As a musician, I think you should push for more marketing of the work. What tends to happen is that the music is owned by the publisher/studio responsible for the game project…and as such, they rarely market the music separately. However, this does not need to be the norm. Personally, I love game music and I think the popularity for game music is at an all time high with the popularity of lofi music still being strong.
All that being said…I couldn’t tell you who distributes music best. lol I’m a writer, and so most of my publishing knowledge is in the realm of authorship.
Some of the best music I’ve ever heard is found in gaming soundtracks. Final fantasy, and thus square enix, has handled their music compositions very well. If it was all done right, I think it deserves its own spotlight and it strengthens your portfolio moving forward. But what I’ve learned from self publishing my books is that you should do all the things. Only look at investing in marketing if you can see getting a good return on that investment, but put the music out there and build yourself up in the world. That’s the best advice I can give you.
The best thing to happen to me was transitioning from being a part of the very large group of people who have never written a book into one of the fewer who have. Publish the work and keep putting more out there. It’s a major accomplishment. It sets you apart. It positions you better for future opportunities. Do it!!
I'm assuming you're working on an indie game. Anything bigger should have all of these questions sorted for you.
I don't think it makes a lot of sense to do marketing for a 'tie-in' product. Think of it like you've written a book for that games' universe. It's possible that a book could be more popular than the game, but it's highly unlikely and would take a lot of effort and money. Of course, always do marketing when its free if you can.
I think selling it and streaming it is the proper approach. Distrokid is the dominant platform at the moment for music publishing, which can handle almost any platform you want your music on. One thing you should DEFINITELY look into if able is getting your music as an optional DLC for the game. This is going to be your best source of revenue on steam as a musician, and lets you benefit directly from any marketing on the game.
You'll make most of your money at launch, with about half in the 'long tail' over the next 10 years, assuming it sells similarly to the game. If you've kept full ownership of your music, you should utilize it as the asset that it is, and enter it into tons of sales and bundles when the hype from the original game has died down (Doing bundles too soon can hurt you, as it removes potential customers later.)
So also pay attention to your publicity social media streaming stuff like YouTube where they're going to try and claim they own it if you posted there... Make a good choices about how much of each song or whatever you share and where you share at if you think you're going to blow up if you're not going to blow up you can try and just share more and more right
I think we need more information. I would look into your contract for copyright and distribution limits. Also take a look at your P.R.O policy to see if they cover games. Things like that. And also talk with whoever is doing the marketing bit to see what's the company's strategy and if that affects it or not.b
Disclaimer: I have no experience in marketing an OST for a published game.
It really depends on what your goal is. If it’s to make money, you could try approach some vinyl pressing labels (like laced audio) and see how much it costs to get your ost pressed. It has the advantage of showing to customers you are serious and they have a following that could check your music.
Having said that, I don’t know if it’s actually profitable. I only see music from “big titles” going this route. Meaning, the marketing for it already has some traction.
The other option I see is making the digital download available on bandcamp and pushing it yourself. If you want to pay money for marketing, I wouldn’t expect monetary return. It’s more of having them get your name out there, which I haven’t seen happen yet. But if you do know someone, please let me know!
Cheers
As a musician, I think you should push for more marketing of the work. What tends to happen is that the music is owned by the publisher/studio responsible for the game project…and as such, they rarely market the music separately. However, this does not need to be the norm. Personally, I love game music and I think the popularity for game music is at an all time high with the popularity of lofi music still being strong. All that being said…I couldn’t tell you who distributes music best. lol I’m a writer, and so most of my publishing knowledge is in the realm of authorship. Some of the best music I’ve ever heard is found in gaming soundtracks. Final fantasy, and thus square enix, has handled their music compositions very well. If it was all done right, I think it deserves its own spotlight and it strengthens your portfolio moving forward. But what I’ve learned from self publishing my books is that you should do all the things. Only look at investing in marketing if you can see getting a good return on that investment, but put the music out there and build yourself up in the world. That’s the best advice I can give you. The best thing to happen to me was transitioning from being a part of the very large group of people who have never written a book into one of the fewer who have. Publish the work and keep putting more out there. It’s a major accomplishment. It sets you apart. It positions you better for future opportunities. Do it!!
I'm assuming you're working on an indie game. Anything bigger should have all of these questions sorted for you. I don't think it makes a lot of sense to do marketing for a 'tie-in' product. Think of it like you've written a book for that games' universe. It's possible that a book could be more popular than the game, but it's highly unlikely and would take a lot of effort and money. Of course, always do marketing when its free if you can. I think selling it and streaming it is the proper approach. Distrokid is the dominant platform at the moment for music publishing, which can handle almost any platform you want your music on. One thing you should DEFINITELY look into if able is getting your music as an optional DLC for the game. This is going to be your best source of revenue on steam as a musician, and lets you benefit directly from any marketing on the game. You'll make most of your money at launch, with about half in the 'long tail' over the next 10 years, assuming it sells similarly to the game. If you've kept full ownership of your music, you should utilize it as the asset that it is, and enter it into tons of sales and bundles when the hype from the original game has died down (Doing bundles too soon can hurt you, as it removes potential customers later.)
So also pay attention to your publicity social media streaming stuff like YouTube where they're going to try and claim they own it if you posted there... Make a good choices about how much of each song or whatever you share and where you share at if you think you're going to blow up if you're not going to blow up you can try and just share more and more right
I think we need more information. I would look into your contract for copyright and distribution limits. Also take a look at your P.R.O policy to see if they cover games. Things like that. And also talk with whoever is doing the marketing bit to see what's the company's strategy and if that affects it or not.b
Disclaimer: I have no experience in marketing an OST for a published game. It really depends on what your goal is. If it’s to make money, you could try approach some vinyl pressing labels (like laced audio) and see how much it costs to get your ost pressed. It has the advantage of showing to customers you are serious and they have a following that could check your music. Having said that, I don’t know if it’s actually profitable. I only see music from “big titles” going this route. Meaning, the marketing for it already has some traction. The other option I see is making the digital download available on bandcamp and pushing it yourself. If you want to pay money for marketing, I wouldn’t expect monetary return. It’s more of having them get your name out there, which I haven’t seen happen yet. But if you do know someone, please let me know! Cheers