Producing music

Suppose you want to make a CD/album and sell it. You have all the partitures on your computer and all the mp3's. How do you begin? Who do you contact. Author's rights (100 euro an album, not so expensive), getting people to know you, advertising, selling the scores, making the CD's...

And how much money is involved as an investment, an estimation? We're not talking about having an orchestra play your score, because you can use virtual instruments.

I think the most difficult part is getting people to know you and like you. I think it helps if you're famous, like being a laureat at a piano competition.

PS: I can't believe you can register music without payment. In Belgium you can get author's right for a lifetime + 70 years after death but you need to pay a fee.

I can't answer for Europe.

I know that anyone who creates a new work, at least in Canada (and the U.S. I think as well), is automatically covered for copyright, from the moment of creation.

As for making a CD and distributing it, it can vary depending on where you are I guess.

I know some people who have made a CD of themselves playing at the piano, for 5000 copies, and it cost them around $10,000 CDN. That's very minimal, almost no work on the recording, very simple jacket and cover art.

Distribution is a completely different area, of which I'm afraid I know very little. You have to approach a distribution company for that.

The thing about distribution is that you need to convince a distributor that your music is of interest to them.

It's not so much a question of money as it is of whether or not they think they can sell your product.

It's much more difficult to sell a product that is entirely "home produced".

You're asking for a whole lot of information! Of course QCC came first but at least I have many things to add in this case ! :laugh:

But I hope you will allow me to link to another site that I made a rather big tutorial...

Music Tutorial - CGEmpire (A general music tutorial)

How to make it... - CGEmpire (How to "make" it)

I know that these are highly useful tuts and info, that will come in handy...

In general:

copyright is yours from the moment you "concieve" the work, in europe as well. Problem is that. although legaly is yours, you have scraggy to prove it. Thus registration comes in handy. some people say to mail an enveloppe to yourself. It never actually works! BUT,. no one would steal your music really. These stories are more of a myth and happen 0.00001% or so...

Distribution: CDBay, iTunes, Personal effort. all can work. There are companies that make all the work for you (CDBaby). There are companies that are ripp offs (soundclick, myspace, acidplanet, etc) (more or less and personal opinion of course). There are companies that sell downloadable material (iTunes), but you can do that yourself through a site. There is a way to distribute it yourself. Make a store (site), and make 1000 copies for something around

We're talking about VGM here. You can listen to some pieces I posted.

How about we knock at Square-Enix and submit some demo's. Sounds ridiculous. I think Songjun has a right approach, doing some little things and when people discover it they might see something in it? Isn't that how Hamauzu started? Doing little things for Tobal no.1 and Gun Hazard and then going big on FFX and then FFXIII.

I'll keep promoting my music via the internet as a start. I don't have a high ambition though, the chance I become someone like Hamauzu is like 1 %.

I'm still a student chemical engineer, so I don't have enough money to do distribution or anything at all. So I'll earn some first with this chemical engineer job (which I really hate...).

I have the feeling that it is very difficult to be a full time composer. Especially with the money earning aspect. That's why I'd rather have a steady job. QCCowboy should know that many of his students also take this way (to university) because of the reason I mentioned. I did an entry exam as a pianist and passed, but backed out because of fear for concurrence.

Well, I don't know what I'll do in the future, but composing surely is a nice hobby at least.

You never mentionned video game music (which is what I presume you mean by "VGM"). Making an album of game music is even more difficult than concert music, as the game itself has to have a following to attract the already limited clientelle for game soundtracks.

We're talking about VGM here. You can listen to some pieces I posted.

How about we knock at Square-Enix and submit some demo's. Sounds ridiculous. I think Songjun has a right approach, doing some little things and when people discover it they might see something in it? Isn't that how Hamauzu started? Doing little things for Tobal no.1 and Gun Hazard and then going big on FFX and then FFXIII.

I'll keep promoting my music via the internet as a start. I don't have a high ambition though, the chance I become someone like Hamauzu is like 1 %.

I'm still a student chemical engineer, so I don't have enough money to do distribution or anything at all. So I'll earn some first with this chemical engineer job (which I really hate...).

I have the feeling that it is very difficult to be a full time composer. Especially with the money earning aspect.

Well I can also try Movie music. I'm capable of doing that too, so how is the path to movie music?

I actually thought in the future VGM is going to be a booming industry.

Yes but not yet.

Try selling after your game has sold 100,000 or more. Consider getting around 0.5-1% of these in soundtrack. Have you ever heard of anyone who has not played the game to go and buy a soundtrack? So even with 100,000 the 1% is 1,000, which is tiny to even bother really (since with such a big game, you would have a nice paycheck of 50,000$ or above, from the fees themselves)...

Nope VGM is not in (yet).

Generally you are asking a huge question (what is the path). I hope the links I provided have some answers but definately not the kind you're looking for. There is no fast guide to "sell your music in 24 hours", or "100+1 tips for selling your VGM"...

Well I registered at those two sites and sent a link to all my compositions, which are downloadable, I don't really mind people taking my music. I would even like my music to go around the world for now. Not a big deal for me.

I didn't receive reactions for now.

I've heard on this site that you could get author's rights freely without any fee at ASCAP or something like that, that's not true, you need to pay at least a registration fee of 400 $.

And I got an offer to make music for a first person shooter (Clan Arena), but it's volunteers work, but oh well. You have to start somewhere. Maybe they'll make a soundtrack out of it or something.

Wait a minute.

You 've not done any VGM work yet, and yet you're asking about producing? Isn't it a little early to do that?

If you go commercial on games, things will come naturally. The production company (or if indie the developers), and you will agree on selling the soundtrack as part of the whole marketing scheme of the game. Period.

I thought that you had done a lot of work, etc and wanted to do a compilation or something from lots of soundtracks...

Actually I don't even know the meaning of "producer". It's all the same to me.

Frustrated. No lead to anything. I feel I am lost in a desert.

Fayek Awad

If I spoke Japanese and wasn't so young I'd send demos to...

I'm old...I speak Japanese...get me a contract! :)

Don't mind this post, I was replying to something long gone. Then theres no delete button, so here I'm trapped in the humiliating purgatory of a wasted post. cha cha. While I'm here I guess I should talk about my lack of an avatar... alright, here goes. I'll get one soon, it'll be cool, I had one before, it's now gone, that kinda sucks, oh well, thats the business world and scraggy. :>

Have you ever heard of anyone who has not played the game to go and buy a soundtrack? QUOTE]

Actually, I've got soundtracks to games I havnt played and don't intend to play. But I admit people with that sort of enthusiasm in this area are particularly rare at the moment.

When push comes to shove - theres no point in even thinking about producing music until you can create music of a high enough quality to compete with people like Hamauzu. I also want to become a game composer but my route is difficult as I became interested in music too late to study it formally (I will do at a later date, but for now it is difficult), so I'm concentrating first on getting into the industry, at ANY level, so I'm taking a game design course and working on my music on the side.

Producing is nothing but a fantasy until you can make the music you want to produce - good luck on that though.