Music Career Finder
Start Here:
Composer
How To Become a Composer
People also ask
Career Description
Composers write original music for the concert stage, recordings, or films and other visual media. The term composer usually applies to a musician who writes classical music, or jazz, for an orchestra, ensemble, or chamber group.
In the classical tradition, they use a variety of musical forms to create new music for audiences, working on commissions and freelance projects.
Composers are paid by the piece, by the page, by the minute (of music produced), and sometimes earn money from residuals (royalties) on recordings or performances of their works.
Film composers write music for films and TV, or sometimes advertising. Some composers specialize in music for videogames. There are many kinds of composers, just as there are many kinds of music. Composers are not the same thing as songwriters, whose work is more pop-based and revolves around lyrical content.
A composer usually starts working from behind his or her computer in their recording studio, using software such as Logic Pro X to write music, score, and program. If writing for film or TV, they must fit music to picture edits or director– or producer-mandated requirements or specifications in musical direction.
Most film composers rely heavily on sample libraries, although those working on bigger budget projects sometimes are able to hire musicians for live instrumentation. Depending on the project, film composers can collaborate with directors, producers, music supervisors, music editors, production music writers, film music composers, and musicians.
Composers who specifically write music for commercials are known as jingle writers. During post-production, the re-recording mixer will make sure the levels of the composer’s music sync well with the sound designer’s contributions and with the dialogue and sound effects used in the film.
For this piece we spoke to film composer Jacob Yoffee and classical composer John Buckley.
What is the difference between a musician and a Composer?
A musician is anybody who makes music. This includes Composers, Arrangers, Conductors, instrumentalists, Singers, and others. Many musicians engage in several of these activities eg. a Composer who plays piano, a Conductor who arranges music.
Other musicians focus on just one of these — e.g. I am a professional Composer but I do not conduct orchestras or perform in public (though I can play the flute). I compose music that is performed by orchestras and choirs and so forth. A simple definition — all Composers are musicians because they compose music — not all musicians are Composers, because some concentrate on performing music written by other people.
What is the difference between a Music Composer and a Music Director?
A Composer actually creates or invents the music — this is usually, though not necessarily, written down in the form of a score. A Musical Director, such as a Conductor of an orchestra or a Director of a musical show interprets the music that has been created by the Composer. Simple definition: the Composer creates, the Musical Director interprets the Composer’s work.
What does a music composer do?
Composers write original music. There are many kinds of composers, just like there are many kinds of music. While there’s a connotation with the word composer that brings up an image of classical music, there are also jazz composers, composers of music for film, Broadway musicals, advertising, and even videogame music composers.
While there are composers who also write songs, if your music is mostly pop oriented or built around lyrics, you would be called a songwriter. Technically, songwriting is composing, but most people who call themselves composers tend to be focused on classical or other forms of music besides writing songs.
To summarize, composers write scores to be played by orchestras, ensembles, chamber groups, or synthesizers and sequencers. Some composers are also conductors, and most use sophisticated music software programs for writing, producing, and performing their musical compositions.
Salary
On average, composers earn approximately $53,300 per year. The salary range for composers runs from $20,000 to $115,000.
“I’d rather tell someone the bad news first,” Yoffee says. “It’s not like they tell you in school: ‘You’re the composer. You’ll be making this much.’” Income is very low for those just starting out. “You won’t be making a living,” he says, adding that many composers just starting out make under $5,000 a year, earning “only $500 for an entire 80-minute film, but people do it just for the credit.
They say in school [you’ll receive] $30,000 for the first film [you score],” but the reality is significantly lower. This is possible because so many people are willing to work for free. Composers are paid on a per-project basis.
”Everyone in the film industry has a union except for composers,” Yoffee says.
Can you make a living composing?
The fact that there are people earning a living from composing music is certain proof that it’s possible. The question might instead be: what kind of living can you make as a composer? If your needs are few, especially when starting out, you might be able to eke out a living of some sort.
If your idea of making a living includes flying around in your private jet and owning a penthouse in Manhattan, or a beach house in Santa Monica, that could be a bit harder, or at the very least, take a bit longer. There certainly are some wealthy composers, and have always been, throughout recorded history. The biggest obstacle is the competition.
There’s a lot of very fine composers all working to try to make a living, and it takes not only talent, but also business sense (and gumption) to ask for a lot of money for your music. Any composer who says it’s easy is lying to you.
Luck and timing also play a role. Bottom line: it’s not enough to love what you do, and to do it well. You need a special kind of business smarts and a lot of hard work to turn composing into your living.
Hey, what do you think about trying our new Music Career HelperMusic Career Helper really quick? It’s totally free and could help get your career moving fast! Give it a try. It’s totally free and you have nothing to lose.
Career Outlook
As long as there’s a need for new music, there will be a need for composers. What you can earn in the market is based on supply and demand, and there’s no question that there’s an oversupply of composers and the demand is not as large. This is what keeps pay low, especially in the beginning.
”I work 60 hours a week,” Yoffee says. “On a project, I work up to 120 hours a week. Deadlines and rewrites mean stress levels get really high.”
Producers and directors may decide to cut or rearrange scenes, or the music editor may decide they want a song in one scene instead of a score. “The amount of rejection, the stress, it’s a thousand no’s before you get a yes,” he says about his early years as a composer, struggling to get established and even find those first few paid industry jobs.
But don’t let any of this dishearten you! Music and entertainment are fast-growing fields. People always need entertainment and music is a big part of almost all forms of entertainment, so this creates lots of fresh opportunities for composers who position themselves to benefit from the steadily increasing demand.
The good news is that there is a demand for composers who are talented, flexible, versatile, and can work fast. Once the word gets out, your phone should start ringing (or your email should start dinging). One project leads to another.
Is composition a good career?
It’s important to understand that most composers work on a commission or free-lance basis, meaning they are self-employed. To sustain a successful career, they rely on a steady flow of work from clients, and over time they also have opportunities to earn money from residuals, or royalties on their work.
It takes time to build up a career as a composer, and to earn a living most composers work at other jobs, inside or outside of music, especially early in their career. They might have a second career, such as teaching, or work in other parts of the music industry. Some are instrumental performers, conductors, producers, sound engineers, or even music therapists.
It’s hard to make enough from just composing music to earn a good lifestyle, and most successful composers will tell you how it took them many years to get to the point where composing became their livelihood. In the end, any career is what you make of it, and those with the talent, persistence, and drive will rise to the top.
Career Path
Every successful composer will tell you about their lean early years. Working for free on student projects to build a portfolio. Creating demo reels they can send to potential clients or to win commissions. Maybe entering works into competitions. Getting plenty of rejections. It comes with the territory.
Working as a composer is a freelance job, meaning you are self-employed. If you aren’t working, you aren’t getting paid, most of the time. Young composers will spend a lot of time and effort looking for work. It’s important to build and maintain a strong network of collaborators who will lead you to your next job.
For example, Turkish film composer Pinar Toprak scored a Marvel blockbuster film after working her way up after college as an intern at Paramount pictures to becoming the first woman to score a billion-dollar grossing Hollywood picture. It took her nearly 20 years after college to gain her success.
”It is nearly a million-to-one odds” that an aspiring composer will earn a living in his or her chosen field, says Los Angeles-based composer Jacob Yoffee. This is a highly competitive field, akin to breaking into Hollywood as an actor.
He cautions that it’s extremely difficult to get that first composing job or to make a solid wage as a composer, especially for those just starting out.
“Prospects are a bit higher now because people are making films independently of studios,” he says, but these indie films also often have very low (or no) budgets. Advancement in this career will primarily be financial, and very few will ever achieve the name recognition and high salaries of legends like John Williams or Hans Zimmer.
Composers can also transition into becoming music supervisors – professional music specialists who work with producers of visual media to find existing music to license for their works.
According to Yoffee, the best way to start your job search is by searching Craigslist postings, approaching directors, and working on student films. “Start at the bottom and it’s going to be rough. You’re going to work on stuff that you’re like, ‘I hope no one ever sees this.’”
Basically, you have to find that one person who says “I’m going to give you a chance. ” He advises, “work with everyone. No matter how big, treat it as the dream gig you’ve always wanted. No matter who’s hiring you, you have to give 100%.”
Here are some more pointers from Yoffee:
- To succeed long term in any aspect of music you will need to practice!
- Understand basic song structure.
- Watch films and analyze the music.
- Find out what it is that you offer that other composers don’t.
- Watch YouTube tutorials on sample libraries and how to write to picture.
- Get set up with a rig, including the right software.
“You need the proper tools to deliver. You need to be able to produce and mix, practice outputting well-mixed sound files.” This is important because, especially on the smaller projects, “it’s very rare that you’ll get a budget with a mixing engineer, editor, dubbing engineer and ensemble. They need you to deliver the final product.”
Experience & Skills
Get as much experience from any aspect of music you can. The better musician you become, the better composer you will be. Practice composing for ensembles as well as for film/TV/video games. You can do rescoring projects, where you create a new score for an existing segment of visual media. Keeping up-to-date on recording, editing, and sampling software is also important.
Whatever form of media the composer is working in, it’s important to understand the language of the medium, so that, for example, the composer and the film director can be on the same page. Performing skills are also important. Yoffee says that the ability to play piano and guitar are “the greatest asset to any film composer,” with flute, saxophone, and clarinet also useful.
Working on student films is vital because it builds one’s portfolio, provides real world experience and builds connections.
Composers must be detail-oriented, adaptable, have a strong work ethic and be quick writers. Because scenes are constantly being rearranged or cut and a composer must be adaptable, being a film composer “isn’t good for someone with a complete artist mentality,” who sees their work as “a masterpiece that can’t be changed,” says Yoffee.
“You can’t think of it as a product. It’s a service.” He adds, “It’s not for someone with a pop mentality or a lyrical starting point. Be a songwriter” if that’s your focus. And most importantly, “just a love for music isn’t enough. You need to love film, too. If you’re a composer for film, you are a filmmaker.”
How do you compose music?
Becoming a Composer requires a wide knowledge of musical theory, detailed knowledge of musical instruments, and how they work together (orchestration). If you have this already you need inspiration, ideas, concepts, and knowledge of how to develop your ideas. Simple explanation: I am a Classical Composer and my motto is Concept, Content, and Craft in Composition.
Education & Training
Schooling is essential to becoming a composer. According to Yoffee, aspiring composers “need to understand the mechanics of music on the simplest level (like the structures of simple song form) and need to be able to put together 20-30 minutes of music quickly.”
Yoffee himself has an MA in Scoring for Film and Multimedia from New York University, as well as practical experience as a working jazz musician. He sought a postgraduate degree because he “knew how to write music but didn’t know how to work with film and computer software.”
Because there’s so much for an aspiring composer to learn, especially with constant advances in technology, he says that he’d “recommend some kind of school, but you can’t graduate and be knowledgeable enough to immediately start working at a higher level. Go in [to a college program] with your own questions and your own path and your own ideas.”
As to college recommendations, Yoffee has praise for his alma mater, NYU, but says that many of the working composers he knows graduated from the University of Southern California, whose strong ties to the Hollywood film community provide many opportunities to students trying to get a foot in the industry’s door.
The fact is there are now many great college and university programs for composers to earn a degree, for both undergraduate and graduate studies.
Additional Resources
- American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
- Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI)
- Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC)
- Production Music Association
- New Music USA
- Stage Directors and Choreographers Society
- The Dramatist Guild
- Society of Composers
- National Association of Record Industry Professionals (NARIP)
- Gamasutra
- Chamber Music America
How to Compose Music | Your first piece for complete beginners
Composition 101 – Antonio Gervasoni teachers basic concepts of composing
Alan Silvestri breaks down the composing workflow behind his blockbuster film scores
Writing to picture with Hans Zimmer
Variation: 14 ways to compose with one idea
FAQ
What is the single biggest suggestion you would give to someone wanting to get into this career?
“Study film so you understand film and how to talk about it with a Director.”
What’s the #1 mistake people make when trying to get into this career?
“Focusing too much on music and not on the film.” Also, “There’s not enough of an attitude about doing things as an experience for learning over money. Build credits and do stuff for relationship building with filmmakers. Learn how to talk to Directors.”
What is the question people should ask about this career but rarely do?
“Ask [music-wise] what does the film need to make it the best it can be? Music is a tool Filmmakers use to make it better, a Bandaid for the film to make the rough edges smoother.”
What is one thing I should have asked which I didn’t?
“It’s been pretty good so far. Nothing.”
If you could describe in one word what makes you successful, what would it be?
“Easy to work with.”
Extra Credit: The Beatles or Rolling Stones?
The Beatles…but really Led Zepellin.
Sources
John Buckley
Born in Templeglantine, Co. Limerick in 1951, John Buckley studied flute with Doris Keogh and composition with James Wilson at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. His subsequent composition studies were in Cardiff with the Welsh composer Alun Hoddinott and with John Cage.
He has written a diverse range of work, from solo instruments to full orchestra. The list includes numerous commissions, amongst them Concerto for Organ and Orchestra and Campane in Aria for the National Concert Hall, Rivers of Paradise for the official opening of the Concert Hall at the University of Limerick, Maynooth Te Deum for the bicentenary of St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and A Mirror into the Light for Camerata Ireland’s inaugural concert and many works for RTÉ.
John Buckley’s catalogue now extends to almost 100 works, which have been performed and broadcast in more than fifty countries worldwide. His compositions have represented Ireland on five occasions at the International Rostrum of Composers and at five ISCM festivals. Amongst his awards are the Varming Prize (1977), the Macaulay Fellowship (1978), the Arts Council’s Composers’ Bursary (1982), and the Toonder Award (1991). In 1984 he was elected a member of Aosdána, Ireland’s state sponsored academy of creative artists. His music has been recorded on the Anew, Altarus, Black Box, Marco Polo, Lyric FM, Atoll and Celestial Harmonies labels. He has made numerous broadcasts on music and music education for RTÉ and Lyric FM.
He has been awarded both a PhD and a DMus by the National University of Ireland and is active as a lecturer on composition and music in education. He is on the staff of St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra, Dublin. His biography Constellations: The Life and Music of John Buckley by Benjamin Dwyer was published in May 2011 by Carysfort Press.
Jacob Yoffee
Jacob Yoffee is a Los Angeles-based Composer whose work has appeared in pictures starring Ray Liotta, Common, Michael Chiklis, Forest Whitaker, Misha Barton, Michael Duncan Clarke and Devon Sawa.
Recently he has partnered with director Rodrigo Garcia (Albert Nobbs, In Treatment, Six Feet Under) for several WIGS channel projects starring Julia Stiles, Dakota Fanning, and America Ferrera, and his work has also been featured in the trailers for X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. His work has been featured on Kevin Hart: Don’t F**k This Up, Free Meek, and Andi Mack.
Jacob Yoffee’s work has been featured in Soundiron, Billboard, The Source, and Variety.
An accomplished jazz saxophonist, his debut album Dead Reckoning was released by Greg Osby’s Inner Circle Music label. Yoffee is the Resident Composer for the American Studio Orchestra in Baltimore. His music has been performed throughout the US and overseas at England’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Royal Academy of Music, and on BBC Radio.
References
- 1Multiple. "Average Composer Salary". PayScale. published: Oct 18, 2022. retrieved on: Aug. 27, 2023