Music licensing for indie developers

When I started thinking about creating the Bollywood Wannabe game, music was one of the first problems. I needed songs that, in combination with the appropriate graphics and gameplay, would recreate the sensations of watching Bollywood films. Music in the development of games is often ignored, but in the music game (rhythm game) there can be no bad songs. Most of the songs in Bollywood Wannabe are licensed - a rare occasion for an indie game. I was asked a bunch of questions on this topic, so I wrote a small instruction on licensing music for indie developers.

Why license music?

Today, indie developers have many different options. Many sites sell licensed tracks with no deductions, there is even free music of various styles. In addition, there are many composers who are ready to write original music for a small price. But sometimes this is not enough. If you need very specific songs or a soundtrack that will make your game stand out from the rest, then licensing is right for you.
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For Bollywood Wannabe, I needed very specific music. After a long search, I managed to find two songs for the game with a royalty free license. But I needed ten. I did not know any composer who could write the rest, and even if I had found it, it would have been too expensive. It turned out to be the best of all to find already released songs and convince their authors to sell me a license.

Search for songs

The first step on your journey to licensed music is finding the right songs. Most likely, popular songs that are heard on radio / television / Internet, you will not be financially available. Large record companies usually ask for huge amounts of pay-forward, which few indie developers can afford. It is best to look for indie artists or small studios, and thanks to the Internet, today it is easier than ever to do.

First stop - online music store, for example, iTunes or CD Baby . They sell a lot of compositions of indie artists in different styles, and websites have convenient search functions. Search and listen to introductory fragments and save your favorites. Another great way is to search YouTube videos . Many artists produce videos and recordings of concerts. You can also search in more specialized online stores. It was pretty easy for me to find a few Indian shops selling music in the right style for Bollywood Wannabe .

Another good source of information is specialized websites. Look for sites dedicated to your favorite style of music: fan sites, online radio, news sites, blogs and forums. One of the best sources for me was a site dedicated to music in the style of "bhangra" and publishing information about songs and videos produced by popular bhangra performers. Thanks to this site I found half the songs for Bollywood Wannabe .

Search for contacts

We found the song we want to license. The next step is to find someone with whom you need to agree on licensing. Most online stores have very little information about the authors of the songs, but at least they manage to find their names and / or the names of the studios that own the rights. With this information you can find the official site of this artist / studio. This may be more difficult than it seems. Requests on Google often provide links to news articles, interviews and videos, and only then official websites, if they exist at all. The names of small studios often use common words. A search for such words leads to a bunch of links to sites not related to these studios. If you can not find the official page, then try to search the page on Facebook . In the section “Information” (About) there is usually a link to the official website or contact information.

How to contact them

Now that we know who to contact, it's time to send a request for licensing. The message should be short, clear and professional. To prevent the right holder from accepting it as spam, subtract it before sending it. After reading your first letter, the rights owner must understand:

• What do you want
• Who you are
• What game are you doing
• What should he do next, if he is interested

The first line of the letter should explain why you contacted him. Tell us what you want to license the composition for the game and write the name of the composition. Add a line stating that if the owner is interested, you can send him a formal offer. To make the deal look more attractive, he needs to make it clear that he needs very little effort.

If you are already a well-known developer, you can tell a little about yourself and your studio. Add links to your website and previous games. If you haven't released any games yet, a beautiful website and email address (not free) will help you look more professional.

The next stage is the game description. Do not go into details, describe in several sentences the type of game being created and its plot. Tell us how the composition will be used in the game and whether it will be available to the end user as a separate file. It is necessary to specifically stipulate that you do not intend to change the composition in any way and will not allow the player to do this. Think about the aspects of the game that will be attractive to the copyright holder, and mention them. For example, if he writes children's songs, then mention how much family play this is. When communicating with artists for Bollywood Wannabe, I always reported that the game would be about a team of unknown artists trying to make a Bollywood film. If you have a developer blog or a Kickstarter project, you can also mention them.

Contract preparation

Some indie artists can use their own contracts, but most will wait for you to prepare them. Therefore, it will be nice to write a contract before sending a letter. The following points should be indicated in the contract:

• Your name and address
• Name and address of the copyright holder
• Whether use will be exclusive
• License Territory
• License period
• Composition name
• Description of all valid use cases of the composition
• The owner of the rights to the composition and the conditions for its mention
• Payment and license fees
• Signature and dates

When writing a contract do not forget about the following aspects:

• Exclusive use of the song will cost much more, so think twice.
• The performer must retain all rights to the composition and, if necessary, is mentioned. If you want to have the right to copy the composition, get ready to pay for it.
• Describe all valid uses of the composition. Will you distribute it as part of the game's soundtrack? Will you use it to advertise the game or in the trailer? Are you going to use it in a free demo? Will you somehow change it?

It would be best to hire a lawyer to write a contract. But if you don’t want to do this and don’t want to write a contract from scratch, then download the free template and edit it to your requirements. You can also read this excellent article about treaties about sound in games .

Conversation

If the copyright owner agrees to your conditions, then the work is finished. Both of you can sign the contract and send each other a copy by fax / email or paper mail. However, do not forget that the majority will want to change the conditions. Some performers will want to receive a one-time payment instead of a percentage deduction. Others will ask for payment in advance or a larger percentage of the revenue. Still others will simply want to replace the word in the contract or better protect their rights.

Evaluate each of the proposals and if you agree, send a new, amended contract. If you do not agree with the requirements of the right holders, then write a polite letter explaining your position and make a counter offer. Remain professional, do not complain and play the card "I am a poor indie developer."

Bollywood Wannabe Story

There is nothing better than an example from life, so I will tell you about my experience with Bollywood Wannabe . At first I wanted to find a composer who wants to write music for Bollywood and is ready to work for low pay in order to gain experience. Unfortunately, I did not have any contacts in this industry and I did not know where to look for them. Besides, I did not live in India and there was no Indian community nearby. I was looking for a forum or an online community of composers, but I didn’t find anything useful. The only composers I could find were professionals, unattainable for my budget, or amateurs with obvious musical problems. I would not have enough money to hire a professional and I did not have contacts and knowledge to find a talented amateur. It is time for plan B.

Then I realized that the only way to get music to play is to license the music of indie artists. At the same time, I had a couple of problems:

• Although I used to work in the gaming industry, this was my first game as an indie developer.
• I was the “poor indie developer” and I had no money for a big advance or payment.
• I knew little about Bollywood and Indian music in general, so I had no idea where to look for Indian indie performers.
• I had no contacts in the world of music, as well as licensing experience.
• I needed authentic Indian music, preferably with Hindi or Punjabi lyrics, but I didn’t know these languages. This was especially problematic, because I needed songs that even fit into the plot of the game.

The search for good songs was the first test. Soon, I found CD Baby and a Bhangra music site that could find new releases. Having found some songs I liked, I ran into another problem: the lyrics were incomprehensible to me. Even though I realized that I most likely would not be able to find songs that completely describe the plot of the game, I wanted the text to at least slightly correspond to the theme of the level. Besides, I wanted to avoid controversial texts. It became a problem, because most of the songs I liked were in Punjabi, and I didn’t know this language. Sometimes the songs were accompanied by descriptions, but most of them were not. Google translate didn't help either, because there was no Punjabi on its list of languages. In the end, I found an online dictionary with which I was able to translate enough words to understand the song, at least when I had the lyrics. Sometimes I only had the name of the song and a few words that I could already distinguish. Most of the songs were videotaped and English words were partially used in them, so I could more or less understand the general meaning.

The next problem was the search for contact holders. I wrote above how to find them, but I did not realize how difficult this step would be. Sometimes searching for the right information took an hour or two. At least twice I had to refuse the song, because I could not find a way to contact the owner. Finally, having found contacts, I wrote short messages, and then waited a long time for an answer. I sent at least five letters to different performers, until finally one of them decided that it was probably worth his time. Unfortunately, the shortage of my experience quickly became apparent. I did not have a ready contract and I didn’t know what to offer and where to start. I decided to be honest, and this turned out to be a mistake: I did not wait for an answer. Having sent about ten letters, I changed the wording and with each letter I looked more and more professional. Finally, I managed to find a small company that became interested in the deal and signed my first contract. Later, I created my own contract template and mentioned in the first letter that I already had an official offer ready. This small change doubled the number of responses.

It was a very long process - it took me almost two years to find ten songs for the game. Of course, my requests were very specific and I spent a lot of time searching for songs in the first place. However, all the same, licensing a song, starting from the first version of the contract to the signed contract, usually took about a month. But in the end the work paid off. I could not find and buy music for Bollywood Wannabe in any other way.

findings

In general, the licensing process is quite simple, but I can give some tips to indie developers who want to go this route.

First, be patient. Artist can answer you in one to two weeks. Do not forget, they are all indie too, they do not have secretaries and assistants in conducting business. If they are on tour, and this often happens, then maybe your letter will have to wait for them to return home. After the start of the dialogue, wait for long negotiations and discussions.

Second, do not expect everyone to accept your conditions. About half of the performers are not responding. If you did not receive a response from the executor in two weeks, then it is safe to say that the proposal did not interest him. Half of the respondents will not be interested, because they will understand that they will not be able to receive a sufficiently large advance payment. If you can't pay in advance, just write about it.

One last thing: take enough time to find the right tracks. Licensing tracks for indie games is a simple process, but it can be a long one. If your game needs an original and unique soundtrack, then you should go this way.

[Approx. Per .: I found this article interesting because it tells about the not very often discussed aspect of game development. If you had similar stories, please tell about them in the comments.]