Questions about selling/buying custom music for RM games

I've been toying around with a few RPG-type tracks in FLStudio and I'm thinking of maybe putting some stuff out there. I know there's quite a few people making custom music at the moment and some of you seem to be doing pretty well off it. I'd love some advice from vendors and consumers.

Musicians: Have you got any helpful tips for someone starting out? For example, what styles of music sell best? Do people prefer somewhat experimental pieces or RTP-style stuff? Do people buy more battle music than town music (for example)? Do you promote yourself outside of this forum? Do you make commissioned music outside of RM, and how does that compare sales-wise? Have you experimented with pricing, and if so, what works best? Is there anything to be wary of? How much work do you get, and could it ever be enough to give up your day job? How well do pre-made tracks sell compared to commissions? (I'm not asking anyone to disclose their earnings, of course.) That kind of advice would be really helpful, and there doesn't seem to be any similar topics on the forum (correct me if I'm wrong).

Makers: Is there a gap in the market when you're looking around for custom music? Have you found price a barrier when it comes to commission work, and if so, what do you think is a reasonable rate? What's important to you when communicating with a musician?

Answers to any of the above and any related advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading! :D

I will just say that as far as advertising on this forum goes, you can post in Classifieds - Offers if you want to take commissions, but you cannot use the forum as a "store" where you create tracks and then sell them to however many people want them. That means you would be setting yourself up as competition to the official store, and we don't allow that.


If you're good and you want to sell in bulk like that, talk to Lunarea about the possibility of selling your work as packs through the store. I do think they have a lot of musicians at the moment though.

Here's some advice on the "what music sells best".  Your best bet for that would be to find out what people like.  Everyone likes something different.  There's retro, modern, futuristic and then we go into the actual genre.  As Shaz said, put up some of your works in the Classifieds and see what people will commission you to do.  However, if you're just starting with music, they may give you feedback on what they like and don't like and help you to improve your music.  Don't take it as a sign that they hate it or anything.  Most people won't go that far.  I will, but I'm very particular about those kinds of things, but I'd never post about it. ;)

Anyway, good luck to you in your endeavour to make music for the community and I hope you succeed!

@Shaz: Thanks for the advice, I can see that many sellers have their own website where they sell multi-use tracks, so I'd probably do something like that if I go down that road.

@djDarkX: Thanks, I'm pretty thick-skinned so not too worried about criticism, and as you say it'sa great way to improve. I'm not just starting out as it happens, been making music for many years, though I have had a bit of a long break recently and I've never made music specifically for RPGs before.

If you want to see if people like your style, you could just create some tracks and post for free use, and put up a classified ad for commissions. That might give you an idea of what people like, and what they'll pay for :)