FFShrine

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

With all due respect...

I completly disagree that "comercializing" video game music has ruined it. I'm guessing that this kind of statement and thinking comes from more of a "hardcore" perspective... and I can appreciate that. For example, I've spoken to some hardcores who are genuinely annoyed that game music is no longer such an "underground" thing as it once was. Its these same folks who generally despise the fact that "casuals" enjoy listening to songs like One-Winged Angel and that all game composers who were not born in Japan are talentless hacks.

"commercializing" game music only fuels the piracy. The people you're having a problem with are those 'casuals' who spend hundreds of dollars on games each month yet see game music as a free bonus and are only willing to pay for live concerts and events.

Also, the majority of game music composers still hold no rights to their music, so I assume they condone the sharing (sharing to some, stealing to others) of their works and are happy for as little as fan mails and positive feedback.

I can't speak for anybody, though, and I totally respect your stance. It's just the target audience of VGL that has to be sensitized for these issues, not this place.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

This discussion has pretty much ended on page 1. You know it's over when people show up who visit this part of the board perhaps once a year and only for the sake of the arguement.

I'll just respond to what Tommy said..

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

In fact the only people I've seen pirate our products are the hardcore game music fans.

Quite frankly, that's unfair to say. There's no market research about who illegaly downloaded what. There's always a voiceful minority, but 'hardcore' comes on so many levels, you just cannot generalize it. Here's another hardcore:

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

it's only true among the "hardcore" thieves who will never pay for anything digital anyway

I can guarantee you that every board with questionnable content has thousands of lurkers who don't brag about their piracy, but do the same damage.

Originally Posted by Tommy Tallarico

It's not an entirely correct statement to say that most game composers don't hold rights to their music (Mitsuda-san for example owns all the music to Chrono Cross).

Mitsuda-san is a great man who has created beautiful music, and he's a very nice person as well. His greatness has allowed him to become freelance, create his own record label and start his own studio to bring in new talent. He is not the majority I'm talking about. And please don't read that as an excuse to download his works, it's the opposite.

So yeah, I don't want to defend piracy, but one has to draw the line between ambitious projects like VGM concerts, independent labels (EGG music seemingly has no problem with piracy) and on the other side, composers whose works can only be listened to if you e.g. pre-order some obscure Japanese game nobody in the West would ever admit to playing (and honestly, I bought almost ten of these bonus soundtrack CDs from Yahoo Japan Auctions this month).

There's nowhere I can't reach.