Soundtracks for a game, and contracts, etc.

[underthesun]

So I've gone quite the distance into making a game for the iphone.. and it was time to think about the soundtrack.

I approached a few artists (all of them are game music remixers), which has original songs which happened to really fit the atmosphere of the game I'm creating.

Some were willing to let me use it for free, providing there was credits, but some wants royalties. Thing is, noone was really familiar with how those work (including me).

So yeah, how does those thing usually work? Anybody with experience?

p.s it's a retro spaceship game, so if anyone have some music they want to see in a game, please say so.. I have no money though, a struggling phd student here

[RoeTaKa]

For music to make royalties it needs to be copyrighted. And for them to make the royalties it needs to be licenced. The person gives you the permission to use the song and in turn say...based on certain sales of the game then they would make a very small percentage of that sale. Although I'm not sure how this would work for a game where royalties are concerned, and if your game is for free then no-one makes a profit. I would've thought that if you were to licence a song to your product you would negotiate a one off fee to have the song used in your works. It's sort of similar to a synchronisation rights and royalties contract where say a song is used in a movie by a band.

In any case I would love to write some music for your game if you need it, my email is roea14@yahoo.co.uk and I can provide various works to showcase ability and work under specifications. I won't charge for the use of the song/s only that it is credited.

[underthesun]

Hmm, so one-off fees would be the norm eh.. I'm guessing I won't really find out how much publicly since discussing fees and such is supposed to be illegal?

e-mail noted, thanks for the interest.. I have plenty of RoeTaKa's in my mp3 collection

[zircon]

There aren't any rules or laws against discussing fees. Also, with indie games, there's no standardized procedure for whether to do onetime sync licenses or a royalty-based system... or both. Though, it is generally a little difficult tracking exact sales so it's usually less of a hassle to just pay up front. Alternatively, a milestone system could be used. EG. $50 for every 1000 sales reached.