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."

Not a bad idea...

[FreakyControl]

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.

Re:I sell it on eMule, for free.

[ClamIAm]

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.

Not so fast, EA...

[fujiman]

This is for the geniuses at EA, all else read on.

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.

lesson over