you get to do your music and how much experience they have. He's not a professional so he would charge 50-60 for a basic loop. Other factors include the length of the music and complexity.
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Nodtveidt · Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 11:09 pm Post subject:

If this is any indication:

I contacted several professional musicians about doing music for a game for the DS. It was about 60 tracks, each a couple of minutes long. The lowest price I could find was $20000US.
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BadMrBox · Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 4:23 am Post subject:

That's $333.33 per track O_O;. I would say that's insanely much money. Insanely.
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Rainer Deyke · Demon Hunter Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Posts: 672

$333 for a track that's several minutes long sounds fairly cheap to me. That's two days (16 hours) of work at $20/hr.

RedSlash · Mage Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 331

I'm assuming the track is a bit cheaper cause he was purchasing in bulk. Nodtveidt did say it was the lowest he could find.

papillon · Fluffy Bunny of Doom Joined: 09 Mar 2003 Posts: 16

There are more musicians desperately looking for work than there are artists, in my experience. It's therefore not that difficult to find people who will work for cheap - the problem is finding people who are GOOD and will work for cheap. :)

People who are actually trying to make some money rather than begging for experience, I've seen charge anywhere from $20 to $250 a minute for custom music. Charging per minute of music seems standard, even though very short loops are probably a lot more work-per-output-time than longer things.

BadMrBox · Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 5:27 am Post subject:

Rainer Deyke · Demon Hunter Joined: 05 Jun 2002 Posts: 672

cowgod

RedSlash · Mage Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 331

Thanks. I've got a better idea now of how much to pay since I will need to do that.

I seek out musicians by browsing people's portfolios. So if your friend has an online one that he'd like to share, I wouldn't mind looking at it.

js71 · Wandering DJ Joined: 22 Nov 2002 Posts: 815