How Much Money Do Film, TV and Game Composers Really Earn?

[@tommyarnoldmusic]

This was one of the most amazing business resources for composers I have found so far. PLEASE keep content like this coming

[@jonasfriedman]

More on the way! So happy to hear it’s been helpful

[@brian2706]

This is probably the best break down of the modern composer game. thank you sir

[@jonasfriedman]

No problem

[@jackengland4843]

Very informative, thanks for sharing!

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure!

[@SN-xx6ho]

Outstanding delivery in every way. Definitely intending to talk.

[@jonasfriedman]

Much appreciated!

[@nathan.rodrigues]

I was literally going to ask you this question and then this video dropped. Perfect timing! Thanks so much for the insight.

[@jonasfriedman]

Perfect! Glad it was helpful

[@ninjasharkstudiosandmerch]

I really enjoy your videos. You seem very knowledgeable and humble. Please the video is very high quality!

[@jonasfriedman]

Thank you, appreciate it!

[@BoldBrainWay]

Excellent and honest advice! It's very helpful, thank you!

[@jonasfriedman]

🤘 happy to know it was helpful

[@14theguitarman]

This is the 2nd video I’ve watched of yours. I’m already becoming a big fan! 🤠👍

[@jonasfriedman]

Happy to have you here!! Thanks for comment 🤘

[@octaviorombola6466]

Incredible as allways!

[@jonasfriedman]

Appreciate it Octavio 🤘

[@goosemeister12]

This video was fantastic! Thanks so much for the info! Just getting into the concept of writing music for games and other such mediums and I was properly concerned about this area of the industry. For it to be so eloquently laid out is much appreciated! Thanks dude!

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure! Always great to know the information is helpful

[@dluxdsgn]

Awesome video, Jonas! Really appreciate for this information!

[@jonasfriedman]

Glad it was helpful!

[@KscFade]

How can i sell my songs/beats/ want to work as a composer/producer for someone

[@santiagovalenciamusic]

Hey Jonas, this was amazing. Thank you for the clear explanation on what it looks like financially as a real world composer. I’m a new subscriber and excited about what you have coming up next on the channel. Cheers! 🍻

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure so happy to hear it was helpful! Appreciate the comment 🍻

[@GeekandUke]

That’s great, Jonas! Thanks for this video

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure!

[@jackexp]

This was super informative and inspirational! You’ve found a new subscriber

[@jonasfriedman]

So happy to hear!

[@NigelMerrick]

Very interesting indeed, Jonas, and thanks for sharing this in such an informative and motivational way 🙂

[@jonasfriedman]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@IsaacDaugherty-te2bt]

High quality content. Thank you, Jonas.

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure

[@jnaramusic]

Hey Jonas, Thanks again for sharing. How do we access the group “Your music your income”? I googled and nothing comes shows up??? Is it a Facebook group?

[@jonasfriedman]

It’s your music your future I believe : yourmusicyourfuture.com

[@jnaramusic]

Thats great thank you

[@Magickman93]

Hey Jonas! I just discovered your channel, and I just want to tell you how much I'm enjoying your content. Super useful information presented in a clear and concise way, with really excellent production quality. I'm a long-time producer/engineer just getting started as a media composer and I find your delivery to be very inspiring. I may very well sign up for your course, but am still "playing the field" while I search for a mentor(s) that feels like the right fit, teaching at a level that's appropriate for where I'm at on my journey. In any case, keep up the great work, and I'll continue to tune in! Best wishes!

[@jonasfriedman]

Appreciate the comment! If you have any questions about the course just shoot me a message and in the meantime I’m happy to hear everything on this channel has been so valuable to you

[@leanbiera]

It's a very interesting video Jonas. Thank you!

[@jonasfriedman]

Glad you liked it!

[@nickywhite_music]

Great video! THanks fo sharing! How did you get all the knowledge about how to play an instrument, all the theory and most importantly all the orchestration techniques on your own? That would be VERY interesting and probably inspiring to look at!

[@jonasfriedman]

I learned a little bit at a time through my own curiosity and research and then got to work with some very talented and knowledgeable people in the field that helped me to accelerate my learning and experience exponentially

[@andrewmanzano]

Such a great video! Really helps! I’ve had some songs that paid 5 times as much in royalties than the upfront fee. Some people really shoot themselves in the foot by demanding that upfront loot, missing the long term money altogether. Also, when you sacrifice on a few projects and hit those deadlines, the relationships you form pay off in the long run!

[@jonasfriedman]

Such good points here Andrew thanks for sharing as always!

[@chrisharrison809]

Bro you are for real killing it right now. Thank you man. Encouraging stuff

[@jonasfriedman]

Appreciate the kind words!

[@CoreZeroStudios]

Great video - thanks! Ever happened in these three worlds that one of them uses say 30 seconds or 60 seconds of music from you only? And is that just priced accordingly?

[@jonasfriedman]

That doesn’t really happen when producing bespoke music for film tv and games … that is more applicable in the world of music licensing where you can negotiate based on how much of a track is used

[@magicoctopus8701]

Thank you for an financial education video. As an Ukraine composer for video games, who have harsh time to dig into the reality of TV, film composer industry, specially USA, this is being a very important information! ❤

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure, happy to hear it’s helpful!

[@dfizzbom]

Awesome video, Jonas. Thanks so much!

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure thanks for checking it out!

[@KDL064]

GOD Bless you! Great advice...I have been on your channel for roughly 3 hours now and just wanted to say thanks a bunch for all the videos. They have helped and are going to help me a lot.

[@jonasfriedman]

You are so welcome - really appreciate this kind comment

[@KDL064]

@@jonasfriedman 👍 Nice nice...

[@mlrogers671]

Thank you for the info. I'm trying to get a handle on this part of the music business

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure

[@composercode]

Great video! also Blue Bloods is one of my guilty pleasure second monitor shows :)

[@jonasfriedman]

🤘

[@griffinmusicinc]

Thank you for your channel. You’ve encouraged me to start my journey in this field. For many years I’ve been a singer songwriter performing in theme parks and opening for various top tier artists. I always wanted to write songs for these artists, but it’s so hard to let go songs that I spent so much time on lyrically and musically. This avenue seems far more rewarding. I think I can handle someone telling me no in this field. 😆 I’m excited to learn from your channel.

[@jonasfriedman]

It’s a very collaborative process and field, I wish you the best of luck!!!

[@decormommy]

Your videos are so helpful! My son is a second year composition student and loves it, but he is really worried about how he is going to make money. Everyone he talks to basically says it will be impossible. Hopefully he watches your videos which will help point him in the right direction.

[@jonasfriedman]

Really appreciate this comment @decormommy - it is not easy, but absolutely no creative field is AND at least in my experience and the experience of my friends and colleagues, it’s not only possible to make money but a really great income. I’m not sure who your son is speaking to but it’s really important to not just ask questions but ask them to the right people. If I only interviewed med school dropouts about becoming a doctor I’d likely be worried that it’s not a realistic career 🙂

[@JeanLoupRSmith]

Thanks Jonas, I don't know that I'm ever gonna get to the stage of being paid for my music but that's useful information to have

[@jonasfriedman]

@JeanLoupRSmith - it all depends on what you want…having the ability to make music without any economic factors can be just as much a gift as making a living with it

[@JeanLoupRSmith]

@@jonasfriedman What I want is a working career as a composer, whether this can happen is up to me for the most part but also whether I can find the opportunities to get there. Right now I can afford not to worry about that and focus on growing my skills but I won't be able to hide behind my imposter syndrome forever...

[@DinkoKulenovic]

How to start to compose for tv? How to find work? I work as a production music composer for now but I want to try more.

[@jonasfriedman]

I personally started by working with other composers in the medium who were already established and it led to a lot of work.

[@thetonycooper]

Awesome vid!

[@jonasfriedman]

Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!

[@susanhillman1105]

Wonderful well made video Jonas! Quick question is the income different if you are on the team, but not the main composer?

[@jonasfriedman]

Great question and in my experience yes - when working on a team your income in based on your individual situation - experience and value you bring to the team. Example - I’ve never worked as an employee on a team - I have always been brought on as a private contractor through my own business so my income was very different from other members who were literally employees to the studio and the lead composer. Then (we all became close as friends) and it was revealed every employee had a different arrangement for pay which again was based on their personal roll in the project / studio.

[@ptr5323]

Thanks man so much but how can i actually have royalty should i sign anything? am new btw

[@jonasfriedman]

Royalties come through cue sheets and are collected by your PRO. In the states that’s Ascap or BMI… so you need to become a member of one of those. If working as additional music writer for another composer you need to sign a COA (certificate of authorship) with the studio that is producing the project as their contract is with the lead composer … if you’re getting cue sheet they want to make sure they own the music publishing of everything you write as well.

[@dolittle6781]

Definitely knows what he’s talking about! Still, if you are at the top of your game in almost any line of work you’ll make good money. Gotta remember that getting to that level as a composer or as any artistic person can be about as challenging as finding a needle in a haystack. That’s the part of this narrative that gets glossed over. Think about this too. Do you really want to turn your passion in life-writing music-into a job? Work is work. It can be a grueling slog. And once your love of music becomes a highly stressful affair then an important part of what makes you happy in life is gone. A better option would be to find a decent teaching job and then invest wisely in real estate. Over time you can build an investment portfolio of your holdings and live quite comfortably -and compose on the side either as a hobby or maybe you’ll find a few paying scoring to picture jobs and still savor your love of music without arguing over royalties and whatever. Something to think about. Of course composing, mixing and mastering music on a professional level would be no small undertaking!!! Those really are three separate and highly challenging fields of study. Careful not to chase windmills with the allure of what appears to be a glamorous and lucrative career. For a tiny percentage it definitely is.

[@jonasfriedman]

I appreciate your thoughts on this - my opinion is a bit different because what you mention here isn’t just relevant to composing.. lots of careers seem glamorous but require enormous sacrifice - this line of work is no different. At least for me making music has been preferable to the countless other ways one can earn a living. If you get stressed out making music you’ll probably get stressed doing other things. Like most things in life it’s all about your attitude. There’s positives and negatives to every career including this one - and just from my experience Id recommend anyone pursue it until they decide the positives no longer outweigh the negatives

[@dolittle6781]

@@jonasfriedman …agree with your last sentence…but music isn’t the same as other careers, it’s a passion, a calling, at least for me.

[@peterlepahin]

Do/did you write production music/library music as well? It would be interesting to see a similar video on the world of production music as well.

[@jonasfriedman]

Years ago I wrote tracks for a couple companies including a trailer album for UMG but 99.9% of my income is currently from scoring media projects (film,tv,games) and the backend those projects produce.

[@peterlepahin]

Thank you for the answer. I know a few people who live off production music, I do it as a side job (hoping to learn the basics in this area and then eventually step up) and I was wondering if you know or have seen any people building a career on production music, or is it mosly a side hustle for media composers. Both types exist, I am just curious to know what is the more typical case. (Great content as always, keep up the good work and thank you for these hight quality videos!)

[@jonasfriedman]

@peterlepahin it’s a good questions. I don’t personally know composers who live off of production music alone, unless they have a full time composing gig as an employ of a company. With the people I know, it’s usually supplemental to their composing or music income as a whole. I DO however know composers who own their own production music library, which allows them to make a full income off of production music, but it’s from owning the whole business which includes theirs and other people work and that’s a whole different beats that just being a music maker. Because production music takes having a consistent income completely out of your hands because you have no control over who hears or licenses your tracks, I think it’s best to have it as additional supplemental income with your main source being something you have more influence over - such as upfront fees for music - or a company that earns a blanket yearly fee for access to your entire catalog (ie this is the company route) just my two cents.

[@peterlepahin]

@@jonasfriedman thank you, I really appreciate that you reply all comments under your videos! (No need to reply this one.) :)

[@grobinson9352]

Thank you much.

[@jonasfriedman]

My pleasure

[@Looby-t1t]

Can you please share platform where I could upload my music and get noticed ? Thanks in advance

[@jonasfriedman]

U may get noticed by some people on Spotify but don’t expect to make any money Spotify is highway robbery we’re just about every artist is giving away their music for exposure. The best platform would be use KZbin to not just upload music but amazing visual content or interesting content as an artist - same with Instagram - but it’s not a passive thing you have to actively learn about and use these platforms to get them to eventually work for you

[@parsaporqasemian]

The video was really helpful. I got a question though... I'm just starting working on music and study music... however I'm really bad working with computers. Can you help me and say what programs and apps are essential to learn and know how to work with? Thanks again for the video...

[@jonasfriedman]

Really important to be just as obsessed and interested in computers and technology as music itself :) Here are my must learn apps and programs. Cubase, Kontakt, Zebra, Omnisphere, Vienna Ensemble Pro, And then you would need to know how to hook up your keyboard and midi controllers to interface with everything - luckily lots of KZbin content to help with each of these tools!

[@parsaporqasemian]

Thank you soooo much for your response. Means a lot to me...

[@dolphinflavored]

Huh. For some reason I just assumed every composer is underpaid! This video easily assuages my concerns. Thanks for the amazing video and inside scoop!

[@jonasfriedman]

I’m glad the video was helpful

[@janetbmusic]

Great video Jonas! I do have a question for you...Why should a composer be paid for the amount of music used versus the amount of music they delivered? I did a project where only about half of the music I composed was used in the final cut of a film. Shouldn't a composer be paid for their time spent composing all of the music, if that's how much music the director initially wanted?

[@jonasfriedman]

In a film - you are typically paid for the project as a whole. It includes all the music used and not used in the film. It’s in games (my personal experience at least) where music that is not used in the game isn’t included in the per minute rate. So to clarify, for a film, technically your paid for what they don’t use because your fee for the project includes just seeing the project through no matter what revisions or alterations take place

[@janetbmusic]

@@jonasfriedman Thanks for clarifying that. So I guess you have to factor that into your fee when you negotiate the deal.

[@indikasampath5440]

In films it happens with bad spotting sessions. If both the director and composer agrees on putting music for a particular scene. The deal is they have to pay for you

[@indikasampath5440]

In my case in Sri Lanka, For the television series they pay me an upfront fee for the first ten episodes. Then they use the music tracks i composed for the next episodes as well. If they need a new music track after 10th episode they pay me for per track fee. In your case, where you are paid per episode, do you create new music for each new episode or do they re use your tracks ? and we never get royalties

[@jonasfriedman]

Wow this is interesting thank you for sharing. it sounds like what your familiar with may be more common for reality tv, maybe even some sitcoms over here…but for dramatic television which is 99% of my work we SOMETIMES find great opportunities to reuse old cues…but we mostly create new music to work with the picture of each episode. We’ll maybe recycle stems but the music always has to be sculpted or “massaged” to make sure it’s right for the moment in the story and so on. The fact you never get royalties is very unfortunate given the structure of the work your describing. Thanks again for sharing

[@indikasampath5440]

Thanks. But most of the time they reuse the cues i composed for character themes, and character emotions . For the situational music cues, i have to compose new tracks specially sync with the screen timing@@jonasfriedman

[@jonasfriedman]

Yes we reuse cues for character themes and emotions - but it usually needs to be music edited to some degree to fit the moment

[@fisch723]

What about commercials?

[@jonasfriedman]

I don’t personally work in commercials so I can’t speak as knowledgeably about them. My understanding from colleagues is that a lot of commercials use high end licensed music from companies (music bed, universal music group are a couple examples) and then- when they need custom work there are again established companies that have relationships with marketing teams and directors. Financially I don’t know what kind of living someone makes strictly doing music for commercials since I don’t work directly in that area.

[@L.Lyubomirov]

I've earned 50 euro in 2 years,1 album released by major label film/music library,this year again 1 new album,and 6-7 other trailer traks...i guess i should stop composing and find different work.Great video,but not everybody has the luck to earn money.

[@jonasfriedman]

there are lots of factors to making a living in this field - you may notice I do not talk about releasing music on albums or trailer tracks as a profitable income in this video. that's because in my opinion and experience, the consistent money is in creating bespoke music for major film, tv and gaming projects. appreciate you checking out the video!

[@shalomraynor]

Is there any way I can get overseas project while i'm living in my own country, Myanmar. In here the film production studio don't even want to pay us 5000$ for an entire movie.

[@jonasfriedman]

While location is becoming less important post Covid, I personally feel it’s still important to spend time building relationships with people in the main hubs where these projects are being made. Even if you just visit and go to networking events and take some meetings, meeting people face to face in my personally experience can be helpful at least in film. Games it’s becoming much more common to work from anywhere and never meet people in person.

[@shalomraynor]

@@jonasfriedman Thank you. Appreciated .

[@AEMachinas]

how did you get the gig????

[@jonasfriedman]

Which one?

[@RAZZMABAZZMUSIC]

@@jonasfriedman I think he means in general. How do you approach/ who do you write / how do you network.

[@jonasfriedman]

@RAZZMABAZZMUSIC thank you for clarifying. I started by reaching out to potential mentors and looking for ways I could be of value to them. For me personally I found a lot of success not by offering my skills as a composer at first but as a sound designer and virtual instrument maker - once I got in and built a relationship, writing additional music became a very natural next step. it happened very quickly since a lot of busy composers need help in this department. Over time I learned and grew my network and credits. This made it easier to eventually find my own work as I had credits on recognizable projects making introductions a bit easier when cold emailing. This is a very brief overview - I have a free half hour seminar I’ll be releasing on the topic in December but in the meantime hope this is helpful

[@RAZZMABAZZMUSIC]

Very interesting!@@jonasfriedman

[@silassmith2215]

dude thank you so much@@jonasfriedman

[@willcwhite]

I can't place your accent. Central Illinois?

[@jonasfriedman]

I was not aware I had one! I’m from Connecticut

[@kablah19]

I think the real question is how does anyone get enough financial security to have the time to do all this deep work and practice..

[@jonasfriedman]

I appreciate what you’re asking - everyone has a different situation.

[@tolisgamer]

1500-2000$ per minute???really?😮10.000$ per episode???😮

[@jonasfriedman]

Yes these are real numbers. Larger programs can be 20k/per episode and so on…however it’s important to note- there is an INCREDIBLE amount of work that takes place for those projects. Not to mention expenses the composer takes on which as with any business eat into profits

[@tolisgamer]

@@jonasfriedman I was shocked. here in Greece they ask you to write music for a trailer for example for 50 and 100€.for a series 200€ per episode and for a movie 1000 or 2000€. and you pray to get all your money 😥

[@jonasfriedman]

@tolisgamer I’m very sorry to hear that. I appreciate you sharing your experience as it’s important for people to see the contrast between films and series produced in LA and around the world

[@MarkBowenPiano]

I believe the Angry Birds composer got paid but also got royalties too and made an absolute killing (and still does) from that music. Talking in the millions!! Great video by the way.

[@jonasfriedman]

That’s amazing and a great argument for why having a royalty is important for composers

[@dafingaz]

Some make $0...some make $millions. Per year. 😂

[@jonasfriedman]

This is the case for many professions - this video is meant to demonstrate averages based on where someone may be in their career

[@dafingaz]

@@jonasfriedman Yep! Great insight! Happy to say I'm somewhere in between that range also. 😂

[@drjtwoodrow]

I wish I was good enough to make a living writing music. 😢

[@jonasfriedman]

Takes a lot of practice and dedication! You can get there if you really want it 🙂