Game Music Digest | Virtual Creators, PlayStation Concerts & EA's Spotify Deal
Plus: Video game music debuts at the top of the Billboard Charts
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.
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Want more music and gaming news? Listen to the GXM Podcast I co-host with Thomas Quillfeldt. Our latest episode features a poignant interview with the BAFTA-winning and Ivor Novello-nominated composer, who chats to Tom about her latest choral album and spending five years shielding during the COVID pandemic.
Key Takeaways from YouTube’s Virtual Creators Report
In Brief: YouTube’s Culture and Trends Team has launched a new report on virtual creators, online content creators who use animated virtual avatars. This report provides important data and insight into the virtual creator landscape, the different types of virtual creators, how the tech works and the reason behind their growing popularity (hint: geek culture and video games).
EXP: Apologies to any long-time subscribers who are tired of me banging on about VTubers, but I cannot stress how important it is for the wider music industry to understand the popularity of VTubers and virtual creators. I believe there are significant opportunities here for major labels and independents to grow artists and talent through virtual personas, similar to what Riot Games is doing with Heartsteel and K/DA; or Metaverse Entertainment (owned by game company Netmarble) with Mave.
I’d encourage everyone reading this to check out the full report here. You can find my summary points below:
Virtual creators can be defined as an online persona represented by a digital avatar. They are usually real humans behind these avatars using live motion capture or holographic projections, but they can also be backed by artificial intelligence.
YouTube puts virtual creators into four main categories:
VTubers – Content creators who typically stream/post on YouTube and Twitch using avatars who look like anime characters. Some VTubers are treated as IP and handled by massive entertainment agencies like HoloLive. Popular VTubers include Gawr Gura, HoushouMarine and Filian.
Gaming Virtual Creators – Content creators who use video game or video game-inspired avatars, typically themed around the game(s) they create content. Good examples are iDatchy and Nats Venturina creating content using their Roblox avatars.
Virtual Artists – Basically this generation’s version of The Gorillaz. Virtual artists are mainly focussed on music creation and can be brought to life in various ways. Riot Games’ virtual artist group K/DA features themed versions of characters from their video game League of Legends, while SM Entertainment’s Naevis is a virtual artist/idol created using AI software.
Virtual Humans – Content creators with a hyper-realistic appearance. These virtual avatars are usually adopted by companies as virtual influencers in marketing campaigns. Good examples are Kyra and Miquela.
In 2024, a sample of just 300 virtual creators on YouTube earned over 15 billion views across videos, live streams and Shorts, with one billion of those views coming from the US alone – this isn’t just an East Asia trend, although this is where virtual creators are most popular.
Over the past three years, videos related to VTubers have averaged 50 billion views globally.
Hatsune Miku is one of the best examples of a virtual artist (even though Miku is technically a vocaloid voice synthesiser!). She recently appeared in Fortnite Festival, has several of her own video games, and has collaborated with companies such as Pokemon and McDonalds.
16/20 channels with the greatest Snapchat revenue belong to VTubers (As of February 2025).
YouTube says that while we’re entering a breakthrough moment for virtual creators, the journey started over 30 years ago. It cites advancements in technology (mo-cap, AI, animation techniques, streaming), younger audiences with greater fluency in cultivating online fandom and video game platforms and culture as the driving factors behind the growth of virtual creators.
YouTube’s 2024 Fandom Trends Report found 57% of 14 to 44-year-olds have watched a virtual creator in the last year.
The big takeaway on why virtual creators will only get more popular: "Many find that adopting an alter ego allows them to express their talents and creativity more fully… This virtual persona helps alleviate the anxieties of creators who may hesitate to share their passions or their person.” Basically - these virtual avatars give people who otherwise wouldn’t feel comfortable being ‘themselves’ on camera an opportunity to become prominent influencers. That, and the malleability of virtual avatars means creators can customize their appearance to something that would resonate most with their desired target audience. This is why I’m so bullish on virtual creators from a music perspective – there’s an opportunity for musicians who would never feel comfortable performing as themselves to release music through a persona but also speak to fans and perform live as an animated avatar.
Epic Games Adds Solo Jam Loops to Fortnite Festival, Partners with Luminate for in-game Music Streaming Metrics AND Secures a Win in Apple Court Case
In brief: It’s been a busy few weeks at Epic Games!
Fortnite Festival Jam Stage: A recent update to Fortnite Festival means players can now create their own solo mixes in Jam Stage using Jam Tracks in the game, something that was previously only available in multiplayer. If you’re not familiar with Fortnite Festival’s Jam Stage, it’s basically a revamped version of Harmonix’s Fuser game, where players can combine music stems from Jam Tracks they’ve purchased or unlocked to make new mixes. Tempo, instrumentation and key signatures can all be changed in real-time!
Luminate Partnership: A new partnership between Epic Games and Luminate adds music streaming metrics from Fortnite Jam Tracks to Luminate’s music data platform Connect. I’ve sent some questions over to Luminate to provide clarity on what counts as a ‘stream’ or ‘play’ and will hopefully be able to share more in the next newsletter!
Apple vs Epic: And the biggest news story: Fortnite could return to iOS devices in the US any day now after a recent court order blocked Apple from taking a commission on purchases made outside of its App Store. Expect a big increase in Fortnite’s daily users when the game heads to the store, and also Epic’s profits as it points players to external web stores to buy V-Bucks.
Did PlayStation’s The Concert Just Set a New Standard for Video Game Concerts?
In brief: PlayStation: The Concert is a global concert tour of music from PlayStation games. I made it down to the Manchester show at AO Arena and given video game concerts seem to be incredibly popular right now, I wanted to quickly summarise my thoughts!
EXP: I think I’ve attended around 25 video game concerts by now so have a relatively decent understanding on what makes a good one! Let’s start with the positives: PlayStation: The Concert blows any other video game concerts I’ve seen out of the water from a cinematic and production perspective. The stage set-up and the position of musicians was constantly evolving and adapting while bespoke cinematic animations consumed a huge screen behind them, pushing out a variety of projections and lighting.
I think a lot of this is down to the involvement of NorthHouse Creative, who played the role of Creative Direction, Stage Design, Screen and Projection Visual Design. This is the same company that worked on The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and The King’s Coronation Concert, so it’s reasonable to say they know how to make a big celebration!
While I really enjoyed the concert, I was disappointed with the setlist. It mainly focussed on PlayStation IP from the last decade, with the show split into four sections mainly focussing on The Last of Us, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon (although other franchises such as Uncharted and Bloodborne did make a brief appearance).
As this concert was announced as part of PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, it would have been nice to see some older games from the PS1 and PS2 era, although I completely understand the logic of not including these as some of PlayStation’s most iconic ‘PlayStation’ titles are now owned by competitors or other companies!
If you’re interested in learning more about game concerts, I’ll have an interview with a game concert producer coming to MusicEXP soon!
Spotify and EA Sports Partnership Integrates Spotify into EA Sports FC 25
In brief: Spotify and EA Sports have announced a new partnership that integrates Spotify into EA Sports FC 25. This feature is currently only available to Spotify premium users in Australia and Saudi Arabia, who can access it by logging into their Spotify account in-game. Spotify is also building bespoke playlists according to the announcement: “Spotify’s global editorial experts are building recommendations that reflect music culture around the world, ensuring a dynamic and engaging listening experience for gamers.”
EXP: Ehhhhhh! I don’t really know how I feel about this. EA Sports FC (formerly FIFA) is the game that most people think of when it comes to music and gaming culture. It cemented EA’s reputation as being a global trendsetter for music and gaming, and people celebrate these game soundtracks just as much as the games themselves.
Doesn’t a partnership with Spotify letting players have full control of the music they’re listening to dilute EA’s message about the importance of a carefully curated soundtrack and the incredible work of Schnur and its music supervisors?
What’s the point of putting so much work into building a unique game soundtrack if players can just replace it with their own music?
Swedish Rock Band Ghost Celebrate New Album Release with Roblox Integration (And its a huge success!)
In brief: To promote the release of their latest album, Skeletá, Ghost launched an integration in the popular Roblox game, Rushed Out! As well as playing as old vocalist Frater Imperator, players can buy new Ghost merch and accessories from their favourite past Papas.
EXP: Honestly, I wouldn’t have put Ghost fans and Roblox players in the same boat but I’ve been blown away by how successful this collaboration has been. I took a look at figures on Romonitor and found the collaboration caused a huge spike in daily visits, jumping from 50k daily visits pre-launch to over 650k.
Music activations in Roblox work like traditional licensing deals, where the artist is paid a licensing fee to appear in the game. The obvious benefit here is that when these activations work, the featured artist should bring their fanbase into the game they’re integrating with, which is exactly what happened here. I think the figures behind this activation highlight how passionate Ghost fans are - I found plenty of Reddit posts from fans saying this was their first time downloading Roblox because of the activation.
Also – I think it’s fair to say that ‘owned’ music activations on Roblox are pretty much dead now. We’ve moved from artists and labels building their own bespoke experiences on the platform to integrating their IP into existing games that are already popular on the platform. I wouldn’t be surprised if the three majors eventually stop making updates to their ‘persistent experience’ Roblox worlds given some of them are averaging just a couple of players every day now.
In other news…
Brain Jar Games has released a new trailer for their upcoming neon-drenched beat-em-up rhythm game, Dead as Disco. [Link]
Gustavo Santaolalla is a ridiculously talented Argentine composer and record producer who has scored a variety of films and TV series, but most people will know him for his work on The Last of Us video games and TV series. He’s teamed up with Spitfire to release a new sample library for the ronroco, a double-stringed Andean instrument that features heavily in his The Last of Us music. [Link]
Meta’s Horizon Worlds – an online virtual reality game accessible through Meta headsets – has released three avatar skins for Doja Cat. They cost 750 Meta Credits each (the equivalent of $7.50). [Link]
The Esports World Cup has launched Music of EWC, a new music initiative/competition where game and music communities have the opportunity to remix Esports World Cup music suites recorded by 2WEI and Hollywood Scoring at Abbey Road Studios. [Link]
An indie developer is turning his longtime fascination with the heavy metal band Voivod into a game called Voivod: The Nuclear Warrior. [Link]
Did you know Soccer Mommy is a huge Stardew Valley fan? [Link]
And did you know comedian and actor Bobby Lee is probably the biggest Stardew Valley fan in the world? Stoked to see Bobby’s reaction here as I played in part in helping to set this up! [Link]
There is a Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater festival happening TODAY and the entire thing is being LIVE-STREAMED around the world via the official Pro Skater Twitch channel. Danny Brown, Lupe Fiasco, Adolescents, and Urethane are all performing. [Link]
Listen to…
I can’t stop playing Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, the new reactive turn-based RPG from Sandfall Interactive. We (Laced Records) are publishing the soundtrack, which is remarkably the first score from composer Lorien Testard and has managed to hit No. 1 in the Billboard Classical Album and Classical Crossover Album Charts. It’s had more than 20 million streams since releasing on DSPs just under two weeks ago. Listen to it here. [Link]