Personal income histories - Composer Video Transcripts
Video 1 Transcript
So I've been very fortunate in my career. I've had a lot of pretty good breaks early on in my career that helped set me up moving forward. If I can give any one bit of advice for those looking into being a composer, especially concerning the financial side of things, it would be to really understand the business side and what all of the various income streams out there are possible as a composer. I mean, understand copyright law, like the difference between the copyright for a composition versus a master recording. Understand, for example, what a mechanical license is for a composition that you make or what sync licenses are. There's a great book called Everything You Need to Know About the Music Business by Donald Passman. And if you just read that front to back, you'll really get a sense of how one can find ways to make money in the music business. And there are very many. So I would check out that book.
Video 2 Transcript
I think with personal income, every composer will have times when they don't make as much, times when they make quite a bit. And I think it just varies, but what you need to do is you need to become a business-minded individual. You need to focus not only on your creative process and creative outlet as a composer, but you need to think about tax write-offs, you need to focus on buying equipment, you need to think about how you can create more income-producing assets, products. I like having products. Working on a project, you may get paid once, but if you can create a product that you can sell over and over again, whether it's a digital product, whether it's a physical product, if you can get them outsourced or if you can have them on Amazon or different sites, then you start making residual income, which is what we want to make. Focus on that.
Video 3 Transcript
I think the main thing for me was learning to save money between projects. I might receive a commission to score music for a film that I make a lot of money on. And then I go for months after that, as I finish, not having any film work to do. And I had to live off the creative fee I received on this film. I think learning to budget and not going crazy is very important. With that, you have to budget for equipment and other things to help enhance your environment as you're composing and the ability to demonstrate what you've written to a director or producer who comes in and wants to hear what it sounds like. So you really have to be a businessman. You have to pay for electricity in your home, other things.
