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Introduction
Making music for videogames has always been something I wanted to do. I’ve always enjoyed playing videogames ever since I was little and even back then the music would stand outto me. Now, it has become a key part of the gaming experienceboth corporately and personally. From Danny Elfman’s ‘The Batman Theme’ in Lego Batman (Elfman, 1989) to John Paesano’s ‘Spider-Man’ theme from the Spiderman PS4 game (Paesano, 2018) these themes have shaped and influenced how I enjoy games and is a major part of what makes them special to me.
The purpose of this research portfolio is to explore the career of a videogame music composer.
I aim to evaluate the experience, knowledge and professional requirements to work within the industry. I will look to industry sources and professional opinions to inform the research and develop a clear understanding of the career and what it holds.
Experience
Making music for video games professionally, requires a certain level of specific experience. While film music aims to bring a story to life and follow a narrative, in games the music can become the narrative. The music usually follows the player, creating a rather intimate experience. This takes experience playing games and deeply understanding storylines, environments and characters.
To professionally create music for games you couldn’t just walk into a games studio with a music degree and ask to make music for the, you need professional experience from past projects. The best way, in my opinion, to gain this experience is to search for small indie games creators and offer to make their music for a low price or even for free, this then gives you the experience in helping create the word the designer is making. Having this experience and building upon it by doing it as much as possible, gives you some experience that gives a higher-level game studio a portfolio of your skill and work for them to assess you by. You can’t get a career in the video game music industry without a portfolio of done work. The designers need to see how you can craft/aid their world in game.
Knowledge
In creating music for video games
You need a strong understanding of music theory and how certain sounds can relate to specific feelings or moods, reflecting what is on the screen.
The skills you would need for this job are; firstly, creating exactly what the designers want, their word is final and you need to be able to make them happy. You also need to be able to reflect the incredibly dynamic situations that are happening on screen for example if there is an intense battle, the music then needs to be high intensity maybe changing in dynamics depending on how many enemies are being fought at once.
Music needs to evoke emotion, even when playing games. A good example of how music effects mood in game would be the ‘save theme’ from Capcom’s ‘Resident Evil’ franchise (Team, 2005). In the game you walk around fighting enemies and bosses that you can’t kill, constantly chasing you in dark places making the player feel stressed and on edge. After a long bout of this, the player will eventually hear a haunting yet comforting sound (the save theme) now the player can relax as they walk through a door and enter the ‘save room’ where enemies can no longer reach them. This is the save room music and it evokes a specific emotion in the player. This is a very good expanse of what you need to be able to do when designing music for games, make the player feel a certain way at a certain point in the game.
Responsibilities
Each day on this job would look different, there would be many things that need tending to like the basic admin of checking emails to driving/pubic transport to a studio. You would find yourself working with various people like the designers, editors and maybe other musicians. You need to be able to take on board what the overseers of the project want from you and what they want the music to sound like. You need to be able to cooperate with people in potentially high stress environments and maybe some tight schedules. In the job of a general music producer, we can see the versatility of a day from a producer named Jonathan Camacho.
He states “Every day is new, distinct, and exciting and I’m constantly wearing different hats. Every day means working with different people, different styles, different projects. Every day means discovering new genres and re-discovering old ones. Every day means a different artist coming through my studio doors carrying on their shoulders any combination of a thousand different complicated emotions that they need to let out, and as a producer figuring out how to be the therapist who listens, while simultaneously plotting out the best road to translate that story into music.” (Camacho, 2018). This would be extremely similar in the life of a games composer as there would be many different projects with different emotions to deliver.
In addition to this there is a skill that you need to master which will help you gain traction and find work. This is networking. Part of the job requires going to expositions and shaking lots of hands, smiling and getting to know other people and or companies. Megan McDuffe, a videogame producer and youtuber, says “you will want to make friends with game developers, producers, directors…and make real friends, get good at creating real relationships that last.” (McDuffe, 2024). This means that in the future you can get work but also gain a good reputation in the circle which will make people want to work with you more.
Intellectual and personal challenges
Being a video game music composer can be rather challenging at times. Youtuber Nikita Malko states that “If you hate being alone, this job will eat you alive” and “most of the time it’s just you, your computer and a track you’re tired of hearing for the hundredth time” (Malko, 2025). This presents the personal challenge of loneliness. For some this may be very difficult and for some this may be perfect. Personally, I prefer working on my own because if there is a problem I don’t have to have other people clouding my judgement on specific topics, I need quiet to think and no immediate pressure of someone disliking my solutions or inputs. I understand that when making video game music it needs to be what the developer wants but if I’m working alone, it’s only the developer’s opinion that matters, that’s a more ideal work environment for me. On the other hand, I still have to be able to work with a games-developer, so I’m not completely isolated. I need to be able to deliver exactly what they want and usually it will be to a strict deadline. I need to be able to work fast and adapt quickly to anything the developer likes, dislikes or wants changing.
Career progression opportunities
In my opinion, I believe this career option (creating video game music) can be limiting yet diverse. While you’re technically limited to one niche if you solely compose for games however, if you’re willing to branch out, there are plenty more opportunities in other areas such as film, TV, advertising, and so on. If you limit yourself to just video games you would be able to grow in that niche developing specific skill sets to compose solely for games designers which means you’d be able to move up the ranks with the right experience going form the likes of indie game developers all the way to AAA games studios. To help this growth you need to be willing to network, make friends and promote yourself as a business.
Promotion and marketing
When you are a composer for games you need to attract clientsbecause they are the ones who pay your wage. To do this you need to promote yourself. In this day and age, one of the best ways to promote yourself is via social media. An example of this would be singer song writers. To promote themselves they would create a TikTok or Instagram and post videos of their songs and concerts and build a fanbase like that. As a composer for videogames id take this model and adapt it to focus on building a client-base more than a fanbase because as a freelance worker I need work rather than fans. The musician’s union states that “social networks is just another form of communication” (Union, 2022). Applying this statement, personally, I’d create a website displaying my credentials, links to a YouTube channel where I would document most if not all my projects, Instagram and TikTok where I would promote the channel and communicate with collaborators. I’d also set up a professional email for clients and collaborators to contact me with and vice versa.
Financial and legal
With any career comes a wage and logistics. When working in the music industry having a steady wage can be difficult at times especially when you’re just starting out. As a games composer you need to work a client-based business meaning that your workload depends on how many people request your services.
Wage:
Unfortunately, there is no minimum wage in this career area because your wage is based on how many clients you get and what contracts have been signed however, with some research, I found that there can in fact be a solid wage. Berklee College Of Music put together a guide of wages for careers in the music industry, here are the salaries for music on a project: (Berklee College Of Music , 2016)
• $30,000 – $75,000+ for Creative Fee deal – interactive game (30 minutes of music)
• $30,000 – $60,000+ for Package Fee deal – interactive game (30 minutes of music) – covers composing and all expenses
• $300 – $600 per minute of finished music for casual games (Creative Fee only)
Copyright:
This is a very important factor as it affects how much money you can make. In UK copyright law the ‘author’ of a thing ownsthe copyright to the thing they created (Masons, 2024) meaning that any music you make belongs to you (before any contracts of course). You can of course choose to sell this copyright but if you get bought out (100% of the copyright) then you no longer have rights to the idea. This means that if you wouldn’t be able to release the music you made on a digital streaming platform which can be a pro or con, it just depends what you think the best move to make is with the music you made.
Contracts:
Contracts can be the deciding factor in how much money you make. It’s my job to make sure that I’m offering a fair rate for both me to earn and the client to spend. I’d need to decide things like whether to charge a fixed rate for the music or get paid by the hour these all need to be contractually agreed upon to prevent mistakes or misunderstanding between the parties and so that if something negative does happen then it can be taken to court and disputed there as there was legal and contractual bind.
Conclusion
This research portfolio has helped me understand the key elements in the career of a videogame music composer. After looking at sources from the industry and professional perspectives I have learnt that it takes a lot more than just making music alone, it’s a whole journey of making friends, listening to opinions, making business deals and shaking a lot of hands. While it provides the challenges of unstable salaries and tight deadlines the pursuit of creating good and true art never leaves. Overall, working alongside games developers and being given a project to bring to life frankly sounds like a magical job to have and I think with the research that I’ve done it seems like a career that is achievable and highly enjoyable.
Bibliography
Berklee College Of Music , 2016. Music Careers in Dollars and Cents. s.l.:s.n.
Camacho, J., 2018. Produce Like A Pro – A day in the life of a producer. [Online]
Available at: https://producelikeapro.com/blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-producer/
Elfman, D., 1989. The Batman Theme. [Sound Recording] (Warner Records Inc.).
Malko, N., 2025. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yo0AXDVN3kw
Masons, P., 2024. [Online]
Available at: https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/guides/copyright-law-the-basics
McDuffe, M., 2024. [Online]
Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVYTCfoe0gI
Paesano, J., 2018. Spider-Man. [Sound Recording] (Marvel Music, Inc.).
Team, C. S., 2005. Save Theme. [Sound Recording].
Union, M., 2022. Musician’s Union. [Online]
Available at: https://musiciansunion.org.uk/career-development/career-guides/marketing-and-promotion/promoting-yourself-and-your-music-online
