If you’re trying to make composing a full-time profession, your practice routine needs to change.

Think of it like exercise.

The left side of your body is your craft...

• Composing
•  Orchestrating
•  Mockups
•  Scoring

... and the right side of your body is your business:

•  Networking
•  Marketing
•  Pitching
•  Negotiation
•  Communication
•  Project...

 In the beginning of our composing careers, the reality is that we’re often not paid what our time and work is worth.

There’s a number of reasons for that:

• We lack credibility, and therefore can’t command trust.
• We lack work, and therefore can’t command competitive demand.
• We lack experience, and therefore can’t deliver quality customer service.

But working...

One of the most difficult parts about an artistic career is the the lack of a straightforward path.

Because the truth is:

There is no "magic bullet" for mastering composition, finding work, or building an audience.

And I remember feeling that frustration, too.

When I was in college, I attended an orchestral rehearsal for a composer whose wife was my composition teacher. Eager to take advantage...

When a potential client says any of these three phrases, be very cautious about taking them on.

(They're common traps to make you feel pressure, guilt, or false excitement.)

If you DO decide you'd like to work with them, here's how to navigate these tricky word traps.

Trap #1: "We Have a Great Opportunity"

Sometimes, when a client first presents an opportunity, you can't help but...

(Want to auto-calculate your rates? Check out my FREE music pricing calculator!)

Per Hour, Minute, or Project?

The Problem with Hourly

Hourly pricing in the creative space presents two problems.

Firstly, a client doesn’t know how many hours a project will take you—and you probably don’t either.

This makes it difficult to quote projects, and often leaves us underestimating the...

A common struggle I see from aspiring composers is how to go about finding work and building relationships.

Most start off the same way:

Here’s the truth:

In a recent interview with Canvas Rebel, I was asked how I built my audience on social media.

Whether you’re into social media or not, finding success as a professional creator is about one thing:

Providing VALUE.

That might seem obvious...

But we often we confuse OUR wants and needs with the wants/needs of our audience.

We think to ourselves:

• “I want...

Here’s a tip that’ll change the way you score scenes forever.

When starting off composing for media, many composers start by matching on-screen emotions 1:1.

If a character is angry, they think:

“What does angry music sound like?”

But here’s what separates the good film composers from the great:

To be truly impactful for an audience, music needs to...

Once you learn this, you'll never fall for it again.

Have you found yourself suddenly dropping your price because your client threw a budget at you that was way off from what you had expected?

You think:

"If that's their budget, there's NO WAY they can afford my rate."

Welcome to price anchoring.

In short, price anchoring means that the first price someone hears...

When I first moved to LA, I went to an 60-minute network mixer at VidCon - a convention for creators with over 75k attendees.

I was eager to connect with other artists, share my story, and build an exciting base of new clients.

Over the course of that hour, I chatted with close to 50 creators, accumulating 20 business cards and passing equally as many of my own around.

After I...