Video games are the fastest growing segment of the entertainment industry. As the games themselves become more sophisticated and technologically driven, musical
compositions for games have matured in order to provide a more cinematic experience for gamers.
The task of scoring music for games in this booming industry is a creative process where composers write a score that plays the story and supports the technical demands of the game. Music provides the player with an
emotional connection to the game so it should always complement and enhance the feeling of the game.
Game music can combine everything a composer loves to create with all the skills
and experience developed in their career. Com[posers can use many formats an
musical styles from electronic, orchestral, dreamy, scary, pretty, futuristic, ancient as well as use songwriting structures.
Scoring music for games is as limitless as the imaginative worlds and realities that are conceived in today’s games. For many composers it can be a lot more exciting than the limitations and “rules”
of Pop music.
Interactive gaming has spawned creative originations from comic books, feature
films, television series, rock artists, sports and more. Music plays such an
important part in the gaming product where a variety of hardware and software applications and platforms are becoming increasingly
sophisticated. This
expanding music niche market involves many multimedia
formats from computer video games, virtual reality, arcade games, interactive gallery installations and location-based entertainment. Software-based entertainment has become a major component in the spectrum of global
media.
Interactive music is a new expanding area where software developers are working
with a small team of composers/producers to make powerful music engines. Ideally
this becomes a standard in PC games and consoles alike. The burden also lays with the hardware manufacturers to make
a system powerful enough to support a major music engine those functions as a powerful Virtual Instrument or Software Engine
that integrates into the game design.
All of these gaming formats have dramatically increased the demand for custom
music, scoring and music treatments for a whole host of applications. Composers,
publishers and recording labels can negotiate exclusivity and non-exclusivity of songs with game developers that can be written
or already existing to be licensed for proprietary game intellectual properties.
In Japan there is a cult following for music featured in games. Popular pieces can end up on compilation CD’s marketed both online and offline that earn money
for the writers. Gaming Music is a growing industry with many opportunities.
Some record labels will introduce songs on a video game rather than through radio for the
first time. Their goal is goal is to lure young, male consumers into buying entire
CD's when they are released to stores up to four months later.
Video games are connected to the street scene music trends and there is a value in leveraging music
along with this boom in gaming. Island Def
Jam Records is owned by a Universal Music Group, has joined forces with Electronic Arts, the world's largest game maker that
creates video games to capitalize on two hugely popular forms of entertainment among boys and young men ages 11 to 25: hip-hop
and video games.
