Quick story time. As a kid I was really into music. A ridiculous amount. To a degree that it freaked out my family. But once video games came along, my interest shifted fully into gaming and it became my full-time passion. But once the 16-bit era came in and music got a bit richer and sophisticated, I slowly started to get back into loving music again. It was exclusively video game music for a good few years, but it eventually led me back to my love of music as a whole again. It gave me a completely new outlook on music not just being this thing that you hear on MTV or on the radio, but an art form that crosses every medium. Fast forward and I'm just a fan and lover of music. Period. My tastes are varied as fuck. More varied than my music blog even lets on.
I'm not ashamed nor embarrassed to admit that I listen to video game music...a lot. I have a playlist on my iPod full of my favourite bops from video games, and I listen to it the same way I do any other song by a commercial 'artist'. Because, bitch. Music is music and I like what I like.
The annoying this about video game music is that it still feels difficult to get a hold of outside of YouTube. *Cough* Correction: It still feels difficult to get a hold of 'legally' outside of YouTube. (I'd like to take this moment to bless each and every one of you that rips music from games and puts them on YouTube for me and my VGM loving compatriots). And even listening to it on YouTube isn't really legal, as it probably goes against every damn copyright law when it's uploaded by anybody by the producers / developers of the game the music is from. But the sheer volume of video game soundtrack uploaded to YouTube shows that there is a desire for music to exist in a stream-able form.
In this digital age of over-sharing, drip feeding and streaming, you'd think video game producers would be savvy to putting their soundtracks up officially on platforms like YouTube, Spotify, Apple music and Google play music Tube - whatever the hell Google music service they're try'na work this week. But it's not something that's really catching on. There are some soundtracks which are available, but nowhere near as many as there should be. Surprisingly (and frustratingly) there are some gems on the likes of Spotify which are savagely tucked away. The original Street Fighter II soundtracks are on there (both the CPS-1 and CPS-2 versions) as is the glorious Sonic CD soundtrack. In fact, SEGA seem to be one of the few games companies who have a pretty vast amount of music on the streaming service. From their Virtua Fighter series and Nights into dreams, to the more obscure titles that I can't name, because they are all in Japanese and I don't recognise anything or anyone in the album artwork. Sadly, there's no Streets of rage. But there is at least Jet Set radio, Outrun and a bunch of Sonic games.
Don't even bother searching for anything Super Mario or Final Fantasy related. Because, no. Just no. I kinda get why Square Enix wouldn't put up entire Final Fantasy soundtracks up on streaming services, because they want you to pay extortionate prices importing that shit. And Nintendo offer some of their official soundtracks as collectables through their official club reward system thing. But it still feels like a massive missed opportunity. Especially considering that it's not easy to buy physical copies of official video game soundtracks and that we are in an age now where physical music sales are in decline. I mean, shit. Even big ass games are available digitally now. It's at odds to not have the soundtracks follow suit. Just having condensed versions of soundtracks with 20 songs, as opposed to the 80 that FF games can have up to, would be SOMETHING. But to omit them completely, even years after the game and its soundtrack were released, feels odd.
So this was basically a long winded way of me saying, that if you're into video game music and you have a Spotify account, it's there. And I took the liberty of creating a playlist which features a curated selection of what's available in the hopes it'll increase the visibility of video game music and coerce you into diving into your own VGM rabbit holes on the streaming service.
?J Spotify playlist: Video game music
Be sure to give the playlist a follow. I'll be updating it over time.
In the meantime, I will be harassing Nintendo to put some of their damn shit on Spotify and for Namco to put all Tekken and Ridge racer soundtracks up. Oh. And Soul Blade. Because, my God. That fucking soundtrack...still the best in the Soul series.
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