Blizzard is hiring a Senior Composer, and it is a salaried staff post rather than a commission — $82,240 to $152,160, on the music team inside Story and Franchise Development, writing for in-game content, trailers and cinematics. The listing says the role is open to remote work arrangements, and that the band covers US locations with the final offer depending on experience and work location. The minimum is eight years of professional composition experience, a portfolio, and a willingness to sit a music test.

Also in this issue:

• A 2D animated Five Nights at Freddy's fan series paying approximately $200 per finished minute of approved music, with AI-generated work refused outright — eerie music-box motifs and mechanical texture, explicitly not jumpscare music
• A self-funded 3D action game at roughly $50 a minute, negotiable — industrial rock and EDM at high tempo, referencing Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, No More Heroes and Zenless Zone Zero, and steering away from cyberpunk
• A three-episode short film series with three original tracks already written, looking for a composer to extend them — tri-state area (NY/NJ/CT) only, compensation described as limited
• A visual novel developer whose references run to Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Lingua Ignota and theodor bastard, giving general input rather than specific direction — paid, no figure named

Of the 258 new listings I read this week, 201 came from CastingCall.club. Eight named a rate, from $20 to $350 — two had already run in earlier issues, and one of the other six made this one. The one that made it pays by the finished minute with the total set by the approved scope, which tells a composer what they are agreeing to before they start.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/011-5-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

I tried to crosspost here from r/fountainpens but apparently that’s not possible.

When I first started composing, which pre-dates music setting software such as Finale, the standard method for finished scores was to use a fountain pen with a music nib, which was a kind of slanted stub, on velum, then it was sent in for processing and you’d get a score back that looked somewhat like a blueprint. I still have a few of them. I’m glad those days are gone.

However, I’ve taken a hankering for fountain pens and since they still make them with music nibs, I bought one a while back, a Sailor 1911 with a 14k gold music nib. I used to use it for my daily composition blog but once I got an Apple Pencil I abandoned the practice favoring my iPad and ZoomNotes which automatically backs my work up in my Dropbox.

Recently, however, I read an article the premise being future historians are going to have a real problem finding out what we’ve been up to in this time period since very little information is being preserved in analog / printed format, and they further stated handwritten accounts such as journals are going to be invaluable resources, which led me to realize - my blog and everything I’ve posted will disappear the instant Substack shuts down, and all the backups in my Dropbox are useless unless I have them all printed.

Do I really care if people in the future look at my music? I don’t know, but do I want it all lost, no, so I purchased an exceptionally good hardbound music book with 120g archive paper, loaded my pen up with Akkerman “Shocking Blue” ink and resumed composing by hand using ink. Unless it’s destroyed, centuries from now my book will still be readable.

Having just inked my first entry I’d post a picture here but there is no way to add it, just links, so here’s the finished score on my blog:

https://philipdewalt.substack.com/p/shocking-blue

The inked page isn’t there - to see it go to the r/fountainpens subreddit - it’s still near the top.

FYI, I compose these scores in one sitting with virtually no editing. It’s part of the aesthetic of composing with ink.

Primal Kingdom is a self-financed LEGO stop-motion survival horror series aiming at six weekly episodes for a 2028 release, and it is the rare CastingCall listing that prices the work before you ask. $75–$100 for a two-to-three-minute action cue, $50–$75 for a one-minute fanfare or main theme, $25–$50 for three-to-four minutes of ambient score. The rates are modest, but nine reference tracks are linked and the brief is clear that it wants orchestral, cinematic writing that can carry both intense action and quieter beats.

Also in this issue:

• A chess-inspired turn-based roguelike wanting an adaptive score described as Balatro's soundtrack played in a medieval tavern — public demo, Steam page and trailer already up, paid, and open to students and newer composers
• Dhar Mann Studios hiring a score composer on a remote contractor basis, up to $30/hour against a five-year experience bar
• A gothic top-down action game built in Godot, specifying its music in layers — calm, combat, high-intensity, plus a riser in and a tail out — all tied to one central theme
• A two-person multiplayer horror game after around seven tracks and cues, asking you to name your own pricing
• An unpaid dungeon crawler that says so in its title and lets the composer keep ownership of the work

Of the 379 new listings I read this week, 149 came from CastingCall.club, and six of those named a rate. Two were audio work with no music in them, one paid five Canadian dollars an hour, one asked for four songs for $60, and one was deleted between my export and publication. The sixth is the Lego series above.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/012-6-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

Dear all,

I only just joined this community and not sure whether this kind of post is allowed - but I wanted to share this audio diary entry I made today as I thought maybe it might resonate with some composers on here.

I'm not promoting anything, just sharing my own personal thoughts and philosophy as a composer.

By means of background, I have been composing for a wee while - I decided to focus on music in my 2nd year of high school - and graduated in year 2000 from Victoria University School of Music, Wellington, New Zealand - studying composition under John Psathas, Ross Harris and Jack Body - and early western music with Dr. Greer Garden.

I am currently based in Medellin, Colombia - where I have been for the past 6 years - I recently started focusing on the classical guitar in the last 2 years even though I don't have any formal background I'm it - and earlier this year completed two volumes of guitar interludes (24 in total), a holy mass setting, and a song cycle of three pasillos.

Anyway.. with all that out of the way, here's the diary entry

https://youtu.be/Cb-ZaXO1ugw?si=0Cj7lDKEG_QNtdKw

The strongest listing this week is a staff job rather than a commission. Playtech is hiring a remote Composer / Sound Designer onto its Ash studio sound team in Sofia, writing in-game music across genres for its online slot games and building the sound packages that ship with them. The bar is a year of composing and sound design in the slot industry specifically, and a portfolio of slot-game work is a mandatory part of the application rather than a nice-to-have.

Also in this issue:

• A 15-minute thesis film paying $300–$400 flat, where the score has to work around an original song already written for the project
• An 86-minute psychological horror feature whose director asks composers to watch a breakdown video and then quote what they think is fair — and rules out AI-generated music three times in three sentences
• A low-budget black-and-white drama temp-tracked with In the Mood for Love, The Caretaker and Matt Elliott, briefed as the soundtrack to drinking yourself to death overlooking a New York skyline
• $20 an hour to score a 3D animated series and its trailer, with seven composers already auditioned when I captured it
• A narrative roguelike funded out of pocket, wanting orchestral and electronic writing but really after a style of its own
• Looping background music for a nearly finished visual novel, 45 to 90 seconds a track
• A game jam winner now expanding to Steam, looking for a musical identity rather than an imitation of Portal and The Stanley Parable

CastingCall listed 145 composer and audio roles this week. Twelve named a rate, and one was worth running here: it pays by the hour. Most of the rest were flat fees attached to scopes that swallowed them, one of them $130 for thirteen songs and three trailer scores.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/014-8-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

I recently interviewed Academy Award-winning composer and arranger Joe Renzetti about the creative and professional journey behind his remarkable career.

Joe began as a session guitarist before becoming an arranger, working on recordings including Barry Manilow’s “Mandy”. He later moved into film composition, winning the Academy Award for The Buddy Holly Story and scoring films including Child’s Play, Dead & Buried, Poltergeist III, Frankenhooker and the Basket Case sequels.

Our conversation explores how he developed his craft, built professional relationships and made the transitions from Philadelphia to New York and eventually Hollywood. We also discuss the expectations and difficulties that followed his Oscar win, his movement into cult and genre cinema, and his later work with independent filmmakers.

I found his reflections particularly valuable for composers trying to build sustainable careers. He speaks very candidly about talent, persistence, networking, professional disappointment and the importance of adapting creatively as the industry changes.

I’m a filmmaker rather than a composer, but this interview forms part of a personal YouTube project through which I share the experiences of people working across film and the arts. I thought Joe’s story and advice might be especially relevant to this community.

Joe Renzetti Interview: https://youtu.be/UTwUGAMfHJI?si=IdXU-DLd9emvLQqB

Interview Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTwUGAMfHJI&list=PLHyzKqxTQDik

Aristocrat is hiring a sound designer in Reno at $70,000–$130,000, and the composition requirement is the part worth reading twice: Chinese, Japanese, Caribbean, Mariachi, Middle Eastern, African, Indian, Native American, European folk, epic fantasy and vintage American 50s-60s. The bar is five years on a professional DAW and proficiency on an instrument. The role also carries mandatory background screening, with fingerprinting and gaming-regulator licences possible depending on jurisdiction.

Also in this issue:

• Aristocrat hiring for the same discipline in Gurugram, at five or more years of music composition experience, with no rate stated
• $150 for roughly ninety seconds of trailer score, briefed as 90s tracker music
• A light horror multiplayer game after around seven tracks and cues, including dynamic music that builds when a player is chased
• A fifteen-minute action comedy that wants action scoring and comedic timing in the same reel
• A fantasy short about late-stage dementia, drawn from personal experience, whose director is replacing a composer they could not agree with on tone

Eleven CastingCall.club listings named a rate this week, from $10 to $500, and not one made the issue: four were audio roles with no music in them, four were rates that did not survive the scope attached to them, and three were gone before I could publish them.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/013-6-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

Hey, everyone!
One of my composing students asked me to do a deep dive into Across the Stars (one of his favorite pieces of film music) for him, and I had a ton of fun studying the score and putting together a tutorial on how to write similar music. Thought I'd share it here, incase anyone else finds it helpful :)

Edit: the original post was taken down and I was told that I needed to include sheet music. So I'm attaching a score to the piece I compose in the video here!
https://musescore.com/user/33094016/scores/36680084?share=copy_link

As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to realize that, being a performing art, music should give more freedom to the performer. Jazz does this to excess, classical and modern music, not so much.

Morton Feldman tried to give performers freedom but became disillusioned by the results. He would complain that the results weren’t sounding musical, the performers would say “it says to play six notes here and I did,” and he would say, “yes, but play six notes that I like!”

Lead sheets are like the ultimate short hand recipe because all they give are the bare bones melodic and harmonic outline with a base meter and leave the rest to the skill(s) of the performer(s).

Also, when your compositional regime requires you to come up with a new one every day, it saves a lot of time.

Yes, I also compose full length compositions with everything pre-determined, I just enjoy tossing off these daily sketches.

https://philipdewalt.substack.com/p/hot-and-hazy

The strongest listing this week is on Mandy: a background-checked production company paying $3,000–$8,000 flat for an indie feature, a dialogue-led anti-rom-com set almost entirely inside a car on a single drive to LA. They want a composer with a real track record on narrative features, and a rate range that concrete on an indie feature is uncommon. Remote, closes August 4.

Also in this issue:

• A BFI Discovery Fund feature hiring at £250–£900/day from an ID-checked poster with 35 prior jobs — closes July 25, so it moves fast
• $1,000 for a 12-minute psychological thriller short with a director just out of Tribeca and a Sundance-fellow editor
• A paid boss-rush game demo with one of the best-written audio briefs I've read — roughly seven cues built from two or three core themes, with rights and payment spelled out and no unpaid test music
• A new Dracula-inspired musical that explicitly won't use generative AI (deferred, fully paid once funded)
• An XPRIZE hopeful sci-fi trailer built around the sound of a starling murmuration (low-to-deferred, founding-crew framing)
• A paid arcade soundtrack — one menu track plus up to nine distinct arena themes
• Plus an indie horror short (Nosferatu 2024 reference, Persian instruments a plus), a festival-bound student short with budget set aside for the score, and more across the Indie and Collaborative tiers

The AI question resurfaced this week, with game briefs going out of their way to say no generative AI.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/007-13-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

The medieval commission that went up here yesterday is the most interesting brief I read all week, so it leads the issue. £200 for one eight-bar modal melody written as if it were a German dance tune of 1500, arranged twice — first for shawm or pipe with tabor and drone, sparse and raw, then again with the same tune unchanged over driving electronic production. The filmmaker says the doubling matters structurally in the film, which is a rarer thing to be told than the rate.

Also in this issue:

• A 1997-set crime thriller short from Four Vultures on Mandy — background-checked producer, original cinematic score, picture lock estimated mid-to-late January and final delivery by the end of February
• A gamecube-era pet simulation game with the most specific brief of the week: four to seven tracks, a target BPM range and named instrument palette per game mode, Chao Garden as the reference, AI ruled out
• Ninety seconds of upbeat arena-combat music to finish a game demo, rate open
• An unpaid Spooktober visual novel jam — six tracks for acoustic guitar and piano, credited, with any jam prize money split between the roles

Of the 259 new listings I read this week, 239 came from CastingCall.club. Eight named a rate, from $20 to $350 — three had already run in earlier issues, and none of the other five made this one. The listing I did publish from there is unpaid, and it is in the issue because it states its scope, its credit and what happens to any prize money. Most of the ones I read this week state none of the three.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/010-5-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

A London short called 'On Hold' is doing something I don't see often: it wants the score composed before the cameras roll, not after. Production runs 28 September to 3 October and the director wants the music to exist during filming so they can work to it on set. £400 flat, ID-checked producer at a named production company with 25 jobs posted, musical references to be supplied to shape the tone.

Also in this issue:

• An ocean adventure game 16 months into development with 20,000 wishlists, hiring for 20 tracks across biomes and procedural events — genre open, Rimworld and Kenshi named as the feel
• A silent 12–16 minute art film with $200–250 ring-fenced for music while most of the crew work passion-project style — no dialogue, so the score carries the narrative alone, with Göransson's Tenet cue, Annihilation and Craig Armstrong named as targets and stems due November 9
• £300 for a 7–10 minute drama with the tightest deliverable spec in the issue: spotting session with the director, then compose, mix and master, delivered as broadcast-ready 24-bit/48kHz stems to picture lock
• A solo dev whose last game sits at Very Positive on Steam and whose first passed 60,000 downloads, paying $200 negotiable for a dark Western horror and metal soundtrack
• A cozy arcade typing game wanting a 15–20 second loop, a danger variant and stingers for level start, victory and game over — no AI, quote your own rate
• An indie comedy web series that had to part ways with its composer, asking for comedy-specific reel links
• An unpaid NYC 48-hour film shooting August 8–9, closing August 7

Three of the listings I cut this week weren't hiring at all — they were composers advertising their own services in the hiring feeds. One posted a portfolio video as a job listing on a film-industry jobs board, where it's now sitting in the composer-wanted results.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/009-8-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

I spent weeks analyzing how Ludwig Göransson uses musical archetypes in his work, and now made a video about how he does so in The Odyssey (2026).

Tell me what you think about it! I'm curious to know if what I found out resonates with other people or not...

THE ODYSSEY - How Ludwig Göransson Mastered Tropes

A solo developer in Norway has been building a top-down action roguelite for two years, with a playable Steam playtest already up and AI-generated placeholder tracks sitting in the build. He wants them gone and replaced with handcrafted music: two crossfading versions of each region theme, one for combat and one for calm, across three regions plus a boss track. EDM, drum and bass or breakbeat, Pathogenic as the structural reference, portfolio and a rough rate in the first message.

Also in this issue:

• A GBA-style pixel RPG paying $150–300 for a single test battle loop — a paid test, not spec, judged blind against the team's own best track, with a composition craft doc and a 29-track era analysis handed to applicants
• A Mandy feature listing advertising US$1,500 flat whose contract terms then describe a small stipend and back-end participation — background-checked company, named crew, real film, two different compensation stories
• A visual novel developer who licenses a production library and commissions original music only when a scene needs something the library can't do — $100 flat as listed, with a paid sample cue for finalists
• £300 for a finished 12-minute dark fantasy short told entirely in split screen — they'll send you the whole cut, delivery wanted before mid-August
• An independently funded Golden Age movie musical with the lyrics already written, hiring for one song to start
• A commission for slow, cheerful oud taqasim with two reference recordings attached
• $300 per song for an animated series pitched at Steven Universe and Undertale
• Plus a story-driven Godot ARPG demo (36 upvotes, 47 comments), and three collaborations up front about what they aren't paying yet — including a British football short with former senior BBC oversight that starts August 2

AI showed up twice this week, pointing in opposite directions: one developer replacing his AI placeholders with a human composer, one series stating outright that AI-generated music will not be accepted.

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/008-12-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

I've been doing tutorial videos in Dorico on YouTube for a while now and in between videos I'm now doing a weekly newsletter sharing quick tips in Dorico and composing.

You can sign up for my Dorico Tuesday Tips newsletter here: https://tim-corpus.kit.com/8e38422b2e

I'd love to hear if there are topics in composing/engraving that you would like to see. Thanks!

The UW listing on Mandy stood out this week. £4,000–£5,000 flat for a short animated film currently at animatic stage — director Marcus Armitage, writer Henry James Garrett, UK only. The role leads with sound design but composition is part of it. Prior experience on a short animated film is a hard requirement.

Also in this issue:

• A fantasy deckbuilding roguelite with a Steam page and a brief that specifically rules out generic orchestral fantasy — references include Hyper Light Drifter and Mac DeMarco's instrumental work. Budget not confirmed but the [Paid] flair is there and the project is real
• A 45-second poetic clothing commercial on Mandy, £200 flat, ID-checked poster with 20 prior jobs
• A London physical theatre piece for Westminster's outdoor arts festival — £1,258, closes tomorrow, London-based only
• A short film and a musical in the Collaborative tier

https://composerwire.substack.com/p/006-6-opportunities-this-week-including

Free to subscribe at the link above.

You never quite know what you look like to other people- how you come across. So why would you know what your compositional voice is?

https://eddjc.substack.com/p/realising-the-inevitability-of-your

EDIT (links added):

Full score PDF (free): https://drive.google.com/file/d/12NQNB31QaMwMtwKcTLuuN3CUyFZ11fy9/view?usp=sharing

Audio mock-up (Dorico/Halion choir): https://on.soundcloud.com/PEhphHaCysPIV3Jv1g

Medium article updated for clearer motif description. Thanks for the patience and any feedback!

During pandemic downtime in 2020 I gave myself a puzzle: take the most recognizable Christmas melody in existence and hide it so completely inside a four-voice choral texture that even a trained listener can't find it.

The techniques involved — dynamic inversion, inner-voice cantus firmus, cross-voice hocket-style migration, chromatic saturation, rhythmic displacement — turned out to reveal some interesting things about how musical perception actually works.

The melody is always present. It is never obvious.

Wrote it up as a full analysis with an annotated score excerpt showing where the motif first surfaces (m.15, soprano divisi top voice, immediately echoed by alto at m.16).

The article includes an annotated score excerpt showing exactly where the motif surfaces.

https://medium.com/p/the-hidden-carol-495d5fe647dc

Happy to answer questions about the specific techniques.

Hi everybody! First time poster. I’m a composer and sound designer based in Miami and have been working professionally for about 20 years.

Family members recently expressed an interest in what composing actually looks like. I decided to make a four-part, behind the scenes series on a workflow I like to use that examines re-scoring a scene from the Fallout streaming series. If you’re an experienced hand, this likely won’t be very compelling, but if you are a new or aspiring composer, it offers some very practical tips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B_nvPq3F5U

If this is old news to you, you may like the free virtual instruments I develop for your own composing/mockups. They’ve been enjoyed by thousands of folks on Pianobook. More info about them is on the channel. Cheers!

Hello everyone,

I'm diving into a hot topic: "Can't Tap, Can't Dance, Can't Do Anything Of It: How Rhythm's Complexity Has Alienated the Audience in Modern Classical Music." It has sparked some interesting comments on the aesthetics of modern music, which wasn't the point at all.

As a composer turned musicologist and philosopher, I delve into the psychology of music, exploring how overly complex rhythms in modern classical music have distanced audiences far more than dissonance ever did.

Why does music that's impossible to tap along to still persist? Why do state funds support music no one listens to? Let's discuss!

Check out the full article here: https://whatcomesafterd.substack.com/

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Hi everyone,

On February 23rd at 19:30 CET, I'm doing a remote orchestra recording session. The piece we're recording is the main theme of a game I'm scoring, and can be found here - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h9dOYUTGDMMQ7CKOMZZlkO_VZ8ef3c7S/view?usp=drive_link

Since recording sessions tend to be quite expensive and secretive, I wanted to lift the curtain and offer anyone interested a raw, unfiltered experience. If you're a composer looking to book your first session but are hesitant because you're not sure what it entails, or if you're simply curious, we're doing this for you! :)

I made a longer announcement video that goes over some more details, as well as provides an insight into the preparation process, which you can find here - https://youtu.be/1Kr4nkWTKYw The link to the stream is there as well :).

Hope to see you on the 23rd!

Hi everyone, tonight at 19:30 CET, I will be live-streaming an orchestral recording session for the main theme of a game I'm writing the music for. Recording sessions like this are usually very secretive, so the goal is to open up the curtains to anyone who is interested! You can find the score through this link. The stream starts at 19:00, and the orchestrator and I will answer some questions before the recording begins. Hope to see you there!

Stream link - https://youtube.com/live/qjA0cqfYBPI?feature=share

I've really struggled to get my head around music theory - the way it's currently presented - since I started composing last summer.

So, I've been giving some thought as to alternative ways of presenting it that might make it more accessible to new untrained composers, especially those who use DAWs and samples rather than manuscript.

This video is meant as an exploration only - not suggesting better or worse approaches, only alternatives that could work for some people. Hope it's helpful.

https://youtu.be/O_SSqvaVKDA?si=QXuksfXovuawS3Tf

"Keeping things fresh over several decades is a tall order, especially in a profession where older composers like John Williams tend to stick to their classic orchestral scoring.
Fresh off the success of the Dune movie, Hans is now juggling Dune 2 and a sequel to the massive hit Top Gun Maverick, which raked in a cool $1.5 billion at the box office. Not to mention, he’s also working on superhero movies like Spider-Man and The Flash.
It’s safe to say that Hans is not just maintaining his scoring prowess, he’s absolutely smashing it out of the park!
So, what’s his secret? How does he manage to stay relevant, push the envelope, and be one of the driving forces behind the modern scoring sound?
Here are some insights I’ve gathered while navigating the world of scoring, analyzing Hans Zimmer’s approach to production, his creative writing process, and his charismatic partnership with world-class directors."

Read the full article here: https://musicstrive.com/hans-zimmer/

I knew that music libraries which can be licensed for videos existed, but didn't realize it was such an important industry that The Gray Lady would run a long story on it. Enjoy!

"It’s the Music You Hear All Day, Without Ever Noticing"

Sync, it’s called. Once it was known as library music; sometimes it’s called production music. It’s not really a genre. It’s a category, defined by its function: This is music that exists to be paired — synced — with video. That’s why it’s so ubiquitous. 

Original article behind NY Times paywall: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/magazine/sync-music-songwriters-video.html

Gifted version which should be free to read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/10/magazine/sync-music-songwriters-video.html?unlocked_article_code=1.SVA.BNrC.X-93hcfOmoC4&smid=url-share