If movies can put out soundtracks before a film releases, video games should be able to release theirs on streaming as the game launches too.
Upon finishing Final Fantasy VII Remake last week, my first course of action was to head to YouTube to immediately find the track I had been most excited to listen to once I had finished the game. I found it, after a bit of digging through a YouTube playlist of the game’s original soundtrack ripped straight from the game, but it wasn’t easy.
Unlike movies, where film soundtracks are most often released ahead of a film’s release, video games have no set pattern or standard to follow. If you’re an indie developer, it’s oftentimes advantageous to package your game’s soundtrack alongside your game. The developer of Stardew Valley, ConcernedApe, has the soundtrack to the game available as a $5 DLC addition on Steam. Undertale by Toby Fox has a soundtrack bundle of the game on Steam, or it can be purchased on its own for $10 on the same page.
Both of those soundtracks are also available to stream on Spotify and Apple Music, which is great for me — an Apple Music user — to pick up the soundtrack on my commute if I’m feeling like it.
However, Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s soundtrack is nowhere to be found legally and won’t be until publisher Square Enix releases the physical version of the soundtrack on May 27. Even then, there’s no confirmation that the soundtrack will show up on streaming during this time, if ever.
It was only recently that Square Enix put the official licensed soundtracks to their Final Fantasy titles on streaming services, which goes up to their last mainline game Final Fantasy XV, which was released in 2016. In January 2020, Square Enix also released the Nier franchise’s soundtracks — along with piano collections and unreleased tracks — on streaming services for the first time ever.
Of course, the soundtrack to Nier: Automata was released as a CD in April 2017, but that was two months after the game was released to the public in late February of that year. And the official soundtrack release doesn’t even feature all the songs listed in the game, which tops out at nearly six hours worth of music with all the variations of the tracks that are used.
Some popular games don’t even have official soundtrack releases yet. Kingdom Hearts III, which was released in January 2019 with a DLC update in January of this year, still does not have an official soundtrack, with YouTube or online catalogues providing the only unofficial sources of these tunes. Tetris Effect, a game all about playing Tetris to original music, will finally see a physical release of their soundtrack — for a limited time — sometime in 2020.
It’s a shame video game developers take such a long time to release their game soundtracks, whether it be a physical or digital edition or via streaming services. To be frank: video game music rocks. I am constantly listening to various soundtracks while I’m working, from the upbeat, pop fueled jams of Sayonara Wild Hearts to the soothing lo-fi beats of Donut County. In total, video game music is probably what I listen to most even in my daily life, as my YouTube history can absolutely attest to.
Thankfully, both of those soundtracks are on streaming services where I can access them anytime I wish. But, if I want to listen to some of my favorite tracks from Kingdom Hearts III, I have to go searching on YouTube to find it, or into my downloaded tracks on my personal computer where I snagged an unofficial copy of the soundtrack from a lovely person on the internet who ripped the audio files out of the game.
I would gladly pay $40-plus for an official release of Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s soundtrack on release day just to be able to have the convenience to listen to this or this on the go without the intermittent game sounds that happen from unofficial audio rips. I would pay a thousand times over to have the entire library of Kingdom Hearts songs on streaming services at my fingertips when I’m feeling nostalgic.
Given how popular video game music is as a genre, it’s a shame that not all soundtracks are available on a game’s release date. A game’s soundtrack is often what keeps me connected to that game’s universe, even when I’ve put the game down and moved on to another one. And while YouTube is a great archive for many soundtracks, it’s certainly not the most convenient way to listen to music on the go.
If movies can release their soundtracks as the film releases to theaters worldwide, why can’t video games do the same?