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Hello everybody, I have no problem paying royalties for the composers who will work on my game. For me, good musics in a game is essential: these are the only elements that can transcend a video game. I'm thinking in particular of games like NFS: Underground. The problem is that I do not know how much I will have to spend and therefore this constitutes a risk. How can you trust an organization that is not transparent? No longer having a response from SACEM, I even asked my French composers to contact it themselves for this response. Currently, none have come back to me with a cost estimation and I highly doubt that will happen. In France, there is a big disagreement between game creators and SACEM; I understand better why today. What I would like to know is how it works in the USA; because there is a good chance that I will turn to the USA from now on. How does it generally work between a music composer and a video game company in the USA ? Is it mostly buy-out type contracts?  Can the composer claim royalties even if the contract does not allow it? I saw that you also had SACEM equivalents like ASCAP and BMI. How does it work in law? Thank you for your enlightening responses. Best regards, Alex

So, I have been writing a suite for Chamber Ensemble for this past week. This is the ensemble I am writing it for: Flute Oboe Clarinet Bassoon 2 Violins Cello Double bass Piano The suite is of North American animals, so as to overlap as little as possible with Saint Seans' Carnival of the Animals. One of the movements of my suite is about spiders. I have no idea where this movement will end up in the whole scheme of things, but I have 12 animals for my suite. With that in mind, I figured it would fit to compose a tarantella as a movement. But I didn't know many tarantella pieces. I only played like maybe 3 tarantella pieces in 10 years of playing the piano. So I listened to 6 different tarantellas by different composers. I noticed similarities between them. This is what I found: 6/8 is typical, though 12/8 and 4/4 are sometimes used instead Constant eighth note momentum until the final cadence Shared rhythmic components Often either eighths or dotted quarters in the bass(Chopin and Beethoven both have eighth note heavy bass lines in their tarantellas for example) Most of the rhythmic components in the melody itself Those shared rhythmic components that I mentioned? Here they are: Outside of rhythm, time signature, tempo and momentum though, I don't see any similarities. Often in dances I will see similarities in harmonic progression. But I didn't see that for the tarantella. None of the ones I found were in minor with the exception of Liszt's Tarantella, but a lot of them had sections in minor(you can really hear that minor key in Chopin's tarantella). Here are the tarantellas I listened to: No similarities harmonically or melodically that I hear amongst these 6 Tarantellas. With the Waltz or the Minuet, at least I hear harmonic similarities. Not so for the Tarantella. So is there anything like harmonically or melodically to consider? Or am I simply left with arranging the rhythmic components into a melody and harmony of my own? The plus side of writing it for a chamber ensemble as I am doing here is that it is easier to keep the momentum going without exhausting the players(like if the piano has some rests, the woodwinds can carry that momentum, and so on)

This is a very short piece, so I think that the material you have so far works.  The only thing I feel that makes this piece a bit "stale" is the fact that the ideas you are using are often too scalar, creating a general contrast that either the phrase is going up, or its going down. In other words, it doesn't have much of a contour, which imho, could be worked upon.  Also, the back and fourth motion between some contrapunctal measures agains some very homofonic ones makes the whole thing sound a bit "hasty" to my ears. Its like you're swaying between different ideas without getting to the core of neither of them. As I said, as this is a very short piece it doesn't have much space for development altogether, so my feedback falls a bit flat, but that's what I felt while listening to it.

@Left Unexplained That's a part I quite associate with you 🙂

Been working on a cover of Cake - Hem of your Garment. Don't have the means to record vocals though. Anyone interested in having a go? I'll leave a link to the original song and pop the lyrics here for reference. I'll also attach the mp3 file of the cover. Orginal song:   Lyrics: I am intrinsically no good I have a heart that's made of wood And I am only biding time Only reciting memorized lines And I'm not fit to touch The hem of your garment No, no, I'm not fit to touch The hem of your garment I have no love but only goals How very empty is my soul It is a soul that feels no thrill It is a soul that could easily kill And I'm not fit to touch The hem of your garment No, no, I'm not fit to touch The hem of your garment Yeah yeah I am intrinsically no good I have a heart that's made of wood And I am only biding time Only reciting memorized lines And I'm not fit to touch The hem of your garment No, no, I'm not fit to touch The hem of your garment No, no, I'm not fit to touch The hem of your garment No, no, I'm not fit to touch The hem of your garment