Hi fellow Composers!

I'm sure this is a topic that has crossed the minds of most of you. You have a small gig, where you are supposed to compose an OST for an unknown low-profile game. Somewhere along your creative process you come up with a song that's easily one of your best works yet and probably will be for some time to come.
Is it morally wrong to hold this back from the guys who hired you? Are you even obligated to make use of it or not?

Would love to hear your thoughts on this!

They hired you to do your best work, not to do whatever was good enough; it seems disingenuous to withhold it. On the other side of things you would have to review your contract to see if you're legally obligated or not. Now I'm not saying the thought has never crossed my mind, but beyond the morality of the issue you don't want to get a bad reputation amongst developers.

I'm wondering why you would want to hold it back in the first place. Did you sign away all rights to the music in the contract?

I've written some pretty good tunes in my time for clients but never held them back - I didn't have any reason to. Part of the business is learning to let go, and also to negotiate better up front.

Like CCH says : Unless contractually specified it's up to you to put the piece forwards for review / acceptance or not. Think of it this way, even if the game is low profile, would you not want it out there published as an example of your skill - part of your portfolio of what you can do for games. You can think of it as an investment rather than a loss.

It's not morally wrong, it's just not a good idea to "hold back".

There's an unlimited resource of ideas and compositions. To think otherwise is very limiting. If you're on to something good and it works within the context of what you started making it for, just finish it and deliver.

Next time you're making something, you'll have grown so much as an artist. And the old track probably won't even fit to the new project you're working on. And you'll end up never using it.

Hope this helps :)

Cheers!