Making music for a living is only about 50% actually making music for a living. The rest of the time is marketing, not-so-exciting business stuff and training yourself. Today we\u2019ll take a look at what you want to have on your portfolio, how to handle losing jobs and how not to get ripped off.<\/p>\n
Soundcloud is the best thing to use for your portfolio when you start out. It\u2019s free, easy to use, has a nice mobile interface (you don\u2019t want your page to show a broken flash icon on someone\u2019s phone), and is pretty much the standard place. \u00a0I\u2019d buy the basic membership which opens up the spotlight option and allows you to control what appears first on your page.<\/p>\n
The best things to put on your portfolio are obviously finished pieces, properly mixed and mastered for different kinds of games and what the music might sound like. It\u2019s best to try to show off the full range of your skillset. If you have three great songs in the same style, put the best one up.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s also a good idea to make a default \u201cbest of\u201d set or use the spotlight option to make sure the first thing they hear is what you want them to hear. It\u2019s also worth getting someone to make you a professional looking logo and also have links to other things like your facebook or website.<\/p>\n
You want to make a great first impression with your portfolio. It might be the only chance you get. Your portfolio is not the place to put work-in-progress songs or songs that you need help with. As I\u2019ve said before, I\u2019m a huge fan of third-party unbiased criticism of my tracks. I have a separate soundcloud just for posting \u201cDoes this sound good?\u201d and \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with this mix?\u201d type tracks when I embed them in a forum post or send them to a trusted friend. All musicians need feedback and help, but you don\u2019t need to show your clients that.<\/p>\n
Live tracks, joke remixes and other things that don\u2019t relate to your most professional material that someone would want in their game probably shouldn\u2019t be on your main soundcloud profile either.<\/p>\n
One of the hardest things to accept when you start looking for clients is that you aren\u2019t going to get them all. The good news is though, there\u2019s tons of reasons someone won\u2019t pick you that have nothing to do with your skills.<\/p>\n
-Price \u2013 In some countries, $30 USD is a month\u2019s rent, so folks in these countries might be willing to do $1000 USD of work for $200. You can\u2019t beat their prices if you\u2019re in the USA and have normal business expenses.<\/p>\n
-Timing \u2013 Some of the people you\u2019re up against might not have jobs at the moment or have more flexible schedules. They might honestly be able to deliver way faster than you.<\/p>\n
-Niche Skills \u2013 If the person is looking for a jazzy spy sound track and you mostly do orchestral RPG songs, chances are, some jazz musician will get the job. You can\u2019t be a master of everything, so don\u2019t sweat it too much.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s always worth while to be gracious and polite when told you didn\u2019t get the job. Even when some potential clients don\u2019t even say thank you or anything \u2013 I just see the job assigned to someone else \u2013 I write them a nice email saying thanks for the chance and if they need anything in the future, I\u2019d be happy to work with them.<\/p>\n
It can be a blow to the ego to lose a job, especially if you can hear the person who got it and think it sounds crappy. But just be cool about it. I have initially lost three different jobs only to have the client come to me three months later and say their chosen artist disappeared off the face of the planet and they are now in a crunch to finish the game.\u00a0 Help them out now, and you have a client for life.<\/p>\n
So when I first started, I was so eager for work I didn\u2019t think twice about making someone a sample for free. Some guy had a posting for some Mario Bros. styled chiptune tracks, I threw together a chipsounds Mario brothers-theme ripoff and mailed it over to him all excited, sure I\u2019d get the job. He never wrote to me again, but, I noticed a link to his company on Skype. I went to it and found my loop was in his game. He never paid me and I really had no way getting any kind of justice, we never signed a contract or anything.<\/p>\n
I learned a valuable lesson right there. Some musicians won\u2019t turn over a single bar of music until a contract is signed, but remember, clients are afraid of being ripped off by you too. I think giving samples is totally necessary, but, just make sure your sample isn\u2019t usable in their game. Here\u2019s some ways to do it without ruining the sample:<\/p>\n
-Add a layer of sound effects over top of it. You can tell them its to help them visualize it in game. Trust me, they love this but they can never use it in game due to the sfx.<\/p>\n
-Add a repeating loop of a voice recording saying \u201cdemo\u201d or something every 10 seconds. Keep it low. They\u2019d never put it in their game because it wouldn\u2019t seem professional.<\/p>\n
-Add fade-in\/fade-outs at the start and end and even some random ones in the middle.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a sample where I put some simple ninja sound effects over the track, so make sure the client didn\u2019t just run off with my sample (he didn’t).<\/p>\n