Can You Make a Living as a Game Composer?

Here are some of my income streams that other composers might want to consider: • Game Music Composition and Engineering (Only about 1/4 of my income) • Piano Instruction • Music Packs across Unity, Unreal, GameDev, and Scirra marketplaces • "Music Design" Youtube channel • Music Streaming on Spotify, Apple Music, etc... Creating music packs are no joke in terms of accruing revenue. One advice I'd give to composers starting out is to pick a specific niche or genre to write the music pack for. Once you have a number of music packs within that genre, combine them all in one, massive music pack and sell that. Just the one compilation of my RPG Music Pack alone accounts for over 1/2 of my revenue.

Composing music and making audio for games was my childhood dream and I am so happy to have a career doing it!

Great video! I think sometimes desperation can kick in and one can be discouraged when it doesn’t all work out at once... getting to pursue your passions oftentimes looks like putting together a puzzle of different pieces.

I appreciate the median average income research you did and shared as well as the tangible tips to get started!

I was alienated a little bit by goofy thumbnail, but then was surprised with reasonable work with data and clear thoughts. Instantly subscribed

Share how you've made money as a game composer in the comments!

This video sheds light on one of the most under discussed an important topics for anyone who wants to go into music in general, especially composition and especially view games. I knew I wanted to compose music for video games by the age of nine, and I ended up majoring in music education, but shortly after went into teaching Tennis full-time, and shortly after that got into finance. Now I’m doing well financially, and in my spare time I come back to music theory, analyzing my favorite video game compositions, and watching YouTube videos like yours. I really think you’re doing a service to the musicians and the composers out there trying to make it, and I wish your videos had more views. Great work Matt.

Earned a subscriber, my friend. Really enjoy this type of content. Thanks!

Thnx from another composer. Take my like. Right now I'm working on the music album, its almost done and my plan is releasing this on all platforms but also put this music into the music packs for game devs. Also, I've try to reach audiojungle. Just started.

Awesome vid! Question: On the sites list on 6:17, any reason you didn’t name Songtradr?

great video!

Hey man it would be interesting to hear about your career journey. I'm about to start working a full time job but keep working on this stuff on the side.

Im trying to get into the indie video game music scene. Im a producer and would love to connect with fellow video game music producers!

You didn't even mention the casino game industry, which is flourishing in the US and around the globe, where most sound designers are full time salaried employees.

do you think that cold mails still work? Or how do you suggest to be noticed by serious companies?

you're funny! LOL anyway thanks !

Good points but why focus on one thing? I am a self employed performing musician, a guitar/mando/ banjo/ukulele teacher, have my own recording studio, and besides writing music for my bands ... I write commissioned music as well.

Nope. Simply impossible to make a living as a game composer.

The advice and information given in this video is so factually wrong and generally uninformed that it borders on malpractice.

so basically work for free hope for the best