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General discussionWho would ever buy a soundtrack to a game?(65 posts)(65 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted December 05, 2018
I have never, ever, never ever, been sitting in my car in traffic and thought.... "Man, I would love to listen to the Civ(fill in your fav) soundtrack right now over just about anything else readily available to me". Let alone purchase it separately and have these thoughts. Youre right, makes no sense at all.

While we are on it, has GOG sold a single one of those crappy "movies" they sell? Who the hell buys these things you can see on youtube? I get friends and family "Hey buy my movie!" but thats it.

But hey, somebody wants to buy these things so somebody will sell it.
Posted December 06, 2018
I buy music (not that this is a declaration of betterment over those that don't - it's just to answer the question posed in the title - at the end of the day, it's your money and you damn sure can spend it however you choose). Over the years, my tastes have strongly shifted toward soundtracks and scores for a number of media - whether that's games or otherwise.

There's not a lot to say on this that hasn't been said already, so what I have left is going to seem very disconnected and I apologize for that.

The people writing and performing that music get paid by the people that hired them and they may (or may not) get paid when a copy of a game/film/etc. is sold. Not every person working as a composer has the luxury of signing contracts that allow them a percentage of sales of the product their work appears in. Some may not even realize they have such an option for that at all.

For those people, the notion of them continuing to make a living in their chosen profession is dependent on people buying their music, not simply stopping at the game level and then going "Like I'd pay $5-7 for music I can just extract from the game data. Eat shit, you already got my ~$30-60." The payout distributions on the game sales aren't even favorable a lot of the times, with publishers (if any are involved) eating into a chunk and distributors (as evidenced as much as recently with Valve's restructure on Steam revenue share) taking sizable percentages as well. When shaving out all that, a composer who (in theory) might have been paid a moderate three figure sum for anywhere from months to a year+ of work could end up with a fraction of what they were paid initially.

Being a fan of soundtracks is also an increasingly cost prohibitive hobby, especially if you fall into the "likes a physical product" category. With vinyls going anywhere from $25-30+ (not even including shipping costs), imports being incredibly jacked up (not to mention the fun underside of bootlegging that runs rampant in that circle) and some composers deciding that $10+ for digital products only is the norm that every potential customer can afford to pay, it's hard to not feel like you're standing in a torrent of crap designed to make you feel bad for being a supportive fan who wasn't born into money or lucky enough to have a spare house full of cash to blow on your hobby.
Posted December 07, 2018
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TheMonkofDestiny: I buy music (not that this is a declaration of betterment over those that don't - it's just to answer the question posed in the title - at the end of the day, it's your money and you damn sure can spend it however you choose). Over the years, my tastes have strongly shifted toward soundtracks and scores for a number of media - whether that's games or otherwise.

There's not a lot to say on this that hasn't been said already, so what I have left is going to seem very disconnected and I apologize for that.

The people writing and performing that music get paid by the people that hired them and they may (or may not) get paid when a copy of a game/film/etc. is sold. Not every person working as a composer has the luxury of signing contracts that allow them a percentage of sales of the product their work appears in. Some may not even realize they have such an option for that at all.

For those people, the notion of them continuing to make a living in their chosen profession is dependent on people buying their music, not simply stopping at the game level and then going "Like I'd pay $5-7 for music I can just extract from the game data. Eat shit, you already got my ~$30-60." The payout distributions on the game sales aren't even favorable a lot of the times, with publishers (if any are involved) eating into a chunk and distributors (as evidenced as much as recently with Valve's restructure on Steam revenue share) taking sizable percentages as well. When shaving out all that, a composer who (in theory) might have been paid a moderate three figure sum for anywhere from months to a year+ of work could end up with a fraction of what they were paid initially.

Being a fan of soundtracks is also an increasingly cost prohibitive hobby, especially if you fall into the "likes a physical product" category. With vinyls going anywhere from $25-30+ (not even including shipping costs), imports being incredibly jacked up (not to mention the fun underside of bootlegging that runs rampant in that circle) and some composers deciding that $10+ for digital products only is the norm that every potential customer can afford to pay, it's hard to not feel like you're standing in a torrent of crap designed to make you feel bad for being a supportive fan who wasn't born into money or lucky enough to have a spare house full of cash to blow on your hobby.
This and you have to in acount of pirated games that a lot of people download, which is a lot of money that is not going towards the people who had made the components of the game. And only recently did services like Spotifiy allows video game music, and a very limited selection also, on their platform.

Also this
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TheMonkofDestiny: "Like I'd pay $5-7 for music I can just extract from the game data. Eat shit, you already got my ~$30-60."
Is highly unethical and should be frowned upon. The reason for this is that if this person likes the soundtrack and does this, it is not supporting the people who had made it in the first place, which means the people that made loss movitavtion to continue making new music in the future, because there is no money to be made. Which means that everyone that actually bought the soundtrack loses out in the end.

Also, its their money let them buy what ever they want, it does not effect you at all.
Posted December 07, 2018
Sure I would. And I have. The thing is, most of the soundtracks I am most interested in, only had one run of OST releases on CDs. In Japan only. And with life having moved beyond optical media, it'd be pointless to seek them out now. I don't have iTunes (cold dead hands), so that's another avenue closed.

So I typically have to resort to other methods, such as playing the music data directly.
Posted December 07, 2018
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TheMonkofDestiny: "Like I'd pay $5-7 for music I can just extract from the game data. Eat shit, you already got my ~$30-60."
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CrazyProfessor2: Is highly unethical and should be frowned upon. The reason for this is that if this person likes the soundtrack and does this, it is not supporting the people who had made it in the first place
As for myself, I have never extracted music from a game, nor listened to game music outside of a game. Music is, for me, one of the fundamental aspects that creates atmosphere and makes a game a unique experience. I would never want to listen to the music over and over, as that would reduce my enjoyment of a game when I end up replaying it.

My question, though, is how listening to the music apart from the game is fundamentally different from listening to it while playing the game? How is listening to a song for three hours apart from a game different from listening to it for three hours within the game? It's not clear to me how you ascertain that a musician is supported in one instance and not in the other.

I despise pirates and haven't pirated a game since floppies were involved, but it's actually difficult to say that piracy is "highly unethical", because the copying of information is not theft. If it were, a business could be charged with theft for doing well and thus "depriving its competitor of income". In point of fact, piracy is illegal, but it's not immoral. Copyright law exists to encourage creation, not to protect property, because there is no property to protect.

I've said way more than I intended to, but my point is that it is easy for me to understand why playing video games without paying for them is ridiculous and unjustifiable. I don't however think it is equivalent to listening to music from a game you've paid for. The musician was hired to write music for a game. As long as the game was paid for, I don't think he has the right to expect anything more.
Post edited December 07, 2018 by Dryspace
Posted December 07, 2018
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idbeholdME: ...Thoughts?
If it's the Need for Speed soundtrack or if it's made by Hans Zimmer I would totally buy it, otherwise probably not. Indeed I never have bought a soundtrack on its own, but that doesn't mean I want them to not sell them separately, because somebody else might want to do that or even I might want to do that one day.
Posted December 07, 2018
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Dryspace: It's not clear to me how you ascertain that a musician is supported in one instance and not in the other.
Unless the payouts are made available to the public (not that they need to be), it'd be impossible to ascertain whether the person(s) responsible for the music in the game are getting supported in any sense just through purchase of the game alone.

In the event they make their music available for purchase outside of flatly buying the game, you can (at the very least) be certain that they're getting paid from that sale (and likely more than they would be with a number of other parties involved in the overall cut of the sale of the game, though again unless they opt to make that information public it's hard to say just how much higher it is).
Posted December 07, 2018
I do buy OST's simply to be able to re-listen to certain tracks like this one without having to open the game.
Or this one
Posted December 08, 2018
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TheMonkofDestiny: In the event they make their music available for purchase outside of flatly buying the game, you can (at the very least) be certain that they're getting paid from that sale...

Unless the payouts are made available to the public (not that they need to be), it'd be impossible to ascertain whether the person(s) responsible for the music in the game are getting supported in any sense just through purchase of the game alone.
I'm curious about this. I don't claim to know otherwise, but is this just hypothesis, or is there actually evidence for assuming that musicians regularly create and/or license music to video games for free? It's just that the concept doesn't make sense to me except in instances in which the musician benefits, such as when one accepts an internship, or commissions a painting for free in order to gain experience and recognition.

Of course, no one has a right to receive payment according to one certain legal structure or another. Whether one is paid--to use only two examples--a lump sum, or as a percentage of sales, is something that is agreed upon between the interested parties. There is by no means anything inherently inferior about being paid up front rather than based upon sales or vice versa, and in fact there are reasons for choosing one over the other, including how well one believes a product will do.
Post edited December 08, 2018 by Dryspace
Posted December 08, 2018
Why can't you just buy and enjoy video game music like any other music? If I hear a song I like in a movie, why would I watch the movie again just to hear that song? I buy the soundtrack from the artist so I can enjoy it while exercising, cleaning the house or just taking a walk. I enjoy the tunes and it puts me in a great mood since I associate it with something positive. It's the perfect music to relieve stress.
Posted December 08, 2018
When I hear music that moves me, or music that makes me feel fantastic, or music that causes my ass to groove, or even music that makes me cry like a baby... well... I buy it! ;)

I have purchased soundtracks from movies, streaming series (Netflix, etc.) and game soundtracks. I even bought soundtracks from games that I did not enjoy but found the music to my liking. :P And I have in my collection soundtracks from games I never, ever played (example, music from a game on a console I do not own).

Been to a couple of Game Music Concerts too! What can I say: I enjoy music.
Posted December 08, 2018
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DadJoke007: Why can't you just buy and enjoy video game music like any other music? If I hear a song I like in a movie, why would I watch the movie again just to hear that song? I buy the soundtrack from the artist so I can enjoy it while exercising, cleaning the house or just taking a walk. I enjoy the tunes and it puts me in a great mood since I associate it with something positive. It's the perfect music to relieve stress.
Yeah, it's weird reading the posts in this thread, where they refuse to listen to the music outside the games. Do they think it's all just boring orchestrated things and/or just beeps and boops? Sometimes terrible games have grand music.
Posted December 08, 2018
Have you heard some of Transistor's Soundtrack?
Posted December 08, 2018
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Darvond: Yeah, it's weird reading the posts in this thread, where they refuse to listen to the music outside the games. Do they think it's all just boring orchestrated things and/or just beeps and boops?
Well...you at least understand my reason for not listening to the music from my favorite games apart from the gameplay, no?
Posted December 08, 2018
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Dryspace: Well...you at least understand my reason for not listening to the music from my favorite games apart from the gameplay, no?
To a degree, but given the vast variety of music, (my main playlist has just over 10k+ items of game music alone across several generations), I'm more giving you a pass on the ethics part. Do as you do, but I'm not going to hunt down a copy of the Secret of Mana OST, especially seeing as my phone doesn't have a CD player.
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General discussionWho would ever buy a soundtrack to a game?(65 posts)(65 posts)
(65 posts)