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Games Entertainment

Licensing Music For Games Big Business 38

Posted by simoniker from the next-mario-to-feature-beastie-boys dept.
Thanks to an anonymous reader for pointing to a Billboard/Yahoo story discussing licensing music for videogames. As the article states, "Facing an industry-wide decline in mechanical royalties, music publishers and songwriters are increasingly turning to a new revenue source - video games." Although specially-composed soundtracks (a better way to go for a more integrated audiovisual experience?) are also discussed, licensing of existing songs seems to work as a"..flat-fee buyout that can range from $1,500 for a song from a new artist to $20,000 for six songs from Elvis Presley", with royalty-based licenses the 'holy grail', potentially bringing artists a great deal of money if their songs are featured on million-selling games.
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Licensing Music For Games Big Business More

Licensing Music For Games Big Business

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  • WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Tickenest ( 544722 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @01:11PM (#6214555) Homepage Journal
    An article about licensing music in games and not a single mention of GTA?

    • Game soundtracks! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by lightspawn ( 155347 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:12PM (#6215278) Homepage
      An article about licensing music in games and not a single mention of GTA?

      Never mind that, how about Rob Zombie / Dragula? Remember 2-3 years ago when that track appeared in every other game?

      In Soviet Japan, game soundtracks are big business, just like movie soundtrack - the best known example is the Final Fantasy series (dozens and dozens of CDs!).

      My personal favorite: Xenogears/Xenosaga.

      Check out, say, GameMusic.com [gamemusic.com] for the original Japanese overpriced releases or find the China/HK knockoffs in any number of places.

      Warning: Extremely geeky. You do NOT want your [potential] girlfriend to catch you with these CDs.

      • CD Japan (www.cdjapan.co.jp) provides much better selection and service. It is advised that you buy multiple albums, because Express mail shipping is fairly expensive. You can choose airmail if you're money-strapped.

        Also, a good site that sells import game music is CocoeBiz (www.cocoebiz.com). Their selection is smaller, but they carry some things the other retailers don't, like the soundtrack to Okage and Metal Slug 3. They also have official English translations of certain game composer sites, like t

  • Royalty Based License cost more than money (Score:5, Funny)

    by engineerdude ( 680288 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @01:14PM (#6214579)
    "Not only do we require $20,000 to license "Heartbrak Hotel" Giant, you must bring to Graceland......A Shrubbery!!!!!!!"

  • My personal preference (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Bagels ( 676159 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @01:17PM (#6214622)
    I've always preferred music composed specifically for the game, by someone actually on the staff (particularly Yasunori Mitsuda in Chrono Trigger/Chrono Cross or Koji Kondo in all of the Zelda/Mario games). For certain kinds of games - specifically, RPGs or adventure games - music with vocals in it just wouldn't sound right. I can't imagine the latest pop song in Sonic, for example! Still, for certain kinds of games (Tony Hawk) it seems to work well enough - the music there is just an accompanyment, as it only has to set the mood for the game in a much broader sense.
    • "I can't imagine the latest pop song in Sonic, for example! Still, for certain kinds of games (Tony Hawk) it seems to work well enough - the music there is just an accompanyment, as it only has to set the mood for the game in a much broader sense."

      Think of it this way: Setting. Britney Spears wouldn't belong in Sonic the Hedgehog. It would, however, be appropriate in GTA 3. The game's a simulation, and the more it does to remind you that you're driving your car, the more successful it is. I have a fe
    • Actualy, a composer of a j-pop band (Dreams Come True) did the music for Sonic 1 & 2, and the music played at the ending of Sonic 2 is the bgm of one of their songs...
    • try madden 2003. at the beginning, I couldn't stand many of the songs. now, I love them...

      after you play for 40+ hours, they get pounded into your head. a positive association if you will. plus, I don't know if there's even an option to turn them off...

  • Game soundtracks? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by J_DarkElf ( 602111 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @01:21PM (#6214653) Journal
    Many games have always had good music, just look at the C&C series -- some of those tracks I still have in my playlist.

    But real soundtracks for games? Offhand, I can only think of few games where the music so impressed me I bought it: 'The Longest Journey [longestjourney.com]' is the most recent example, but the 'No One Lives Forever' games also had good music which really added to the experience, the original songs were exactly like the 60's songs of the world Kate Archer is supposed to live in.

    As for licensing existing music -- how many games really fit with such music? There's only so many GTAs. I'd be willing to bet most movies have an original soundtrack, or at least a number of songs written especially for the movie. Why should another visual medium be more suited for 'recycled' music?

    The article mentions 'Enter the Matrix' as an example of a game with a soundtrack, but I can't say the music of movie or game really did something for me.

    Games are just like movies: those with great soundtracks are those where the soundtrack has been conceived as an integral part of the product from the start, but most only seem to have had some ambience painted on, perhaps with one good theme at most.

    If more games come with complete --and original-- soundtracks, that will finally be a reason to buy the deluxe editions again: all too often I preorder a 'special edition' only to find some cheap addons.
    • I have to agree about The Longest Journey. I still listen to that CD. Awesome music for an awesome game.
    • Understand that my interest is in Classical music, so I can't really debate the merits of most game music in the same way that a fan of (insert pop musician here) can but...

      (Also, I won't touch console games, so I can't talk about those, either).

      Quake, the first one, was absolutely perfect. The soundtrack was really even more evil than the game, for crissakes. I wish someone would do a REAL Cthulhupunk game to do that score justice.

      Descent, the first one, was magnificent. It was all MIDI, but hearing it
      • I'd say that Bill Brown [billbrownmusic.com]'s music is something that resembles film music, which supposedly resembles Classical music :)

        Soundtrack for C&C Generals is amazing. The GLA (terrorist) parts sound like Black Hawk Down and USA parts sound like The Rock/Gladiator ... Oh yes, Hans Zimmer. :)

        Rogue Spear series is also scored by Bill Brown, and is awesome as well...

        Oh, and classical music in games: Mafia and Medal of Honor. Aaaaaah....

  • Tpyo (Score:4, Funny)

    by JorenDahn ( 670270 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @02:16PM (#6215318) Homepage
    ...potentially bringing artists a great deal of money if their songs are featured on million-selling games.

    Whoops, typo. Here's the fix:

    ...potentially bringing the RIAA a great deal of money if their songs are featured on million-selling games.

  • last thing I want to see is N'sync or Christina Agulera making game music.

    I most certainly hope good quality composers make the game music


    On a side note, one of the better places to listen to game music is GamingFM [gamingfm.com]. But beware of the Sonic Arcade tracks.

    • What about more games like Britney's Dance Beat?? ;)
    • First of all N*sync and Christina Aguilera aren't composing their own music. You probably already know this. I take issue, however, with your assertion that the composers of their music are not quality composers. I think they are some of the most talented composers on earth.

      Whoa! Hold on a second! Did I just say I like Christina Aguilera's music? No. Not at all. But the composers of much pop music, such as Max Martin, are completely capable of making mousic I like, though they frequently don't.

      A lot

      • Well, I don't know much at all about the music biz, so I would not know who composes their own music and who are just performers of pre-written music.

        I guess what I really meant was that I would not like to see the over-hyped artists recording game sound tracks.

    • I think as far as PC games go, the game industry will find that pop girl/boy band listeners and game players are largely disjoint sets. I would be less surprised to see crap music showing up in weaker game offerings for consoles, though. Hopefully, marketers are smart enough to realize that forcing inappropriate music in their games will cost them a lot of sales.

      Also, there are quite a few really good composers out there writing original music for games. Jeremy Soule has had some stellar offerings in Mo
    • did a song in Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball.

      Thankfully, you can replace it with your own music...
  • you know nothing of big business. 20 grand is an insignificant sum in industries of billions.

  • Wipeout (Score:2, Informative)

    by Profound ( 50789 )
    The wipeout series had an excellent (if you like dance music) soundtrack. Underworld, The Prodigy, Fluke, Leftfield.... I find the beats help me maintain focus and get good times.
  • Considering the incredible independant talent out there (ex. Alex at www.cynicmusic.com) who probably require much more reasonable fees for their content, and help support people who the industry has not "discovered" (or choosen not to discover) yet, I would suspect that if a publisher made a post on ./ and asked for quality independant musicians, the publisher would get more than enough contacts to make their project fly at a fraction of the cost.
    -Benjamin "Durandal" Edelen
    bkedelen@yahoo.com
  • How about Britneys 'Hit me baby one more time' for the UT2003 soundtrack?

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