✘ Music inside video games - rights & discovery
And: A directory of inspiration; How do you relax; Human creators at risk of Gen AI; Rage against the machine; When fan-made content eclipses original IP
Music is an inherent part of video games. Moreover, the way music operates inside video games will be a guiding light for the future of music creation. Especially when it comes to procedural music, it’s clear that this has been setting a precedent for understanding music as more fluid intellectual property. The listener becomes an influential element in how the music develops and they shape the sounds to their wants and needs. But there’s more to music in video games than procedural music. A lot of music gets licensed directly into video games. This results in extremely popular expressions of music connected to videos games: think Grand Theft Auto or the NBA2K series. These games thrive on the impact music has on the emotional experience of players. In games like Minecraft and Roblox, we’re seeing soft combinations of these two things. Music not in its procedural effects, but also not fully passively bolted on - there’s an intentionality at play. Here, music brings an element of personalization to specific gameplay environments - social gameplay needs music to create the strongest social affects.
What the rights
From takedowns on services like Twitch and YouTube, to the problems composers face when writing music for games - rights are always at the heart of the issue. For the gamers themselves, it’s different. They simply like to interact with music in games, or be pushed on their quests by the soundtrack. Music helps build the worlds through which gamers move and act. If this music isn’t composed specifically for the game, it requires licensing the songs for use in the game. Here’s Vickie Naumann on the challenges clearing the rights for music in games can bring:
“The five songs had 11 rightsholders and 29 writer’s shares, and three of those writer shares were from non-society, unadministered writers.”
That’s tough, so how can this be made easier? STYNGR is a label platform that helps to bring music into games. They provide a tech layer that allows everyone, from the majors to Merlin and the CMOs, to serve music into games where the rights are cleared.
This is a lot of database work, the kind of stuff that isn’t very sexy. A combination of database matching of works with a solid reporting structure allows music rightsholders to connect to games. In other words, it’s a library of tracks that can be brought into gaming worlds. Lots of game environments are changing. On the one hand, there’s Nintendo who have always kept their soundtracks to themselves and have now launched Nintendo Music. All of that music is specifically composed for the games. On the other hand, there’s the ecosystems of Minecraft, Roblox, and others. Here, whole worlds are created within that bigger topography of experiences. For builders and developers, it’s great to add that splash of personalization to their world or area without having to worry about clearing sticky music rights.
The age thing
When we talk about Roblox or Minecraft, we’re talking about two different ecosystems, two different sets of gamers, and two different - generalized - demographics. When we look at how both of these integrate with STYNGR, this becomes very clear. First, there’s Roblox. Here, Alex Tarrand, COO of STYNGR, tells this newsletter that the focus is on the developers. They’re the ones building the experiences inside Roblox. Simply put, they take the STYNGR library. Because of the Gen Alpha demographic focus, songs and lyrics are often submitted ahead of time. This is all done manually with an ear to moderation. Once the clearance is there, every developer is good to use the music. Licensing deals mean the plays are counted and reported. At this point, everything fits within the regular structures of music industry’s copyright complex.
Second, there’s Minecraft. For this deal, Tarrand says, STYNGR worked with Lunar Client to bring radio stations into players’ Minecraft experiences. Minecraft skews slightly older than Roblox, more Gen Z than Gen Alpha. This is noticeable in the deal structure. The radio stations seemingly operate under similar structures as other online radio stations: e.g., limited skips on the free option and unlimited skips on the paid option. Unlike with Roblox, it’s not the whole library that’s available, but a more curated supply chain. Personalization means different things in different ecosystems with different players and builders.
Music ✘ Gaming
As evidenced by that earlier Naumann quote, licensing specific music into games can be tough. Having a pre-cleared catalogue helps relieve that stress. But even then, who exactly benefits the most from this situation? It’s not a clearcut answer. In my conversation with Tarrand, we touched on how it’s important to understand that video game businesses are often developer-first companies. Bringing music to them through APIs and other dev solutions helps them understand the integration process more clearly. Similarly, there’s added benefits to the right music in games. The KPIs that Tarrand mentioned are:
Session length goes up
Session frequency goes up
Retention goes up
All very valid and important metrics, for sure. But the operative word is ‘right’, how do you know what’s the ‘right’ music for a game. Of course, this can be a specialist’s expert guess. Conversely, it can be based on data. If a game already has a lively Discord or other fan channel, it’s wise to scan it for music being shared. For Tarrand, though, the best datapoint is the skip - and to that data, the game has to be live. In other words, it remains a risky affair to find that ‘right’ music, making it all the more special when it does work.
It’s discovery stupid
The real game-changer, however, is to not see music and gaming as two separate affairs. Tarrand didn’t mention this specifically, but throughout the conversation, it shone through how intertwined the two are. In the music industry, people often like to compare music as this undervalued little sister to gaming’s massive global revenues. But that’s a fallacy. Instead, both industries - especially on the indie and creative side - stand to benefit from any partnership.
There’s more music being created than anyone can listen to in a lifetime. Similarly, there’s more games being created than anyone can play in a lifetime. On both ends, the creators fight the problem of discovery. How do you break through the incessant noise of everyone else? One way is to find that ‘right’ combo, where the music helps elevate the gameplay and the game helps elevate the music experience.
LINKS
🗃️ Network Archives 001: A Directory of Inspiration (Jamie Reddington, Jade Garcia, et al)
“This release is a curated collection of creative experiments, writings, and reflections by a diverse community of creators, listeners, thinkers and collectors from around the globe drawn together through a love of music.”
✘ I often and passionately argue that artists need to be front and centre in discussions about innovations. Much more than founders, they drive innovation in the music industry. It’s their experiments that spark ideas. It’s them who start to play around with new technologies to see what the limits are. This directory is an overview of some amazing artists’ experiences in their own words.
[disclaimer, some of my writing is also featured]
🧘🏽♀️ How do you relax (Sally Freeman)
“This list is only a taster of what is possible. In the short term, find what resonates with you to restore balance. The music industry is beginning to address these challenges, but ongoing efforts are essential to foster a healthier and more sustainable environment for its professionals.”
✘ From stress to burn-out, we’ve either been there or know people who have. We need more people like Sally to bring some sense into our industry and advocate, based on science, what we need and what’s good for us - and how to make that happen.
☣️ Global economic study shows human creators’ future at risk from generative AI (CISAC)
“The economic study assesses that, as a result of this exponential growth in the market for music and audiovisual content, the future revenues of Gen AI providers will rise to annual revenues of €4 billion in music (up from €0.1 billion in 2023) and €5 billion in audiovisual (up from €0.2 billion) by 2028. These are revenues derived directly from the unlicensed reproduction of creators’ works, representing a transfer of economic value from creators to AI companies.”
✘ This is a very positive development once everything is properly licensed. A small if, of course. We’re already seeing lots of deals being done around licensing training date for AI companies. Music will follow suit - what then happens next is again when we have to fight for the artists to get their fair share.
🎰 Rage against the machine (Alva Noë)
“Computers don’t actually do anything. They don’t write, or play; they don’t even compute. Which doesn’t mean we can’t play with computers, or use them to invent, or make, or problem-solve. The new AI is unexpectedly reshaping ways of working and making, in the arts and sciences, in industry, and in warfare. We need to come to terms with the transformative promise and dangers of this new tech. But it ought to be possible to do so without succumbing to bogus claims about machine minds.”
✘ This seems like an incredibly useful co-read for the report from CISAC right above. Don’t be afraid. Don’t yell at the clouds. Understand what something is, what it does, where it comes from. Then, experiment.
🌓 What happens to music when fan-made content eclipses the original IP? (Tatiana Cirisano)
“The question, then, is whether the music industry can monetise cultural impact and fan-made content without alienating fans and interfering with their expression. Audio modification, the latest trend in music fan participation, shows promise. Increasingly, fans are creating edited or remixed versions of songs they love, often uploaded to social media. This trend is proliferating much faster than, say, gamers building their own game reboots, because the barrier to entry for creation is lower, and the time it takes to create a new version is much quicker.”
✘ One key element to this monetization process is that it requires a very robust metadata system. Not too dissimilar to the discussion about music and gaming above, this is very much about personalization. This is a great thing, but shouldn’t happen at the expense of the artist.
MUSIC
Red Hot Org has put out a compilation called TRAИƧA. It is jampacked with amazing tracks and truly astonishing collaborations. This is very much a showcase of trans and non-binary artists with over 100 represented. There’s 46 tracks and choosing one to highlight here is hard. I’ve gone for this collaboration between Moses Sumney, Lyra Pramuk, Sam Smith, and Aaron Liao. It’s a cover of disco classic You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). It is stunning.