Chapter 17
Composing Commercial
Music and Songs
In This Chapter
Writing music for films, video games, television, and radio
Considering the merits of composing teams
Checking out organizations and agents
Composing songs
Considering practical aspects and selling yourself
L
et’s face it: Everybody’s got to make a living.Sure, in a perfect world, every talented musician would be able to survive
comfortably off of writing pretty love songs and waltzes. But we all know
for a fact that that is rarely the case.Most musicians who make a living off of their music don’t do it through just
writing songs. The music world is full of incredibly talented studio bassists,
guitarists, and drummers with little name recognition outside of the studio.
There are oodles of technically gifted DJs and electronic musicians who make
their real income composing jingles for car commercials.In the case of the band Stereolab, for example, they made more money from
having one of their songs used in a Volkswagen commercial than they did for
all the albums they had released for nearly a decade prior to the commercial.Composing for Film......................................................................................
Probably the most lucrative career that a music composer can pursue is com-
posing for the silver screen. This endeavor is complex, challenging, and
fraught with competition. The film composer must have an understanding of