Hello everyone, I'd like your insight to help me better understand the career path of a media composer.
I work with music for over 20 years (performing in bands, jazz groups, teaching, etc.), but it's been 1 year that I am dedicating most of my time to media composition.
However, during this process, I started to realize that this career seems to be incredibly "lonely". One thing is to study media composition with all these students and teachers engaged, full of live recording sessions etc.... but it seems that the actual day to day job is very different...
I said "lonely" because, all film composers that I have met so far told me that, they spend most of their time in their studio making mock-ups, as they claim they will almost never get enough budget to hire musicians to collab. They said there's some interaction with film directors, or game developers, but it is minimal as they are supposed to quickly review the music.
These composers I met are all working for 10-15 years in the industry as freelancers, currently involved with mid size budgets, and they are making a pretty good living with this career. None of them live in LA, they are from Canada, UK, Brazil and some other places in Europe.
Composition is almost everything I seek in music, but my creativity is heavily connected to working with other musicians and the general public. I struggle with the idea of spending the next 10 years of my life composing things that will only turn into mock-ups.. I need the “live” feeling...
So, it seems that, if you don't live in LA where the industry has higher budgets and a vast media market, the life of a media composer is mostly writing mock-ups by him/herself in his/her studio. Even game companies in my city barely have in-house composers, and if they do, apparently none of them provide enough funding for live recordings.
Do you guys validate this career prospect? I really appreciate your opinion.
Thank you!
I work with music for over 20 years (performing in bands, jazz groups, teaching, etc.), but it's been 1 year that I am dedicating most of my time to media composition.
However, during this process, I started to realize that this career seems to be incredibly "lonely". One thing is to study media composition with all these students and teachers engaged, full of live recording sessions etc.... but it seems that the actual day to day job is very different...
I said "lonely" because, all film composers that I have met so far told me that, they spend most of their time in their studio making mock-ups, as they claim they will almost never get enough budget to hire musicians to collab. They said there's some interaction with film directors, or game developers, but it is minimal as they are supposed to quickly review the music.
These composers I met are all working for 10-15 years in the industry as freelancers, currently involved with mid size budgets, and they are making a pretty good living with this career. None of them live in LA, they are from Canada, UK, Brazil and some other places in Europe.
Composition is almost everything I seek in music, but my creativity is heavily connected to working with other musicians and the general public. I struggle with the idea of spending the next 10 years of my life composing things that will only turn into mock-ups.. I need the “live” feeling...
So, it seems that, if you don't live in LA where the industry has higher budgets and a vast media market, the life of a media composer is mostly writing mock-ups by him/herself in his/her studio. Even game companies in my city barely have in-house composers, and if they do, apparently none of them provide enough funding for live recordings.
Do you guys validate this career prospect? I really appreciate your opinion.
Thank you!
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