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EA To Sell Game Music on iTunes
J. Charles Holt writes "Electronic Arts has announced that they're going to start releasing themes to popular computer games on online sources such as iTunes." From the article: "Those who doubt the hit potential of video game theme songs probably haven't seen Billboard's Hot Ringtones chart lately, where Koji Kondo has sat right near the top for 55 weeks. Who's Koji Kondo? He composed the theme for 'Super Mario Bros.,' which ranks this week right between the Black Eyed Peas and Bow Wow featuring Ciara."
I personally wouldn't go buying it twice though. Many games have it in an ordinary directory in mp3 or ogg format, ripe for fair use. Others embed it into libraries or executables, which require some third party tool to extract (if at all). My feeling is that if I buy a game fair and square I should be able to pull the music out.
Isn't the music in EA games usually just random popular songs? Aren't those already on itunes?
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There was a game company a while ago called The Logic Factory that had released a turn based strategy game called Ascendancy, and followed with a rather artistic RTS called The Tone Rebellion. When I purchased Tone Rebellion, I received the game soundtrack free of charge, since I had registered my copy of Ascendancy.
Having never owned a game soundtrack before, my original thought was, "Wow, that's useless." This soundtrack, however, turned out to be one of the best relaxation/study CD's that I have. While Tone was rather unique at the time for having so much effort being put into the musical score, many game makers spend a great deal of time and money to create good (and sometimes excellent) music to go with the game. I know I've owned more than one game that I wished I had the soundtrack. This sounds like it's really worth checking out.
There are also many programs available to rip the music straight out of your games. I found one recently that let me rip my DDR disc. Also, if you own the game and download the music from a p2p service, you might be getting it from someone who is infringing, but you certainly aren't.
While this is cool in one way - it will encourage game makers to put great music into their games - it also gives bigger publishers another advantage.
There was a time when you just needed an idea and programming skills to make a game. Now you need lots of specialists to make all the sounds and graphics competitive, or your gameplay will never see the light of day.
Soon, companies may say, "that's a great game idea, but can we make money from the soundtrack spinoff?" Hiring a top-notch composer will be another must-have in the large budget.
Wha....? That's what they call "old school"? Try going back to the C64/Amiga days when there was some really fantastic music out there. Musicians/composers pushed the envelopes with what they could do because they had to get the most out of limited, music voices (three fore the C64 and six for the Amiga, I believe). I'd love to hear modern versions of the themes from Skate or Die and M.U.L.E., both coincidentally from Electronic Arts.
Companies like EA and Activistion really should look at remastering some of their REAL "old school" music. I'd love to hear so many soundtracks for my old C64 games in a modern accompanyment while staying 100% true to the old sound, like what a lot of C64 remixers have done.
My list (at least those that I can think of right off the bat)...
Hell, there are a number of old game songs I'd like to hear remastered, licensing and approval by the original composers notwithstanding.
The idea that Command and Conquer is old school while ignoring classics like Skare or Die is almost insulting. It would also be a nice tribute for EA and other companies to the real "old school" gaming that set the foundation for where these game companies are today.
* Such a CD was released in the early 1990s, but good luck finding it any more. It contained from really great music by Mark Seibert, who composed the music for the King's Quest series, Police Quest series, and others.
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Soundtrack to Planescape: Torment
Now I can finally get that soundtrack to Blades of Steel! I've been waiting for 17 years now...
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What ou fail to realize is that the *reason* Japanese videogame music sells so well is that... wait for it... IT'S GOOD MUSIC.
That's right. Square and Nintendo hire people called COMPOSERS that WORK on making MUSIC for GAMES. They are talented people whose life work is making beautiful, catchy, haunting melodies for your gaming pleasure.
While it might be nice to think you can make a fast buck by shoveling crappy soundtracks on iTunes, don't expect anyone to pay for it. Garbage in, garbage out.
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So we're allowed to listen to the music while watching the movie, but we're not allowed to turn off the screen and just listen to music? That's essentially the same thing. The only difference is that instead of using a DVD player and the DVD to playback the music, you put it on a CD to use in a CD player, or an MP3 to play on your computer or MP3 player.
I'm sorry, but that doesn't really make sense. Also, unless I'm mistaken, I believe the DCMA allows you to actually convert the soundtrack to MP3 or another format if you so choose. I'm not denying that the artists probably make less money, but that's an ethics argument, not a legal one.