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Composing Music for Video Games is the Third Fastest-Growing Occupation in the US

Composing Music for Video Games is the Third Fastest-Growing Occupation in the US

Study shows an increase of 178% in the past five years

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SoundCon, LLC has analysed employment data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) and discovered a surprising correlation between trends in the video game industry — specifically the ascent of casual, mobile and social gaming — and unusually strong growth in US employment for composers and music directors.

 “There are over 150,000 games on the app store alone, ranging from immensely popular games like Angry Birds or Plants vs Zombies to small, independently developed games like Super Hexagon or Ear Monsters,” said Brian Schmidt, SoundCon’s Executive Director and author of the study.  “Virtually every one of those games has music, requiring the work of a video game composer.”   

The report states:
“… the timing of the rise of mobile, casual and social gaming and the increase in Composers and Music Director employment presents a strong case for causation, and, frankly, it makes perfect sense.  As thousands upon thousands of new game developers began to create tens of thousands of new video games for millions of new casual and mobile game players, they needed thousands of new composers to create music for them”

The BLS predicts that there will be 32,000 new music director or composer job openings over the next ten years.

Karla Munger

Karla Munger

I've been with JA in one capacity or other since 2003. I'm currently website administrator. I'm also a digital artist (my avatar is one of my creations). I write reviews and articles, create graphics and basically help tend the site. It's work I enjoy very much. I love playing games of all kinds, but adventure and RPGs are my favorites (particularly scary/dark/unsettling ones). At the top of my list are The Cat Lady, The Longest Journey, Dreamfall, Still Life (first one only), Scratches and Culpa Innata. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool recluse and prefer the company of animals, hardware and ghosts to human beings (no offense). And no bio would be complete without my saying that I do NOT care for phones of ANY sort. Further, I think Dell computers are garbage and that Microsoft has become megalomaniacal. "I put my heart and soul into my work, and have lost my mind in the process." - Vincent Van Gogh "I need solitude for my writing; not like a hermit - that wouldn't be enough - but like a dead man." - Franz Kafka "I've been to hell and back, my boy." - Susan Ashworth, The Cat Lady

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