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[jmdajr]

Seems to me there are not a lot of obvious options for getting your hands on digital purchased game soundtracks. My collection of game music usually comes from what other people find out there or whatever site I might be lucky to come by. It's spotty. But bottom line there isn't like an amazon or an itunes for this kind of stuff that I am aware of. I know streaming sites can have such content but I rather actually have it. Import CDs are just too expensive, but once in awhile I might find a deal.


What are your methods to jam out to your favorite game tunes? I would prefer legal methods obviously but it just doesn't seem feasible. I could always take the time to look much deeper into this but I thought I would ask if someone knows some good sources.

 

[bryehn]

Bandcamp has lots of game-related music.

http://bandcamp.com/tag/game-music?artist=2457816457

 

[hosannainexcelsis]

iTunes actually has a fair number of game soundtracks, so if you're looking for something, I would check there first.

 

[iNvid02]

i believe when i buy a game i should get the soundtrack with it (for personal use etc)
So if an OST is really good i'll end up downloading it

 

[StevePharma]

It's a fucking pain in the ass to get some soundtracks, especially from Japan. While I was in Tokyo last summer I picked up a lot of shit, otherwise Play-Asia is pretty decent for your (Japanese) OST needs.

I prefer physical over digital because of lossless (which is sometimes available on certain Bandcamp profiles though), if you don't care about lossy files Itunes and Amazon are your friend, if you're from the US at least.

There are some great forum sites on the Internet, but unfortunately I can't point you towards them on this forum because of copyright infringement. I know of one forum where people like Jack Wall and Jos from Sidhe posted on to ask for removal of their soundtracks, which has been done and the forum policy dictates that no-one uploads that score again.

So it seems a lot of composers either don't give a shit or don't know about it.

 

[jmdajr]

It's a fucking pain in the ass to get some soundtracks, especially from Japan. While I was in Tokyo last summer I picked up a lot of shit, otherwise Play-Asia is pretty decent for your (Japanese) OST needs.

I prefer physical over digital because of lossless (which is sometimes available on certain Bandcamp profiles though), if you don't care about lossy files Itunes and Amazon are your friend, if you're from the US at least.

the prices are just ridiculous

 

[sixteen-bit]

iTunes is somewhat decent when it comes to game soundtracks

 

[Neuromancer]

Amazon has some too, I know they had the Halo Reacharound soundtrack.

 

[Augemitbutter]

yesasia, playasia, cdjapan, or vgmworld are all good and have deals sometimes.

i don't buy digital music, it's all CDs. i have accumlated a good selection of rare soundtracks over the years. more exciting than collectiong videogames.

but more expensive

 

[StevePharma]

the prices are just ridiculous

Exactly.


Also, there was this guy on one of these forums who made a custom soundtrack
of Gustaf Grefberg's score of The Darkness, which was FUCKING amazing and never
officially released (a crying shame). The guy who edited the rip into a score did an amazing job on it and I regularly listen to it because it feels like a score that should have been released though official channels.

Speaking of which, where is my official Beyond Good and Evil OST ? So many good
music lost because devs and publishers lack to give us a proper OST, although things
are changing. EA especially does a fine job, they just released a couple of Mass Effect
OSTs last week

 

[jmdajr]

I agree with the dude that owing the CD is the way to go. But again... prices
I remember for awhile there I was getting some good deals. But then you find out some are not OFFICIAL imports. It's like a knock off from some other country, but hey it was good before people were downloading things online. Sound quality was probably 1 to 1.

I saw a few Castlevania soundtracks there on Amazon. Must have had a u.s. release for more recent games.

I also have in my collection some final fantasy soundtracks that were released locally. Some of that stuff is like 100 bucks on amazon now :lol
link

edit: the darkness... awesome game

 

[Carlisle]

Amazon has some too, I know they had the Halo Reacharound soundtrack.

:lol :lol How is this the first time I've heard that?

 

[AlexMogil]

Amazon has some too, I know they had the Halo Reacharound soundtrack.

I'd like to think your phone corrected you because of frequency of word usage.


To the OP: It's really difficult to stay legal. I bought a Sonic soundtrack as a new retail product at Gamestop. After a few weeks I looked it up online and... it was a bootleg.

 

[sixteen-bit]

:lol :lol How is this the first time I've heard that?

You should have seen the Spike TV VGAs

 

[jmdajr]

I'd like to think your phone corrected you because of frequency of word usage.


To the OP: It's really difficult to stay legal. I bought a Sonic soundtrack as a new retail product at Gamestop. After a few weeks I looked it up online and... it was a bootleg.

:lol Yeah thats part of what I was talking about. if it's not like 50 bucks it's usually not legit

 

[Mario]

i believe when i buy a game i should get the soundtrack with it (for personal use etc)

Why do you feel that should be the case?

Do you also apply the same approach to OSTs for movies/TV shows on DVD/bluray/pay per view? Do you download movies/TV shows too?

So if an OST is really good i'll end up downloading it

So the more likely you are to get value and enjoyment out of an OST, the more likely you are to pirate it? Interesting.

 

[Insured]

Bandcamp has lots of game-related music.

http://bandcamp.com/tag/game-music?artist=2457816457

There's some stuff over at tag "video game music" too, notably the Plants vs Zombies soundtrack for example isn't tagged "game music" at all.

I found something... Amazing... From "video game music"...
http://pkmao.bandcamp.com/album/raptendo-64-vol-1

 

[subversus]

I'd kill for lossless ME2 soundtrack. There are some good tracks there like Illusive Man theme.

 

[Azure Phoenix]

To the OP: It's really difficult to stay legal. I bought a Sonic soundtrack as a new retail product at Gamestop. After a few weeks I looked it up online and... it was a bootleg.

Future note: Any soundtrack with MIYA-B printed somewhere on it is a bootleg.

Speaking of which, where is my official Beyond Good and Evil OST ?

From what I recall Ubisoft eventually released the soundtrack for free. Ironically it's hard to find a download of Ubisoft's official release since I don't think it was on their actual website.

 

[jmdajr]

another thing I would do would be to rip my playstation 1 games.

A lot of them had red book audio soundtracks!

 

[StevePharma]

Future note: Any soundtrack with MIYA-B printed somewhere on it is a bootleg.


From what I recall Ubisoft eventually released the soundtrack for free. Ironically it's hard to find a download of Ubisoft's official release since I don't think it was on their actual website.

Yes I have that download, but it has horrible compression and SFX in some of the tracks. Hopefully with the PSN/XBLA re-release the updated soundtrack will be released as well.

Why do you feel that should be the case?

Do you also apply the same approach to OSTs for movies/TV shows on DVD/bluray/pay per view? Do you download movies/TV shows too?




So the more likely you are to get value and enjoyment out of an OST, the more likely you are to pirate it? Interesting.

I can understand your question from a developer's perspective. You put hard work into a project and want to be acknowledged for it, in a capitalist model that acknowledgement being money.

Another thing. I bought Gran Turismo 5. It has a shitload of music tracks on it. I discovered I can rip them off of my Blu-Ray in pretty high quality and so I did, so I can listen to them while I please. I believe that I can make a copy for home-use just like with movies and music if I'm correct.

A lot of consumers feel like they're paying twice for game music, while in essence I guess they only licenced the music on their disc or something (I don't know how this actually works legally). Just look at your project Shatter, for a while the OST was more expensive than the game itself. I still bought it to get the bonus track but still, I can understand consumer behaviour to some degree here.

 

[Drkirby]

another thing I would do would be to rip my playstation 1 games.

A lot of them had red book audio soundtracks!

I did that for quiet a few. If you have the first volume of the Namco Museum, the audio tracks have a decent joke names.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Holy crap Zuntata has a okay chunk of their music library up on itunes.

They don't have the PC-Engine CD version of Darius 2 though. =/

Almost every CD is $9.99 too...yeesh. I mean yeah way better than $14125234346 for the actual CD but eh.

 

[sam27368]

Slightly off topic, but just got my KH2 soundtrack through and just noticed this, quite interesting.

A UK rapper named Devlin has sampled the intro from Kingdom Hearts 2 in one of his songs.

Devlin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST0bFXNqzh8

KH2 intro - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aBlcD9Fm7U

 

[Nuclear Muffin]

Far too many games don't get a separate soundtrack release

 

[thefro]

Far too many games don't get a separate soundtrack release

All games with original music should release their OSTs on ITunes/Amazon at a reasonable price. The effort involved is very little and it'd be an additional revenue stream for the composers and studios. It makes no sense at all why this doesn't happen already.