# Hello from a composer -> software developer



## gianmarcoleone

Hello forum,
I am a long time lurker finally writing my first post. I've worked many years exclusively as a composer/sound designer, especially in the videogame and advertisement industries, but have since transitioned the majority of my work in the software development territory (but I still keep my DAW in shape for some audio productions in the videogame industry).
At the moment no software development I'm involved is about audio/music, but it would be cool to have some opportunities in that direction!

Nice to meet you, at last!


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## Bluemount Score

Welcome to the forum, gian!


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## gianmarcoleone

Thank you! By the way, it looks like I've posted in the wrong forum...


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## ender7

Hi and welcome! Interesting career switch you’ve made there. Have you thought any about AI generated music?


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## gianmarcoleone

Hi, I've never really approaced AI for music generation, but I had the opportunity to create a semi-generative soundtrack for the videogame Five Minutes Rage
On the other hand I'm currently studying AI, so hopefully I will be able to apply it to music in the future, that would be very interesting


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## S.M Hassani

Hi there and Welcome to the forum. ( Fellow Sound Designer and reformed mobile games publisher :D )


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## JuanSebastianBach

Hi there! Interesting to see a fellow dev! I'm currently working as a dev, but want to transition a bit into music, I'm getting a bit burned out I guess. 
I'm a "classically trained" composer (if such thing exists), but never was able to get into the quirks of making a living out of it.
Don't you ever wander if it would be awesome being able to do both things? as in 50%50?


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## gianmarcoleone

JuanSebastianBach said:


> Hi there! Interesting to see a fellow dev! I'm currently working as a dev, but want to transition a bit into music, I'm getting a bit burned out I guess.
> I'm a "classically trained" composer (if such thing exists), but never was able to get into the quirks of making a living out of it.
> Don't you ever wander if it would be awesome being able to do both things? as in 50%50?



Your question made me think a bit. At the moment my time spent on music is very limited, but I already feel I don't have enough time for development (programming/studying)! I really can't imagine a split like that, I feel any development project would be negatively impacted.


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## JuanSebastianBach

Well yes, if you are studying that makes a lot of sense, considering you also need some time for resting. What happens to me is that after 8hs of coding, I'd love to do some music, but at the same time I'm so tired I just want to lay back. It's no surprise that my most productive days composing are holidays, or weekends.
I don't know, I think I'd love to know what it's like to be on the 100% music side, but making that switch looks scary AF.


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## MartinH.

JuanSebastianBach said:


> Well yes, if you are studying that makes a lot of sense, considering you also need some time for resting. What happens to me is that after 8hs of coding, I'd love to do some music, but at the same time I'm so tired I just want to lay back. It's no surprise that my most productive days composing are holidays, or weekends.
> I don't know, I think I'd love to know what it's like to be on the 100% music side, but making that switch looks scary AF.



Imho the best way would be minimizing your cost of living, maximizing your hourly wage on the dev job and minimize the time you need to spend on work projects, so that you have more free time to devote to music as a hobby. Turning music into a "proper job" will suck the fun out for many people. "There is no right or wrong, only tradeoffs"


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## JuanSebastianBach

> Turning music into a "proper job" will suck the fun out for many people.



Now *that* sounds scary! I think you are spot on, I'd love to reduce my dev hours whilst optimizing their performance, so to have a bit more room for music. So far what I did was to reduce the energy I spend on programming, you know... try not to get yourself burned out on a silly bug, etc. Anyhoo, thanks for your perspective!


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## Luftrum

Welcome to the forum Gian, nice to meet you. 

I hope you will enjoy your stay.


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## Fysik

MartinH. said:


> Turning music into a "proper job" will suck the fun out for many people.



May I ask if that was the reason for your career switch?


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## MartinH.

Fysik said:


> May I ask if that was the reason for your career switch?



I never worked as a composer and never switched careers. I mainly draw the conclusion from my observations of professionals in creative industries and the science on motivation. In short "extrinsic motivation leads to decline in intrinsic motivation". If you do something for free because you like it, and then someone starts paying you for it for a while, and then stops paying you, you are less likely to continue that behaviour without external reward, even if you had been doing exactly that happily for years. Also it makes a world of a difference to most creatives to just work on "art" on your own vs working on a "product" for a client.

I imagine there is only so much feedback a la "The music for this TV ad needs more 'magic' " (where it turns out with 'magic' they meant a Ukulele) before you get cynical and start hating your job.


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## Fysik

MartinH. said:


> I imagine there is only so much feedback a la "The music for this TV ad needs more 'magic' " (where it turns out with 'magic' they meant a Ukulele) before you get cynical and start hating your job.



I always thought about it differently. Rather do something you love as a job. Because every job sucks, but you don't mind the bad times in the job as much when you love what you are doing.
However I am still in university so what do I know.


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## FredericBernard

Welcome Gian!! 

Best,
-Frederic


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## MartinH.

Fysik said:


> I always thought about it differently. Rather do something you love as a job. Because every job sucks, but you don't mind the bad times in the job as much when you love what you are doing.
> However I am still in university so what do I know.



There is certainly some truth to that, however under that point of view I think it's even more important to pick something that retains a strong intrinsic motivation to you that is more resistant to applying extrinsic motivation. For example if you do some kind of work that you consider meaningful for society or your personal growth, regardless of whether or not you "like" that work, that might help. If on the bottom line you feel like you're just helping "make rich megacorps even richer" while learning nothing new for your personal growth, that sounds like it might get depressing fast. 

If you want some advice for the post-university job hunt from me: 

a) Don't wait till you're done with university, if at all possible you should start working in your field long before you finish studying. I had ramped up freelance work income to fulltime living before I finished my studies and then I didn't need to "start" looking for jobs after I got my degree, I just stopped studying and continued with the rest as before. 

b) In all sorts of creative jobs that put a big emphasis on a "portfolio", you are railroading yourself towards a specialization from the very first job that you take, and it will take increasing amounts of effort to change tracks later. Choose your first jobs wisely, because very often one kind of job will attract similar kinds of jobs in the future.


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## jonathanparham

welcome


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## Rowy

gianmarcoleone said:


> Hello forum,
> I am a long time lurker finally writing my first post. I've worked many years exclusively as a composer/sound designer, especially in the videogame and advertisement industries, but have since transitioned the majority of my work in the software development territory (but I still keep my DAW in shape for some audio productions in the videogame industry).
> At the moment no software development I'm involved is about audio/music, but it would be cool to have some opportunities in that direction!
> 
> Nice to meet you, at last!


Welcome, I'm a composer who wants to do some software development


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