Actually WAV are the only ones that contain raw tracks. FLAC uses very good compression, and my preferred format, however I don't mind some MOD soundtracks, if that's the original format.

Youtube

"Plebeian". To be honest, even though I put some store in listening quality, I can't claim that I really hear the difference between normal mp3 and wav files. Especially since I have to admit, I mostly listen to music via PC speakers and mp3 player nowadays anyway, I don't have a stereo anymore ...

Whether I even listen to VGM or not depends on how good the soundtrack is outside the context of the game.

LOL. I guess I fall into this category. It's important to remember though that psycho-acoustic based audio / video compression is subjective by design. MP3, AAC, etc, are designed for the average listener (just as MPEG / X264 are for the average viewer). Some people are more / less prone to hearing, eg, pre-echo artifacts than others. Same with "hard cut offs", I've seen some audiophiles swear blind they can hear 96khz vs 44khz sampling stuff, and yet fail hard at hearing even 14khz brick-wall filters in controlled listening tests. In fact I know of one test where self-described audiophiles people with $500 interconnects not only failed to ABX them vs $10 cables, some of them failed vs telephone wire and even a wire coat-hangar, so "I'm a REAL audiophile" stuff doesn't impress me much anymore unless their ABX scores match their emotional claims and it isn't just "price-tag placebo"...

Most modern audio compression codecs, eg, LAME or AAC (MP4 / M4A) no longer use "hard brick-wall" filter frequency cutoff filters either, they gradually tail off a frequency cutoff over a sliding 1-2khz range or so which is much harder to detect in real-world music vs test pure sine wave frequencies. So even MP3 v3 (LAME) vs MP3 v1 (old 90's Fraunhofer codecs) aren't remotely the same. Been there and done that over on Hydrogenaudio forum listening test (definitely one of the more education forums with half the MP3 / AAC codec developers actively hanging out there). Likewise the fact the average person doesn't train themselves to hear artifacts (then complain about hearing them) really isn't a weakness for them if they're not involved in codec optimisation.

And as you said, there are a lot of older games whose soundtracks are... not exactly up there with the best mastered Jeremy Soule offerings, putting it politely. :-)

I know. That was mostly a slam on the other downsides of the format. MP3 takes up a lot more space than a well groomed ogg.

WAV only here.
And not just for video game soundtracks, but for music in general.

If I buy something on bandcamp (with over 200 releases in the library as of this moment) why should I settle for anything less than the WAV version, especially since there's no additional cost?

FLAC. Best format and yes I can tell the difference from mp3. Even if I couldn't, I would want FLAC on principle. Being a fan of music, lossless audio is as important to me as DRM-free. If the only way to buy an album (yes, I buy albums, not .99 cent songs from Apple's infernal monopoly or streams) was mp3/lossy, it essentially doesn't exist to me.

The ideal is to have options for everyone. I love when the games here come with both FLAC and mp3 soundtracks. Perfect! Gives users the option to pick what they want instead of locking out certain users. Bandcamp, which I am so glad to see get prominence in the FCKDRM initiative, is a great site for this. When you purchase, you get the option of format.

That said, if there could only be one format, it should be FLAC/WAV, given that it is possible to convert it down if need bed, whereas the opposite is not possible...you can't make an mp3 "un-lossy".

Mp3. Loss depends a bit on compression (i oscillate between 192 and 320), so its extent is negociable, and file size is a factor. Also it's videogame music. Good musically, but not really requiring the reconstitution of a concert hall. Especially when you talk about oldies (amiga titles, etc). And for some reason, I like having all my music in one, commonplace, format.

When a music is worth more, it's worth a commercial cd.

4.

I like my music with words and find most game music tends to be instrumental.
Besides, I mostly don't listen to the music while actually playing the game so why would I listen to it when not?

As for actual music, I don't really care. MP3 usually because pretty much anything will play it these days, I've never noticed any significant difference in quality between MP3s and other formats so reasonably small size and comparability is far more important to me.

FLAC fo rmy main archive of such files; if I need them in another format (for example, to save space on a device with less storage, or because the device is picky about what it supports), I can convert the files if needed.

Every time you encode something in a lossy format (like MP3), some data is lost, and you can't get it back unless you still have the original files. Converting between lossy formats will cause more loss, and eventually it can become noticeable. With a lossless format like FLAC, you don't have this problem.

The only practical advantage of WAV over FLAC is that it is easier to edit or analyze the sound wave, and that's not worth using the extra space for music you're only going to listen to, and FLAC can be losslessly converted to WAV if needed.

Also, I would prefer if the music would only sparingly use non-melodic percussion (percussion is *way* over-used in music) and would avoid using the electric guitar entirely (I *hate* the sound of that particular instrument, and it gives me headaches). Furthermore, I actually prefer my music to not have words.

Plebeian, since I usually listen to soundtracks on the kitchen's mp3 player while cleaning cooking...

deleted

Available forever.

I'm still pissed off loudr.fm decided to kill all my purchases there without any sort of public notice about it. I had to find out from a hidden post on their tumblr.

I usually just download the ones I like from youtube and throw them in various folders to act as playlists. It's rare for me to download entire OSTs either from youtube, or from gog if available, but I have done so with a few games:
Fallout 1 and 2;
Unreal;
Mechwarrior 2;
not all, but a lot of WoW's music.