Game Music Monetization

Good game music can be quite beneficial.

As for me being a music composer, it’s the most obvious thing I could say, I mean, I sell my music for a living. But what I’m trying to say is that developers can and should gain some money from their games’ good audio content as well.

 

What do I mean by «good» audio content:

– it suits your game, its objectives, market, and audience;

– it has a quality sound (speakers don’t die, player’s ears don’t bleed);

– it tells a story and evokes emotions outside the context of the game.

 

At least the first two points are enough for the music to have a positive impact on your product, which can lead to some profits growth. But it’s the third one that will allow you to earn some extra income.

Because what I’ve learned from my personal experience is that the gamers do love good music and are ready to pay for it, even if it’s not an OST for the AAA title game.

I always knew examples of game soundtracks being released, but always thought that this doesn’t work for rather small games. The moment when I’ve changed my mind was back in 2016 when someone pirated my music from Haydee game, and then someone else created album artwork for me and asked if I could release the soundtrack on some streaming services so people from the game community could listen to it.

 

And so I did. I can’t say it had a smashing success and brought a ton of money, but there was some income, and people still listen to it.

Then, four years later, this spring, we released the FoxTail game OST. Why we did that? Simply because the game’s community asked us to do so dozens of times. And even though I can’t disclose the amounts we receive from it, I can say that it performs quite well.

Imagine what you can achieve with a loyal community even without putting money into an advertisement? And what if you have some PR activities? You can have an extra coin while simply letting people listen to your game’s music. It’s a win-win deal for you AND your audience.

 

There are several ways to monetize your game soundtrack:

– streaming services: YouTube Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and others. It is a mass and easily accessible to listeners option, but very unpredictable in terms of profit and not so great for audiophiles as the quality of sound there is not the best.

– Bandcamp: there is limited free listening time, you can create a community, and the quality of tracks doesn’t suffer, which is excellent. Plus, the commissions are transparent and predictable. The only catch is that you can only withdraw money to PayPal.

– DLC and addon: you can sell the soundtrack in excellent quality on Steam, for example. It is a great option if you already have a community there.

– as a bonus for donation: you can give music directly to those people who support your game development via Kickstarter or Patreon, for example. Again, in excellent quality.

– as a physical medium: you can release the soundtrack on vinyl, tapes, and CDs as a merch for your most loyal fans. It will further enhance the emotional connection with your community. It will also be great for people who like collecting things like that, but it will also require some extra finances to produce those mediums.

 

As you see, there are plenty of ways you can monetize your music. And it’s good for you, not just in terms of straight gaining money, but also as a means to attract some attention and potential players to your project.

You just need to go beyond «nice background music» and create something emotional, and then let the soundtrack live outside your game and tell new listeners about it.