Ask three composers what a game score costs and you will get three versions of "it depends." The answer is accurate and useless. What it depends on is knowable, and the ranges are publishable. So we publish ours.
This article lists the ranges behind our audio services and explains what moves a project toward the top or bottom of them. By the end you should be able to put a defensible number in a budget spreadsheet.
The published ranges
These figures come from the public estimator on our /connect page. They are starting points; every quote we send is specific to the project.
| Service | Typical range |
|---|---|
| Game audio (full scope) | $5,000 to $25,000 |
| Music composition | $3,000 to $15,000 |
| Sound design | $2,000 to $8,000 |
| Mixing and mastering | $500 to $2,500 |
The game audio line is the full package, from composition through implementation support, so it overlaps the lines below it. A jam entry with one looping track sits at the bottom of music composition. A strategy title with an adaptive score, delivered in stems and wired into middleware, sits at the top of game audio.
Five things that move the number
Minutes of finished music. The biggest single driver. Ten minutes of score is a different project from forty, even at the same quality bar. Count your scenes and menus before you ask for a quote; a rough minute total from your level list is enough to anchor an estimate.
Adaptive layering and stems. A cue delivered as one stereo file is one deliverable. The same cue delivered as four stems the engine can bring in and out is closer to five deliverables, because each layer has to stand alone and every combination has to work. Adaptive scores cost more per minute for that reason.
Engine integration and middleware. A track for a trailer is finished when it sounds good. A track for a game is finished when it loops cleanly and responds to game state. Hooking music into an engine, directly or through middleware such as Wwise or FMOD, is skilled work on top of the composition, and it is priced as work.
Revision rounds. A brief that is locked before writing starts costs less than one that changes after every draft. Quotes in this field typically include a fixed number of revision passes; open-ended revision gets priced accordingly. Lock your references early and you keep this driver flat.
Rights and exclusivity. A full buyout, where your studio owns the music outright, costs more than a license. Soundtrack album releases and trailer usage carry their own terms. Decide what you actually need before you compare bids; exclusivity you never exercise is money spent on nothing.
The per-minute question
Industry pricing is often framed per minute of finished music. That framing is useful as a sanity check and weak as a budget. Per-minute rates vary widely with the composer's experience and with the rights attached, and a quoted rate usually leaves out the surrounding work, like stem exports and engine hookup.
When you compare quotes, compare scope. Two bids for the same minute count can differ by thousands of dollars and both be fair, if one includes middleware integration and the other stops at delivering audio files.
How we work
We write music by hand. AI generation enters the workflow only if a client requests it, and never by default.
Adam Elliott Rush, the studio's founder, has composed for three decades and is Audio Director at Mjolnir Software, the independent studio behind A Galaxy in Flames, a real-time grand strategy title. That work covers adaptive music systems, dynamic sound effects, and ambient environments, plus interactive audio inside the engine itself.
Scoring a real-time strategy game teaches you where budgets actually go. The writing is a known quantity; the systems that decide which layer plays when are where estimates slip. Our music and sound design work covers both sides, the cues and the logic that plays them, so integration is quoted up front instead of discovered later.
Audio also costs less when it is scoped during design instead of bolted on after beta. If the game itself is still taking shape, we offer game design services and can plan the two together.
What to bring to a quote
You will get a faster and tighter estimate if you can answer four questions:
- How many minutes of finished music do you expect? A rough count is enough.
- Does the score need to adapt? Layers and stems change the deliverable count.
- Who handles integration? Name your engine, and say whether you want us inside the project or delivering files.
- What rights do you need? Buyout or license, and any soundtrack release plans.
With those answers we can tell you where you land inside the audio services ranges above, and what would move you down a tier. Cutting adaptive layers from three to two, or trading a buyout for a license, changes the number more than negotiating ever will.
If you are budgeting a game and music is on the list, send what you have; a one-page brief is plenty. You can start a project and we will come back with a price.