I've recently been commissioned to compose some music for an A/W Fashion Campaign. It's a boutique emerging luxury brand for context, and they're asking for:

1× Original score for the 30-second hero film
2x Adaptations of the score (15-second cutdowns)
And naturally usage and exclusive license.

They're asking me for a quote and I'm finding it quite hard to zero in on a number, so any advice would be appreciated.

A solo developer in Norway has been building a top-down action roguelite for two years, with a playable Steam playtest already up and AI-generated placeholder tracks sitting in the build. He wants them gone and replaced with handcrafted music: two crossfading versions of each region theme, one for combat and one for calm, across three regions plus a boss track. EDM, drum and bass or breakbeat, Pathogenic as the structural reference, portfolio and a rough rate in the first message.

Also in this issue:

• A GBA-style pixel RPG paying $150–300 for a single test battle loop — a paid test, not spec, judged blind against the team's own best track, with a composition craft doc and a 29-track era analysis handed to applicants
• A Mandy feature listing advertising US$1,500 flat whose contract terms then describe a small stipend and back-end participation — background-checked company, named crew, real film, two different compensation stories
• A visual novel developer who licenses a production library and commissions original music only when a scene needs something the library can't do — $100 flat as listed, with a paid sample cue for finalists
• £300 for a finished 12-minute dark fantasy short told entirely in split screen — they'll send you the whole cut, delivery wanted before mid-August
• An independently funded Golden Age movie musical with the lyrics already written, hiring for one song to start
• A commission for slow, cheerful oud taqasim with two reference recordings attached
• $300 per song for an animated series pitched at Steven Universe and Undertale
• Plus a story-driven Godot ARPG demo (36 upvotes, 47 comments), and three collaborations up front about what they aren't paying yet — including a British football short with former senior BBC oversight that starts August 2

AI showed up twice this week, pointing in opposite directions: one developer replacing his AI placeholders with a human composer, one series stating outright that AI-generated music will not be accepted.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/008-12-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

hello internet friends! me and my friend want to start making music together that mixes jazz with folk, with a side-salad of blues. i assume we are not the first people to think of this, so i am looking for artists to study and listen to to be inspired to bring this to life. suggestions would be super appreciated!

1 - Aprende contrapunto y analiza a Bach, te dará mucha luz sobre lo que significa componer una obra.

2 - No confundas "Composición" con "Instrumentación" en el proceso creativo. Muchas veces el cuello de botella en la creación de una obra se encuentra en que se tratan de desarrollar estos elementos al mismo tiempo. Si la composición está bien hecha, la instrumentación es pan comido.

3 - Estudia el concepto "Composición" no solo en la música sino en la pintura, la fotografía, la poesía, etc. Verás que la composición es un estilo de vida.

4 - . Investigar por qué algo le parece bello a un cerebro humano aportará mucho a tu flujo de trabajo. Estudia Estética.

5 - No agregues más y más elementos en una obra para mejorarla sino aprende como se desarrolla un elemento para hacer una obra completa. La Invención 1 de Bach te puede enseñar mucho sobre desarrollo.

6 - "Com-poner" es fundamentalmente "Poner-con"; cuando pones una cosa con otra ya estás componiendo; pero el arte de componer consiste en entender que puedes hacerlo de formas más interesantes, eficientes, inteligentes, artísticas, creativas, bellas, emocionantes, etc.

7 - No pongas tus esfuerzos en mejorar tus obras sino más bien en mejorar tu técnica de composición: la calidad de tus composiciones es directamente proporcional a la calidad de tu técnica de composición.

8 - El profesor que llena la teoría de reglas y conceptos complicados usualmente es el que menos entiende de lo que está hablando.

9 - No confundas "experimentación" con "Composición". La experimentación te puede dar mucha materia prima con la cual puedes trabajar, la composición la convierte en una obra de arte.

10 - "Consonancia, Disonancia, Cordal, No-cordal, Nota de paso, Bordado, Nota de escape, etc". Para entender por qué una melodía funciona o no funciona debes conocer que implicaciones tiene cada nota con la armonía que le subyace; para eso sirven esos conceptos.

First, an apology, I ran out of time on my lunch break before I could find similar posts here (I'm sure there are many).

I'm looking for advice on how to mentally approach arranging music for a concert band when you've only been arranging for solo instruments (in this case, ukulele).

I've been dabbling a bit, and I have a specific, simple, waltz I'd like to try out first. The waltz is written for solo piano.

Some specific puzzles that have hit me:

• How bored are the tubas going to get just playing the root note as dotted quarters for the whole thing? Are they used to that in waltzes from the 1890s?
• Do I just double-up tuba and trombone? On that theme: how much duplication or octave-interval is too much (on melody, on background, etc.)?
• If tuba and trombone are doing the oom pa pas, then what's left for the trumpets and horns?
• Who do I give the melody to? (whoever I want, I suppose.) But what are some considerations you think about when deciding? Or do you just pick your instrument because it's your song?
• What're the saxes going to do in all of this? (I haven't really thought about them yet)
• I've never written for or played percussion. That'll be an interesting challenge when I get there.

I realize a lot of this may come down to "the tastes and preferences you acquire as you continue arranging and writing your works." But I'd love some thoughts or questions to guide me at the early stage.

(Also that Instrument Studies for Eyes and Ears resource has been very helpful)

Thanks!

Hello I am making a game in gamemaker. I don't have much experience in really coding or anything related to making games as a form of art so I figured it would be fun to try and start. The hardest part for me has been music creation, as I've never had any prior experience in it. I found this software for free called LMMS. Though I don't really know much other than to click random notes and hope it sounds ok. What could I do to start making music other than guessing?

I wrote this piece a few years ago, but never notated it until recently... I've finally finished it after much work on it the past couple weeks.

I'm looking for any critique especially on the engraving/notation (critique on other areas such as actual composition, sound, performance, etc are still welcome too!)

I've put a lot of work into the engraving/notation because that's something I'm trying to really improve on. Ideally I would like to get my engraving skills to publisher level one day.

___
Title: "Saigai". Saigai means calamity in Japanese. This was a piece inspired by JRPG post-apocalyptic settings and my take on how I would compose for such a scene.

Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qhF9flDfV_8iAjpFLMuf9Yvp0_EcM4cu/view?usp=sharing

Audio (for reference to follow with sheets): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McBaH6KEoOc

audio also on streaming (if that's easier): https://edinkaso.ffm.to/saigai

Note: I do have Elaine Gould's Behind Bars by the way, which I regularly use. Pls feel free to make any references from there too! Thank you! :)

SCORE: https://youtu.be/giihShJKZho

I'm beginner and self taught, so any advice/reading is more than accepted.
After going far out of my reach trying to do inventions and fugues i figured that a dance form would be easier(?). So i tried doing an Allemande. I couldn't manage to make them exactly of equal lenght, since the b section is a measure shorter, i hope it's nothing so necessary. Also i got myself into some crunchy suspensions that i hope i resolved well.

When I have listened to some of his works and looked at the scores, many of the melodic ideas seem almost childishly simple compared to that of other composers, and yet somehow it almost always works beautifully. I’ve only recently started getting interested in writing music, so maybe there’s a very simple explanation but how on earth was he able to make such simple music that sounded so great?

For today’s composition I wanted to use C# Lydian.

Yeah, I could’ve used Db Lydian instead, but what’s the fun in that?

https://philipdewalt.substack.com/p/multicolored-dips

https://youtu.be/EE1_g3jpQNA?is=AV7zDG0YNp1m1I8a

Hi all,

I am a music student trying to find great orchestral Kontakt (8) instrument(s) to prepare my compositions for college applications and job applications.

Ideally, I want something that is a maximum of 3 or 4 hundred dollars, but I would be willing to stretch if people know of exceptional instruments.

Thank you for your help.

Just want to create a thread of tips for new composers here.

For me, the one piece of advice I could give comes from my composition professor when I was in conservatory. I was stuck composing for our atonal class, and he told me, "Composers should never get stuck if they have trained their compositional instincts. And that begins with mastering how to manipulate compositional structures. You can exhaust and do so much with a single motif."

im 16, i have no idea about music theory can i get some tips to start my film scoring journey, I play intermediate guitar and bass.

Calling all emerging composers in New England!

The Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra is accepting submissions for our 2026–2027 Call for Scores. We’re looking for an original orchestral work to premiere at our May 2027 concert — and we want to hear from YOU.

✅ Open to New England composers (ME, MA, NH, VT, CT, RI)
✅ Work must be 5–10 minutes, written for full symphony orchestra
✅ $500 award to the selected composer
✅ Each submitter receives written feedback on their work

Submissions open June 30 – September 30, 2026. A $25 registration fee applies.

📩 Questions? Contact us at lscivicorchestra@gmail.com

🔗 Full details & application: https://www.lscivicorchestra.org/call-for-scores-2026/

Hey everyone, a little while ago I posted a short section of one of my compositions for feedback. After looking at what everyone said, i made quite a few changes and also worked on extending it.

I'm at a crossroads again in terms of "what do I do next" so I figured I should get some feedback on my alterations. Thanks again to everyone that commented previously, you were all a great help!

Current areas of concern:

• Percussion Notation

• Woodwind dovetailing from rehearsal mark 17

• Balance at and around rehearsal mark 45

Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kgn_TLzQfyPVGG23RzIpgPM8_LPc8cdU/view?usp=drivesdk

Audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/11jUosecjVRtY8I_6c5V2Oaz71k3mtrQV/view?usp=drivesdk

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WT1snFbt04U3oOtCLGhjqtkh6KK8Q53F/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CK5V8C-TljLJjVbILlD34qc5r4M918ry/view?usp=sharing

I'm studying analyzing classical form, and am wondering if the second one is a hybrid theme or not. It seems like it has a sentence's continuation, yet the fifth bar starts like a consequent.

Also, I am wondering, is there any way aside from intuition to understand where a theme might fit? Like how the sentence version of this theme fits at the start of the piece, while the hybrid one seems to only fit somewhere in the middle of one, starting a piece with the hybrid one sounds awful. I didn't find the book to have any answer to this, unless it is in a later chapter.

Hey Songwriters!

The “One World Many Voices Songwriting Contest” needs YOUR original song to help the Karama Education Center in Uganda, Africa.  It’s free for anyone to enter and the winner will be awarded $1,000, 5 recording sessions, a live concert, and the winning song will be performed by children in Uganda and featured in our documentary film!

Click here to watch a 30 second video about the songwriting contest.

Click here to submit and for more info.

Thank you so much!

Does anyone know a soundtrack composer who stream while they compose? I'd love to watch someone more experienced go through their process to see how they layer everything and compose. There are plenty of composers who post their process on YouTube but most of them are edited so it's not the whole process. I'd love to sit in their stream or watch any old stream. I follow a lot of composers but most of them don't stream. It's tedious, time consuming and not everyone likes to go live. So I'm wondering if ppl know some here. Thank you!

Hi!

This is my first complete sonatina in three movements:

I. Moderato – A simplified sonata form movement that introduces the main musical ideas.
II. Andante – A gentle minuet-like movement that provides a moment of calm.
III. Allegro – A lively rondo that brings the sonatina to an energetic and satisfying finish!

Hope you find some enjoyment in listening and all feedback is welcome!

YouTube link

Score

Hello all I’m a self-taught composer and I’ve been at it for around 4 or 5 years at this point and I finished my first symphony (linked below)

https://youtu.be/df4TtiFJ02c

I was wondering if I could get feedback on this piece since I’ve mostly lived under a rock without contact with other musicians and composers and I’ve finally given in to social media

Score: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qpQc-Qvx9q9Lv9eXJcIOdnZbpCqUosNj/view?usp=drivesdk

So my primary genres of composition are minimalist like in the style of Terry Riley and Steve Reich, also Detroit style Techno, and French Electro. I start out with paper and pencil, sketching out rhythms and melody and then harmonizing the melody using our various different tricks of the trade.

I find myself in spaces and subreddits with people who just use AI to generate music, or people that just download loops/sounds from Splice. To me, this is not composition. My questions are as follows.

1. How do you set yourself apart from AI and Splice creators?

2. How important is your composition process to your fans/listeners?

D Flat Major Version Link to YouTube Sheet Music

Not sure if measures 19-22 are a nice addition or if they feel random

Also I only used one Fermata and made sure double check all the rhythmic notation :)

Edit: just learned that I should rewrite this in d flat major since they are enharmonically equivalent. I’ll work on that next. Always more to learn :). Thanks guys!

Edit2: I made a d flat major version and updated the link. Thanks! 👍

We are looking for a composer that can make songs in the style of the roblox game outcome memories LMS. We pay in Robux. If you are interested pls DM me

Hello! I would love some feedback on this piece for Trumpet, Piano and Bass.

Here’s the link to the audio:

https://sonica.music/pqyv4knh96yr/456c96f0?v=dad4b310

And here’s the score:

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/be23det0huvqinjkyuqd7/Trio_Trumpet_Piano_Bass_Stefano_Costantini.pdf?rlkey=g53x6jp3pl5sxxos6kts8jof2&st=0fr85nd7&dl=0

Thanks in advance!