Game Music Digest | Bebe Rexha, The Rolling Stones and Roblox
Everything you need to know from the world of video games and music.
Game Music Digest is a weekly wrap-up of the most interesting stories at the intersection of video games and music, brought to you by MusicEXP. Subscribe to keep on top of the latest trends in video games and music delivered straight to your inbox every Monday!
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Bebe Rexha Returns to Roblox with SOUNDZ, a ‘scalable immersive music offering.’
Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Bebe Rexha is returning to Roblox with the launch of ‘SOUNDZ,’ a scalable immersive music offering available through the metaverse media channel Super League’s development tools. According to the press release, “SOUNDZ provides a new way for music artists and brands to reach millions of daily fans on Roblox through a first-of-its-kind listening activation that can be enjoyed simultaneously through multiple existing popular experiences on Roblox.”
In the case of Bebe Rexha, this means bringing the artist and two of her songs ‘Chase It (Mmm Da Da Da)’ and ‘I’m The Drama,’ to life through a custom-built avatar set where players can dance together, play rhythm-based games and purchase Bebe Rexha virtual merch in three existing Roblox games: Carry A Friend!, Paradise RP, and The Floor Is Lava.
EXP: Major labels have moved away from one-off Roblox activations in favor of ‘persistent experiences’ (video games) after they realised it doesn’t make sense to invest six figures into building a new Roblox game that will eventually die once the hype has died down and the ‘live performance’ elements of that experience are no more (shout-out Elton John and Chain Smokers).
A lot of people throw around Roblox’s 70 million daily active user figures as the reason for creating an experience on the platform, but it’s important to remember that Roblox is a platform for video games and not a video game. Creating a game (or ‘experience’ for the investors!) on Roblox doesn’t mean you’ll reach or engage with 70 million people. That’s like saying “I’m launching on TikTok to reach one billion monthly active users.” If you’re creating on Roblox, you’re launching onto a platform where Roblox players have 40 million (yes!) other games to choose from.
With that in mind, why create your own game when you can integrate into a Roblox game with millions of players already? Metallica reached 22 million people in three days through five Roblox integrations to support the launch of 72 Seasons. Combined, the three games that Bebe is featuring in have 2.5 million daily visits and an average session length of 10 minutes. More importantly, she’s integrating into games that players already know and love. As long as Super League has nailed the new gameplay mechanics that feature in these games, it’s a win-win.
The Rolling Stones Make Their Roblox Debut in Universal Music Group’s ‘Beat Galaxy
The Rolling Stones have launched a takeover in UMG’s ‘immersive music hub’ Beat Galaxy on Roblox. According to the press release, “The Rolling Stones' takeover in Beat Galaxy aims to bridge the gap between rock music legends and younger generations, featuring experiences and gameplay surrounding the band's greatest hits, exclusive virtual merchandise and premium avatar items.”
EXP: Roblox is a gaming platform first and foremost, so any experiences created on the platform need to have compelling gameplay mechanics so they’re ‘sticky’ enough to keep bringing players back. Most of the immersive music experiences on Roblox share basic rhythm game and endless runner mechanics, so their biggest sell to players is the community aspect of socializing with other super fans. Immersive music experiences on Roblox work best when they’re built for artists with a very engaged fanbase. TWICE is an excellent fit for Roblox. The Rolling Stones are not. This might explain why only ten players (!) are inside the experience at the time of writing. Sidenote: I’m surprised this didn’t get more attention from national/international media outside of music, which would have helped increase player numbers.
How Video Game Music is Turning Entertainment into Art
Rolling Stone is absolutely killing it with their gaming coverage at the moment, and this latest feature by Paul F. Verhoeven is a fantastic analysis of how music heightens the experience of playing video games. Paul speaks to some of the leading names in the biz, including video game composers Austin Wintory (Journey), Bear McCreary (God of War), Dan Golding (Untitled Goose Game) and Stephen Barton (Star Wars: Jedi Survivor); musicians José González (whose music is synonymous with Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption) and Poe (who is all over the soundtrack for Alan Wake 2); and Sam Lake, the mastermind of the Alan Wake games, which resulted in one of the best music and gaming moments to ever exist (PLEASE CLICK THIS).
EXP: It’s great to see such extensive research into the process of scoring music for video games and the important research between video games and music. Moments like the Alan Wake 2 music section I linked above (here, for a second time, please just watch it) are shining examples of how video games can turn in-game music into interactive experiences that aren’t possible in any other medium. I absolutely love this quote from Bear McCreary on the differences: “There’s a deeper level in gaming than in other art forms… You aren’t just meant to relate to the protagonist… You’re meant to feel! You are that protagonist! So what makes us truly feel that we’re Kratos? Or Spider-Man? Or John Marston? Music makes you feel like you’re really there by, ironically, playing you something that isn’t there!”
'Queen of Gaelic Singers' Inspires Video Game Soundtrack
Still Wakes The Deep released on 18 June, a new horror game set on a damaged oil drilling platform in the North Sea. The game follows protagonist Cameron "Caz" McLeary, as he boards the rig as an electrician to flee the Scottish police. The game features a Gaelic language option, and many of the game’s characters are voiced by Scottish actors (Alec Newman, Neve McIntosh, and Karen Dunbar). After the game’s developer found clips of Flora MacNeil (AKA Queen of the Gaelic singers) singing on the internet, the studio’s audio director approached her daughter, Scottish singer Maggie MacInnes, to record new music for the game.
EXP: It’s rare that video games dive into specific regionalized music like this. Still Wakes The Deep needs a special shout-out for its soundtrack composed by Jason Graves. Take a listen to the full soundtrack on Spotify.
Sabrina Carpenter is Hosting a Virtual Concert in Meta’s Horizon Worlds Experience
Meta is hosting a Sabrina Carpenter VR concert on 19 July as part of its ‘Music Valley’ experience in the Meta VR game Horizon Worlds. According to Meta, the performance is inspired by Sabrina’s “show-stopping set at Coachella” and “was shot in 180-degree VR with spectacular staging, clutch costumes, and killer choreography. Fans can expect back catalog classics like ‘Why’ alongside more recent hits like ‘Nonsense’ and her hit single, ‘Espresso.’
EXP: I think VR music experiences like this are great, and Meta’s really leading the way on this front by integrating music experiences into a VR social hub (Horizon Worlds) with a solid user base. As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, it’s a shame we haven’t seen anything similar from Sony, given the lackluster sales for the PSVR2.
How 22-year-old producer Dazegxd Brought His Internet Sound to Real Life
This is a cool interview featuring 22-year-old jungle and house music producer Dazegxd, whose music has managed to reach a massive audience through the producer’s video game influences and the way his music appeals to gamers (of course, a couple of video game syncs have helped too!). I wanted to share this to highlight how there’s a new generation of electronic producers who are discovering genres like jungle through old video game soundtracks (shout out Bomberman Hero!) According to the interview: Dazegxd “began posting original house music and trap beats he produced to the internet when he was 16, before turning to jungle, the British rave phenomenon that he encountered first through video game soundtracks and websites like Digitally Imported FM.”
EXP: Video games have the power to make and shape the music tastes of entire generations – just look at the thirty-somethings like me who binged on a music diet of punk-rock, ska and metal thanks to the music in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater! THPS, alongside Wipeout, FIFA, and Grand Theft Auto, had a major impact on the music I’ve grown up listening to, and I believe modern video games like Fortnite are having the same effect on today’s younger generations.
NoCopyrightSounds Expands Geometry Dash Soundtrack with 1500 New Songs
Robotop Games, the developer of the popular rhythm game franchise Geometry Dash, has teamed up with NoCopyrightSounds, the largest independent electronic label offering free music to creators, to introduce more than 1500 songs from the label that players will be able to use in their live-streams and content without fear of DMCAs. Robotop’s rhythm games grossed $100k last month and amassed more than eight million downloads, according to Sensor Tower data.
EXP: I don’t need to sit here and tell you how complicated music licensing is. The biggest problem for video game developers is the growing popularity of live-streaming on platforms such as Twitch, where players and content creators are easily hit with DMCAs (I wrote a big piece on this here a while back) if they stream gameplay footage featuring licensed music. While some studios are navigating this by providing players with an option to ‘mute’ licensed music on playthroughs, others are pursuing long-term partnerships with labels that specialize in royalty-free music. Labels like this will continue to do well in the gaming space (just look at Monstercat!), and I suspect we’ll see many more of them.