Becoming a professional music composer or sound designer for film, television, and new media can be a daunting task. While the licensing and use of custom music for media is evident everywhere, an aspiring audio professional may be overwrought with choices on where to find gigs, how to market themselves, and how to eventually build a profitable business in the world of sound. Following is a simplistic, but tested and true, step by step method of going from a talented and skilled bedroom composer or sound artist to a paid professional.
1. Create a demo of 30 second clips of all your previous mixes or sound effects organized according to genre, mood etc. for distribution to potential clients either through CDs or better yet posted on online.
2. Make a website that has demo samples, credits to date, a brief but telling bio, and a video reel if possible.
3. With demo in hand and website online, find free or low paying gigs to gain experience, get credits, build business relationships, and grow your resume.
4. Grow a database of prospective clients with budgets by contacting video editors, producers, directors, post-production companies, and animators. Find these people, by joining professional organizations, asking family and friends, finding gigs through online posts, participating in online film group forums, and cold emailing the above mentioned persons.
5. Reconnect with all of your prospects via email every few months and send out an -e-newsletter with updates on your work, services, and some items relevant or interesting to your audience.
6. Build skills and knowledge in all aspects of audio including audio sweetening and mixing including relevant skills such as FTP, video conversion, and the differences in sample rates and file types.
7. Have contracts at the ready for music licensing and invoice templates for billing.
Follow the above 7 steps to create a career as a music composer and sound effects designer out of thin air. The clients are out there in all forms and music is needed everywhere and with the world wide web the entire world is literally at your fingertips. The above process from start to finish may take two to three years of determined effort, but it will work if your talent and skills are up to par. The demand for music and audio is great but elusive. However, when your preparation meets the opportunities you create, your career will catapult.
1. Create a demo of 30 second clips of all your previous mixes or sound effects organized according to genre, mood etc. for distribution to potential clients either through CDs or better yet posted on online.
2. Make a website that has demo samples, credits to date, a brief but telling bio, and a video reel if possible.
3. With demo in hand and website online, find free or low paying gigs to gain experience, get credits, build business relationships, and grow your resume.
4. Grow a database of prospective clients with budgets by contacting video editors, producers, directors, post-production companies, and animators. Find these people, by joining professional organizations, asking family and friends, finding gigs through online posts, participating in online film group forums, and cold emailing the above mentioned persons.
5. Reconnect with all of your prospects via email every few months and send out an -e-newsletter with updates on your work, services, and some items relevant or interesting to your audience.
6. Build skills and knowledge in all aspects of audio including audio sweetening and mixing including relevant skills such as FTP, video conversion, and the differences in sample rates and file types.
7. Have contracts at the ready for music licensing and invoice templates for billing.
Follow the above 7 steps to create a career as a music composer and sound effects designer out of thin air. The clients are out there in all forms and music is needed everywhere and with the world wide web the entire world is literally at your fingertips. The above process from start to finish may take two to three years of determined effort, but it will work if your talent and skills are up to par. The demand for music and audio is great but elusive. However, when your preparation meets the opportunities you create, your career will catapult.
About the Author:
SFXsource writes articles on a variety of interesting subjects, hosts a sound effects catalog at Sound Effects and offers vast amounts of royalty free production music which can be heard at Music-Royalty Free
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