The biggest challenge in music these days is getting new songs to people who will appreciate them. On-demand music services and social networks have replaced the traditional medium of radio for many audiophiles. Surprise ! Video gaming may be the next level in this never-ending quest.
“The music industry has understood that to make its stars or new stars shine, it now requires a mixture of influence in worlds like Tiktok, Netflix and video games,” explains Simon Landry, music supervisor at Ubisoft Montreal . “If you can create a “signature moment” with these three platforms, you have an effective way to market an artist’s music. »
Simon Landry doesn’t speak through his hat. The producer joined composer Stephanie Economou in Los Angeles last February to receive the very first Grammy award given by the American recording industry to a video game or interactive media soundtrack. It was for the theme song of the expansion Dawn of Ragnarok Game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.
Any video game fan will confirm: the competition was tough. The work of Mme Economou has risen above the soundtracks of other very popular titles, including Call of Duty: Vanguard And Guardians of the Galaxy.
In the video game industry, it is obvious: video games are an effective distribution platform for bringing out music of all genres. Dawn of Ragnarok also happily gives into “black metal”, a sub-genre of heavy metal particularly popular in northern Europe.
Wilderun, an American progressive metal band who participated in the soundtrack of Dawn of Ragnarök, has a sound quite far from the joyful 8-bit sound that Koji Kondo created in the 1980s for the Super Mario Bros. from Nintendo, which anyone between the ages of 35 and 55 today can hum on demand, effortlessly.
For all tastes
Not all gamers‘Assassin’s Creed who will then hum black metal tunes in the shower. For a group or for an entire musical style that’s quite niche like Wilderun and its Scandinavian metal, it’s still quite a promotional showcase. The video game, of course, not the shower! (though…)
“It’s a paradigm shift,” says Simon Landry. In each game, there are dozens of hours – sometimes even hundreds – during which the audience is captive. This is an opportunity to present all kinds of music, generally in a loop. A single player in a single game is therefore exposed to the same song more than once.
Until an AI completely replaces composers? We are not there yet, assure the experts consulted in this report. Instant and automated music generation already exists, but it relies on original works. The music industry earns valuable royalties from the music heard in many games. No one has any interest in the model changing.
In any case, all this demonstrates that video games have made their place in the broader entertainment industry. Its revenues have surpassed those of TV and cinema for years. In fact, they now even surpass the combined income of these two, who are increasingly inspired by them. Mario Bros., Gran Turismo And Last of Us were entitled to versions for the big and small screen this year.
Music works a little differently at the moment. Its digital shift involves on-demand music services called Spotify and Apple Music. Its popular artists use video games to consolidate a popularity already established elsewhere. Kylie Minogue and Lil Nas Michael Jackson and Paul McCartney were also able to rejuvenate their image a little thanks to them.
Here, Coeur de Pirate tried the experiment ten years ago, by composing the music for a role-playing game called Child of Light. The Quebec artist is reportedly preparing something special these days to commemorate ten years of this collaboration.
Then at the end of November, the Quebec electro-pop duo Milk&Bone announced that they were writing the sound track for a new game, called Atom Eveinspired by the main character ofInvinciblea comic book and animated series from the online platform Amazon Prime Video.
This is a second video game foray for Camille Poliquin and Laurence Lafond-Beaulne. The first time, in 2018, their song Natalie had been integrated into a game called Life is Strange 2. This time, there are 17 songs tailor-made for Atom Eve.
“Creating for a game allows us to work differently; we have the impression of playing,” explain the two composers. “We came for our sound universe, our artistic identity, not to copy what is already being done. This collaboration marks a new era in our career. This is a new string to our bow. »
The two composers are asking for more. They are already working on a soundtrack for another video game to be released in 2025.
Video game or… musical game?
The line that separates music from video games is blurring a little more every day.
Tell Spotify subscribers who listen to Spotify’s playlist Rocket League, a car soccer game (yes, it exists). The list is made up of the songs that play in the game and is refreshed as the game itself updates its own music library.
Or, ask around who saw Eminem appear in early December in Fortnite in the form of a kaiju, these giant Japanese monsters. The rapper also intoned Godzilla, a piece full of relevance. For many of its approximately 100 million recurring players, Fortnite, it’s the new Woodstock. It’s the outdoor stage (albeit virtual) where their favorite artists perform.
Artists big and small, since in its new version, Fortnite allows anyone who wants to create their own little digital stage, to hold a virtual concert.
“Today, anyone can do their concert on Fortnite “, says Alain Tascan, executive vice-president at Epic Games, the publisher of the popular game. “It’s an entire platform that we offer. The artist can interact and see his audience. We are trying to completely change the way we access music. »
“And it will continue. »