[Blitz Lunar]

I was wondering what kind of experience different VGM composers (especially more recent ones) had in before becoming professionals.

i'd like to hear stories from both japanese and western composers, to see how different the attitudes are in the industry, and how easy/hard it was for them to break in. though i'd also like to know how different things are now to how they were say two decades ago. i get the impression that decades ago, going to university meant that you could get an inhouse composition job to follow it up with? though that could be completely wrong ^^;

Yet there are numerous popular composers out there who are probably less talented, but they are generally better at promotion and give publishers what they want in less time and for less money.

absolutely, and it's the saddest thing really. you can be a brilliant composer, but if you don't have a handle on the business end of things, with regards contacting developers, marketing yourself, essentially sticking your neck out etc. you're not going anywhere. the more aggressive, business-minded people are going to succeed where you fail. it's a common dilemma, because creatively-minded individuals very often do suck at the business matters.

:(

oh yeah, and I guess I should mention that an undergraduate and even a postgraduate certification in a musical field is only as useful as the skills you developed and the connections you made. the paper itself isn't worth much (though still helps somewhat in the job market generally, so it isn't totally useless. just don't expect a client to hire you on the premise that you have a degree :P) some of the freelancers I know didn't even study music at college/high-school level.

I'd generally recommend those pursuing video game composition to keep it more as a side project than a career choice, given even the exceptional rarely make it.

again, I agree, in fact this is what I want to do once I feel confident enough to take on work. though starting is the hardest part, and every completed project is more experience and resume fodder (and over time, the more jobs and experience you've had makes full-time freelancing more feasible.) with regards the Zimmer comment, the handheld market seems more forgiving in this regard, since it's not always possible (or even desirable) to implement fully orchestrated scores (only a minority of DS games use streamed audio for instance, so you cannot hide behind lush sound production.)

Perhaps their talents are better offered elsewhere.

yeah, I wonder this... though what else is there? speaking only for myself, i haven't heard a lot of exciting TV or film music lately. and scoring adverts goes to friends of friends usually. if you're passionate about game music and listen to a lot of it, making it yourself seems really. there was this attitude when i was at university that "if you can compose, you can compose for games", though i don't really agree.

i guess there's always the possibility of straight-up going at it as an artist. but i dunno. it seems you are lucky if you make money from any artistic medium in any capacity.