Hello! I'm currently working on a game, and I was wondering: where do you find your game music? I read an article by the Braid team, where they described using Magnatunes as their source. Obviously some make their own music, like in World of Goo, but I'm not that talented I'm afraid. Where do you go to shop for your licensed game tracks?
We have our own incredibly talented composer making music for us, but I'd suggest looking at the Dev Services forum here or on other forums as well. A quick scan brought up these guys: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=92214 http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=84733 http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=88682 http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=88678 http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=88078 I have no idea what they charge though! The reason I like to have custom made music is so that you can have a specific tune, jingle, or hook that is played throughout the music, even in different songs. Kind of like how Worms has their signature tune that is present in every song. It gives the game a more polished and complete experience.
If you are interested in an original score, I did the music and SFX for hit games like Zombieville USA and Battleheart, and am currently working on new music for the next MikaMobile project and am starting a new project with Umizato Games. I'm not dirt cheap, but I'm good, and I don't think the list comprising "all styles of music" begins with "metal" and ends with "ambient."
Were using http://seanbeeson.com/ he's an amazing composer, but again doesnt come cheap. Blog post about it - http://iceflame.com/2011/04/18/working-with-the-beeson/
http://www.shockwave-sound.com/ You need the mass market licence for your games, witch is more than double the display price. It is still very cheap and quick to find a music for your game. If you can afford a composer, then go for it too, everybody need to eat. JC
Gravity Jim, why don't you add a sig in your profile. It isn't the most effective marketing device but it just take 10 seconds. JC
Mattias Holmgren of Morningdew Media is awesome. http://www.morningdewmedia.com Check out one of the tracks he wrote for my upcoming game, Unicorn Rush.
We bought some soundpool dvds with free licences for everything, added some sfx from the internet and builded the tracks ourselves, that worked because we wanted a more background ambient track with some melodies for Blood Fever and no real "music".
So what you're saying is that finding a composer could he cheaper than mass license of a score(s)? Bear in mind that I'm not expecting to be Angry Birds or anything. Does it affect it in terms of licensing? Small volumes fees? Thanks!
Wow, he is amazing. Do you know of any other game (iOS or not) he worked on? I'll check out your's too when it's released. I know you're probably not allowed to talk about prices on a public forum, but do you think as a poor student and indie developer I could afford a song or two for an upcoming game?
I can vouch for Forging Sounds Productions (http://forgingsounds.com/). We've worked with them in most of our projects and they're really great (and their prices are more than reasonable). Christian, the mastermind of the studio, is not only a great composer but also an avid gamer, which is very important in coming up with themes that really go together with your game. I recommend you drop him an email.
I have a friend, Arthur Grosz (http://www.arthurgrosz.hu/ArthurWP-ENG/) who is a yound and very talented composer. He made music for my films, and he is looking towards new assignments (he is new to videogames, but want to open to this direction). If you are on a budget, I can suggest to contact him.
We've got a music / audio guy that does custom music for most of our apps. But for the kart games, I used NeoSounds, which at the very least is decent for placeholder audio.
Hello! I am currently a music student at goucher college and have been looking for a small project to hop on to try to write music for a game, money isnt really important to me at this point(but i am not totally ruling it out) What's more important is the experience of writing game music. I would love to talk to you more, you should PM me or something.