Agenda
Beyond the Composing Fee: Royalties and Revenue Streams for Game Composers
Garry Schyman (Composer, Garry Schyman Productions)
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Track:
Audio, Business Strategy
Audience Level:
All
Format:
Lecture
Vault Recording: TBD
Audience Level: All
Independent game composers rarely build sustainable careers from commissioning fees alone. This presentation offers a practical overview of the royalties and ancillary revenue streams that may be available to composers, including frequently overlooked domestic and international sources.
Attendees will learn how performance royalties are beginning to play a larger role in game music, what determines whether a composer can participate in these and other income streams, and how contracts, registrations, territories, platforms, and music usage can affect payment.
Drawing on my experience teaching at USC, leading the Music Rights Committee of the Society of Composers & Lyricists, and collecting royalties throughout my own career, I will translate a complex system into an actionable framework. Composers will leave better equipped to identify potential revenue, ask informed questions during contract negotiations, and develop the multiple income streams necessary for a sustainable full-time career.
Attendees will learn how performance royalties are beginning to play a larger role in game music, what determines whether a composer can participate in these and other income streams, and how contracts, registrations, territories, platforms, and music usage can affect payment.
Drawing on my experience teaching at USC, leading the Music Rights Committee of the Society of Composers & Lyricists, and collecting royalties throughout my own career, I will translate a complex system into an actionable framework. Composers will leave better equipped to identify potential revenue, ask informed questions during contract negotiations, and develop the multiple income streams necessary for a sustainable full-time career.
Takeaway
Attendees will leave able to:
Identify royalty and ancillary income streams beyond a composer's initial fee, including frequently overlooked domestic and international opportunities.
Understand how rights ownership, contracts, registrations, territories, platforms, and music usage can affect a composer's eligibility to receive royalties.
Recognize practical steps composers and their representatives can take to investigate, document, and pursue potential income.
Ask more informed questions during contract negotiations and make better decisions about building a sustainable composing career.
This session is intended for independent and contracted composers, agents and representatives, and music executives who want to help composers identify revenue that may otherwise go unexplored because these complex systems are not widely understood.
Identify royalty and ancillary income streams beyond a composer's initial fee, including frequently overlooked domestic and international opportunities.
Understand how rights ownership, contracts, registrations, territories, platforms, and music usage can affect a composer's eligibility to receive royalties.
Recognize practical steps composers and their representatives can take to investigate, document, and pursue potential income.
Ask more informed questions during contract negotiations and make better decisions about building a sustainable composing career.
This session is intended for independent and contracted composers, agents and representatives, and music executives who want to help composers identify revenue that may otherwise go unexplored because these complex systems are not widely understood.
Intended Audience
Composers, game executives whose portfolio includes music, music supervisors, music directors and anyone seeking an understanding of income streams that composers and songwriters can access to their economic benefit.