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Hello everyone!
As a musician who is truly in love with the art, I have always had the idea that the more music in the world, the better. I've come to share a few of my own tips, things that helped me out with moving my career forward as a musician, to the point that I've almost made it a full-time job!
There are many good points made by other members of this forum--the tips on using Fruity Loops are very good, and I strongly suggest that you check them out.
Now, the website that gave me more jobs than any other website is www.garageband.com. It's entirely free and, if you don't want to, you never have to pay a cent, and if you put in enough time, you can have about 40 people review your music. Garageband.com also links into iLike.com, which is an INCREDIBLE way to get your music out to people--if someone has iLike installed on facebook or on their own iTunes or Windows Media Player, and they're listening to a famous musician whose music shares things with your own (for me, classical and soundtrack composers) then YOUR name will pop up to the side, listed under "independent artists who sound like (famous artist)".
When you join Garageband, iLike automatically sets up a page for you.
Now, when you are first starting out, it is always good to make all your songs a completely free download on your website. It helps your music spread very, very quickly, and it makes more people take an interest in you.

My own testimonial for Garageband and iLike--it has given me the exposure that ended up with people asking me to work for them, including jobs that have allowed me to travel to Italy and Los Angeles, and soon Australia and Iceland.

Now, in terms of programs--if you have very little money, then Fruity Loops demos will work fine for the time being. Audacity is a program (and a free download!)that you can NOT MISS OUT ON as a musician--even after I've bought many expensive programs, I still find Audacity incredibly useful in certain scenarios.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

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However, if you are incredibly serious about doing music for a living, then there are a few other bits of advice that will boost your career. Note--most of these cost MONEY. But, if you are truly serious, then these will all eventually pay for themselves.

-Learn music theory. It will help you realize how to create any type of mood music has to offer--it will open your mind to note combinations that you never thought possible, or worth trying. It takes a lot of time, but there are many, many books that will help you out with learning on your own. If you're in school, take a class or two! This part includes learning how to read and write music.

-Once you have learned/while you are learning to read and write music, invest in a notation program. Sibelius and Finale are the biggest producers of such programs. I prefer Sibelius, but I know many people who prefer Finale, so really whichever one you get first will be the one you end up preferring. Both programs do the same things, but the layout and the way you use each program is different.

-Diversify: I know most of us have our own style that we love writing, but not every game you write music to will be a grisly, post-apocalyptic zombie FPS. Learn to write music that would fit in Sesame Street, Seinfeld, etc. I LOVE writing epic, symphonic orchestral, bombastic music, but some of my best jobs have been writing music for video games for children. You will get so many more jobs if you don't say "sorry, I only do pounding techno for FPS games". Listen to the Final Fantasy soundtracks--some of the greatest game soundtracks ever written, with everything from classical to techno to carnival to metal. DIVERSIFY YOUR STYLE.
--Note: one way to get this part going faster is to LISTEN to music that is in the in-between genres. Listen to Romantic orchestral music, Middle-eastern music (Juno Reactor is great for this), Rufus Wainwright, the Teletubbies music, you can gain a lot of tips just by using your ears.

-Go to www.soundsonline.com and check out all of the different programs that you can buy. The programs on this website have been featured for soundtracks for movies such as Wall-E, Transformers, Pirates of the Carribean, and COUNTLESS television commercials and video games. YES they are incredibly expensive, but I have several of these programs, and they have all paid for themselves 10 times over. Check out each of the programs to see which combinations would suit your music the best.
Note--they do have different bundles that save you up to $1000 for buying more than one of their programs at a time.

-Suck it up and be humble. If your employer does not like the style of music you've attempted to write for their game, try to find out what it was they were looking for. Whine all you want about how your music would have been perfect, but you know what, it's not your game. They are the ones that have the big picture and know what they want, it is YOUR job to write what they ask you to. That's why they're paying you and/or crediting you. They don't care that you "can" add in a 50-piece orchestra to the kid's game theme song, they want a xylophone and a clarinet, that's it.
Eventually, if you get good enough at what you do, your name will spread and you will take MANY jobs where you get to write the music you want to write.

-Make yourself impossible to miss: Find every single website you can that allows you to post an advertisement for your skills. I have a list of 10 that I use, and I update them every once in a while by adding a post at the bottom of my own thread saying something like "new songs up!" or "new package deal that saves you money! email me for more information!" blanket the internet with advertisements for your music--not in a way where you have 5 of your own threads on the same page, that is disrespectful and obnoxious, and on most sites will probably get your threads deleted or yourself banned. Leave a polite advertisement with a link to your own site and a brief description of your capabilities. Get yourself out there!

I hope this advice helps people. These are some of the things I've done so far, and it has really gotten me to where I am much faster than I thought. I'm 19 years old and I am writing music for 3 full-length movies that will reach theaters in Iceland (see http://www.poppolipictures.com), and a short film going all across Australia and to different film festivals around the world (www.ronansescape.com). I have short profiles on both pages!
Let me know if anyone has any questions--I'm more than glad to help anyone out. Like I said at the beginning, the more music, the better!

Great advice for those new to making music for other people! I'm sure this will help alot of people if they really listen to what you're saying.



yay, iceland...

I think you forgot this. Okay, so it's £490 odd, but I use it for GCSE music and it's the best music creation program I've ever used. It really is phenomenal with plugins like HalionONE as well. There is a previous version as well which is around £80 less.

-FCV

Ah yes! I've actually never used Cubase, but I've heard a lot of really great things about it. My explanation of things to do was basically the steps I myself took to getting where I am, but if anyone else has other tips on succeeding in the music world, please leave them here! That's why I made the thread.
I think my way was geared more towards becoming classically trained, but for people that don't have the resources where they are, then programs like Fruity Loops and Cubase are definitely great ways to go.
@ Lucifer hell yeah Iceland! I can't wait to get over that way. I'm sure I'll have an incredible time.
If anyone wants to hear any of the music I've made, feel free to check it out at www.garageband.com/artist/hamilton. Most of my songs are free downloads!
Thanks,
Ham

I just listened to some of the songs on your garageband page, you're good! You make very inspiring music, incredible i must say you're awesome!

Yes, thanks for sharing.
My, you're even younger than I am... seems I'm getting nowhere here

I don't have the time to listen to any of your tracks right now, but will return when I do

@ Lucifer: thanks for checking it out! In the fall, I'm dropping about $12,000 on a new computer and state-of-the-art programs (trust me, I've been saving up for this for a LOOOOOOONG time) and I'll be making more, better music. In just about a week I'm uploading the full soundtrack to a short film--about 10 minutes worth of music, I think. But again, thanks for checking the page out, I'm glad you liked what you found!

@ Rudolpho: Well, I've honestly had some really lucky breaks and I was found by exactly the right people. Garageband.com really did help a lot though--I strongly suggest joining up.

Hey guys,

Lol full time composer here dropping my advice and 'wisdom' haha

Lol I'll start with some comments that may sound negative but are reality check for everyone (if you can get past these obstacles you are halfway there to becoming a composer)

Ok firstly I'll start with one of the biggest topics, money! At the low end you will see very little return for your music, and its one of those kinds of business where you have to spend money to make money, so make sure you are financially sound or at least have a backup for when you need more equipment for a project.

Second. Being a soundtrack composer is not as easy as it looks/sounds. Sure it can be really fun sometimes! but alot of the work is very technical and requires its own sub category of study (see various books on the technical aspects of working to film such as time code synchronization, mixing etc)

Thirdly. Take your time with your music, there is no point (and I have done this alot in my beginnings) in only spending 10 minutes on a track which is made up of loops and 1 melody instrument. Think of it like a painting, the masterpieces were not painted in an hour...get in close, work on the finer details, that is what gives most music that 'professional' sound, the attention to detail.

Ok now we can be a bit more positive

One of the best ways to get into composing is to listen to film/game scores and try to break them down, in your head, into individual sections ie what arethe drums playing, what is the bass playing, how are they working together, what vibe is that doing for the track, ok so how does that fit in with the way the violins are playing off the brass etc (this is your first step into Orchestration, which again is another subcategory that you should study if you want to become a serious composer)

This is one of my favorite steps......Play games, Watch Films....try to work out what the composer is trying to achieve with the music, how is he applying music, how big is he making the sound to go with the scene, how is the music helping tell the story etc.

Dynamics Dynamics Dynamics....this topic still gets drummed into me even today. Music should never (unless it is a deliberate compositional choice) be just on one dynamic level, the music should tell a story.... let me give you an example on screen there is a man and a woman about to kiss each other goodbye, they are just looking at each other, so here you would have the music very light and subtle behind the emotions of the actors faces....they move closer together, the music becomes slightly stronger, are they going to kiss?, is this the goodbye.......finally they kiss the music climaxes tugging on the viewers heart strings (a bit melodramatic but you get the idea)

If anyone has any specific questions about composing soundtracks just ask, ill try to chime in

Dan

@Hamilton Cleverdon: I like your stuff! I'm pretty much trying to do what you are doing. Right now though I'm working on a couple of rock songs and I also write some stuff for free here on the forum. If your willing... I was hoping you'd listen to my latest tracks on the "The Free Stuff thread" and perhaps give me some advice on improving them.