Another year, another GDC is just behind us. The biggest professional gaming conference in the world has just finished, and impressions are settling in. But, if you come from the music industry, why would this matter to you?

GDC is one of the gaming industry’s oldest and most established professional events. It takes place every year in San Francisco, usually mid-March, and lasts for a full 5 days. While it is USA-based, it gathers gaming professionals from all over the world – you are as likely to bump into a Finnish or French developer as an American one. For a week or so, the area around Moscone center becomes filled in with all the different languages and accents, and nearby hotel lobbies turn into temporary gaming industry meeting hubs. But don’t expect too much of the fancy cosplay and passionate kids attempting to check the latest game. This is a professional, not a fan event, unlike its European pandan Gamescom, which has open days for the general public.

Gaming is a serious business, and GDC reflects that. Ticket prices are not for the faint of heart. They range from 1000 to over 2000 USD and keep getting pricier. Ticket for the Audio track will cost you $1,049, but you can save quite a lot if you book your ticket well in advance. This ticket type will allow you to see all Audio talks, Advocacy presentations and it will grant you access to the Expo area. The question is, is it worth your money and time if you are not in the gaming industry yourself?

The Europe in Synch team made an exploratory mission to GDC last year to find out. While it’s impossible to give you an all-encompassing answer, we are sharing what we learned while attending the event. We hope that our insights will help you in making your own GDC plans.

Size

GDC is a big conference, with about 20-30K attending professionals, although it doesn’t feel that big. By the looks, you’d think it’s more around 6000-7000. That is partially due to the venue – Moscone Center, in the center of downtown San Francisco, is a huge venue with three separate large buildings. It does feel like everyone is there, and from the conversations we had, it is obvious that this is one of the go-to events of the year for people (both from US and Europe), e.g. there were around 30 Finnish companies represented. In many ways, GDC feels like an equivalent of Eurosonic or Reeperbahn in music.

The conference part is massive – it lasts for 5 days, with about 10-13 different tracks happening simultaneously. Besides talks, there is also an expo part and a meeting track. The expo area was massive but an easy way to make contacts and learn about who is who in the industry. Meeting track, unfortunately, proved to be a disappointment. While it gave a great oversight of who is attending, as every attendee was automatically listed, meetings were hard to book and the meeting area was poorly set and hard to find.

Relevance

GDC is one of the rare gaming events which has a dedicated Audio track, for which you can purchase special Audio Pass. For someone who doesn’t want to invest in the full-fledged, really expensive ticket, this is a great choice. Audio topics are clearly marked, and this has been an amazing way to quickly learn how audio and music work in a different areas of gaming.

In addition to keynotes and panels, roundtables were the most interesting ones. It was more open mic conversation, very informative about what are the issues and concerns in that industry at the moment. For example, a lot of discussion went around AI in audio and how that will affect their work. Smaller indie developers were optimistic for a new tool as they at the moment often do everything themselves (developing, animation, sound etc). The composers were not so concerned yet, but the sound designers thought somewhat differently. They could see AI potentially replacing library music in the nearby future.

Attendees

The audio community mostly consisted of audio directors, game composers and other varied audio-sound effects department members.

When we talked to other attendees, it seems that licensed music is rarely used. Even very experienced audio directors couldn’t tell us when and how it would be used. What we got from different conversations is that it is used sometimes but only in very high level in AAA games (when there is collaborations with majors) and also in specific genres, e.g. sports or casual storytelling games (e.g. Life is Strange, Don’t Nod) . Everyone wants to be sure they own everything; all else seems complicated and risky, which is also one of the main reasons licensed music is not used.

We met with some composers that, besides gaming, also work with film and tv. Working with games demands not only a deeper understanding of the gaming world as a user and how interactive music works, but also a lot of technical skills, tools, etc, almost like programming. This is why most game audio people work only in games and it is very much its own group of people working at the intersection of music and games.

 There were about 6-7 music supervisors present from bigger companies, but unfortunately, we were not able to meet with them.

Business and other learnings

Business wise – game composers on a higher level have agents who take a commissions, usually around 10-15%. We met with an agent who’s roster has music supervisors and composers. He works with games, TV and movies. He explained that if the fees are on the smaller side (e.g., $5,000), he doesn’t touch that, which is a personal choice. If there are more complicated deals, an attorney is used too.

Often there is an audio person in house gaming studios, especially if the studio is medium or larger size.

How money is being made:

• • Net revenue of title
  • PRO – writers share – they consider it almost nothing as they don’t get anything from public performance (Spotify when soundtrack is released; yt; someone makes a live performance if the soundtrack, tv ad)
  • Soundtrack revenue
  • Sheet music

• Distribution, IP deal (very rare)

How to get into the gaming industry?

Getting into the industry it seems to be the same as everywhere: meeting people online and at the events, doing some things for free in the beginning to create portfolio and learn, have buzz in the industry, bring out things that set you apart (e.g always uses some specific vocals, is also a performing artist etc), being specific in what you want – e.g dream to work with Assassin’s Creed.

The other advice we got is the following: to start with, you need to understand the gamer perspective, narrative, interaction, etc., from the user’s side, and then the technical side. Game audio is layered, not linear, interactive, and deeply connected to music psychology, e.g., sound of satisfaction, chase, anticipation, reward, etc. A good way to start is to start playing with the stems and mix to make it more interactive.

A way in for new composers is writing additional music, so working for the main composer to help them with parts. It could be a good way to get a foot in the door and hopefully you would also be credited, although ghostwriting still happens. General pricing is considered to be around 2000€ per minute would be a reasonable rate, 1500€ the lowest (at least according to experienced audio directors, composers, agents). In certain cases, studios might negotiate flat rates, and in that case, it’s important to agree from the beginning an amount of rewrites, eg 3.

To better understand gaming industry jargon, we made a small parallel to help you out.

Publishers in the gaming world are kind of like majors in music
Studios are not necessarily recording studio spaces, just companies/offices that develop games.
Genres are in regards to games, eg, adventure, sports, action, match-3, etc.

Sustainability and inclusivity

GDC has a dedicated day for Sustainability workshop that is open to all attendees. Unfortunately, we couldn’t participate as it was clashing with already pre-booked meetings, but feedback we heard from other attendees was excellent. The Sustainability workshop is scheduled as a permanent track on all future GDC events, and it seems like a great place for anyone interested in a better and healthier planet.

There is a higher awareness of the need for DEI on all levels and in all aspects. Advocacy track is included in most of the tickets and it was full of great insights on how to organize more inclusive work places and operations, that can be easily translated outside of the gaming industry too. 

Fringe Events

There are numerous fringe events and parties surrounding GDC. While some of them are fairly open and welcoming, others are more gated and difficult to get in. Regardless of your network, try to attend at least some of them. They are a great way to casually meet people in a relaxed setting, and forge valuable contacts.

Events can be found either by just browsing Eventbright for local events during the time of GDC, through flyers and open invites. Events that are organized by big corporations (Google, Microsoft, Amazon…) are the hardest to get in. However, there are lots of indie game events that are more welcoming, and some of the events are specifically focused on the audio segment of the games.

While this is not the most comfortable topic, it is very important to mention. Always be aware of your safety. Unfortunately, every year, there are incidents of drinks being spiked or women being lured into hotel bedrooms. Enjoy the events, but exercise some caution.

To keep in mind

Safety

San Francisco is a wonderful place with lots of great parks and neighbourhoods and amazing history. But, compared to European cities it can be perceived as more dangerous. There have been incidents in Union Square and other central locations. If you are travelling alone, you might feel uncomfortable going deeper into the Tenderloin area too.

Bookings and reservations

Prices in San Francisco go sky-high during times of GDC. Book your accommodation wisely and early, otherwise, you will end up paying extortion prices for poor quality accommodation. If you go far enough from the venue, prices will not affect the accommodation cost, and it might be worth to pay a bit more on Uber rides than three times more for hotel rooms. We would recommend booking at least 3 months ahead. Alternatively, you can always book last minute for the big discounts, but your choices will be fairly limited.

Meetings

As we mentioned before, the meeting system didn’t really work as it should. We learned that the best way is to try to find people we are interested in in advance and book meetings with them via LinkedIn well ahead of time. This event is super packed with talks and networking, and if you wait for the last-minute booking, people just won’t have time in their schedule anymore.

We hope you found our mini guide insightful! We will make an effort to write up a short review of each event we participate in and share our experiences. Have you been to GDC yet, or are you planning to go? Join the conversation and comment below (please note that it’s required that you register first)