Film Career · Composer
Series Composer
Composer · Varies; AFM covers musicians
- Union
- Varies
- Day rate
- ~$50K–$500K+/yr
- Experience
- 5–25+ yrs
What does a Series Composer do?
A series composer carries a hands-on craft within the composer department, delivering their specialty daily as part of the department's crew.
Union coverage for the position varies: afm covers musicians. The role is engaged show by show, and careers in composer are built on the department heads and crews who hire the same trusted people back.
What does a Series Composer make?
- Composing pay is negotiated per film or episode and ranges enormously, from modest indie fees to six and seven figures on major projects, plus royalties.
- Roughly $50K-$500K+ a year (AFM covers musicians).
Film work is gig based, so crew are paid a day or weekly rate rather than a salary. These are realistic 2024-2025 ranges grounded in union rate cards and industry data; actual pay swings with budget tier, market, overtime, and reputation.
Sources & how we estimate pay
Union scale is the floor; the ranges above also reflect market day rates above scale. They are grounded in the following 2024–2025 sources:
Union rate cards & wage schedules
Official guild scale — the floor each craft is paid from.
- IATSE — 2024 Basic Agreement wage scales (PDF) ↗
- IATSE Local 600 (International Cinematographers Guild) — camera rate cards ↗
- DGA — minimum salary rate cards (director, unit production manager, assistant directors) ↗
- WGA — schedule of minimums (writers) ↗
- SAG-AFTRA — theatrical & background rate sheets (cast, stunts, background) ↗
- Teamsters Local 399 — basic feature wage rates, 2024–27 (transportation, locations, wranglers) (PDF) ↗
Government wage data
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, for the closest federal occupation.
You’ll like and be good at this job if:
Hard skills
- You can write and produce music to picture
Soft skills
- You take pride in doing your specific craft well, day in and day out
- You are a dependable team player who makes the department run
Career progression
The role advances the way most composer careers do: repeat hires from the same department heads, growing responsibility within the craft, and a reputation that travels between productions faster than any resume.
How do you become a Series Composer?
Careers reach this chair through the composer department ladder: entry work first, then increasing responsibility as the crew learns your name. Smaller productions hand out the title earlier, and the credits transfer.
Covered by a union? The joining a film union guide explains how each one takes members.