The economy is garbage and it feels like we’re all doomed. I know it seems like there’s nothing any of us can do, but we can always start somewhere. I know you care, I know I care, so let’s see if we can do something about it. Together.
What We’re Doing
We’re looking to fund a diverse group of composers and work with them to produce a suite of excellent new music, move everyone’s careers forward, and keep everyone’s rent paid.
I know things are tough for everyone, but when things get tough, they’re often hardest on marginalized folks. We’re not going to be able to stay in the games industry if we can’t figure something out and the president is very clearly not going to help us, so we’re all going to have to help each other. Every small step we make together gets us that much closer to building the kind of world we want to live in - one where we can all be supported to live our best lives. If we can get in the habit of helping each other out when we can, we will get there, so I hope you’ll consider supporting us now. whew, that is a lot. Anyway! Let’s get together and make some music!
I’ve been doing what I can: I helped organize the Being Black in Game Audio panels (AES, PAX, GDC, & the IGDA in 2020-2021), the Diversity in Game Audio Panels (GDC 2024, 2025), founded the Black in Game Audio community, co-founded the Beats to Play Games to community, and try to generally help people when I can and make sure that everyone knows that we’re still here.
But it’s not working. It’s not not working, but it is so clear that we need to do more and there’s no way I can do it by myself.
So: let’s find ways to help people directly. We’ll pay people what they’re worth. We’ll make some cool stuff. We’ll help build and boost careers. We’ll do what we can to make sure that the industry stays diverse, because that’s how we get better games and that’s how we get better art. I know we’re all struggling right now, so if you can’t help out this time, please keep us in mind for when you can. I’ve also included some non-money ways you can all help in the FAQ at the bottom of the page.
How We’re Doing It (Updated Monthly!)
- Build a list of marginalized composers to work with
- Plan and seek funding for Album 1
- Assess budget, scope Album 1 appropriately
- Reach out to composers to establish interest, needs, and timelines
- Draft and sign contracts
- Start project production (composition, session recording, mixing & mastering) <- We are here
- Build release strategy for Album 1
- Release and promote Album 1
- Build a new list of marginalized composers to work with
- Start planning and seek funding for Album 2
- etc.!
The plan is to start with a small, single album, but the hope is to raise enough to keep making stuff and helping composers. That could mean more albums of original music, video game remix albums, or anything else that supports marginalized composers and gives you new music to enjoy. The more we raise, the more we’ll do.
Who We Are
I’m Star Victoria Power (they/she) aka, Slide20XX - a neurodivergent, amab, non-binary, Black American video game music composer. I’ve been working professionally for over a decade and my credits include the soundtrack for Calico (a game about magical girls running a cat cafe), a track for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s DLC, Dominique’s Curse, and music for a collection of anti-racist PSAs featuring characters from the Cartoon Network series, Steven Universe. My speciality is delivering the right music, on time, every time - which makes me uniquely qualified to make sure this gets done.
I’m joined by Aivi Tran (they/them) of aivi & surasshu. Aivi is a non-binary, Vietnamese-American, and award-winning composer whose credits include the score of Steven Universe, Google Doodles, the indie game Ikenfell, and helping to produce a ton of albums through their record label, Infloresce Records. In addition to their work as a composer, Aivi brings an incredible amount of experience with project conception, budgeting, production, and release. Their support is invaluable.
FAQs
I’d like to support your work but I can’t financially contribute right now. What can I do?
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If you work with a company that would be interested in supporting something like this, please send them our way! Especially if you know me personally! Sorry I didn’t talk to you before now! My bad!
Please share, comment, repost, help us get the word out. The more we can raise, the more music we can make, and the more people we can help.
If you know stuff that a freelance composer might also want to know, such as: accounting and taxes, copyright and legal stuff, how to support your mental and physical health - please ping me directly or through the contact form on my website.
If you are a composer, musician, or audio professional with an established platform - we want to hear from you! If you’re able to collaborate with our composers at a reduced rate (or your normal rates, we would love to pay you) or otherwise offer your time or expertise, definitely reach out. Especially if you know me personally! My bad!!!
Why not Kickstarter?
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There’s an amount of work that goes into a project before it comes to Kickstarter but, unfortunately, the people we’re trying to help are not the people most able to do that work. It’s comparable to needing to get experience before applying to a job (which is where you’d get the experience you need to… get a job), needing to make a game demo before getting publisher funding (i.e. the money you would use to… create a demo), or needing money to pay for college (to get an education, to then get a job to then... make money). Marginalized folk really cannot do a lot of free work and when they can it’s often not much. This is an institutional problem that is too large for us to completely solve, but we’d like to make a small dent in it.
That said, it’d be impractical to ask for money without promising something, so, the first people we’re looking to work with are reliable composers with more experience. If we’re able to keep this up, we’ll be able to help composers earlier in their careers in the future.
Why not start a non-profit?
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I simply do not have the time and money required to run a non-profit. This is a small operation: it’s just me with the support of Aivi’s expertise.
Where do the funds go?
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To diverse composers (including us) - people who are systemically disadvantaged and underrepresented in the industry. Ideally, we raise enough to feature 6 composers on our first album.
Why do you need money? Don’t you have money?
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lol no :D - In all seriousness, we’re lucky enough that we can get something like this started and have the experience to know what it’ll take financially, but we don’t have the money to do something like this all on our own. That’s why we’re asking for help.
Why do you need so much money?
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Music is a really expensive field, between software and equipment or even just the thousands of hours of time it takes to get good at it. Artists often feel forced to work for much less than they’re worth, which leads to having too much work to do and still not being able to make rent, working for clients who don’t value their work (and don’t pay them very well for it), and undervaluing their own work themselves. That’s, to quote Sonic the Hedgehog, no good.
So, we’re trying to pay artists what they’re actually worth. If we can’t do that, we at least want to work with artists to find prices that are truly sustainable and, when possible, help artists make their way to charging more sustainable rates, too.
Why not Patreon?
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First off, we’d have to form a new company for this specifically which we are not trying to do ($$$), second, it would be really irresponsible for us to promise that we could make X number of songs or albums per month before we’ve raised any money.
If you’d like to support me more regularly, though, you can find me on Patreon and Ko-Fi. If you’d like to support Aivi’s work, you can visit the Patreon for their label, Infloresce Records, here.
If you can’t promise anything then what am I paying for?
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Well friend, this is a donation to support marginalized composers, which is much more like traditional “patronage.” In traditional patronage back in the day, a wealthy individual would be like, “Hey, Mozart, I like what you’re doing over there. Here’s some money, keep doing that. Love you man!” This kind of thing still happens in classical music or more traditional art, just not so much in TV, film, or video games.
That said, this wouldn’t be a very good idea if we didn’t actually make anything, so the first few people we’re working with will be folks who have a lot of experience (including us).
There will be deadlines, there will be contracts, this will be treated just as seriously as the work we’ve done with our own professional clients. This will also be a great chance for newer composers to learn what that’s like and set higher expectations for their future clients (which is the first thing I teach when I mentor folk).
We’re going to start with a small, single album. (Depending on where we land stylistically with the group of composers we work with, we may release this album with Infloresce Records!) The hope is to raise enough funding to do multiple projects. There’s definitely room for this to grow: collaborations with labels, game companies, likeminded organizations - but for that to happen, there has to be money to support it. As much as I wish I could, I can’t afford to work on that stuff for free.
~ A Note from Aivi ~
As a composer, all of my breakthrough opportunities were given to me by other marginalized creators. I will always be grateful to the folks who gave me a chance to shine and I’ve tried to pay it forward since: I share my opportunities and resources when I have the abundance to do so. I advocate for accessibility and sensitivity improvements in games I work on. I’m conscientious of who I recruit onto my teams. Everything I do, I do with a sense of wider community in mind.
I’ve seen this ripple effect happen a lot when marginalized creators have the opportunity to make things! My career success gave me the privilege to start my own label, Infloresce Records. As a label runner, however, I’ve found that even with good intentions, hard work, and a pot of funds, I simply can’t solve systemic issues as an individual. In my years running my label, I’ve discovered that the most underprivileged composers I recruit are usually the folks who don’t have the time, resources, or emotional availability to devote to larger personal works, despite their talent and vision.
I’ve been friends with Star for many years and we both share a desire to make space for the folks around us. I’ve also worked with Star professionally—I supervised her for the music of the Steven Universe anti-racist PSAs, and she made a powerful piece of music for Infloresce Records’ Floral Folklore album. I can personally attest to her thoughtfulness and the quality of her work.
Star is brimming with fearless ideas, but I see how hard she works and how much she tires herself to make ends meet. She would be able to do so much more for VGM community with more resources! Thank you for your consideration in supporting the Rising Star Patronage Project!
I would like to make a sizable donation, but I’d feel more comfortable doing so through an existing entity. Is that possible?
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Maybe! I’ve done some light research into this and it could definitely be a thing depending on the size of the gift. Ping me directly or through the contact form on my website!
I’m a marginalized composer and I’d like to join the project!
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Amazing! Please fill out this form. I can’t promise when or if I’ll be able to help you, specifically, but if you’re a marginalized composer I would love to be aware of your work.
How can I keep up with the project?
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Follow us on our socials!
Co-organizers (2)
Star Victoria Power
Organizer
Seattle, WA
Co-organizer