Game music - Contract

[Pietro]

Hi,

Some of you are working in game industry. And that's where I'm heading too. I'm doing some free projects to jump in and get some experience, and I'm also doing music for "maybe-commercial in the future" game, and I'm getting paid. (low, but it pushes me further)

Now, that I'm almost finished with main titles piece (first one, there will be more in the future), I'm thinking of proper agreement. How should it look like? I believe they're open to suggestions. They contacted me and asked for colaboration.

What I'm most worried about is property rights. I don't want to sell the piece for $500 and lose my all rights to it. I know the piece is damn good! :) (and worth a least 5 times that, but they're amateurs, and looking at my experience in game industry - so am I...:o) I'm thinking there should be a disclaimer about percentage of potential revenue.

Please some advice, anyone. How should the agreement look like?

Thanks
- Piotr

[MaestroRage]

I am also very interested to see what others might have to say.

[nikolas]

Thing is that maybe, since they are eager to discuss things, you should attempt to hold on to the rights, yourself. Have them use the music for a certain ammount of time (either way games die in a few months, if not in a few years), and have it returned to you. For 500$ it's not worth it loosing the rights.

For the legal staff, wait for the others to get here. I can't really help you to that...

[Javee]

It's funny I see this forum as I just finished sending off a contract for one of my latest projects. I don't know about the rest of the people on here, but I never make any contract that does not clearly state that the company is purchasing my labor as a composer and the license to use my music and under which terms they are allowed to use it. Very much the same way EWQL sells us the license to use their sounds. Furthermore, always ask for royalties, shoot for the sky. If they say no we don't want to pay you these kind of royalties, ask for less royalties. What needs to be evaluated is the estimated sales. Of course, the estimate could either be way off, or an over or under exageration. This is where you have to use your discretion. If the game is expected to sell say 150,000-200,000 copies, and lets say you charged $25,000 for the games music and say you asked for $0.08 royalty per sale. The deal is agreed you have made 25k upfront, and a possible 16kish from royalties over a single seasons sales. On the other hand, if a game is estimated to sell 300,000 - 350,000 copies, it would be wise, if you believe it will sell that many copies, to ask for more royalty and less fee. Say $0.16 royalty and $18,000 for the work done. This of course isn't always the case.

What should be on your contract should be simply this...

what you are offering
what they are buying and for how much
the terms upon which you have either discussed or they are about to read
payment method
a scheme of how the work will be done (this is optional, but always makes the purchaser feel better when they see this)
what is expected of the company and what they can expect of you

Another small bit of advice. If you do get commissioned for a larger project, I am assuming you are about to or plan to find one any how. You need to be very firm on this. You are creating the music for a certain platform. Say for example PC. Should they further develop a Xbox 360, PS3, Wii version, you are completely in line to expect full compensation for your music to be used again. Often this happens when a game is extremely popular. Therefore do not be shy to ask more money than you originally did. Royalties may stay the same though. For every conversion, you charge a fee.

For some games, virtual instruments are not the only means of creating music. Should a video game developer require real musicians. Say a symphony orchestra for example, make it clear in your contract that you are not responsible for the fees and that all music will be provided via virtual instruments. I would hate to see someone get caught up paying for a symphony orchestra, I know here in my town, the local SO charges about $8000 for 1 hour of performance of a composers music. Quite steep.

And as for 500 dollars for the music for a game. If you feel your music is that much better than what is being paid, then you should be asking for more. You need to be a business man not just a musician. This takes a life time of practice to create, do yourself a favor and do not undersell yourself. Also, in the end it just hurts anyone else who will do business with that company or their friends, because they will say to the next go who asks for 5,000, "Well so and so did it for 500". This is like a auction house. Of course, the budget size always comes into play as well. If you are doing dinky games just for experience, that only require 15 minutes of music, then yeah whatever, charge what you think is fair i suppose? But a regular video game runs 45-60 minutes of music. The way I see it, if you cant atleast make back what the EWQL products cost you, then you need to either be looking somewhere else for work, on a grander scheme, or re-evaluating your prices.

And if you are wondering about pricing for video games. They do range quite extensively in price, but generally speaking, a game that isnt some kids in their moms basement learning to become the next Bioware :P, then anywhere from $10,000 - $300,000 for work done + royalties depending on their budget of course.

My first mistake was underselling myself and hearing the excitement in the mans voice when i said, how does $5,000 sound for 50 minutes of music? It was one of those homer simpson moments, DOH! :P

I think thats about all i can offer you. If I missed anything im sure someone else will fill in the blanks. Or tell me 4 years of uni makes me a n00b, jk jk jk nikolas! :P

Mitch

[Kaatza_Music]

If you are working for someone who has little up front money, then the best route is to offer them a single use license. If they insist on wanting to own the copyright, then give them the option to purchase it down the road, after they pay you, in full.

I would never give away the copyright for future consideration or points. If you think $10,000 is a fair price for the piece, then tell them that you will give them the option to purchase the copyright for $10k within x number of months. Royalties are a separate issue and how you negotiate that depends on how viable you believe that the project is.

I have lost a lot of work because of this approach, but I believe that my music has value and I am not going to give it away. When I do low budget or freebie stuff, all they get is a single use, non-exclusive license to use the music. They get some cheap music and I get some scoring practice, but I still own my music and can recycle it however I want.

[MaestroRage]

very informative, thank you Javee, and Kaatza

[Pietro]

Thanks guys,

That cleared some things a bit.

- Piotr

[stmiller]

If it's not too late:

Avoid a 'work for hire' contract. This is giving away all rights of everything to the developer. If they don't understand why you would want to keep your creative rights as the owner of the music try to explain that the music itself has value separate and outside of the game. Make sure the contract specifies that you are the holder of 100% of the writer's share for all music and all derivatives of the music in the future. Register the musical works with BMI or ASCAP.

Most people will say it's the 'standard' to have a work for hire contract. This is a ridiculous statement. As composers we must fight against this myth, and retain the creative rights to the very thing we produce.

Say that your music for this game becomes famous, then orchestras play and record it worldwide, etc. You don't get a cent if you gave all your rights away. And it does not cost the developer any more money to make an agreement where you retain the writers share. So there is no need for them to have your creative rights.

This is mainly a problem in the US. As I understand it in Canada, such 'work for hire' agreements are not allowed.

[Dannthr]

I didn't know that.

I've written "such 'work for hire' agreements" as they're the bread and butter of a cohesive indy game dev project.

An indy can not afford to lose its assets if a team member walks away from the project and on an indy project it's a sure thing.


However, on my contract, I had everyone accrue profit shares for each contribution they made with bonuses for each month they stayed on, each meeting they physically attended, and each year they stayed on. The weight and value of these contributions were decided nearly arbitrarily with some basic rules to how big and small they could be by myself and the other co-founder.

Art can be sold as posters and in artbooks.

Music can be performed and sold in OSTs.

Many artistic contributions can stand alone from the game, but many game projects can not live without those contributions. Devs are simply trying to protect the bigger investment.

Make sure you understand your contract and are willing to have every bit of that contract exploited by both yourself and the contractor.

Check for clauses describing the use of your contribution outside of the project, suggest inserting some so that it's clear who makes what from the creation of an album or a live performance.

[tango9jeff]

Some great feedback here!

One thing they didnt cover is inherit value. To sell a product how does one determine value? Credits!

One can charge according to his or her credits list. In the game industry from what I've seen Music has no value until the person writing it has inherit value. Trust, respect and proven track records are how you can start to figure out your rate.

If your just starting out forget trying to charge some of those numbers others have posted. You will only loose gig after gig and casual game after casual game. Sometimes just doing flat rates is great on smaller game titles. You get a few hundred or a few thousand and you get a decent credit to add to your list. Sadly in the game industry not many get to keep there rights of the music. Most is sold away and your lucky to get a percent of the soundtrack if ones released.

rates normally go 500$ a min for someone who has a few small titles under his belt and a professional image.

and 1,000$ a min from composers who have done tripple A games.

then if your a big name guy who's done several tripple A games *Jeremy soule* shit think more like 2,000$ and up a min.

Without credits your just a guy with sample libraries and no matter how good you are game devlopers are buying trust and reliability more then a fancy sounding set up. Its just how it goes.

Hope that helps!

[nickysnd]

game devlopers are buying trust and reliability more then a fancy sounding set up.
I thought they are also buying the right to use your music. If music comes last, if music is the least important, then they should let you keep all the rights of your unimportant music, right?

[tango9jeff]

hah not if your starting out man.....Jeremy soule can keep his rights but newbies they know your lucky to be getting anything. Its a sad world until you get pretty big in my opinon.

Yes music is important and quality and all that.....but what I am talking about is what gets you in the door. Past that yes you have to deliver amazing content.

[Pietro]

Credits and experience - this is why I took the job. They are willing to pay - great! I'll buy some piece of hardware or software. (I have a long list :D)

I've been asked many times if I have experience in game developement, and I had to answer I don't. Opportunities flew off. That's why I'm doing freebies too - I'm not expecting AAA product to fall from the sky. Besides, it gives me a lot of satisfaction!

----
I gave my client 5 years non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the song as a part of the game, website or trailers only, for $500 upfront, 2% of future profits and credits.

I think, it's a good beginning :)

The song is available to listen at my website (first one on the list).

[Dean]

hey Pietro,

Gnostaria is an absolutely fantastic composition,great mix,love the metal percussion.

My only criticism is the french horn articulation sometimes the attack and release is a little unnatural on certain notes,for total realism it would benefit from a keyswitch F.Horn for certain notes.

(Excellent drum mix on track 5 aswell.)

Its a good deal to start and you own the rights,if the game takes off they can have the option to buy your composition for a more professional rate.

Goodluck,
Dean.

[Nathan Allen Pinard]

Ok, so I have a situation I would like advisement on.

I recently landed an MMO project, one that is currently in development. No agreements have been signed yet, so I'd like some input.

We've talked, and he basically told me that I would own the rights of my music, but there would be an understanding or something that I wouldn't go do whatever I wanted to with it regardless (sell it to a music lib, sell it on a CD soundtrack, etc)

It would actually look pretty unprofessional to do this in the first place.

This is one of those "maybe it'll take off" freeware projects. To where no one is getting paid, but there will be agreements drawn up on who will make what when it sells x number of copies.

I may get the chance to get a % of all sales, or a fee, or maybe even both.

Does anyone have any suggestion on what I should suggest? I plan to write quite a bit of music for this project, probably much more than most games.

[roamin]

If it's not too late:

Avoid a 'work for hire' contract. This is giving away all rights of everything to the developer. If they don't understand why you would want to keep your creative rights as the owner of the music try to explain that the music itself has value separate and outside of the game. Make sure the contract specifies that you are the holder of 100% of the writer's share for all music and all derivatives of the music in the future. Register the musical works with BMI or ASCAP.

Most people will say it's the 'standard' to have a work for hire contract. This is a ridiculous statement. As composers we must fight against this myth, and retain the creative rights to the very thing we produce.

Say that your music for this game becomes famous, then orchestras play and record it worldwide, etc. You don't get a cent if you gave all your rights away. And it does not cost the developer any more money to make an agreement where you retain the writers share. So there is no need for them to have your creative rights.

This is mainly a problem in the US. As I understand it in Canada, such 'work for hire' agreements are not allowed.

Can the 'creative rights' actually be given away or sold ??? Doesn't the term it self refer to the actual composer??! Am I wrong ?

Roamin'

[Dannthr]

Depends on the contract

[iLoked]

Bump (such an important issue this is :) )

Actually.. I´ve a little problem and I decided to put it here:

I´ve been struggling with a small job that´ve been offered to me. I should do a 5-6 short fanfares (just around 5-10 seconds each! :eek:) to a game and now they´re askin me what I´d charge them for that.. :o

It´s a small game and most likely they don´t own Ferraris and private jets.
I could ofcourse tell them, that I´ll charge x/min of music and if I wrote you 6 10s pieces I´ll charge you for one minute. Then again; those fanfares (or short themes..) are for a bunch of different races so they should be very different from one another... so I can´t just apply that 1 minute theory, right? ;)

Do you guys have any experience on these small games with 0-1000 USD budgets? What the devil can I charge them! Eventually it´ll be just another charitygig, but I might just as well do it for fun..

[MrAlex]

Charge them something that makes the job seem worthwhile to you, and which won't blow their budget. Contract negotiations are supposed to ensure both parties are happy with the arrangement.

For small budget projects, try and get some prominent shameless self promotion in exchange for a discount. In one game I have a banner on the title screen, which has directed a couple more people my way since.

[iLoked]

Charge them something that makes the job seem worthwhile to you, and which won't blow their budget. Contract negotiations are supposed to ensure both parties are happy with the arrangement.

For small budget projects, try and get some prominent shameless self promotion in exchange for a discount. In one game I have a banner on the title screen, which has directed a couple more people my way since.

I already thought that I could charge them something below minimum and get more in form of a links/banners on the game and their webpages. I´ll go with that and see what happens :)

Thanks for helping me to make my mind :)

[greenhorn999]

Hi,

Some of you are working in game industry. And that's where I'm heading too. I'm doing some free projects to jump in and get some experience, and I'm also doing music for "maybe-commercial in the future" game, and I'm getting paid. (low, but it pushes me further)

Now, that I'm almost finished with main titles piece (first one, there will be more in the future), I'm thinking of proper agreement. How should it look like? I believe they're open to suggestions. They contacted me and asked for colaboration.

What I'm most worried about is property rights. I don't want to sell the piece for $500 and lose my all rights to it. I know the piece is damn good! :) (and worth a least 5 times that, but they're amateurs, and looking at my experience in game industry - so am I...:o) I'm thinking there should be a disclaimer about percentage of potential revenue.

Please some advice, anyone. How should the agreement look like?

Thanks
- Piotr


Much of your concern revolves around the very things the WGA is striking about - royalties and how they're paid for the works they produce. It's not an easy answer and probably one for which you'd do well to get some legal advice. I don't know if a lawyer is necessary per se, but legal advice now will cost you some money up front and mitigate any "If I had only known..." regret down the road by failing to pursue due dilligence now.

On a pseudo-related note; Acclaim has fired up a new title and is looking for composers. Believe it or not, the response and the quality of submissions are really bad! I would have thought the opposite would be true - stranger things have happened I guess. Anway, it's like a forum community endeavor and those who contribute will get some credits when the game is released, not even taking into account the opportunity to get paid for writing for future games by Acclaim.

Great opportunity for musicians/composers new to the game industry.

[MrAlex]

Yeah I had a look at the acclaim thing, but it seemed more developer oriented at the time.

I'm interested now they're looking for composers though, maybe I'll check it out again :)

[Enrique]

There are some good contract samples and templates in G.A.N.G. (game audio network guild, http://www.audiogang.org/) but you have to be a member to access them.

Still, would be cool to have a look and check them out.

[Charlie Mathews]

Much of your concern revolves around the very things the WGA is striking about - royalties and how they're paid for the works they produce. It's not an easy answer and probably one for which you'd do well to get some legal advice. I don't know if a lawyer is necessary per se, but legal advice now will cost you some money up front and mitigate any "If I had only known..." regret down the road by failing to pursue due dilligence now.

On a pseudo-related note; Acclaim has fired up a new title and is looking for composers. Believe it or not, the response and the quality of submissions are really bad! I would have thought the opposite would be true - stranger things have happened I guess. Anway, it's like a forum community endeavor and those who contribute will get some credits when the game is released, not even taking into account the opportunity to get paid for writing for future games by Acclaim.

Great opportunity for musicians/composers new to the game industry.

Sounds interesting, but I can't seem to find this on their site. Where can I find more information?

[navboy]

How is it you all are getting your initial small-time opportunities? So far, i've got a demo page of samples (link below), and am verging on ready to get some work, any work, to get real experience. With a demo web page and no work history, where do you go (other than just talking to people that are tangent to such projects and handing out biz cards) to find some work?

Thanks.

[MrAlex]

How is it you all are getting your initial small-time opportunities? So far, i've got a demo page of samples (link below), and am verging on ready to get some work, any work, to get real experience. With a demo web page and no work history, where do you go (other than just talking to people that are tangent to such projects and handing out biz cards) to find some work?

Thanks.

I have a side interest in random stuff. I'll occasionally bump into something I find interesting, like a game project, a competition or something. Often in these small projects theres a general forum where a lot of programmer types hang out and they are in desperate need of music / art to make their games shine. Then I just ask the question "who needs some music".

Because I am also interested in the stuff, though, its not like I'm cold calling or spamming hundreds of forums. I pick the projects I approach carefully based on how much I am interested in the project and the chance of the project actually being finished. I tend to get involved in other creative and design aspects of the project and spend some time helping the guys and doing beta testing, and if they are serious about their project their are often willing to pay or offer some kind of compensation.

[Jeff Hayat]

On a pseudo-related note; Acclaim has fired up a new title and is looking for composers. Believe it or not, the response and the quality of submissions are really bad! I would have thought the opposite would be true - stranger things have happened I guess.


Hey - any more info on this?

Also,. I found an article from 2004:

Last week, long-time video game publisher Acclaim filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Chapter 7 is not like Chapter 11, the friendly kind of bankruptcy that lets you go on operating. No, Chapter 7 is the end. Once you file Chapter 7, that's it. You're gone. And so Acclaim has departed the world of games, which it first joined as an early NES licensee in 1987.

Is this the same co.?

Thanks in advance.

[MrAlex]

It's the same company, I don't recall the exact details but someone came along and put in some money and purchased the rights. So its under new ownership, I expect.

[rimskykorsakov]

What needs to be evaluated is the estimated sales. Of course, the estimate could either be way off, or an over or under exageration. This is where you have to use your discretion. If the game is expected to sell say 150,000-200,000 copies, and lets say you charged $25,000 for the games music and say you asked for $0.08 royalty per sale. The deal is agreed you have made 25k upfront, and a possible 16kish from royalties over a single seasons sales. On the other hand, if a game is estimated to sell 300,000 - 350,000 copies, it would be wise, if you believe it will sell that many copies, to ask for more royalty and less fee. Say $0.16 royalty and $18,000 for the work done. This of course isn't always the case.

Mitch


Hi , thanks for sharing all this info ! Very interesting .

I've never been involved in the Game-industry so far ,
so I wonder how do you control/survey the actual number of sales
to make sure to get paid for each sale ???

While it is possible for me to survey and collect the royalties
from TV-broadcasting , it is nearly impossible for me to survey
the exact number of how many DVD's ( with my scoremusic )
or CD's ( with my songs ) were actually sold.
I have to trust the TV-producers that their royalty payments for DVD-sales are correct.
So I usually take the royalties from the sales that the producer-companies pay me,
without being able to judge if this payment is okay or not.



Maybe the possibilities to survey the sales of a PC-Game are better/different ...
( ... or is the Game-Industry simply more honest than the TV- and Record -Industry ? ... :rolleyes: )
... please let me know !!

Best wishes

Gerd

.