Where does one typically commission basic BGMs for games?

[ZeronHitaro]

Toying around with the idea of making a Visual Novel. The art half of the equation is easy enough to search for and get pricing estimates; the music half...not so much. No idea where to even begin searching and Google seems to have a thing against being helpful when I need it the most. XP So...*points at topic question*

[Dincrest]

A lot of composers for indie RPGs probably take music commissions.  The guys of Oliveair games offer that and even have a pricing structure.  http://oliveairgames.com/music.html

Otherwise, Phil Hamilton of Dancing Dragon Games http://www.dancingdragongames.com/ might be someone to contact about that.  He's a very good composer.  Or maybe Aaron Walz http://www.walzmusic.com (He's done the Aveyond games and Yummy Drink Factory.)  Or maybe Kan "Reives" Gao of  Freebird Games (To The Moon) http://www.freebirdgames.com

[ZeronHitaro]

That's incredibly helpful. ^_^ Thank you very much!

[Ramza]

Zeron -- what kind of budget do you have in mind for music?

I ask because I am actually (shhhh) stepping through this process myself, and I've learned some things. So your budget will definitely help you figure out who you want to work with and how much original audio do you want crafted (interestingly, many composers charge PER MINUTE of unlooped, original music; so if you know you want, say, 5 original themes written that are 90-120 seconds in length each before any looping, that's very helpful to be able to tell the composer(s) you contact)

[ZeronHitaro]

Honestly I don't really 'have' a budget at the moment. Like with the cover art for Sakuri what I have to do is figure out how much the end product will cost approximately first; then fix my monthly budget so I can save up a little bit 'past' that bare minimum and then start trying to order what I need. Really all I'm looking for at the moment is theoretically a singular 1-1:30 loop both to test a musical concept and see what the cost would be.

With that done I could start forming more long term plans.

[Ramza]

If it's a friend or an amateur, a free demo loop would be fine, though even $50 would help. For someone more professional, even that first demo loop, if it were a new composition made for your game, would be somewhere between $100 and $300. Most of the guys I've talked to, who are "indie game composers" doing contracted work for indie iOS / android / PC / XBLA titles, will charge anywhere from $200 - $500 per minute of audio, depending on the complexity or detail of the piece and the number of reworks requested.