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Q: You have had some success doing music for CD ROM games. I am someone who writes a lot of music in those genres, but I have no idea what steps I can take to break into that market. For me, getting my music into a Playstation game would be more of a thrill than having a hit on Billboard! Can you suggest some steps a beginner might take in this field?
A. To be honest, I need to start by saying that my involvement in doing music for PlayStation games and animation features was a total fluke. My group, Gravity had been signed to a Japanese company, and when the guy who did our album cover & some other work for the label branched off into other areas, I stayed in touch with him. He and his partner booked us for a Japanese tour and, later on, after they had gone into yet another enterprise, they came to me with a PlayStation project. (My partner, Rick Cowling and I have done several) I'm bringing this up because it demonstrates an important principle. If someone likes your work and they feel you are reliable, they will probably come back to you with more opportunities.
I'd say the first step would be to get a CD or tape together with some music you have done that you think would be appropriate for CD ROM games or other multimedia. Then I would start looking for ways to find contacts and how to get music to them. You can look on the internet and on the games themselves to see who creates and publishes these kinds of games. You may want to check out various music schools that have classes or contacts in this arena.
You could go to a discussion group or a metasearch engine like dogpile.com & put in PlayStation games. That may lead you to something like Talkway then do a search using compose or composers. You'll see that people post notices and get feedback on their music from others. This sort of thing can help get the ball rolling. There are many places on the net that have billboards and chat rooms, etc., where you cant start telling people about what you want to do and making contacts.
Get to know some people at the stores where these games are sold. They are often very knowledgeable and may be able to give you some clues (i.e., names & contact information on companies, future releases, trends, etc.).
I would start putting out feelers and emails to anyone and everyone who might have anything to do with creating games. This could be programmers, graphics, sound effects people or anything else you can think of. Also, if you have talent in any of these areas, sometimes that can also be a way in the door. Some of the game programmers are also creating music and sound effects.
The cumulative effect of these and other creative ideas you may come up with yourself should go a long way toward opening some doors for you. Good luck!