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Screen Magazine - Index

Screen Magazine - Screen Magazine: Vol. 29, Issue 6 - Index

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The Marriage Between The Music And The Video Game Industries
It’s no secret that within the last few years the video game
industry has exploded with a galactic sized blast attracting
almost every demographic group. Music is obviously a big
part of video games and the evolution of music in games
has also come a very long way in a short time.
In the earlier days of console video games all of the music
was created by talented composers who either worked inhouse
with the game developers or independent freelance
composers. The work was plentiful as there was a need for
a large variety of musical genres.
Today things have changed substantially when it comes to
how game developers find original music for their games.
Now when you pop in your favorite video game you are more
likely to hear songs that you just heard playing on the radio
in your car. This is because game companies have found an
ingenious way to save money while simultaneously boosting
game sales. They simply license the music of established
recording artists or top selling underground or indie artists.
Some of these artists are more popular than others but it
still gives gamers a familiar sound because these are artists
and/or songs that they are already familiar with.
This helps to sell more games when the core demographic
of a particular game can hear their favorite rap group or
alternative rock group while they are playing the game. This
is also a great new alternative for record labels to market
and promote their recording artists to the masses of gamers.
So if a gamer hears and likes a particular song in a game, the
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labels hope that the gamer will want the full album and then
go to iTunes or their local Best Buy and get it!
Win-win situation for everyone right? Well not quite, because
while the game developers and the record labels seem
happy at the moment with this arrangement, it does leave
the custom music house out of the loop in a big way. Sure
there are still many parts of the game that do not use
licensed music, but it is much less than it once was. There
are still in-game cinematics and cut scenes that still require
original music, but this is often handled by the game
developer’s in-house composers.
So how does a music house still remain profitable in the
world of video games? First of all, I feel it comes down to
having the ability to offer a sound that is as unique or as
hot as the sound they search for and the signed artists they
pursue. While you may not have the fan following of an up
and coming indie artist, the music is always the ultimate
deciding factor of what works inside a game. Most music
houses create just music, not complete songs with lyrics.
This is one of the things that attracts the game developers
to artists with full songs. It allows them to better fit a song to
a game intro, cinematic or menu screen.
Another important factor is to be extremely versatile with
the styles of music that you are able to produce. I can’t
remember a game in the last 10 years that used only one
style of music. Pop in your average sports game, fighting
game or even first person shooter and you will hear