The search for a composer to write music for your game can be gruelling, sifting through the mediocre until you find the one which is just right for your own special creation. But where can you search? How should you search?

I always try to employ the motto work smart not hard and in this article I’ll enumerate possible places for you to find a composer for your game.

Google

Odds are you’ve already tried to find a composer searching for terms like ‘game music composer’ ‘game sound person’ etc. but haven’t found anything adequate. The internet is a very large place and it can be quite hard to find a capable candidate.

Google however, is quite good for finding a composer who is local to your area and it helps to be more specific in your search is e.g. ‘orchestral music composer for games Newcastle Australia’.

SoundCloud

Sadly SoundCloud is not the Deviant Art equivalent for musicians it could have been. It is incredibly difficult to find quality content on SoundCloud and it can be littered with bots and spam. I honestly wouldn’t recommend going anywhere near it to search for composers BUT it is an excellent platform for composers to host their work on. So when you’re listening to portfolios SoundCloud is great, think of it more like Imgur for sound.

UpWork/Freelancer

Sites like UpWork and Freelancer have the potential to present good ‘quality vs cost’ composers for low budget games. They also give you excellent protection when working over the internet regarding payment for completed work.

Generally you won’t find many people working there from 1st world countries such as USA, Western Europe or Australia because with the bidding system it can quickly become a ‘race to the bottom’ for the lowest price. This may mean you might not find the best skilled candidate for your game but it will give you many options.

Stock Music Sites

Stock music sites such as AudioJungle and Pond5 generally cater towards the more film or corporate sides of media but in the cinematic category you can find good possible candidates. Once again it can be difficult to find someone to suit your unique vision.

IndieGameMusic.com

Indie Game Music is a fantastic website for Indie Game Developers to find a composer for their game. In fact the site itself states: “I have created this site in order to make it easier for indie game-developers, who’s on a tight budget (or no budget at all), to find music for their games.”.

The site is excellently organised and has a great search function. If you’re looking for music for a smaller game then this is definitely where you should start your search!

VI-Control

VI-Control is a forum for composers and this is probably one of the best places you could ever look for a composer! I’d recommend posting on the ‘Jobs Board’ or searching through the ‘Members Compositions’ sections.

PLEASE be aware that this forum contains working composers in the industry and they will NOT respond kindly to devs asking for free work or offering ‘exposure’ (I despise that term). You will find a lot of high quality work here but note that it can come at a cost and you may be offered rates anywhere from $100 to $1000+ per minute of music. Composers have to make a living too!

Closing Words

I hope you’ve found some content to help you in your search for a composer. It can be hard to find the quality content you want and at the price you want but rest easy knowing that I can guarantee there will be a suitable person out there for you. You just have to find them! Good luck!

The next article in this series looks at what to include in the first email…