Hi everyone !

I actually work with a video game compagny as a composer and i would like to know the difference between "having a license" for a track and "purchasing" the track. What are the criteria and how can i calculate the price in those two cases ?

Thank's a lot !

Yohan.

Just to be sure, you're asking how much you should charge either way? That you are the provider, not the acquirer?

A license specifies the use of the music (until what date it may be used, for what purposes it may or may not be used) and you maintain control of that track's future use. Purchase would be complete relinquishing of the track to the purchaser (after which you have no say over its use). 

Purchase costs more than licensing. It's like the difference between renting or leasing a car, and buying it. 

Thank's a lot for your answer. Yes i'm the provider and i already have a price per minute but i don't know the criteria to calculate the purchasing price.

That's for you to decide. I don't have a dollar amount for you - I imagine a license would be in the hundreds, and a purchase in the thousands.  It varies depending on your assessment of the financial strength of the client, of the amount of work you did, how long you've been doing this professionally, the likelihood of success you think the game will achieve, and to what extent your music is likely to bolster the game's sales. 

A low price could have you regretful later; a high price could nix the deal; a reasonable middle price could net you a satisfied client who might hire you again sometime. 

In some cases, licensing fees are set by an organization or publisher that you join up with and then they also will take a cut (it's usually a 50/50 split). Some websites, like Audio Jungle for example, will arbitrarily set a license fee after reviewing your track. I've found most sites like this to be way under valued on price and so I avoid them. 

There are other sites that offer blanket license fees per type of usage - for example a web blog may cost X but for use in a film cost Y and so on.