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[OtaConnor]

It's been my passion for as long as I can remember.

I've been frustrated, as all my attempts never seen to pan out. How do I get myself out there better?

My portfolio is www.otaconnor.tk if anyone is interested.

[JMickle]

Make connections, attend game developer events, and work hard and quickly.

[Woos]

As with all of these sorts of questions, i don't think there's just one simple answer to it. Of course hard work, dedication, all of that stuff is important (as is luck, or circumstance or whatver you want to call it). but i think a pretty good tip is to keep your eyes peeled for projects you think you'd be suited for, I.E. projects that you think would be fun to do, and then just bombard them with your portfolio and stuff. also keep in mind that even if you do all of this, a lot of the times you won't even get an answer, but that's ok, just keep going. Also, try to use the people you already know to your advantage. maybe you personally know developers, or maybe someone you know knows developers, or maybe just animators or filmmakers.
in short, just try to keep an open mind, be patient, and don't be put off by setbacks. it is what it is.

I hope i'm not being too vague =)

[JMickle]

just bombard them with your portfolio and stuff.

This is the worst idea. It's very easy to tell when someone is doing this, and most people ignore it.

All my contracts have come from knowing people, being friendly, and older contractors. I've never got work from asking people if they want music out of the blue without prior contact.

[Chris Koźmik]

I know musicians are not great fans of it, but why not try www.IndieGameMusic.com ? It's great for publicity, because devs like me, who don't know a lot (read: know nothing) about music and are not ready to hire a dedicated musician for their project can find you.

[Graham-]

1. Make tracks.
2. Make tracks that fit with a particular vision i.e. background music for levels in existing games (with a personal feel), music that goes with a picture
3. Find small projects to contribute to. If they all reject you...
4. Find even smaller ones.

[Sam English]

just bombard them with your portfolio and stuff.

This is the worst idea. It's very easy to tell when someone is doing this, and most people ignore it.

All my contracts have come from knowing people, being friendly, and older contractors. I've never got work from asking people if they want music out of the blue without prior contact.

Actually, as long as you're polite about it and express your genuine interest in the project (don't bombard), I think asking out of the blue can be an effective method. It's how I got the job making music for Chris Pavia's Dungeon Hearts.

[OtaConnor]

I really appreciate the feedback so far, everybody! I have signed up for indiegamemusic.com and am using working on setting myself up there, currently.

[Woos]

just bombard them with your portfolio and stuff.

This is the worst idea. It's very easy to tell when someone is doing this, and most people ignore it.

All my contracts have come from knowing people, being friendly, and older contractors. I've never got work from asking people if they want music out of the blue without prior contact.

Actually, as long as you're polite about it and express your genuine interest in the project (don't bombard), I think asking out of the blue can be an effective method. It's how I got the job making music for Chris Pavia's Dungeon Hearts.

well yes, perhaps bombard is the wrong word, but it CAN be an effective method. you're right in saying that youre probably going to be more successful through your own contacts though. just don't rule anything out ; )

[RudyTheDev]

Doing some free music for a game is always an option to expand your portfolio and get your work into an actual released product. Of course, as long as that game gets published. A commercial game, even if unsuccessful, still looks very good on one's resume. And given just how many teams neglect the music side of things , I think many completion-nearing projects would be more than happy to have some free musics.

Perhaps Woos didn't quite mean it this way, but I definitely agree with above that you shouldn't bombard anyone EVER. If you need to send the same templated message to more than one project/person, then make sure you actually read what the project is and what they need/want/do and make that part of the message personal. You can of course manage to get a spot on some project just from the sheer volume of messages you send, but I would be very skeptical of such projects and how likely they are to get done. My bottomline 2c is that writing a personal, motivated message should increase your chances more than increasing the number of messages ever would.

[Woos]

Haha, i see now that i should have been a lot more careful in choosing my words. I did mean to mail the projects that appeal to you (even if you don't know those people), but i didn't mean to keep mailing them and annoy them. just tell them why you think you'd be suitable, why you want to help, etc. Sorry about that...

[hanako]

I get so many mails from musicians that I am fairly likely to bin them unread, and I know a lot of other indies feel the same way. Although if you at least have a portfolio website with tracks on it, that is a step up from the "PLEASE TALK TO ME I CAN DO STUFF" mails. People who have music available, I might possibly listen to... but still not hire.

Inexperienced contractors far too often bail out once they realise that a job is actually work. Despite my constant desperate need for artists, I also chuck out any mail from people begging to draw for free, because I know they're going to flake.

My advice for getting started would be to make some tracks and offer them on stock sites, then try to find a small project in development that wants your help, and if you can't find anybody who's interested, find an existing small game and try making a video of it with your own score?

[Destral]

Another possibility would be to go to the Devlogs section of these very forums, and look for a project thread that specifically calls out that they are looking for a musician. If you find a project that looks like it is making good progress, is updated semi-regularly, and is something that you like the looks of, you could try your hand at composing a track for it, then sending it as a sample to the developer, asking if they like the sound of it and would be interested in you making the music for their game. If they say yes, bingo, you're set. If they say no, you can put it on your website as part of your portfolio, with a link saying 'inspired by game X'. That way you're expanding your portfolio, and driving traffic towards a game you like and hope will get made. Everyone wins

Or maybe I'm just babbling and don't really know what I'm talking about. 

[louisdeb]

Start doing some tracks for the unpaid section and so once you've got a portfolio of stuff that's been used in releases ( I can't tell if your portfolio now has been ) then you should be able to make paid work easier to find.