GXM Podcast (Games X Music)

With more than 70m total installs and 300k daily active users, the mobile rhythm games Beat Star and Country Star are revolutionising how players engage with music, leading to partnerships with the likes of Post Malone and The Killers who use the games to reach diverse audiences and generate new revenue streams.  We sit down with Jessica Ashton, Music Licensing and Artist Partnership Lead at Space...

We’re only six months into 2024 and Pierre Crochart has listened to more than 500 video game soundtracks. As the founder and editor of NOWPLAYING, a newsletter and podcast curating video game music, Pierre is on a mission to discover and showcase the amazing world of video game music, with a particular focus on celebrating lesser-known soundtracks.  We discuss the challenges of keeping up with the...

Jamie Mac Rae of Materia Music/Collective joins us to talk about how composers, developers and publishers creating or handling indie game soundtracks might put that music to best use. Whether it’s registering it properly, producing sheet music, or considering the costs of a vinyl release, there’s a lot to think about when it comes to video game music.  News - 00:12:32 Topic introduction - 00:17:58...

How much should film and TV adaptations of video game franchises honour the source material? And how closely related should the music be between original and adaptation? The success of Amazon’s Fallout TV series, which was viewed by more than 65 million people within two weeks of launching, is the latest game adaptation to win over both fans and newcomers alike. But would it still feel like Fallou...

We speak to the prolific, expert mastering engineer Joe Caithness who has worked on over 200 video game soundtrack releases across vinyl, digital, CD, cassette and even MiniDisc! Although there are numerous technical challenges and processes involved in mastering, at the end of the day it’s the fan listening experience — tinted by nostalgia — that matters most. News - 00:08:00 Topic interview - 00...

GXM #23: What is a video game needledrop? With Kenny Vaughan Mat & Tom ponder: does Final Fantasy VII Rebirth have music implementation issues? Then Kenny Vaughan of the ‘Between Music & Gaming’ newsletter joins us to establish a loose definition of ‘needledrop’ and how they can work within video games. We chat through some notable examples of the different types (non-diegetic vs. diegetic...

Tom talks to campaigner Mark Robins (also a PR Manager at Bethesda) who, over 10 years ago, successfully launched video game music almost to the pinnacle of radio station Classic FM’s Hall of Fame (top 500 classical pieces.) Is video game music legitimised these days? What else might we campaign for in the pursuit of popularising VGM?   News - 00:03:05 Topic introduction - 00:20:45 Topic interview...

Video game vinyl collector and community maven Frederik Lauridsen AKA Blip Blop joins us to share the results of his annual poll. Which VGM vinyl releases did fans love for their sleeve artwork? What were the favourite AAA, indie and retro releases of 2023? And did the Super Lesbian Animal RPG vinyl rank highly?  00:05:20 - News 00:25:41 - Topic introduction 00:26:58 - Topic interview - Video game...

We’ve reached episode 20! Hooray! And we can’t think of a better way to celebrate another 10 episodes in the bag than by inviting back IGN’s creative strategy lead and VGM expert, Anthony Agnello, for GXM’s Alternative Video Game Music Awards.  We brainstormed our own weird and wonky categories celebrating video game music (mostly) released in 2023, from the ‘Best Remake Soundtrack Award’ and ‘Spi...

Music has the power to bring people together, and video game music is no different! Melanie Fritsch, author and junior professor of game music and cultural studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, joins us to explain why hundreds of academics and game music fanatics travel from all over the world to discuss and dissect video game music every year, what these meet-ups tell us about the powe...

We discuss Fortnite launching a racing game, LEGO Minecraft AND Rock Band equivalent all at the same time. After some in-person GTA6 music banter, Tom corners freelance Audio Director/Music Supervisor at Laced’s Christmas lunch for a noisy chat.  00:08:36 - News 00:34:26 - GTA6 trailer chat 00:45:57 - Topic interview - Audio Director/Music Supervisor Justin Andree In the news…  Via Eurogamer , For...

With over 3.1 million monthly listeners and billions of streams, the gaming supergroup K/DA, comprised of League of Legends characters, is one of the biggest virtual bands in the world. The group’s creator, Toa Dunn, joins us to look back at his ten-year tenure as head of music at Riot Games. We discuss K/DA’s meteoric rise to success, how Riot Games used music to market its IP, and how to build a...

Prolific and pedagogical composer, sound and game designer Joonas Turner joins Tom to chat about working on both sound design and music simultaneously — informing the player through sound, how metal is relatively easy to work with, and how to glean feedback on audio from critics even if it’s not explicitly mentioned.  00:04:52 - News 00:19:48 - Topic introduction 00:21:10 - Topic interview - Balan...

Veteran video game composer, Chris Valasco, chats to Tom about how he got started out in the industry, the challenges of multi-tasking as he jumped between the horror-tinged worlds of Lords of the Fallen and cozy vibes of Fae Farm, and why he approaches every new video game project as a method actor. Over in the news, Mat and Tom discuss whether Guitar Hero could find a new home on Xbox Game Pass...

Daniel Tompkins, lead singer for the prog metal band TesseracT, has been playing video games for as long as he can remember. After becoming bored of the ‘traditional’ way of releasing an album, Dan taught himself how to use Unreal Engine and turned the band’s latest album, War of Being, into an immersive gaming experience. Dan joins us to explain his journey from player to developer, the challenge...

Mat’s back from Japan and there’s lots to catch up on! Mat dives into some of the obscure video game soundtracks he picked up shopping, while Tom reflects on the recent Sonic Symphony concert with Rich Stokes,  who’s attended more video game concerts than anyone we know. Is Sonic Symphony one of the best video game concerts ever? Will the DMCA continue to cause trouble for composers like Lifeforme...

When is being an A&R person more about poring over historical video game tracklists and working with IP rightsholders than schmoozing music artists backstage or hitting the studio for overdubs? When you work for a video game soundtrack label, that’s when! Tom chats to Colin Yost, Director of Gaming Partnerships at Sony Music about the peculiarities of the role, and the relatively relaxing part...

With weddings and holidays scrambling the schedule a bit, we’ve got a fair bit of news to catch up on, and Tom gives his spoiler-free first impressions of Austin Wintory and co’s ambitious musical theatre X video game experiment, Stray Gods. We also trial a new occasional segment, the GOAT Round-up, looking at iconic VGM cues — this time covering Marty O’Donnell’s unforgettable main theme for Halo...

We’re joined by editor, writer and broadcaster Anthony John Agnello, co-host of the Video Game Grooves podcast and Creative Strategy Lead at IGN. To celebrate GXM10, we host a (semi-serious) mini-awards to celebrate game music released during the ‘current gen’ (i.e. since 2020.) There’s spicy takes, cover albums that AREN’T Zelda, Final Fantasy or Chrono, and our favourite HARD game tracks. Enjoy!...

At one time, Aerosmith was making more money from Guitar Hero than from their album royalties, but plastic instrument music games were eventually booed off stage. It wasn’t all doom and gloom for music games though: the genre saw innovation in recent years thanks to titles such as Crypt of the Necrodancer, Thumper, BeatStar, Beat Saber (which we forgot to mention!), Hi-Fi Rush, Metal: Hellsinger,...

Brazillian producer and DJ Dedeco has been playing video games all of his life, but it was the crowd’s response to hearing music from Persona 3 and Ridge Racer in his live DJ set that inspired him to create a YouTube channel dedicated to VGM remixes and DJ sets. He chats to us about how the resurgence of Jungle and D&B is fuelling a growing interest in old-school game soundtracks; which genres...

Matthew Marteinsson has spent 20 years working as a sound designer on a huge range of games, including Need For Speed and Don’t Starve. He makes music as Mattesque, and chats to GXM about the different ways ambient music is deployed in video games, from ICO to DOOM (2016) to Elden Ring. He also delves into the philosophy of sound design, especially when it comes to creating ambience; and talks abo...

There’s a growing list of indie game soundtracks pulling inspiration from a myriad of musical directions. Creative leads on games sometimes bring their own musical ideas, or trust in commissioned composers to set the direction. Hopefully, it’s a creative collaboration based on trust — to find what’s best for the game.  We chat to composer Chase Bethea about his journey into VGM via classical piano...

What makes the music of The Legend of Zelda series so special? Why do we have melodies like “Zelda’s Lullaby” stuck in our head decades after first playing? And, with the music of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom deviating from earlier Zelda games, what effect does this have on players?  Our guest is Tim Summers, lecturer in music at Royal Holloway, University of London, who has literal...

If you’ve ever discovered new music through a video game, you’re not alone. We explore how video games are being used as a music discovery platform – with reference to Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Grand Theft Auto, Burnout, and even trailers – after Deloitte's 2023 Digital Media Trends report finds 49% of gamers often discover new music through video games.  And in the news…  The Game Awards announ...