I'm still looking for a title, I'm looking at something like Pampi-Pampi, I'd like it not to mean anything. Is it the meaning of something? Then I'd change it. I need help on this.

Pompi-Pompi: What's that?

Please help!

Hi all,

I'm in the verge of developing a new webapp game for phones and web, it's gonna be a quick Facebook login quizz game, I can't reveal more than this animated GIF:



What do you think?  

Hey Steven, glad to have you around! Your music seems so solid on the Epic Orchestral genre! Congrats and good luck!

When I wrote the forum post I knew that perhaps I was not the first one asking this question... Is it bad to update it from time to time?
When we have finished listing some of the best, if you like, we can make a poll and see which one is the best EVER LOL

Would it be good to link to Youtube videos?
What do you think, would it be better to list individual songs instead of albums or complete OSTs? (To me, that's better, individual tracks)

Hello,

If the moderators of the forum find it useful and you would like to collab, I would find interesting to list first some videogame music tracks in History of Videogames (too short by now!) and later on make a poll with the best 10 or so, to see which track is best selected by the forum users.

I would only make one point on the process of listing games music... Please if you think it's fair for everyone only list games who have had some sort of notability worldwide, wikipedia style, I mean games which are AAA or are at least listed on Wikipedia, examples could be Assassins Creed (AAA) or MineCraft (indie but notable).

Here's an initial list which could be augmented by you, I like memorable melodies but you can choose other kinds of soundtracks:
The Secret of Monkey Island
Mario Bros Theme
Tetris
Final fantasy main theme
Angry Birds main theme

Anyone has another track to add to the list? 

On getting work, here is a good post from V.I. Control by Matthazar (He wrote the music for Star Command)

Nice advice! Definitely worth reading and studying!

Here's what I've done and it kind of works:

I have been trying to make good music for about ten years, I have mastered the software I use for this time.
I put my music on the net to be used for FREE with proper credit and surprisingly people did what expected: They credited me properly. Some they even linked to me from the game.
There were even some developers who, surprisingly, weren't satisfied with obtaining the music for free and wanted to share revenues or pay for the music. In my case, the FREE word acted as a claim and beyond it, as I have said, several developers wanted to pay for the music.

My music has been featured on many Indie games, developers from most parts of the world have used it, Brazil, Spain, US, Poland, Germany, Netherlands...

If I had continued with this strategy perhaps there would have been a game which had rocked that used my music and perhaps I could have jumped to the next level. Problem is, I'm, as I have said before, I'm in the process of being listed by a strong music licensing label and currently I can't give away those tracks for free, but I'm starting to build a "freemium" model which includes these two ways (licensing and for free).

Anyway, MAKING GREAT MUSIC can assure you many great jobs on the industry and perhaps it's the only way, or at least it's mandatory although not enough.
On the other hand, these forums (TIGSource) are great for sharing and gathering experience and tips but I think none of my clients come from it although I haven't lost hope. Spread your music to every possible window on the net (other forums, places...). I haven't sent any direct email to any production company, I always look for fields on demanding companies in forums, job posts, etc, but this is due to my lack of experience in sales. I prefer to be a "quiet salesman", I never use the "cold call" or whatever it is called ("unsolicited emails"), but perhaps that might work for you.

Hope this helps 

Careful, Facebook gets a non-exclusive license of use for any material uploaded and hosted into them: videos, pictures... No one cares today about this but...

Forgive me if I'm wrong but I think they have set this Greenlight procedure to achieve success most of the times, instead of admitting any game they are just publishing a game that has been a previous success with people, I mean there's a fan base already and that stuff. Perhaps I'm wrong, I am not on Steam.

Internet is becoming a tough place in which only number of followers are counted for success, if you take a look at Spotify, now you can see how many times a song has been played or in Twitter everything is about followers. The more followers you have the more 'successful' you are. On Youtube it's the same.

Publishing companies are not buying anything that has not a previous fan base or many followers on Twitter. They amplify what it's having success already. They don't take risks anymore. It's a tough World...   

Not sure I understand the Hans Zimmer reference... o_O

Sometimes I want to say things and I mess up my speech...

It was a comment of no interest, just to say that you're above the majority of indie musicians who charge just a little bit for their music. Seems that you have managed to earn more money with music, which is a good thing.

It's not $20 per minute, it's 20 per track (it's worse LOL).

Zack, you have to take into account that there are several countries in the world whose minimum wage, just to name one indicator, is smaller than in the U.S, Europe and places like those. Even in Europe there are several countries like the one I live in (Spain) which are having difficult economic situations (not only the countries but what is worse the people). I have been contacted by Indian developers and have been offered $20 per pre-made tracks. They later sell the game to Europe and The U.S. and they are making a living.

There's another situation I'd like to explain and it is when you live in a country in which the video game development industry is zero or close to zero. Of course living in Palo Alto for tech and Hollywood for entertainment is higly desired, even needed, to succeed. Here in Spain there is no industry or just symbolic LOL, so I have to look for developers in other parts of the World.

Anyhow, it's clear that you are in the middle of Hans Zimmer and these examples we're mentioning in terms of music earnings, which is a fairly healthy situation IMO. I can't live on the music alone and I mostly do any design duty anyone has to offer

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but the lowest rate per track on the indie scene is $20 (to be used on a single game). This is what people from India, China, and other countries will ask you for.

There are other deals available, like earnings share, which is a fairly decent solution and it means about a 5% of the revenue if you make all the music on the game, provided that the studio is near you and you can audit or track sales so payments are accurate.

There are more options, like a combined use of the first and second solutions, or a higher rate of use, it depends primarily on the studio budget.

Hans Zimmer charges a lot more for its music, but he is one of a kind! 

@Gregg,

I've been studying the music field these years and although someone said 'music on a video game is good when you're not noticing it' (well it was actually said about film music but fits here either) I think that's a wrong statement. As a musician, I've understood that if I am not able to compose a good, memorable melody I'm not going to be noticeable. This happens in most of the fields music is present, including video games IMO.

Which music we remember and think it's good, which musicians are known beyond their music? Those who can create memorable melodies. John Williams, Beethoven, Mozart, Mark Knopfler, Alan Silvestri, Kurt Kobain, Mike Oldfield, Nobuo Uematsu, and those kind of people. People who make ambient or atmospheric tracks, they are not going to be noticeable. The track must have something, and it must be memorable.

Well, and now we know everything about music and the music industry, let's become famous all of us! LOL (I bet that's gonna be hard).

Kind of so-so agree.

I think composers who have the superpower of composing many great stuff instead of making one hit and living out of its fame (ex. No Doubt, Oasis...) are a bunch compared to the rest (ex. Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits, John Williams, The Beatles...). Those people are touched by the hand of God and they have the power of creating one hit after another. This wasn't needed at all not so many time ago (when the internet didn't exist) and many bands made a hit and then they copied themselves or just made crap. But today, today it's different. Today you need to be a super hero to stand on the music business, you have to surprise your audience every time you release something new and that's really a thing which just a few people can do.

For instance Lana del Rey, she's a magician, she composes better than Kurt Kobain, she deserves her fame and (I guess) fortune. And thanks Calum for your input on the topic, it's greatly appreciated and I see you're following your own advice when it comes to composing great music

Well, making great music, although it's not strictly necessary, do helps a lot, especially if you want not to have a fast rise and fall and you want to stay on the business. But making 50 great themes!?!?!?!! Even John Williams doesn't have more than 15 or 20 masterpieces!! Lol.

Woah, good music starts to leak! Congrats everyone.

[Success involves other people]

There is something that is clear to me: Success involves other people, mostly listeners, and promoters, and people who trust you. Without other people there's no success. It's like playing Beethoven on the moon, the best composer but no one is listening (except a couple of lost aliens).

In fact, for an instrumental musician (making soundtracks), connections are crucial. If you don't get to the producers then you ain't making business at all. I know this, and perhaps we're mixing here two different ways: 1. Releasing it to the mass public (Lana del Rey style) and 2. Pitching it to producers (be it video games or TV or films or whatsoever).

When I left some of my tracks to be used for free on the net with credit there was a good thing which was also a bad thing: Usually producers are silent, they don't tell you anything, if you want them to email you insted of letting them download directly the music you are going to wait for ages... I have also read this on some sources, there are many producers who are looking for the next big thing but they are usually quiet.

My only hope now is that the big licensing label finally lists me on its catalog and then I can start over again with that 'seal of quality'.

Any other thoughts on the topic highly appreciated

Although the setting of the contest may sound as if creators willing to participate should do an extra work, I believe the result is gonna be outstanding in terms of creativity and quality.

Thanks all for all suggestions and comments.

Currently I'm in a musical limbo, recently I signed a contract with a big licensing label and they have written me and have told me that they have selected some songs I sent them for their catalog, although the process of me being listed on it hasn't been completed yet, I need to wait like a month or so.

Depending on what they tell me and everything I will decide what to do, I sent them my best songs and it would be dumb to give them away for free with credit as I did and what Incompetech is doing. So I need to wait a bit more... It's exasperating me! LOL

Anyway, if anyone has any other ideas or thoughts on the topic I'd love to listen to them, in the meanwhile you can check out my songs below... (shameless promotion LOL)

How are you at Audacity.exe? Or what is your software preferences for digital audio?
What is your music theory approach?
I like what I've heard so far. 

Is this intended to be answered by Jackson31 or anyone else on the forums? It is unclear...

This is what I've done this past year. I'm also a game developer, but I like making music much more than coding, design so-so. I've made the soundtracks of many flash, android and iPhone games so far, excluding my own games which used obviously my music, all of them on an indie level, some bigger, some smaller. Examples are Azew (Flash) or Crystal Lines (Flash), Smileys Invasion 2 (mine). I guess these are easy to find on Google. I thought that if many games credited me on the main screen and/or linked to my website (on a Flash/web environment) I could get some attention from gamers and developer. And it happened, but it was not enough. I think my music is fair decent, I've been making music on Cubase for more than ten years and I think I know how to use that software but...

Either I haven't partnered with a game which has succeeded enough or my music is not good enough, or both, or I don't know. I haven't made many money on the way by orchestrating games BTW, but I do have had a wonderful time making music for those games. Even my website, with the links from games and forums, did have (last year) around 10 visits a day to my music section, I consider it a lot because they were looking for my music!

Still, it was not enough. I kinda got tired or I'm getting older, I dunno. There's only one thing I know and it is that I love music and love making it. And this ain't gonna change.

 

LOL. Your post is longer than my first post. I've read it but I have to process it. I'll give you an answer later.