Whether you are making a game for the massive video game industry or computer game market, on a big budget or small, your game will no doubt need music, and a soundtrack, sound effects and music for the game’s promotional trailer. No game is complete without music and the entire gameplay would be totally boring without it. That’s a given. But where do you source good background music for games, and epic music for the credit scenes and the trailer?

So, What Are the Options for Music?

Essentially you have three options when it comes to sourcing just the right music for your epic game:

1. Score the music yourself or in-house
2. Get a professional composer onto the task
3. Sync license the music you need from a music licensing website

Doing the Music In-House

If it’s a big budget production then you possibly have a composer either in the organisation to create the music score, or at least have several freelancers on hand to call upon when needed. In many cases this is the best way to get just the right music and SFX needed for the gameplay, credits, cut scenes and trailer. If it can’t be done in-house, then one of the next two options will need to be brought into play.

Outsource the Work to a Composer/Producer

Outsourcing potentially will cost more than being able to do the music score and effects in-house, but at least it’s an option. The other advantage of this avenue is being able to work closely with the composer, ensuring the music, the timing and the sound design are perfectly suited to and in sequence with, the actual gameplay.

Scoring a video game or computer game is very similar to scoring a feature film or short film. The only major difference is the time length of the sequences. While this is set in a movie scene, it varies greatly during the gameplay of a game. The way around this is to loop certain sections of music over and over, only changing when a result within the game is achieved.

Music Sync Licensing Can Give You Everything You Need

These days licensing music for sections of films, games, videos, wedding videos, apps and all sorts of projects is one of the most common, convenient and cost-effective ways of sourcing music. While music licenses do cost a fee, they generally work out cheaper than hiring a composer to score something original. The reason being is that artists can sell licenses to the same piece of music multiple times, keeping costs down.

There is just so much quality music of all genres and lengths out there on a multitude of music licensing websites, that game creators really are spoilt for choice in the modern world. Many of these tracks are instrumentals, making them perfect for gameplay and trailers.

There are some really awesome music licensing websites to choose from. If you haven’t used one before and don’t already have a favourite, then one of the following will help you out for music for your game:

• Songtradr
• Musicbed
• Audio Network
• Premium Beat
• Pond5
• Audio Jungle
• Getty Images Music

The above lists just a few. There are many more out there.

My favourite is actually Songtradr. Their website is the most user-friendly out of all of them, the searches are very accurate, there are stacks of great tracks to choose from, and the pricing is more than fair. You can check out my catalogue of music and everything else available on Songtradr by clicking on their logo below.