Sound Business with Akash Thakkar

Most budding audio designers I see coming in to the game industry are so worried about finding work, that they tell everyone that they're a "composer/sound designer".    But, does being both things actually end up with us getting less work? In this episode, we cover why you should (or shouldn't) focus on just music or just sound design throughout your whole career.    Send me a message: hello@akas...

#24: Fryda Wolff has amassed hundreds of game, TV, and film voice acting credits in her career so far. You can hear in places like Sailor Moon, Mass Effect: Andromeda, Final Fantasy 7: Remake, Apex Legends, Fortnite, and so many other games, shows, and movies. In this episode, we talk about her transition from sound design to voice acting, how to run a freelance voice over business, the lack of im...

It's super tough to find work as a composer... or is it?  It turns out, many of the woes that composers face in their careers stem from being completely invisible to people who want to hire them. In this episode, we'll talk about what you need to do to put on your visibility cloak so that you can start attracting tons of clients.   Links Mentioned here: www.meetup.com www. IGDA.org www.gameconfgui...

#23: Lena Raine is an award-winning and BAFTA-Nominated composer for video games who has worked on projects like Minecraft, Celeste, Steven Universe: The Movie, Deltarune, Guild Wars 2, and many other projects.  In this episode, we cover the financial realities of being a composer full-time, finding your way in the game industry, and the importance of learning multiple skills to keep yourself aflo...

Can you build a game audio career, even if you live in a small town or live outside the US? In this episode, we cover exactly that, how to do it, and how you need to think differently about your approach to your career.  Send me a message: hello@akashthakkar.com @akashthakkaraudio on Instagram   And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and free courses that...

#22: Unlike Pluto (AKA Armond Arabshahi) is a music producer, singer, and songwriter who has amassed hundreds of millions of plays of his songs, has had his music featured in commercials for Dell, and is known for releasing at least 3 ultra-well-produced songs a month for years at a time in multiple genres.  In this episode, we dive deep into what it's like to be a full-time creative, the highs an...

There’s a lot of great advice out there on what to do with your career, but very little of it tells you *when* you should execute on it. Is it really a good idea to do a bunch of self-promotion when you have tons of clients? Is it a good idea to stop networking when you have no work coming in? Should you always be looking for work even if you’re good where you’re at? The Four Seasons Method helps...

#21: Dallas Taylor is a sound designer, creative director of DeFacto Sound, and podcast host of the #1 podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz. DeFacto Sound has worked with brands like Tesla, HBO, National Geographic, Cartoon Network, and so many others. On top of that, he and his studio produce Twenty Thousand Hertz, a #1 audio-focused podcast that takes at least 200-300 hours per episode to create.  In t...

We'll be taking a short holiday break until January 12th, 2022! New episodes will be coming out then!   In the meantime, I announced 4 new game audio courses for those of you interested in working as a full-time game audio designer! These will all be coming out in 2022.    First up is The Game Industry Professional, which focuses on the business side of working in game audio - how to get paid, how...

Most people think you absolutely need to live in a big city to make a living in music, sound, or just art in general. But is that true? Let's cover that in today's episode.   Also, this is a new format for me! Did you love it? Hate it? Let me know!   Send me a message: hello@akashthakkar.com @akashthakkaraudio   And if you're interested in making music and sound for games, I have a newsletter and...

#20: Omniboi's path toward a full-time music production and performing career isn't like what you see in so many other musicians. He doesn't have a musical family, didn't go to music school, and didn't start music lessons when he was 3 years old. In fact, he didn't even have a love of music when he was growing up, either.   Omniboi is a perfect example of how you don't need to be a childhood prodi...

#19: Cory Shackelford is a music attorney who has been working exclusively in music law for over 10 years. He's represented everyone from video game composers to world-famous songwriters.   In this episode, we talk about music law, how Cory made the transition to working in game audio law specifically, when every audio designer should consider getting an attorney, and so much more.    Find Cory Sh...

#18: Thomas Powers is a singer-songwriter, music producer, and frontman of the band The Naked and Famous. In this episode, we talk about the rise of The Naked and Famous, Thomas' next steps in his musical career, how to actually think about self-promotion and social media, staying sane as a pro musician, and so much more.    Find Thomas Powers at: Instagram: @thomaspowers Twitter: @thomaspowers Sp...

#17: Luna Shadows is a producer, songwriter, and vocalist based out of Los Angeles. Luna has one of the best aesthetics I've seen when it comes to being an indie artist, and does an incredible job of keeping a sustainable music career while staying totally independent. In this episode, we talk about not being talented and not coming from a musical family, the grind of becoming a better producer, a...

#16: Ryan Ike is a BAFTA-nominated video game composer and sound designer based out of Seattle WA. Ryan's worked on a ton of games, including Where the Water Tastes like Wine, Frog Fractions 2, Gunpoint, Wizard with a Gun, West of Loathing, Reigns: Game of Thrones, and many many others.  Ryan has a super diverse set of compositional styles, from writing beautiful Americana folk music all the way t...

#15: Stelth Ulvang is a musician, vocalist, songwriter, and touring member of The Lumineers. Not only does he work with other bands, but also creates music alongside his wife, Dorota Szuta.    In this interview we talk about touring, playing shows with tens of thousands of people in the audience, playing alongside giant bands like U2, what it feels like to play a show with just a dozen people in t...

#14: Alarke (aka Mary Alouette) is a pop-singer, songwriter, performer, artist coach, and entrepreneur who has worked in the worlds of opera, gypsy jazz, cuban music, and has coached award winning songwriters all over the world.    Alarke also runs SupremeSound. Life, a female-focused coaching and mentoring service that helps singers and songwriters create, release, and promote their music.    In...

#13: Doug Rogers is the founder and CEO of EastWest, one of the largest virtual instrument companies in the world. Their plug-ins have given musicians of all sorts access to higher-quality, incredibly well-produced sounds at a moment's notice.    If you're a composer of any sort, odds are you've used or lusted after the products that EastWest makes, and if you've watched a movie, played a game, or...

#12: Jason Poss is a wildly prolific orchestrator, arranger, music transcriber, and music preparation expert who has worked on projects like Lord of the Rings, Coco, Frozen, Star Wars Visions, and SO many others.    In this podcast, we talk about everything from the countless alternate music paths there are out there, what it's like to work at the top of the Hollywood music scene, and the importan...

#11: Dot (aka Kate Ellwanger) is a producer, online educator, DJ, and entrepreneur who is also now touring the world opening for acts such as The Glitch Mob and Zedd. Dot has also worked with The Oprah Winfrey network, Nike, and has even made music for virtual reality installations for the Los Angeles Times.    Dot also runs Unspeakable Records, an artist-focused music production company that focu...

#10: DiViNCi (aka Glen Valencia) is a producer, world-class finger drummer, and creative coach who has toured with acts such as Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Soliloquists of Sound, The Fugees, and so many more.    DiViNCi also runs Studio Sensei, where he coaches creative of all types to create freely, without shame, while following their intuition. I've worked with DiViNCi before and he's rocketed my care...

#9: Jason Cushing is a sound designer, entrepreneur, and founder of both SoundMorph and Sinematic. SoundMorph is a premiere sound effects library company that serves sound designers from all over the world, and odds are you've heard their sound effects in some of the biggest games, TV shows, and movies in the world. Jason's newest company, Sinematic, is a repository of some of the highest-end cura...

#8: Sydney Kjerstad is a pianist, entrepreneur, and founder of Smart Game Piano, an online piano teaching site that teaches musicians of all levels how to play piano through incredibly well-produced video game music tutorials. To date, Sydney has created *over 550* piano arrangements and tutorials for Smart Game Piano and shows no signs of slowing down.    In this episode, we talk about the myth o...

#7: Ivo Ivanov is a sound designer, modular synth artist, circuit bender, and is the Founder and CEO of Glitchmachines - a company that makes incredibly unique, sound-design-focused plugins for audio designers. On top of all of this, Ivo has been a full-time touring keyboardist, and has created custom instruments for the likes of Trent Reznor and Richard Devine.    In this episode we talk about th...

#6: Jason LaRocca is a producer, mixing engineer, scoring mixer, and punk rocker based out of Los Angeles. After forming and touring with his successful punk band, The Briggs, Jason is now focused on being an engineer and scoring mixer on big name projects like Bad Boys for Life, God of War: Ragnarok, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Fortnite, and so many other huge hits. In this episode we talk about w...