Hello

Few days ago I got a private message on IndieDB from person who was interested in making music for my game.

He/she stated in private message that he/she is interested in my game and looks for some working experience, thus is offering to produce some assets for me for free, while also sending me link to his/her showreel.

In my response, I included a question about licence on his music. What I could understood from his/her second answer is:

• He/she keeps a copyright on all created music and sound
• I do not pay upfront, but he/she gains royalties from sold copies of game (amount not stated)

Those terms seem fine for me, as I get solid background music without paying immediately as I don't have any money, while he/she gets rewarded for his/her work. However, as it's my first time dealing with such things, I wanted to hear thoughts from more experienced people.

Also, if we get to the deal, what is usually the correct procedure?

Thanks for your time.

Ask if they have legal write up for the agreement and ensure that there is a set deadline for material.

Double check the legal writing to ensure that not only is the music usable in the game, but game related material i.e. trailers and other promotional material.

<inexperienced opinion>

<not a lawyer>

He's making it for "free", but then charging your royalties for the rest of the game's life? Maybe it's just me, but I don't consider "free" to include perpetual monthly payments.

Anytime a game is ever sold using that music, even twenty years later, you have to track down and make sure he gets his currently-unspecified cut? Even if it was just 5 cents, that'd be a huge irritation for me.

Now if it was time-limited - e.g. he gets 5% for only the first 6 months, or only the first year of release, but you keeping the ability to continue selling the music afterward, that'd be less absurd in my mind.

Whatever percentage is it, and you best doubly be sure it's percentage of profit you make, or percentage of your cut of the revenue, and not percentage of gross store sticker price revenue. You'd already be paying Steam, Apple, or whatever other store a cut (standard is 30%). You'll already give Kickstarter a percentage if you do that. You don't want to give him a cut of store price, but of your personal revenue, or better still, your personal profit after other expenses.

And what happens if you don't like the music he produces? Are you now obligated to give him a cut even if you don't use the music and even if his music is junk? Will the contract be, 'I slap together whatever music I want overnight, and now you are obligated to give me a percentage of your years of work'?

What if he only produces half the music needed for the game, and someone else produces the other half? Do you owe both of them a percentage now?

If you make a mistake, but paid cash, you lose that (potentially large amount of) cash but can move on. It's a one-time cost of learning. If you make a mistake, but sign over part of your revenue, you can't move on from that - a contract is a contract.

What if you make a sequel - can you no longer use the original game's now-popular music and theme songs, and is the composer now in a position to charge you exploitive prices because you are desperate to re-use the popular theme songs your players are now attached to?

What if you make a sequel - is the contract vague enough that even if you use entirely new music, the composer is going to try to come after you for a cut of the sequel's revenue? There's money there, and so a motive exists for him to try.

What if you release DLC... does the composer get a cut of every piece of DLC, even if the extra DLC doesn't specifically include any new music?

I'm not accusing the person of trying to exploit you. Rather, I think he's just winging it as much as you are. But when the legal dust settles, he may accidentally find that he is now in a position to exploit you, and with a real motive to do so. The more successful your game is, the greater the temptation.

Business is messy.

If you can't hire a lawyer (which I'm assuming is the case, since you can't hire a composer. I can relate!), then don't try to make a legalese-sounding document, because (apparently) if you make a mistake in legalese, any judge has to rule according to what the legalese says exactly. But if you make it in plain english, perhaps with bullet points, and formatting and such, then the judge is free to interpret it according to what your intent was, even if you make a mistake in wording.

Best of luck on your game!

</not a lawyer>

</inexperienced opinion>

Are you planning for a full retail release of your game?

• He/she keeps a copyright on all created music and sound
• I do not pay upfront, but he/she gains royalties from sold copies of game (amount not stated)

The points above are red flags for publishers when reviewing your application. You may dismiss this because you think you don't need nor want a publisher, but even so not owning the assets in your game may come back to bite you in the future if you decide to go that way.

If I was you, I would try and negotiate a price for (and for you to own the rights to) the sound assets

Wow, thank you for your answers. It was a good idea to ask here :)

If the final product ends looking well, I do plan for full release in order to earn some pocket money, hopefully enough that next time I can actually pay people for things I need (primarily art and music).

SotL, I appreciate the time you put in for such post. It was full of details I honestly overlooked and pointed some issues I need to watch about. After that, I'm not sure if I should enter into any such deals as that one... as it's my first game and hobby project and I'm not even sure if it will end well. One one hand he'll handle a huge amount of work, as I'd have to learn those skills by myself otherwise... on other hand, all those legal issues might be problematic for such small game.

I'd suggest (again: I'm not a lawyer) a signed plain english contract* then (covering the bullet points that others and I mentioned above). Something giving you full ownership of the music, and giving the the composer the first $_____ you personally receive as profit, where "$______" is something that you and him consider reasonable.

Throwing out numbers at random, I'd figure out how much music you want (e.g. 15 tracks), their average length (e.g. 2.5 minutes), and offer the first [$75 * total minutes] (15 * 2.5 * $75 = $2800) in personal profit that you yourself receive. That way, you at least know at what point you start to make profit from your own game. Have it in the plain-english contract, that if you don't finish your game and commercially release it by [2020], or if the game makes less than [$2800] by the start of [2020], all ownership of the music reverts to him (but with you still getting to use it in the game if the game has already been released).

Here's a great discussion I had about composer prices a few years back - I personally found it very informative. Also, this article gives some good advice - especially about calculating what you want (including some extra wiggle room if you need more) and being semi-organized about it.

Music is important to games, so don't let the legal ickiness steer you away from finding good assets for your game.

Another option is royalty-free music that has already been made is available for cheap online. I bought a few dozen tracks from Arteria3D inexpensively - there are plenty of sites like that. Do a mix of some custom music with non-custom music to stretch it out, so it's not completely stock music. You'll need sound effects also - try FreeSound.org for some Creative Commons sound effects.

*Signed, plain-english contract: Agree on the terms by discussion it via email, write it, email the document to him, have him print it, sign it, and mail it to you (cost of a stamp and envelope is cheap, at least in the USA), after re-reading it and comparing it to what you emailed him (to make sure it hasn't changed), then you sign it and keep it, optionally scanning the finalized and signed version and emailing it back to him if he ask for a copy. Keep a digital copy on your machine, but put the signed copy somewhere where you can find it later. Now you have a signed original, a digital scanned copy, and the email records of your negotiations (print those out as well).

I think Servant has the correct idea.

Be wary of people who "give" you things with conditions (royalties, retaining copyright). Everyone, particularly Servant, has given you sound advice, so I just want to remind you of one thing: This person contacted you unsolicited and wants to stack the deck. I'd steer clear.

But I'm grumpy and mean and expect the worst from everyone. Your Mileage May Vary!

Thank you all for your advices. I've sent him message with the proposition similar to what Servant suggested without stating any specifics. I'll see how he responds to that and see what to do next based on his response. After all, I can't lose anything, while I could gain much.

A couple comments on this great thread.

Be wary of people who "give" you things with conditions (royalties, retaining copyright). Everyone, particularly Servant, has given you sound advice, so I just want to remind you of one thing: This person contacted you unsolicited and wants to stack the deck. I'd steer clear.

I would respectfully disagree GoCatGo

It is not uncommon for a composer to negotiate a lower rate in exchange for keeping copyright, especially for a game without much of a budget. In fact, that is something I've often recommended that new composers do if they find themselves talking to an indy developer. Although most work in game music is work for hire (see this article from yesterday), the exception is indy games, where budget constraints leave room for more creative business arrangements.

If you're worried about a 'big publisher' deal down the road (as dsm or GoCatGo point out), then you can generally solve that pretty easily by seeing if they'll add a 'buyout' clause-- i.e. in exchange for $X, they agree to sign over all rights.

It comes down to this: When you hire someone, you can either just pay them and own everything, or pay them below market value and see if they want to share the risk with you. When a composer offers $0 upfront, but a percentage of sales, they aren't trying to be shady or greedy. They are recognizing your need to keep costs low, and are saying they are willing to share your risk. And part of sharing the risk is sharing the reward in the event the game becomes successful. Because usually when a composer does a game for $0 upfront + % of sales, the odds are they will make virtually nothing.

The one thing about Servent's proposal that i disagree with is that you are asking them to share the risk (i.e. they don't get paid unless you have some sales), but with no additional compensation for taking on that risk. If you're worried about paying them too much if the game becomes the next Angry Birds, then put a cap on royalty compensation. But the cap has to reflect the fact that they are sharing the risk; i.e. it should be quite a bit higher than if you had guaranteed them payment upfront. 3-4x would be reasonable.

Also, make the agreement based on sales, not on profits. The reason for that is that it is incredibly easy for you to provide sales #'s (iTunes, Steam, Google Play reports, etc.), but virtually impossible for you to provide objective profit #'s without giving them access to all your books. You probably don't want to do that.

(also $75/min is rather low for music, even for an indy game, but that's a whole other topic :)).

-Brian