PRICING
Seth is not currently taking on projects, since he is working full-time for Riot games. This page is left up as an archive and for educational purposes.
Music Composition for Features, TV Series, Games and other projects with Over 15 Minutes of Music:
$750 USD / 5000元 RMB per minute of original music
Music Composition for Shorts, Live Events, Games, Theme Park Attractions and other projects with 5-15 Minutes of Music:
$1125 USD / 7500元 RMB per minute of original music
Music Composition for Commercials, Trailers and other projects with Under 5 Minutes of Music:
$1500 USD / 10000元 RMB per minute of original music
Live Orchestra Recording is not included in the above prices, but can be added for around $1000-3500 per minute of music. Price is highly dependent on the orchestra used, the specific players needed, and how much time is needed to record. If live orchestra is desired, a free quote can be generated in the first weeks of the project after the composer has watched the visuals and had a conversation with the director about what kind of music is desired. Video recording of live orchestra sessions can be added for $390 per day of filming.
Singers and Lyricists other than the composer are not included in these prices, but can be added. The prices for these are highly variable, and are usually more dependent on the fame of the artist rather than their ability. If you’re interested in a singer or lyricist that fits your budget, we can help you find one in most languages and styles.
Customers in China can choose to add 1% to the total cost (including orchestra) for a Chinese 发票 issued from Seth’s Beijing company 北京灵感豪音文化有限公司.
There are no other fees besides these when using our Standard Licensing Agreement. All writing, production, mixing, studio and delivery costs are included.
If you’d like a quote tailored to your specific project, please contact us for a free consultation.
time
Q: How much time is needed for each kind of project?
A: Time varies due to a number of factors, including length of the music and how many revisions are required, and whether live orchestra is required or not. Generally you should reserve this amount of time for creation of the music for each project:
Features: 3 Months (possibly up to 6 months on especially demanding features with full orchestra on every cue)
TV Series: 2-4 Weeks per Episode (30-60 minutes)
Games: 1-4 Weeks per Level (package of about 2-5 interactive pieces)
Shorts: 2-5 Weeks (depending on Length, Complexity and number of revisions)
Live Events: 2-5 Weeks (depending on Length, Complexity and number of revisions)
Theme Park Attractions: 2-5 Weeks (depending on Length, Complexity and number of revisions)
Commercials and Trailers: 1-4 Weeks (depending on number of revisions)
If you are in a pinch for time, of course the timelines for each can be shortened, but remember that time is quality and the sacrifice you are making will ultimately be to the quality of your own work.
If you want to know if a specific timeline is possible, please contact us for a free consultation.
Copyright and IP
Q: What is your copyright policy?
A: We generally work on a system of Exclusive, Perpetual, Worldwide Licenses. For 90% of cases, if you have a film, game, commercial, etc. that needs music, you will want to use our Standard Licensing Agreement. This gives you the legal right to:
1. Display and synchronize the music with your project forever, in any territory
2. Promote your product using music from the project with no restrictions
3. Ensure the music is not used for any other project or client
Our Standard Licensing Agreement however does not allow you to:
1. Sell or license the music to others for use in other projects, for example as part of a music library
2. Use the music in other projects, including sequels, without an additional deal with the composer
3. Claim authorship of the music and collect composer’s royalties in territories where they are collected
If you require one or more of these things, please inquire about Work for Hire pricing.
Q: What if I sell my IP to another company?
A: When using our Standard Licensing Agreement, the music will continue to be licensed to the project and the license will transfer ownership along with the IP.
Q: What if the music is co-written with a lyricist?
A: This is the only case where a separate agreement will be needed. Music and Lyrics are each considered half of the intellectual property of the resultant composition, and intellectual property agreements can easily be divided between 2 authors. Our standard licensing agreement still applies to the music portion of the work.
If you have more questions about copyright issues not covered here, please contact us for a free consultation.
Other Questions
Seth is not currently taking on projects, since he is working full-time for Riot games. This page is left up as an archive and for educational purposes.
Q: Who writes the music?
A: Seth Tsui writes all of his own music.
Q: How many people work in your studio?
A: Currently, full-time there is just one. However there can be 3-5 orchestrators, mixers and assistants working here when projects are nearing completion.
Q: What DAW do you use?
A: Cubase as sequencer, Reaper as video master. We also often mix in ProTools, especially for live orchestra, and work in Logic when working with a collaborator who uses it.
Q: Are you hiring?
A: We are not hiring full-time positions at the moment, though we are always looking to expand our network of skilled freelance professionals and regularly do hire quite a few people on a project-by-project basis.
Q: Where are you located?
A: Beijing, China. Though Seth also operates a sole-proprietorship in the United States and all billing and payment can be done through his US company to simplify the process for customers outside of China.
Q: What is your company’s name?
A: In Chinese: 北京灵感豪音文化有限公司
In English: Inspired Music for Picture LLC.
Q: Do you do free demos?
A: Yes! We only do free demos for new clients that have a large project needing over 15 minutes of music, and all free demos are strictly limited to 1 piece of music and 1 revision before the contract is signed.
Q: Do you do sound effects?
A: We work with a small list of trusted, world-class sound designers that are specialists in that field and can deliver much better results than we can. Their costs can be added in to the package price of our services to simplify things, or we can work with whatever sound designers you prefer to use. The choice of whether to use our sound design partners or supply your own does not alter the price of composition.
Q: Do you do mixing?
A: We mix all of our music in-house, including 5.1 surround music for theatrical films. We generally don’t do the final mix of dialog, music and SFX, and highly recommend that you employ a qualified re-recording mix studio or dub stage to do the final mix of your project, no matter the size. If you need recommendations, we have worked with plenty of very skilled mixing engineers and can offer assistance in finding the right fit for your project.
Q: What are the final deliverables?
A: We deliver the final mixed music in 24bit/48kHz wav files in stems, the number and format of which must be agreed upon with the final mix engineer, but generally are 8-15 stems in stereo and another 8-15 splits in 5.1. These will work in any DAW or editing software and require no further mixing besides final balancing with Dialog and SFX.
Q: What about games? Do you do implementation?
A: Yes, we can do our own implementation for interactive music in any major game engine or middleware and we can work with your sound design team to implement as well.
Q: What about sheet music?
A: For projects which are recorded live, sheet music of just the instruments to be recorded will be created by the composer and our trusted orchestrators. For projects not recorded live, sheet music is not included normally but can be added for an additional charge, depending on the length and complexity of the music. We usually notate in Dorico, but often work with orchestrators who use Sibelius or Finale, so for that reason we can only guarantee sheet music can be delivered in PDF.
Q: What is your payment policy?
A: We’re pretty flexible, so whatever works for the project - 50/50 installments, 30/40/30 installments, all at once - all are fine. We just have 2 rules when it comes to payment:
1. All fees for live recording sessions must be fully paid for on or before the day of recording.
2. We do not deliver any of the final music until 100% of the fees for the project have been paid.
Previews for feedback and collaboration are sent in video files with the dialog when working remotely, or you can come to our studio to listen. We don’t do audio watermarks because they’re distracting, and if we think you’re the kind of client with which we’d have to worry about watermarking stuff, we probably wouldn’t be working with you anyway.
Q: What about other kinds of projects? Sampling? Recording Chinese instruments?
A: We’ve done a number of these kinds of things for clients and offer competitive prices for each. Contact us directly if you want us to put something together.
Q: Do you offer any guarantees?
A: Music is extremely subjective and it’s impossible to guarantee whether you’ll like what we create. Deadlines are not subjective, and we have never missed a final deadline on a project, ever. We guarantee that if we agree to a deadline at the beginning of a project, it will be met.