Thread by @MasonLieberman

Unpaid work. At some point, we all do it. We are certainly always being buffeted with requests to do it, anyways! Let’s dig into this concept and discuss when it is(?!) a good idea to pursue!

Strap in, #gameaudio friends. We’re gonna figure out what is or isn’t exploitation!

Basics, first. We all have rates, we all have expenses, and kind words don’t pay your bills. Obviously, receiving usable currency is often the ideal outcome for a gig. However, it isn’t the ONLY positive result. What are some examples of ways we can extract value?

Credit and “exposure” receive a horrific reputation, and yet without these things, we have no reputation at all. There is a monetary value to exposure, and it is in fact calculable. Compare the eyes a project will put on your music to the equivalent cost in marketing/PR.

Some gigs lack up-front money, but offer a shared percent. In these gigs, you are effectively becoming an investor; you provide time (and thus, indirectly money in saved expense), and in return hopefully the project has a return that makes your share worth the time you spent.

You might be offered a skill-trade; someone can’t do music, but they ARE an awesome artist or web-designer. They offer to create your new website/logo/business card/whatever; this has a calculable value, too!

What work is actually worth doing “for free”, though? Well, if we’re agreeing that the above concepts aren’t technically free as you potentially can extract value from it… Well, not much. A gig without exposure, long-tail, or good will trade is honestly a pretty shite gig.

That doesn’t mean zero times, though. We work for free for ourselves all the time. Game jams, demo reels, personal projects or albums, etc. We often work for free for others too; charity’s the classic example, but public ed/mentoring and community-building are often unpaid for us

How do you assess a potential client’s value/intention? Well, it’s tough, but the key is mostly in keeping your BS detector on lock. If a gig sounds too good to be true but has no money? Probably is.

Startups will generally tell you their intended path to monetization. If they don’t know how to make money for their own game, you can’t presume they’ll know how to build value for your music (an add-on product, after all)

Free work for companies where you aren’t building a close personal relationship are usually a bad sign. People who are trying to monetize your labor without getting to know you are unlikely to see you as anything more than a cost-savings; they don’t value you as a person. Run.

When a creator tries to brag about how connected/influential they are and their work does not reflect this fact… When they insist how big of an opportunity it is for you, despite not really seeming to have a good plan… You get the drill. Trust at your own risk.

Unpaid (or deferred payment) work isn’t bad. Sometimes, a team really doesn’t have money, really DOES value you, and the project team makes it clear that they want to help you succeed together at the earliest opportunity. Those gigs are often worth it!

So, when do we say yes to unpaid work? When there is a clear path to understanding how it benefits us long-term. Unpaid work is, inherently, long-term-focused. It can’t generate value for you immediately, or it probably wouldn’t have been unpaid in the first place.

Does it increase your network in a valuable way? Expand your reputation? Lead to monetized opportunities that can retroactively make it worth? Sometimes, it’s even worth to do a gig bc it’s a style you WANT to be hired on, and it provides a good environment to produce it well!

Talk to your friends when considering unpaid work. They likely have a good perspective to tell you if something looks abusive; sometimes it can be hard for us to tell in the moment, especially if we’re hungry for any kind of work 😅

And that gets to one of the final major thoughts. Got nothing to do? Got free time anyways? No personal projects you want to do? Maybe you just do it anyways. Maintain your ownership, artistic integrity, and don’t grind yourself, but sure, sometimes we do free stuff for no reason

That’s ok. It really is! Focus on making things you want with people you want, when you want to. If that sometimes means collaborating for free, that’s really ok. There’s more to life than money, after all 😂

I do game jams every year, work on my own music, collab w/ friends or colleagues, do mentoring/public lectures, and many times am unpaid when doing so. Part of being a pro is realizing these things can be malleable. Taking a low-paying (or unpaid) gig doesn’t delegitimize you

At the end of the day, you are the custodian of your career. You get wherever you’re going by whatever path you take. Unpaid gigs are just another type of gig, at the end of the day. Even unpaid gigs can be good ones. Career-defining ones, even!

I can certainly think of major game franchise titles, blockbuster films, and more that have been scored for free, and where the composers would assure you it was the best thing they ever did. Yes, even then.

Do what makes sense for you! I believe in y’all. Good luck, and happy scoring!