<p>I'm going to be majoring in Music Composition in either UCF or FSU (I don't know which school I'm going to yet). What specific careers can I get with a 4-year Music Composition degree in the music field? What about outside the music field?</p>
<p>I would love to be a film/video game music composer but I wanna see what other career options I'll have. Thanks!</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s the degree which will make a difference for a career in composition - it will be the quality of your work, your resume, and your network. On the other hand, a college degree is a college degree, which will qualify you for any job, or entry into graduate school, for which a degree is required.</p>
<p>Just echoing Spirit Manager: you can do what anyone else can do who has a bachelor’s.</p>
<p>We often cite the fact, here, that music majors as a group have the highest acceptance rate to medical school.</p>
<p>Or course, you can compose, but it usually takes many years to be able to make a living at that. My daughter is a composer/student and her friends joke about bringing royal courts back.</p>
<p>Obviously film or game scoring would be more financially lucrative at some point.</p>
<p>You can get an MM or MA and teach.</p>
<p>You can work in a music area, such as marketing, booking, development, in a club, etc.</p>
<p>You can apply for any job that is advertised that says “bachelor’s degree required,” and increase your chances of getting the job by interning, volunteering, or starting out at a low rung of the ladder, like everyone else.</p>
<p>In the meantime, enjoy the opportunities to develop as a composer, that school offers! You’re lucky to have found something that you love to do…</p>
<p>My S also wants to be a film/TV composer. He also loves to write, so he is considering taking courses and possibly minoring in journalism so that he could become a film/TV/music critic or writer as well. He is composing in every area too - not just classical, but modern/contemporary compositions, rock/pop songs, folk, and jazz, so that he will have expsoure to a wide variety of professors, students, and local audiences while he is in college. He has his own band that plays his original songs. (Many film directors are choosing exisitng bands for their music and not just individual composers.) There is also a fairly large industry of composing for high school/middle/school/elementary school band and orchestra - many good teachers at that level look for original works and works that are written for younger and less experienced musicians. We have a composer in our area who was paid pretty handsomely this year for writing the music for our high school marching band’s competition show. From that he has gotten inquiries from other bands for future work.</p>
<p>FSU has a great film school, so if you go there and are a good composer, you should be able to find opportunities to work with film students and get your work noticed. Also look at colleges that offer internships, music business courses, and avenues like that which will help you learn how to market your music and make contacts in the industry. Look at the faculty and make sure at least one has had some experience in commercial composing - that person can be a mentor for you and help you learn how to break into the industry. </p>
<p>We have just finished all of our auditions, and we have been told everywhere we go that good composers with drive and ambition can have successful careers. We were told that most classical composers do go on to graduate school (and NYU has a Master’s program in film scoring, which my S may do eventually), but it all depends on what you want to do and how hard you want to work!!</p>
<p>Good luck to you - I think any young person who is already composing and wants to pursue it as a career is amazing!!!</p>
<p>Interesting about the market for elementary, middle and high school band and orchestra music. Thanks Honestmom!</p>
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I am going to post some non commercial links that might assign your vocational research in the hopes I am not violating terms of service, but if you are explicitly interested in video game composition and sound you will also want to consider some music technology, sequencing or engineering courses and would be highly highly employable if you picked up some C++ programming in your travels. </p>
<p>Good luck, and here’s a link to an association website that will give you salary info and stories about those in the industry: <a href=“http://archives.igda.org/breakingin/path_audio.htm[/url]”>http://archives.igda.org/breakingin/path_audio.htm</a></p>
<p>The ASCAP website also has some great resources and advice for aspiring composers.</p>
<p>There is an upcoming free conference at the San Francisco Conservatory, sponsored by the American Composers Forum, on video game composition. <a href=“Performance Calendar | SFCM”>Performance Calendar | SFCM;
<p>“Video game industry insiders, composers and performers discuss creating music for new audiences at Game On!, a free event exploring careers in video game and film music (previously scheduled on November 1 and 2). A collaboration between SFCM, American Composers Forum and Game Audio Network Guild, Game On! features a “demo derby” critique of participants’ recordings and a performance of string quartets by game and film composers Austin Wintory, Lennie Moore, Dren McDonald and composition department chair David Conte. Guests also include Jonathan Mayer, senior music manager at Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC, and Mike Morasky, director and programmer at Valve software and entertainment company. Demo Derby submissions are due by 11/16 at midnight to <a href=“mailto:rbrown@sfcm.edu”>rbrown@sfcm.edu</a>”</p>