# Salary?



## swpowe (Sep 6, 2013)

A bit off topic I suppose and I'm not sure if this is the correct place but...

I'm wondering if anyone out there can help me out with a question about salary. I'm trying to find out what a typical salary is that one could expect in the US. I'm talking about a senior position with a gaming company where the employee was a full time employee with the following responsibilities:

- Manage a team of more jr. audio engineers
- Original sound design and FX for game play as well as promotional materials
- Original background music score (written and produced)
- Original songs (melody and lyrics) (written and produced)
- Dialog editing and VO session tracking and producing

I know numbers will vary by state and of course company but I'm hoping to just get some ideas. Feel free to point me to some resources if you're aware of any data collected on this. I've not been able to find any.

Thanks!


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## dannthr (Oct 5, 2013)

The last numbers I saw on average senior/lead job salaries was somewhere around 106,000USD/yr.

That was with 6-10 years experience.


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## Farkle (Oct 5, 2013)

Gamasutra posts a game career salary guide every year.

What you described feels like an audio director position, and Dan's numbers are on the money. The range for audio director (at least in the 2012 survey) was 80 to about 110k, dependent upon years of experience, and probably region.

I know that a friend of mine interviewed for an audio director job at Bethesda 2 years ago, and his salary request of 90k was met with a "Yep, that's about what we're figuring".

Hope this helps!

Mike


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## Guy Bacos (Oct 5, 2013)

I let my son see my pay slip and this was http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY7mPW9TY2o (his response...)


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## synergy543 (Oct 5, 2013)

Good one Guy! :D


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## dannthr (Oct 5, 2013)

Yeah, as a composer, you're rarely on salary and freelance gigs can be all over the map.


Mike, I've noticed a polarization over the past couple of years between junior audio to senior audio. I suspect it has to do with the increase of contract work for lower audio cats rather than full-time, and a decrease in mid-level hires as studios close down and more senior talent floods the marketplace.

Here's to the new generation of consoles.


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## Farkle (Oct 5, 2013)

Not to derail the thread, but:

Dan: I totally agree with you. There's this new polarization, as you said, and I think it has to do with the "middle-budget" video games dropping out, and now being repopulated with Independent studios.

Basically, the "Wii lite" and "DS titles" ( and mid level PC, and PSN, and XBLA, etc.) that captured a lot of junior level audio guys fell apart, as casual/mobile titles took the market share (for a WHILE).

So, now, the senior slots are being competed for, and the junior titles (which used to be for a smaller studio doing DS titles, etc) are now being replaced with contract audio people.

However (and this is anecdotal), the pro developers that are forming independent studios (the guys doing Banner Saga, and Horn, for example) are looking for that mid-level sound designer, and composer, professional, quality, but able to perform at a reasonable, but mid-level rate.

This is a great market to be involved in, as many of those games are creatively super-satisfying; I think that this will become the "mid-level" audio pro level, for the next 4-6 years.

Does this make sense? 

Mike


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## dannthr (Oct 6, 2013)

Yeah, though you do still see a good number of contracts there as well.

I'm optimistic that those studios will do well and that the mid sized studio will come back--but as it is, many of those studios have that feeling of instability you sometimes see with startup companies--which can be stressful, especially if you're reeling from a layoff.


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## Farkle (Oct 6, 2013)

Agreed on all your points, Dan. I'm optimistic that those studios will do well; I do see that kind of instability/uncertainty for the studio development, and I think that's basically because these studios are financing their own projects, and believing that the core audience will support them (which I think they will).

My friends running independent studios were at GDC last year, and the general vibe at the independent mixers/sessions was, "We love what we're doing, we know there's an audience out there, we have no idea yet how we're going to make money with our projects, but everyone we've met loves our games and supports us totally, and we're making games that are super-satisfying for us."

I'm a bit of an optimist, but to me, the last (and first part) of that statement will make these studios successful.

I do hope so, I've met some amazingly passionate and smart independent developers, and all I want is for them to make enough money to keep doing their great games, and hire people to help (like composers!). 

Mike


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