Music frustration

This is going to be a long post because it’s a bit of a rant. If you want a quick update, the next Civil Protection episode is still a couple weeks off, so my new estimate is for mid-May. This is why I don’t like giving time estimates, they’re almost always wrong. I’ll resume work on Freeman’s Mind as soon as the animation and filming is done for the next CP episode.

Now my rant. I have bad news in that despite my best efforts to fight this policy, I can no longer use game soundtracks in any videos unless they’re from games by Valve. Every episode of Civil Protection and a few of Freeman’s Mind have been using music from other games. Even the theme song to Civil Protection is from Quake 3 Arena, so that’s out as well. This frustrates me for multiple reasons. One of the reasons is that to some extent I try to pick more obscure tracks people are less likely to have heard. For the most part, the music on most of my videos is NOT high-risk material for a copyright violation. I’ve included music from obscure games, very old games, games where the original developing company is now dead and the rights weren’t bought by anyone, games where at one point the soundtrack was released for free online by the game company itself, etc. Apparently none of this matters. Due mainly to Youtube’s paranoia about any DMCA violation, the rules have changed for submitting videos are much stricter regarding any music use. Any loophole I find (and have found) is basically irrelevant because it won’t change this policy any. Yes, I could theoretically not release through Youtube or Machinima.com, but that’s not really practical if I want to maintain a fanbase. Despite whatever you may think, views through Machinima.com and Youtube are ENORMOUS compared to any other distribution method for the medium. Rooster Teeth may be the only exception to this, but they have a contract with Microsoft and were one of the first groups on the scene.

Now you may wonder why this is such a big deal for me. The biggest reason is that I am a soundtrack FREAK. Probably half the music I have doesn’t even have words. Having listened to many, many soundtracks over the years, this makes it much easier for me to pick out the kind of music I’m looking for in a scene. In fact, many ideas I’ve had for videos come from listening to soundtrack music and trying to envision what sort of situation would fit that the best, then working a script around that. Also since I have listened to so much soundtrack music, I enjoy being able to share selections many people may not be familiar with. In the case of dead game companies and old, obscure games, I almost looked at including picks as a way or resurrecting some interest. While there are still many other things to fix and add with the website first, in the future I may even try to exploit the current fanbase and add a side section for people interested in old or obscure game soundtracks like myself. For those who don’t care about any of this, don’t worry, this is a low priority for me next to making more videos.

Another point some people may think is that it’s not unreasonable to ask me not to use other people’s composition work. I suppose not, but I have some gripes about the current legal system regarding this. The last thing I want to do is upset any of the composers who have created so much great music. If I ever received a request from composers not to use their music, I would never fight that. All the music I’ve used is with the intention of showcasing it because I think it’s great or ideal for the situation I want to use with it. I’ve credited the music I use in the videos I’ve created because I want people to know where it’s from and who did it. What I don’t like is that much of this music is likely doomed to obscurity due to complications with copyright law. I’ve written fan mails to several game music composers in the past. Everyone I contacted seemed flattered I enjoyed their music and was happy for people to listen to it. I think the situation for the vast majority of the music I was planning to use in future episodes was that the composers would be happy for me to use it, the game companies that aren’t dead would probably either not care or else would like the additional exposure on an old product, but there’s no legal precedent for any of this, so I can’t use it. I think very, very few game companies would be willing to respond to an inquiry about music use, let alone give an official ruling on it. Many composers I simply can’t track down any contact information for (Chuck Barth, I want the soundtrack to Rama!), so a lot of music is tied up legally when the reality is it’s unlikely anyone actually cares about it anymore (besides me). As much as I love lots of game soundtrack music and want to share it with others, it’s becoming apparent to me this is a losing battle.

Now there is some good news to all this. First, Craig Kesicke is an excellent composer who’s offered to continue making music for the videos I work on. He has a very wide range of styles, which is necessary, given my music tastes. Based on what he’s done for me so far (a lot of it’s unreleased), I anticipate him becoming the lead composer for future videos here. The second piece of good news is that for the one soundtrack I really, REALLY wanted to use for the next CP episode, I was able to contact the composer and got direct permission to use in the upcoming video. So with the kind of help I’m getting with the audio, it should end up very close to the mood I’m looking for.

As for the next CP episode, it’s still underway. Animation is going slowly and I’ve run into new bugs with the Source engine I’ve never seen before. Fortunately these new ones I’ve been able to work around and production is continuing. I realize this is going slowly, but no one wants to finish this episode more than myself. I’ll make an announcement when it’s closer to being finished.