If you want the freedom of working for yourself, when you want, how you want, on projects that you choose, then chances are that you have already thought about becoming a freelancer. Though these promises sound very nice, they are hardly easy to come by but can be very rewarding to achieve. One of the reasons being a successful freelancer is challenging is that very few people have had the schooling or experience to acquire the skills necessary to be a freelancer. Another reason which I have personally experienced is that it can take some time to get to a place where you are earning enough income to support yourself as a freelancer.
If you are still determined to make it happen, then how do you become a freelance sound designer? If you want to be a freelance sound designer, you will need to develop some business skills and audio skills. As a freelancer, you work for yourself. You are responsible for seeking out clients and projects, marketing yourself, dealing with contracts, negotiations, deadlines, and finances. In addition to these tasks, you need to be an excellent sound designer. You need to be experienced with your software, hardware, DAW, plugins, while also having a deep understanding of sound design concepts.Â
This may be overwhelming for those who may not have any business or freelance experience, but the good news is that all these skills can be learned. Having worked as a freelance sound designer for video games for almost 3 years, I want to share with you my successes and failures to help you be on your way to being a successful freelance sound designer. Though this post will be aimed mostly for video game sound designers, it is also very applicable to sound designers across various industries.
The Most Important Things To Do When Starting Out As A Freelance Sound Designer
If you are just starting out with no connections, no work experience, and no online presence, what should you do? Where should you focus your effort? I found myself in this exact situation almost 3 years ago and had to figure this out for myself. I had just graduated from my master’s degree in music performance and had never worked on a video game and had no sound design work to show for myself. I had been composing music for 2 years or so but had never done any sound design. If you can relate, hopefully, you can benefit from where I spent my time and energy to get started.
Create Every Day
Build the new habit of creating new sound design each day. Whether it is just 1 or 2 sounds or 100+ sounds, the numbers don’t really matter. I have found it more beneficial to create at least 1 sound a day than to create 10 sounds on one day of the week.Â
Set Goals and Deadlines
Set yourself goals with deadlines and write them down. This can be goals for how many sounds you want to create, how many people you want to email, or the next steps you want to take to set up an online account. Make this a daily practice in the evening for the coming day or at the very least every morning before starting your workday.
Create a Demo of your Work
Have a demo of your work on hand to show potential clients who may want to work with you. This can simply be 1-2 minutes of your sound design that you have compiled together and placed into a track on SoundCloud. There is no need to have visuals or videos to go along with your work. Simply show your best work and a wide variety of sounds that show your capabilities. Keep in mind who your ideal customer would be and target your demo to that one person.
Start Looking For Work
Work can take a while to come in when you are just starting out, so it is best to start looking right away. Start by asking friends and family members who are in the gaming community. See if they know anyone who is in need of sound design. If your local college or University offers game development programs, contact them to see if the students ever need help on their projects. Find work for people who are at the same level and experience of game development as you are for sound design. That way, working together can be mutual and valuable to both parties.
Set Up an Online Presence on a Platform
Begin to make yourself present online on a selected platform. Avoid joining too many and stretching yourself too thin. Create an account on a freelancer site such as Fiverr, Upwork, or Freelancer.com and offer your services. If you can manage the time, be present on 1 social media platform and post a minimum of once a week consistently.
Join a community
There are hundreds of communities online where people gather to discuss and help each other around various topics. There are Facebook groups, forums, and discussion boards. Find one that suits your interests and be an involved member of that community.Â
What Skills Do You Need To Be A Sound Designer?
Business Skills
- Communication
- Contracts
- Negotiation (pay, time, deadlines, etc.)
- Managing your finances
- Networking
- Marketing
Technical Audio Skills
- Creativity
- Audio Recording
- Audio Production
- Audio Editing
- A deep understanding of sound design concepts
- Third party integration (Wwise, FMOD) – This is not necessary when starting out, but gives you a nice advantage over others. This skill is usually expected if you work for larger gaming studios.
- C++ Coding – This is not necessary when starting out, but gives you a nice advantage over others.Â
Where To Find Work
When starting out, finding work can be one of your most challenging tasks as a freelancer, but knowing where to go is half the battle. Here are a few places I have been able to find work and earn income as a freelancer:
Freelancing
Here you can set up a gig and offer services to game developers looking for sound effects for their games. It’s a great place to get lots of exposure, but can take a long time to build up your portfolio and you don’t usually get paid very well at first.
Here you can search for jobs that require a sound designer. You will bid on work and create an offer for the person posting the job.
Similar to Upwork, you can search for freelance jobs and apply for postings.
Kickstarter is a funding platform for projects of various categories from film, art, food, and video games. It’s not a place to offer services, but it can be a great place to find game developers who may be in need of sound designers.Â
Similar to Kickstarter, Indiegogo is a funding platform and can be a great place to find developers who may be in need of sound designers.
Networking
Game development groups
A search in Facebook’s search bar can yield dozens of results for game development groups. Be genuine when joining them and offer value rather than seeming desperate for work.Â
Forums (unreal, unity, etc.)
Game Engines, such as Unreal and Unity, will usually have forums where developers will ask questions or share their work on their games. This can be a great place to meet them, help them out, and make connections.Â
Game jams
Game jams are a gathering of people who will join into groups and create a video game in a short period of time with a defined theme that is applied to all groups. This is all usually done online, but some also take place in person in specific cities. Joining a game jam is a great way to gain some experience and meet new connections in the industry.
Gaming Conferences
Gaming Conferences are a great place to network, meet new people, and keep up to date with new innovations in the industry.
G.A.N.G (Game Audio Network Guild)
The Game Audio Network Guild is a non-profit organization whose members include sound designers, composers, voice actors, and other game audio workers. Here you can network, meet people, and learn from some of the best in the industry. There is a small annual fee of $50 for students, $75 for those who have yet to find paid work, and $100 for those who have had paid work in game audio.
How To Earn Income As A Freelance Video Game Sound Designer?
Here are 3 ways I have been able to earn an income online as a freelance video game sound designer:
- Being the sound designer for a game.
- Creating sound effect packs or libraries to sell to game developers and other sound designers. You can sell on sites such as Unreal Engine Marketplace and the Unity Asset Store.
- Creating sound effects to sell individually on stock sound effect sites such as pond5 and Audio Jungle.
What Kind Of Work Will You Be Expected To Do As A Freelancer Sound Designer?
Sound design can cover a wide range of tasks from recording your own sounds, editing audio, creating new sounds, and implementing audio into 3rd party engines such as FMOD or Wwise. In some instances, you may even be required to do some voice overs. It is also very common for freelance sound designers to be asked to do music for certain projects especially when working on indie games.
Freelance Sound Design Is NOT For Everyone. Who Is It For?
If you want to be able to work as a freelance sound designer, here are some criteria to consider.
- You must be willing and able to go and find work for yourself. In the beginning, work will not come to you. Even after years of experience, there will still be times when you will need to go out, meet new people, and look for work.
- You should have a love and passion for video games, game audio, and video game music.
- You will need to be flexible with your work hours. Occasionally, you will need to work long hours and days in order to meet deadlines.
- You will need to be able to withstand the challenge of having a project one month and possibly nothing the next.
- You may want to consider having multiple sources of income to protect yourself during months that may have few jobs.
- You must be extremely self-motivated and driven to make it work. There will be lots of audio challenges and you will need to be solution-oriented to overcome the obstacles.Â
Pros vs Cons
PROS
- You work for yourself.
- You get to choose which projects you want to work on.
- You can work when and however much you want.
- You can work from home or anywhere where you can bring your studio and equipment.
- You can create multiple sources of income.
- You can charge as much as you want.
- Your audio and gaming expenses can be placed as business expenses for tax purposes.
CONS
- There may be weeks or months when you will not have any work coming in. This can make it challenging to plan income, expenditures, courses, events, etc.
- You must be proactive about finding projects you want to work on which can be challenging for certain people.
- It can take a long time to gain the skills and connections to work on your desired projects.
- Each gig can be very different from one another. Expectations, communication styles, and preferences will vary quite a bit, especially if there is a team providing feedback on your work.
- You work alone a lot of the times and can be solely responsible for the audio of an entire project.
Wrap Up
Despite being challenging, being a freelance sound designer can be the right choice depending on your personality type, work ethic, and just where you are in your life and career right now. It’s definitely not a way to get rich quick, at least not in my experience, but it is a way to do work you love and get paid for it.
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[…] requires a combination of artistic talent, business savvy, and a strong work ethic. Here is another guide to becoming a freelance sound designer, by David Dumais. By building a strong portfolio, networking and marketing yourself, setting […]