CMU School of Drama


Friday, October 24, 2025

British Composers Unite to End Ghostwriting in Film, TV and Game Music

www.billboard.com: Calling for an end to the practice of ghostwriting in music for film, TV and video games – the activity of contributing creatively to a soundtrack, without a writing credit being disclosed – the academy is encouraging composers to commit to changing industry practice by signing a pledge.

2 comments:

Audra Lee Dobiesz said...


I find this really interesting because I actually did not know that this was an issue at all. I was under the impression that most ghost writers get credited and paid. I was aware that they definitely don't get the flowers that they deserve in general, but I wasn't aware at all that this was an issue in video game music production. I've always found ghost writing as a concept to be morally kind of grey. Of course nothing is wrong with books or music being made and collaborated on with multiple people, however when music and books are written and marketed as deep, personal works I am bound to raise an eye brow. Especially when celebrities sell books that they market as novels or autobiographies that they didn't even write. Ghostwriters are usually writing for franchises, and it's a shame that they can't have their own writing and artwork be marketed as them, but someone else.

Maxwell Hamilton said...

The most surprising part of this article to me was just how prevalent this problem was without many people actually knowing about it. I found it incredibly interesting how many composers and artists had begun to use ghostwriting, so much so that much of their work now isn't even their own. At this point it has to constitute using AI. I mean there's so little to gain out of not producing your own work anymore. I mean you aren't learning or improving as an artist by actively paying other people to do things for you. It shows the ugliest side of this industry, that many of those artists that are "on the top" don't even make their own art anymore. To them it's no longer about the love of the game but rather their love of how much money they can possibly take out of peoples pockets without spending a dime of their own time.