What is a day in the life of a (freelance) composer like

[mickomoo]

This is more for my personal interests, I'm writing a story about a young freelance composer to pratice my writing skills and was curious what the daily routine might be like. Though I'd like to be a composer maybe when I retire...

[AngelCityOutlaw]

I'm not a professional, but I did get to experience it when I wrote music for an indie game (which finally comes out in the next couple months!). So I'm not really qualified to give you a good answer.

but I doubt that you're going to get any two answers that are the same. As it depends on what the composer does, if anything, in addition to composing. The process would be different depending on whether you are also an engineer, conductor, whether you hire live musicians, etc.

Odds are, most young freelance composers still have day jobs. So you can also write about your composers awesome day job as a Starbucks barista! Also, a large amount of your time will be spent networking. So be sure to include that in your story.

Edited June 10, 2013 by AngelCityOutlaw

[XPRTNovice]

Step 1: Wake up and go to your real job

I'm not a full time freelancer and I don't know that I ever will be, but I recently had a conversation with someone who was, and this is what he told me:

It's a highly stressful and difficult full time job. I have white hairs from the year I did only freelance music.

I was always hungry for work which meant I was bad at negotiating because I was always trying to cover the bills and couldn't say no to any final offer.

I alienated a lot of the people I loved because my life was only about scraping by enough to meet the life's obligations--which were complicated by the fact that I was living with my then girlfriend and she expected me to be able to keep up with her financially: going out to eat, going on trips, living life like a couple in their late 20s are supposed to, etc...

It was pretty terrible.

I recommend to people starting out, to get a job where you can put in minimal effort, minimal hours, and something that you don't have to think about when you're not there--a job where you can put in like 20-30 hours a week and make enough money to pay the bills. So that the rest of the time you're devoting yourself to the work you want to be doing.

In time, you'll be able to transition to a well paying creative job that's relevant to the work you do. It could be teaching, or performing some ancillary task like assisting or running a studio or something like that--you have to be open minded about these things.

But working 100% freelance only? That'll kill you unless you're extremely successful.

[Moseph]

I get up at 2:30 (am) and work for a few hours before heading to my day job.

[Byproduct]

Yeah, most people probably need to have other jobs besides composing, and they put more money into the hobby than they make out of it. But maybe there are a handful of lucky ones working on high-budget movies and AAA games, who have composing as an actual job?

[XPRTNovice]

I'm a triple freelancer with a day job - I write, I do music, and I'm a voice actor. I haven't been doing it for very long, but I can give some ideas on my experiences, maybe. I will caveat this by saying that I'm not trying REALLY HARD in any of the freelance parts. They're side jobs; I do them as they come. I don't need the extra income so bad, but it's nice to have.

The common theme I feel about all of these is that the goal of my freelancing is to stop freelancing.

In writing, my goal is to sell novels to a Big Six publishing company and get contracted to write more books. Unfortunately, that makes freelance writing difficult. Novels are big projects that take a huge amount of time, and it leaves no room for me to sell short stories to magazines. Even if I devoted all my time to short story writing, the odds of me selling enough fiction every month to support myself is slim. In writing, the only method I've ever known for people to make a living freelancing has been to be the .00001% that hits it big self-publishing (see Amanda Hocking for a case study).

In voice acting, my goal is continuous clients on larger projects. I started doing this in February of 2013, and in the last 4 months I've probably made $1k/month freelancing - but that's pouring a LOT of time into auditioning for parts. I've auditioned for OVER A THOUSAND. Now, though I have 2-3 continuous clients who are always sending me work. Not enough to live on, still, but enough for me to start putting money back into the business and building up things like a website, demo reels, etc.

My music goals are the same as my voice goals; I want continuous clients and big projects, not little piddly things. I don't see this as the major source of income because things that approach a salary are things like teaching and working for companies. I don't want to do that with music.

So you can see my Triad of Naivety. I have a steady day job, but the major goal is to leave it by: supporting myself by winning publishing contracts and supplementing that income with steady projects voice acting and musically. Talk about pipe dream, right? I'm trying to "make it" in not just one but THREE starving artist professions...

[Argle]

Sounds kind of dreadful. I'm glad I just do this for a hobby.

[mickomoo]

Thanks for the responses everyone, that was pretty quick. I kinda figured that was the case, I'm preparing to do a freelance writing career and I already know that I have to be prepared to get a day job or starve. So I figured it might be similar for music.

@XPRTNovice: You're awesome, you're basically doing everything I want, minus the voice acting... although you never know. Idk if I should PM you, but I was wondering how do you have a life/work/ hobby balance? How demanding is your job and life in relation to writing music and fiction?

[dannthr]

A single day in the life of a freelance composer is a lot like any other job you might imagine where someone works from home in a home office.

You wake up, do your morning routine, you mentally prepare yourself for your work day--if you're organized, you'll get dressed like you're leaving your house--you start working. You work throughout the day in a routine that you're either comfortable with or are disciplined toward. When a deadline is looming nearby you will work late into the night or even just straight through the night.

But as a freelance professional with experience, you know when you're going to be less and less creative and you know when you should just go to sleep.

Another composer I spoke to is brilliantly disciplined in a way I'd like to be--he works for 1.5 hours, takes a half hour break, works for 1.5 hours, takes a half hour break, works for 1.5 hours, takes a half our break, etc, throughout their work day, putting in 8 to 10 hours as needed.

I think this is a great idea that I'd like to adopt because as creative professionals, we need to be revitalized and refreshed mentally so that we can continue to be creative throughout our workday; as audio professionals, it's important to give our ears the rest they need so that we can continue to hear accurately and objectively; and as home-office professionals, we need to have a good excuse to leave our homes, take walks, exercise, or otherwise engage with the world outside of our little studio space.

But it's difficult to pry yourself away from a project when you're on a roll and for me, I don't like to stop if I'm writing--I don't like to interrupt that process.

Now, the tasks I might be taking on at any given time would be relevant to the phase of production I'm in. In the beginning, there's a lot of planning and either managing, organizing, or creating spreadsheets; managing, organizing, or creating schedules--assessing and prioritizing tasks according to the schedule (do I need to record something? do I need production time post-recording?), assessing and prioritizing tasks according to the needs of the project; etc.

For me, I can usually nail down my overall composition in a couple of hours in a detailed sketch or partial sketch--it gets worse if there are timing issues, like having to sync to video (I don't do a lot of film work). The bulk of my time is spent polishing and mixing my production.

I give myself 6-20 hours for each minute of music I work on, which by some standards is a lot, but part of that has to do with my "artistic integrity" and part of that has to do with my experience level.

A TV composer working on a current production could be expected to write about 10 minutes of music a day, which is why TV music often sounds like shit.

John Williams claims to write about 2 minutes of music a day, which in my opinion is pretty phenomenal because of the quality of his product--though, he also works closely with orchestrators, which means he doesn't have to spend time on engraving and copying and stuff like that, and he does a lot of orchestra stuff, so he doesn't spend a ton of time on production and engineering (and why would he if he's got cats like Shawn Murphy mixing his work).

Generally speaking, the people who churn out a lot of content every day don't tend to make very good content--but they might be making a lot of money. If you do 10 minutes of really shitty music for 150-400 bucks a minute, every day, you're talking about maybe a few thousand a day--that's pretty good money, even if it's not great money per minute. But turning out bad music might mean your clients won't return, which is really important, and also, there's like, your artistic pride and shit.

Video games often pay a per minute rate with a half up front, half on delivery deal.

TV can be all over the map. They might pay a low up front flat fee and you're expected to hopefully make money on the back-end through performance royalties.

Same with library music, you might be involved with a music library system, and if they're the type to solicit music from you (which means you're good or they really like your shit), they'll pay you a small upfront flat fee. But mostly, especially if you're a nobody, you submit unsolicited music to libraries and hope they pick you up and list you in their library, and at best you're only looking at making money when people license your track.

This can mean that you're working hard at making no money, or it could mean you make one track that gets used over and over and over, like the Requiem for a Dream track.

Getting music in a TV series opening titles is GREAT, it means you make money every time the show plays anywhere in the world (that pays royalties). If the show goes into syndication, you could make money for years off that one track. It's kind of like winning the lotto.

Working in film, you usually get a single project fee that's based off the film's budget. If it's a low/no budget film, you're talking about peanuts. And to me, Indie Film Directors can be a pain in the ass. They often are very DIY, so they like to put their fingers everywhere and can be really demanding. Also, they don't always understand that cool tricks can't be overused. One of the worst things to do is impress an indie film director with a neat musical trick or sound trick, because they'll more often than not ask for it EVERYWHERE.

A freelance composer who gets a lot of work will often have an assistant who works at their studio. They might have a studio in an apartment attached to their home, or they might have a garage studio, or in rare cases, an actually separate office space/studio. A freelance composer who gets a little more work than they can handle and who has a recognizable name will also have a ghost writer who works in their studio with them or who they go to with frequency for ghost writing remotely.

A lot of younger composers will make their first substantial industry connections by being the assistant of another working composer. It's also likely that the assistant is getting paid almost nothing and is also there to learn how to work in the business.

Sometimes freelance composers will have their spouse or partner also help with the business--especially if they get a lot of work and need someone to manage administrative tasks, scheduling, accounting, whatever.

Again, it's a lot like any other home-office based work environment or business.

Depending on how much work your character is getting, and the quality of that work, may vary the environment and how they spend their day.

It's also very common for freelancers to have a supporting job in education, at a college or through private instruction; or to have some other job as well.

There was a time when I was freelancing where I was also taking work with a temp agency as it allowed me to dynamically manage whether or not I was working in an office somewhere or if I didn't have time because I was working on projects.

Right now, I teach at a college, so my creative work has been moved to nights and weekends as needed.

I hope that offers some insight into the working environment and daily experience of a working composer.

[Meteo Xavier]

I was going to post my usual doom and gloom on trying to make a "career" out of art these days, but I'm sure Dan covered it perfectly in terms of realism without cynicism.

Only thing I want to add is, yes, don't give up your day job and, in fact, don't be one of those guys whose mindset is "Man, I don't want to work! I'm an ARTIST, I just want to create things and have people praise me all day for them!" No. That's a bunch of pretentious, egotistical bullocks. You have a better than 99% chance of having to work for a living for much the rest of your life - better get used to it and accept it (which has the added benefit of making said grind much easier to tolerate in practice).

In the general subject, I'd also recommend against advertising yourself as a freelance EVERYTHING. It's like that one guy who used to be here (can't remember his name) who was a freelance composer, writer, actor, voice actor, model, singer, producer, teacher, etc. etc. yet had very little actual credits to his name. It just makes someone look desperate to get THAT BIG BREAK AND BECOME A STAR instead of actually committing themselves to quality work for clients.

[Damashii!!]

Only thing I want to add is, yes, don't give up your day job and, in fact, don't be one of those guys whose mindset is "Man, I don't want to work! I'm an ARTIST, I just want to create things and have people praise me all day for them!" No. That's a bunch of pretentious, egotistical bullocks. You have a better than 99% chance of having to work for a living for much the rest of your life - better get used to it and accept it (which has the added benefit of making said grind much easier to tolerate in practice).

fucking noooooo.... You mean I have to keep working for The Maaannn instead of having the creative freedom to express my musical ideas and live a David Choe type lifestyle of complete bliss?

But I agree. Realistically speaking, either keep the dayjob and/or scholarships (stay in school and take advantage of all that you can learn and who you learn from) or what have you, or at least be prepared to grind hard in the months where the financial results aren't as good as you hoped for. (Not speaking entirely from personal experience, but from friends and relatives who are freelancers of sorts, and watching a bunch of documentaries over the past few years)

[AngelCityOutlaw]

[XPRTNovice]

@XPRTNovice: You're astonishingly mediocre at so many things!, .... I was wondering how do you have a life/work/ hobby balance? How demanding is your job and life in relation to writing music and fiction?

Fixed.

To MX's point, yes, be careful about saying you do everything unless you can back it up. With my fiction sales, and my voice acting testimonials, and my music testimonials, I can. I would build one at a time.

I have a very steady day job that has steady hours and not a whole lot of unpredictability. So, I know for a fact that I can spend my nights and weekends creating. And I'm not pressured to create, because it's not putting food on the table. My wife, who doesn't work, gives me time I need and I make sure I give her the time she deserves. There's balance in that, too, especially with the new kid around. But I make it work.

Here are some points of advice from my very limited experience

- TIME. FUCKING. MANAGEMENT. If you can't manage your time, you're finished. You'll be up to 3 AM every day and you'll want to die. If you manage your time well, 30 minutes of writing can be monumentally productive. I've been known to write 3,000 words in an hour if I only have one hour. If your writing time consists of you clicking through facebook, you're doing it wrong.

- When you're done managing your time, manage your resources. Know your limits. As tempting as it was to play in 2 bands, remix for OCR, be the music director for the FF7 fan movie, actively advertise my skills as a composer, audition for 30-40 voice jobs a day, and write novels and short stories...some things have to give. I've slowed down the number of projects I'm taking on and mentally understanding where I am putting the focus on developing.

- When you get bored at work, if you're not being derelict in your duties, write or edit some of your literature. Brandon Sanderson's path to writing a monumental amount of fiction was taking a job as the night-time receptionist at a hotel. He literally had like 10 hours of uninterrupted writing time EVERY DAY.

- Network. Reach out and talk to people. Take a couple of jobs for free and then plug that person for other work.

Errrmmm...that's all for now.

[mickomoo]

Thanks again for the feedback everyone I finished the story that prompted me to post this in the first place.

[SnappleMan]

Yeah, having a real job seems crucial. As far as my life as a freelance musician (technically engineer) goes, it comes down to:

WHEN YOU HAVE WORK:

- Wake up at 4pm.

- Mix/record till 11am.

- Sleep till 4pm.

- Repeat till work is done, send work off.

- Equip for the Decisive Battle with Receiving Payment.

- Battle for pay. **Client casts "Waiting on direct deposit, should come in Monday" LVL99**

WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE WORK:

- Wake up at 4pm.

- Check email/texts/voicemail.

- Send out emails/texts/voicemails till 8pm.

- Mix/record your own music till 11am.

- Sleep till 4pm.

- Battle depression over not having work/income.

I've been lucky to have a few dependable music contracts and a few non-music related things that have beefed up my savings to a point where I can live without a job for a while. But it's a very dangerous way to live and I'm constantly on the lookout for a "real" 9-5 job I can do to secure serious income.

Choosing to be a professional musician is a very difficult path through life. When you really think about it, it takes a lot more time than going to medical school or law school. Most people who want to become musicians have 10-15 years of starving and struggling ahead of them before they make it, and 80% of them wont make it.

I am at the point in my "career" where I'm happy keeping music as a hobby and earning a living via steady job. If I happen to start making a real viable living in music then great, but I ain't gonna hold my breath.

[dannthr]

- Battle for pay. **Client casts "Waiting on direct deposit, should come in Monday" LVL99**

**HP Hit -9999!**

**Party Lost!**

[SnappleMan]

I've also been paid via sample libraries and Pro Tools licenses instead of cash, but at that point it's better than nothing so whatev.

The battle for credits is one I've lost about 99% of the time.

[DrumJ8]

Battle depression over not having work/income.

This is part of my daily ritual. I must check it off at the end of every day or else my day is incomplete.

Might as well say hi to my former teacher. Hi Dan.