I wanted to share with this community because it’s something I never thought possible. I have 2 degrees in music composition and have been in just about every field of composing imaginable. Concert music, commercial music, instrumental, film, choral, studio, etc. I’ve spent nearly 20 years trying to find where my voice fits. Failed performances, commissions that don’t pay out, one-off performances, all of it always fizzled into nothing.

But recently, I’ve been fortunate enough to start having some of my choral music published. And with that, sales have actually started. 2 years ago, I made $70 in royalties. 1 year ago, $700. This year, its exploded into the 5 digits. This isn’t intended to be a show off, but more of something I’m extremely proud of accomplishing. Life changing? Maybe not financially. It helps a lot, yes, but trying for nearly 2 decades, I’m finally starting to support myself doing what I truly love.

For those of you in a similar boat in trying to “make it”, stick with it. I promise it’s possible. Keep searching for your voice and medium that makes you happy. Thanks for reading.

Yesterday I was informed that the director / producer of a web-series that I had pitched for was instead going to be using AI music because he had been "seduced by it".

This made me feel borderline physically sick but in reality, this will become the new norm.

My pitch was solid, and my contact who had put me forward praised my turnaround time, the level of production and, perhaps most importantly, how I nailed the feel of the show.

It's important to say that in no way did I expect to get this gig, it wasn't a given. But losing out to an algorithm or prompt is pretty frustrating.

I can understand financial implications, I can understand the ease of typing in what you want and the end product being 'passable'. I just cannot get over how a creative, a director, can champion using AI over the human.

I implore all of us, as creatives, to keep pushing, to keep creating and bring the magic to the moving image in a way only a human truly can.

(I'm struggling to believe I've even had to write the last part of that sentence).

I am fully open to discussion on this, from both sides.

Have a great day and don't let the fire die,

TG

I used to do a lot of custom score work for a couple of local and regional creative production houses that mainly work with companies for highly directed brand videos and advertisements

Starting early last year I started getting contacted less and less for new work from them both, and slowly but surely the brands they got hired by insisted on just using AI for the music to save on the production budget

The production houses aren’t happy about it either, but they also have mouths to feed and staff to pay, and even their own work is slowly being taken over so they need to play ball

The entire library and commercial music space will cease to exist soon. Human music will always be valued but no one really cares if the ad for the new Honda has AI music so the backlash is minimal

I play piano and I can’t tell you the last time I came across a piece in B. To be fair, as a beginner to intermediate player I haven’t played/learned that many pieces so far.

How does B fair with the other orchestral instruments? Is it a comfortable key to play for them? Are there any important factors I should consider when composing for orchestra in this key? Side note: And is G#min comfortable for the players as well?

I’m primarily asking because B is my favorite key to play and write in on the piano.

Would love to hear your thoughts! Thanks

Every single time, I make something, I listen to it later and it sounds like ass. Every time.

Wow, how didn't I notice the obviously horrible bass volume after composing this thing for weeks? Oh and this thing that takes others like a day or two to finish takes me months. But let's just listen to this for like 2-3 minutes to get used to it again and now it won't sound bad. Easy solution!

Or I can take the hard path of trying to fix it, only for my future self to say it sounded better before doing that. Yeah

I give up. I simply can't tell how good music sounds. I can't pick proper instruments, I can't make a melody, I can't make something not sound too weak or too loud without randomly managing doing that, and probably my subconscious doesn't really want to bother either.

Ive been spending a lot of time during this break from school on learning classical composition and despite my being a law student, it is something I wish I could do but I just don’t see any way that it can be done and thus I cant fully commit.

When I say classical I don’t necessarily mean Bach chorales, fugues and ostinato bass. I just generally mean sonata theory, multi movement works, highly functional harmony, thematic development, etc.

Im also not really suggesting that I would try come up with a new type of classical music, and thus I understand why there may be no interest anymore in seeing composers repeat the same romantic/impressionist era musical concepts but just on different tunes.

What do you think?

I am currently doing my undergrad in music. I took intro to composition last year which was a group class (no private lessons) and now am taking individual composition lessons with a new prof. My intro to composition prof was really supportive of me and encouraged me to pursue composition. I have experimented in many different styles, but really the only style that speaks to me as a composer is romanticism. My favourite composer is Rachmaninoff and much of my works are stylistically similar to him and other late romantic composers. I have been composing for fun since I was a kid and since I’ve gotten older I’ve become more and more interested in this style both as a listener and as a composer.

I showed my new composition prof the piano concerto I started composing this summer in my first lesson with him. It’s very romantic and it’s nowhere near done. I started working on it for fun without any real intention of having it be performed. He was impressed, but he questioned why I compose in such a historical style. He asked why would this be performed instead of a one of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos. He encouraged me to think of how I can go from my romantic background into something more modern.

I didn’t always compose in such a romantic style and I used to be more interested in less accessible styles of music (especially certain kinds of really intense metal). When I first started writing classical music it was for fun as a teenager when I would write pieces in the style of composers like Beethoven, but I didn’t even really listen to that kind of music it was more like an intellectual exercise than anything particularly serious artistically. Only a few years ago I started really listening to classical music and since then I’ve become a lot more serious about composition and it has really pushed me into mostly writing romantic music.

I’ve noticed throughout my life that the people around me who enjoy classical music often enjoy the music of the romantic era more than any other period. My best friend from high school who played the cello for many years only seemed to enjoy romantic music. He found Mozart and Haydn boring and didn’t like anything modern but he loved Tchaikovsky and Dvorak and other romantic composers. My little brother who knows pretty much nothing about classical music only seems to enjoy romantic stuff too. I’ve played less accessible music in the car with him and I particularly remember this one thing I played that he refers to as the “car horn album” because he thought it sounded like traffic. When I played a romantic piano piece I composed earlier this year in a student concert for 21st century music, he told me after that “yours was the only one that sounded like an actual song”. I’ve had lots of experiences of playing romantic piano pieces and receiving lots of positive audience feedback. This is part of what has pushed me into this style. People like it. There’s lots of less accessible music that I enjoy but honestly I don’t want to compose inaccessible music. I like the immediate emotional power of romanticism and I want audiences to enjoy the music I compose.

Can I “make it” as a composer with romantic music in the 21st century or do I need to get with the times and write something more modern? I think I’m pretty good at writing in the style, but I still have a long way to go. I dont want to just copy Rachmaninoff forever but I don’t want to force myself to write music I don’t want to write either. I feel like audiences do like my music. In theory if I were to finish the piano concerto I’m working on and it turns out super good but it’s just another romantic piano concerto among the many that have already been composed, can I find any success as a composer with it or will it just be overlooked? I still am not sure what I’m going to do with my life and everything feels so uncertain with AI but composing is my one true passion so I would really like to pursue it. Any advice would be super appreciated!

Hey. So I've been trying to get into vgm composing and just musical production altogether. When I was 14 I messed around and did some midislaps and flp edits but that was about as far as I got in under a year. 8 years later I open FL and recreate a bunch of songs from games I like, specifically "Spamton" from deltarune and float islands from kirby super star specifically. Eventually I even composed a little 8 second song all on my own. I thought it sounded nice. I did them all pretty good and entirely by ear, and before that I did a bunch of by ear recreations of songs on my dad's old messed up keyboard. Anyways, I try to recreate the overworld theme from "the frog for whom the bell tolls" or whatever the hell that game's actual most accurate translation is. I pretty much fucked up entirely. The shape of the melody itself was similar but I was so off on almost every exact note. It was just super sobering, doing a bunch of shit that i thought meant i had promise, only to stumble into something I just couldn't beat with effort alone.

It had me thinking, because a person i know who is also a musician had done an arrangement of that song at 13 years old. I really don't know if practice is gonna be the thing that takes me to the level I want to be. It really seems like that in most music related things, talent matters the absolute most. Idk. I just need a second opinion, or a couple from people who have experience.

Before I get into my controversial opinions, I want film/tv/video game composers to know that I respect what they do and I wish all of them -- especially those in this sub -- great success.

Very generally speaking I don't like film music. Basically, if I notice it then I find it distracting (eg, John Williams). If I don't notice it then why is it there? This is not intended to be some kind of Ultimate Truth statement just an expression of my general cynical feelings on film music. If film music is needed to tell audiences what emotions they are supposed to feel then that just means the director isn't very good at film making.

I do, however, really like when existing music is used. Kubrick did this a lot with classical music (2001 being a great example of a soundtrack that was far superior, in my opinion, to the score that was originally written for it). Tons of directors do this with popular music (Wes Anderson is a great example).

And of course films don't have to have music. A number of films that I think are some of the greatest examples of film have little to no music.

There are exceptions to my general rule of thumb above and that's the reason for this post.

Here are two recent examples (one is television) of music written for media that I absolutely fucking adore.

The first comes from Apple's TV's The Studio. Besides being the funniest show on tv right now, the music is amazing. It's primarily percussion-heavy jazz and it just works really well. Here is a scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEZGA9lrJ74

At the 40 second mark perhaps it goes a bit overboard for some tastes where the music accents Mackie's speech but this is pretty rare and works really well here because of how well it stands out. But throughout the series this is the kind of music they use and I really enjoy it.

The other example is from the film Bugonia. I can't find the specific scene from the film on YouTube and it could be that I'm misremembering it but I think it might be this piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYMxh5Hsdd8&list=OLAK5uy_k1BVcjDbnJFxiib8QIJX-gKkpdj9f2YUw&index=13

I remember it was characterized by very loud very bass sounds and it was such a startling and interesting use of music that I found it enjoyable. Not sure it helped with the scene, as such, but perhaps the feeling of independent collaboration of music and film is what comes across and what I enjoyed. I think this particular director likes to keep their composers in the dark about what they are writing for? That seems like a good approach to me. Anyway, the rest of the score is whatever. I think the director makes better use of the music than most directors do.

I really have no idea what the current popular styles of film composition are today. It's not something I have any interest in studying. From this sub I get the impression that "Mickey-Mousing" is out. And perhaps John Williams's particular approach might feel old-fashioned. And then I see equal amounts of love and hate for Zimmerman. But I really don't know what any of that means.

If y'all want to share examples of film (or other media) music that you think stands out above the rest then feel free to do so. If you want to share stuff you think I will like, go for it but keep in mind that you will be wrong (that was a joke. A poorly received joke but it was a joke).

If you want to take shots at me for my opinions on film music that's fine too. I deserve it.

I have been making music for while now, and it might be just me but doesnt it feels like music industry is so overly saturated.

I just can't be bothered to compete anymore.

Most of time working with music is not worth it at all, bad income, hard to get into anything that pays more than 50 bucks beacause theres already tons of people offering less. Offer is much bigger than demand, and yet devs and producers cant seems to find each others?

I didnt think i was going to say this, but it seems like that post your own content on youtube and spotify to try get views and what not is the best option... activily looking for work as a musician is very hopeless.

So now as a musician the main goal is to get a lot of views to become somewhat famous... it doesnt feel like there is love for the art of music, now isl about who can make a shitload of generic samples/tracks so you can have a "portfolio".

And dont even get me started on AI...

I've personally seen composers say that they hear music "in their head" before manifesting it on to paper, but I've always just written it straight. Do you all know what I am talking about? If so, how do you write music? Upvote and comment to let me know!

Just got my first full length film (it's an adult film so lots of sex) and I'm really stumped on what instruments to use when it comes to these kinds of films. It's not really romantic, but it also kind of is???

I guess the primary emotion is lust and I don't know what the hell that sounds like so I need help lol.

Am I crazy in saying that? I feel like it sometimes...

I am a composer and I make a modest living as a musician.

I recently had this very unpleasant conversation with someone who honestly believes he is entitled to my free copyrighted sheet music.

Now I understand as a musician and pianist myself sheet music can be costly, but there is SO much sheet music available in the public domain. And I always try to do regular giveaways as a courtesy, considering yes some people can't always afford sheet music. And heck, even when someone people ask nicely and they I discern they genuinely can't afford it... I am happy to share!

But do living composers really need to provide sheet music completely FOR FREE all the time? We also need to make a living! It's hard enough as it is in this crazy landscape (and now we're even getting our music trained on and plagiarized by AI AND on top of that buried under all the AI slop invading the internet).

We put in so much work and time and passion into our craft. And people just expect that they have the right to take everything we do for free???

As musicians and as pianists, I really think we can do better. Even as broke as I am, I am MORE than happy to purchase and buy other living composer's sheet music (especially if they are smaller musicians).

I understand there are many pianists even here that can't afford sheet music all the time. And I empathize. But I really really don't think that gives us a right (speaking as a pianist now and not a composer) to expect other living composers to work completely for free! And in this specific scenario to even re-distribute said composer's sheet music.

Am I wrong? Is that too much to ask? Pls enlighten me, because sometimes I feel crazy.

Anyway rant over. But this is so frustrating sometimes.

___
Said interaction:

His complaint: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11aI7pMYezUjYp8ctJGaJxgQnqo8TjrmZ/view?usp=drive_link

My response: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Osm8Jh74oW7grz6Sn25_dL-I0tRlWbY/view?usp=drive_link

His last response before I blocked him: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fsJKjLIbkACwcgRcJ5exp7xMz1evxsps/view?usp=drive_link

Mods, pls let me know if I need to blur out any names or anything. I'm not sure how those rules work in this sub but I'm happy to comply.

Last time I did an AMA here was about a year ago, and I got some great questions. So, let's do this again!

I've been making music for TV shows for the past 15 years (about 10 years as my full time job). I started with ZERO knowledge of how to even turn on ProTools, and knew NOTHING about what a "music cue" even was. I didn't even go to music school, and don't know jack about music theory. It took about two years of doing things all "wrong" before I finally started to get some traction. But despite all that, I'm now in an elite crowd of full-time composers that are in-demand from various shows. In fact, I've landed around 30,000 placements of my music on over 9,000 episodes of 1,000 TV shows (whew, that was a mouthful!). I haven't tallied up the total amount of money I've made from royalties alone in that time, but I imagine it's in the $1 million range at this point, so there's that!

You'll never hear my music being performed on stage, and will never buy an album of mine to listen to for enjoyment. Most people don't even know my music exists, even though they hear it every day. So, if you like good money, notoriety within small circles, a career in music composition, but relative anonymity to the world at large, this might be the route for you!

It's a world that, sadly, far too many great musicians / producers / and composers are not even aware of. And it's full of potential for career growth and low-hanging fruit.

I have a lot of sympathy for other people trying to make a mark in this world, so I'm trying to give back. If there's anything you're dying to know, or if this AMA sparks a question for you, please fire away!

If you're interested in this branch of the music business, or are serious about giving it a shot - or, if random curiosity strikes and you're like, "wow, I didn't even know what was a thing", then you might be interested in the YouTube channel I started last Fall. I've got a ton of 8-12 minute videos of everything I can think of regarding this business (with more being added weekly) - from compositional tricks, strategies, and shortcuts; to ways you can make your music stand a better chance of landing placements; to the realities of what life is like in this field and what you can expect. In fact, I'm guessing that most of the questions I get asked on this AMA could be answered by me simply giving you a video link, hahaha. Anyway, if you're curious, the link to my channel is: http://www.youtube.com/@mattvanderboegh

The bottom line I always tell people is: IF I CAN DO THIS, THEN YOU CAN TOO. And I truly mean that!

So, ask me anything! I'll have to eventually cut this off if it gets too much to keep up with, but let's see what happens here on a random Thursday afternoon.

~~Matt

As title said. I composed music for an indie game project and it got used in a demo/alpha version, but one of the lead devs randomly said that he "made" some music from an AI generator, and then shared a new version of the game with it, consequentially removing mine. Not much to say, I just wanted to share. I'm very pissed off.

Good morning! I want to formally introduce myself as a composer. I love community and learning. This subreddit is an oasis of both! I have been composing music for around 12 years formally but dabbled in it when I was younger. My goals are to do great things with this artform. All styles really interest me, which leads me to my main goal of this post. I want to build a strong community of other like minded composers. Who are you and what is your go to style? (I know that is generally a hard question.) For example, I am a State Based Composition/ Neo- Impressionist if I had to put a title on it, though it is always in a state of flow. I like to experiment with various styles. It is the 21st century after all!

Let's connect and help support one another! In the comments share your best work (in your opinion). I would love to discuss the general vibe you go for when you are creating art. I will include my own work, so that you may see for yourself the wide variety of styles I try and develop.

I contrapuntal practice and part writing still important .. or is this kind of a drag now a days?
It seems more important with everyone being producers, but it can feel antiquated.
Is it better to let this be something that's happening underneath modern music, or it still worth the time?

My friend sent me a file about a music they remixed but i have a strange feeling of it being ai generated any help please

I need a new MacBook and what with apples recent crazy hikes, that 16gb M5 at Costco Is looking pretty appealing

Baby composer here—which platform have you guys found best when composing?

Just want to create a thread of tips for new composers here.

For me, the one piece of advice I could give comes from my composition professor when I was in conservatory. I was stuck composing for our atonal class, and he told me, "Composers should never get stuck if they have trained their compositional instincts. And that begins with mastering how to manipulate compositional structures. You can exhaust and do so much with a single motif."

Im writing a piece about autumn and i need a bitter sweet almost unsettling coldness to it because its a 3 part piece about winter coming and taking it all

the reason its getting hate is because its in C# i posted it once and i had over 50 comments calling me names for putting it in C#

Yes ive tried other keys and i found this one is the best the others make it sound to happy and comfy

Am i the one in the wrong for choosing this key i would like yalls help

(edit) This post has gotten multiple down votes and im not trying to convince yall to upvote it or agree with me and i get the argument with Db but i would need to rewrite it and the only reason yall want Db is because people dont know how to sit down and learn a piece thats not easily sight readable . I am not trying to cause hate i am just explaining my reasons for this pieces key and saying my experience of getting hate.

Im sorry for all the people im troubled with this im just trying to write a piece how i want no hate please.

I want to write a symphony but obviously that's getting ahead of myself so what should I write before that that like styles or things that are fun

For example, I'm a trombonist and I think it would really help us if composers/arrangers know about alternate slide positions to better adjust for fast playing.

I know I could probably pick up a book on orchestration, but I would love to hear from someone that actually plays these instruments 🙏

Edit : I just realized I misspelled the title 😬

Curious about how many of you are working on a PC or on a Mac + which DAW. Also what advantages or disadvantages you see regarding Mac or PC?