Game Music Digest | Virtual Artists, VTubers and Spooky Drag Queens
The music industry goes Marvel with its own MCU (Music Connected Universe)
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 music and gaming newsletter, MusicEXP. Subscribe to keep on top of the latest trends in video games and music delivered straight to your inbox every week. This issue is a BIG ONE as we’re back after a two-week break due to a house move and insane workload.
Want more music and gaming news? Subscribe to the music and gaming podcast GXM, which I co-host with Laced community manager, Tom Quillfeldt. The latest episode features multi-instrumentalist and singer Lacey Johnson, who talks about her success creating video game music covers on TikTok and YouTube.
Are VTubers and Virtual Artists The Next Big Music & Gaming Opportunity?
South Korean entertainment agency, SM Entertainment, debuted the first single from its AI-powered virtual artist, nævis, with a music video for ‘Done’. The YouTube video picked up more than 750k views in its first 24 hours, and follows surprise appearances by nævis in music videos and concerts for the K-pop girl band aespa, who have a ‘metaverse origin story’ that ties its members to an interconnected world with other SM Entertainment artists. That origin story includes nævis, as she was previously introduced to the world as an AI system that connects aespa to their virtual counterparts. The debut single from nævis plays on this concept, as one YouTube comment reads: “her voice and visual look like a mix of the 4 members of aespa”
EXP: SM Entertainment has essentially created its own version of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where it’s able to create an interconnected world between its massive talent roster where lyric concepts, themes in music videos, and background stories for artists can be tied together as part of a cohesive narrative. This is storytelling through music, where fans don’t passively listen to music. They buy into the stories and characters that come with it and join them on their journey as superfans.
Of course, there are comparisons to be made here with video games, notably K/DA, a K-pop virtual artist group created by Riot Games featuring members from its video game (turned global entertainment IP) League of Legends. K/DA is one of the most popular virtual artist groups in the world, with 2.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify and more than 600m views on the music video for their debut single, ‘POP/STARS’, which was certified platinum in 2022.
K/DA’s success can be attributed to the shared universe strategy that SM Entertainment is pursuing for its talent roster. Riot Games turned popular League of Legends characters into global pop stars, and its player base now has more ways to interact with them. K/DA members also have distinct personalities and styles that make the group appealing to a broader demographic. If Riot so wishes, the group could be easily incorporated into other platforms and formats, such as its anime series, Arcane, or external IP. The K-pop group has already appeared in numerous crossover events with other Riot Games titles.
Riot Games is one of the few companies in the West that has found success with this new era of virtual artists, which says a lot, given it’s a video game studio first and foremost. Earlier this year, Billboard published an excellent piece on how Korean music companies such as HYBE, JYP and SM Entertainment are schooling Western labels on how to do music differently. While there are examples of Western labels experimenting with virtual artists, such as UMG creating a virtual group with Bored Ape Yacht Club and WMG’s countless investments in virtual artists and metaverse start-ups (MBW has a comprehensive list here), it’s companies in South Korea, Japan and China that are leading the way and have a firmer grasp on the trends driving music consumption amongst younger audiences.
Western labels need to establish a presence in the virtual artist space through themselves or subsidiaries to capture a portion of this rapidly growing market.
Virtual artists also represent an excellent opportunity for major labels to further establish themselves in the video game market. The Asia-Pacific market generates 46% of global gaming revenue, according to Newzoo, and the mobile rhythm game market is dominated by games from studios in Japan, China and South Korea that feature K-pop or J-pop music, virtual idol groups, or characters with an anime aesthetic.
Hatsune Miku, Colorful Stage, is the most popular rhythm game in the world right now. Published by Sega, Hatsune Miku Colorful Stage features six virtual singers, including famous Vocaloid Hatsune Miku who is currently on a world tour. The game has grossed more than $260 million since its release in 2020, according to Sensor Tower data obtained by MusicEXP. Other successful games based on virtual artists include Uni's On Air ($24 million lifetime revenue) featuring songs and members from the idol groups Sakurazaka46 and Hinatazaka46, and Nogizaka46 Rhythm Festival ($12.9 million lifetime revenue) based on the Nogizaka46 Idol Group.
There is an opportunity here for major labels to partner with virtual artist talent agencies and get in front of gamers by aligning their music with an image and style that resonates with the Asia-Pacific market. By doing so, they can also tap into the lucrative VTuber market, influencers who use face, body, or voice tracking to create a virtual avatar, often in the style of anime characters. VTubers made up more than 50% of the top 10 female streamers in 2023.
I suspect we’ll see more game studios launching virtual artist groups featuring characters from their IP in the coming years. Blizzard could do this with Overwatch if they worked with the right songwriters and producers, and miHoYo could definitely do this for Genshin Impact or Zenless Zone Zero. VTuber agency Hololive recently announced its expanding its video game presence in collaboration with “medium-size to large developers”, so we’ll likely see rhythm games based on Hololive artists hit the market soon.
Producer Mike Smith’s ‘Niosmith’ Project Gets a Mobile Game ft. Music from Snoop
A new mobile game called Death Travelers features music from legendary producer Mike Smith’s ‘Niosmith’ project and contributions from Snoop Dogg and RZA. The game is part of the wider ‘Death Travelers’ universe, which fuses music, an animated web series and now, a mobile game. The mobile game features similar gameplay to ‘runner’ games like Temple Run, where you dodge and destroy obstacles as you upgrade your car and collect resources. New music will be added every month, according to the Google Play Store listing.
EXP: This has FLOWN under the radar, which is surprising given the caliber of names involved. I’m not sure what’s happened here, but the game has been out for over two weeks and has less than 100 downloads. That said, it’s not unusual for mobile games to quietly launch in pre-release as developers work to fix any issues. The game is developed by a company called “Always Imagine LLC,” which doesn’t seem to have any other mobile games to its name. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this!
Zedd Debuts New Music in UMG’s Beat Galaxy Experience
Artist and producer Zedd hosted a takeover of UMG’s Beat Galaxy game on Roblox to promote his latest album, Telos. Players could listen to a new single ‘Lucky’ ahead of its global release on August 30, and pre-save the album on Spotify in-game. According to the press release, the experience launched on August 29 and lasted for 10 days, and players could also “collect shards of glass reflecting the album's artwork, which can be redeemed for limited UGC items and an exclusive emote called the "Zabb."
EXP: Similar to the Rolling Stones activation in June, this Zedd collaboration didn’t do much to reignite player numbers for Beat Galaxy, which have been on a downhill trajectory since its launch in 2023. According to Romonitor, Player visits doubled from 4200 to just over 10,000 August 28-29, but these figures are tiny for such a notable partnership and a Roblox game in general. Fatigue with the endless runner mechanics, maybe?
Sabaton Bassist Pär Sundström Crowdfunds ‘Lord of Metal’ Video Game
Sabaton Bassist, Pär Sundström, announced the launch of a new video game as part of a Kickstarter to fund the game’s development. Lord of Metal is a ‘story-driven music festival management sim’ developed by Sundström’s independent game studio, Horn Up Games, which features industry veterans (and presumably metalheads) from Epic Games and Wargaming. The game’s Kickstarter reached its $100k stretch goal in just four days and is expected to release in 2026 or 2027 on PC and console.
EXP: Did you know Sabaton’s bass player is also the CEO of a video game studio? Neither did I! There’s a super-talented team behind this and I’m confident it will do well. If you’re not familiar with idea of a ‘management sim’, it’s a game genre where you manage or build projects and communities using limited resources, leveling up as you go. A music festival is a great fit for the genre, and it’s great to see a notable artist doing something special with their love of gaming.
Dead by Daylight Collaborates with Drag Icons The Boulet Brothers
Multiplayer survival game Dead by Daylight announced a collaboration with drag Queen icons The Boulet Brothers, set to launch in Fall 2024. There’s not much detail on what the collaboration will actually involve, but most in-game collabs for Dead by Daylight feature new character skins and items based on the partner IP. The press release for the announcement did state that the game will feature in a special episode of the forthcoming season for The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula.
EXP: Just when I was thinking game developer Behavior Interactive was running out of horror IPs to collaborate with, in comes one of the best crossovers I’ve seen between a video game and a major entertainment show so far. Game studios that operate live service games regularly collaborate with well-known IP to attract new users who are fans of that IP while generating new revenue streams through the sale of IP-based in-game items. This event will probably go live in-game at the same time the new series debuts, and I love how absurd it is while staying on-brand with the horror IPs that Dead by Daylight works with.
Three weeks’ worth of video game and music stories to dive into here, so you’re bound to find something you like!
Chantey is a new pirate-metal rhythm game dropping on Mod Retro’s Chromatic Handheld in 2025.
It’s good to keep tabs on your kids. Or in the case of pop star Adele, pay a visit to the game studio that makes your son’s favourite games. [Link]
GameChops and Super Piano 64 released a cover album of piano lullabies from The Legend of Zelda. [Link]
PlayStation celebrated its 30th anniversary by releasing a load of its soundtracks on Spotify. [Link]
Extreme metal publication Decibel chats to Doom creator John Romero about heavy metal in the latest version of its gaming column Killscreen. [Link]
Killer Mike has written a new song to promote the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. [Link]
The soundtrack for NBA 2K25 has been announced and features 61 tracks at launch. [Link]
Any RuneScape players in the house? Laced Records put out a D&B remix album produced by Pizza Hotline. [Link]
The music from Shovel Knight is getting the concert treatment as it hits the stage with the Grammy-winning 8-Bit Big Band in January 2025. [Link]
Roblox launched music charts (yay!) and a collaboration with Distrokid, but featured artists will be paid in ‘exposure’ (boooo!) [Link]
BBC explores the complexities of music licensing in video games after Martyn Ware turned down a $22.5k sync fee for the Heaven 17 hit, Temptation. [Link]