Buma Music In Motion was part of Amsterdam Dance Event 2023 with a fully stacked conference day at the Main Business Hub Felix Meritis. Hundreds of music professionals joined our talks and panels, where we dove into the latest developments in our field. Besides discussing future challenges and opportunities with experts, we invited many well-known composers, producers, and other music professionals to share their insights.
Text by Meike Jentjens
Photo’s by Birgit Bijl
Sonic revolution
Gaming and music are growing closer together than ever. The gaming universe is blazing a trail to unprecedented greatness with powerhouses like Gucci, Balenciaga, and Lexus joining forces with games, gamers, and E-sports champions. The creators, dreamers, and composers are right at the heart of this sonic revolution. As the gaming industry expands, so do the prospects for people who make music. Esteemed panelist Codie Childs of PlayStation Studios and Julia Chourgnoz-Vilano of Ubisoft speak to moderator Paul Deetman, founder and managing director at KeokeN Interactive and Hunchback Music, about emerging opportunities.
About the experts
Codie Childs (on the left) is a Senior Music Supervisor at PlayStation within Sony Interactive. Her job involves coordinating all musical aspects of the video games PlayStation does and in partnership with third-party developers. Besides that, she works across all of the marketing for PlayStation, including global brand campaigns and TV ads, where she covers licensing, composition, remixes, and anything and everything music involved for our games and ads.
Julia Chourgnoz-Vilano (on the right) works as a Music Marketing Manager at Ubisoft, which means she distributes and amplifies all of the music creations from the company. That starts with the music in the games, like the soundtracks, and includes collaborations and partnerships with labels and artists.
The two talk with Paul Deetman about what their work is like on the hand of commercials, scores, and licensing examples.
Live from PS5 – Bringing You The Extraordinary | PS5
Codie Childs: ‘The London-based composer scored this trailer called Angus MacRae, who custom made this for us. It’s part of a campaign called Live From PS5, and it ran at the beginning of the year to promote the PS5. We suddenly had many more PS5s that we could sell to people because they were harder to get hold of previously. The trailer covers all the games that we’re known for. The composer scored the whole trailer from start to finish to give it this cinematic feel.’
Childs names that the score underlines the overall feel of the trailer, which is like an easter egg for fans. ‘If you’re familiar with the games, you’ll pick out that the woman in the car refers to Gran Turismo, or recognise someone from God of War, and so on. What I find exciting is creating music that creates worlds for people. When it reaches outside the gaming community to other people, they get that ignition interest in getting involved in it. That’s a big impact – and what I love to see.’
Assasin’s Creed: Mirage Trailer
Julia Chourgnoz-Vilano: ‘In a way, this was licensing, but it went way further. We partnered with Interscope Records to create an original song for Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, and we worked with OneRepublic to get it done. So that’s how the track Mirage came in. It was released on September 22 through Interscope, and we’re so happy about it. It’s really, really representative of the game. We even sampled the game’s main theme in this song, which is a way for us to keep building on the brand Assassin’s Creed. Music can strengthen your brand, so that’s always our vision. That’s also why we collaborated with Michel Tamer, a Saudi artist, to participate. The game is set in Baghdad in the 9th century, so it was important to have that authenticity in the music.’
Music can strengthen your brand, so that’s always our vision.
Julia Chourgnoz-Vilano
Paul Deetman: ‘You know, Assassin’s Creed always does this to me. You have this contradiction, these more medieval times, and then you have these cool beats coming in. I think it was one of the first ones with Justice, but then also Wood Kid, with a little bit more orchestral elements in it. I love that disconnect. Is this something particular for Ubisoft or particular for the Assassin’s Creed brand?’
Julia Chourgnoz-Vilano: ‘We allow ourselves to take risks with Assassin’s Creed because it’s such a powerful brand, but there is a brandbook. I wouldn’t say we do this with every project because our gaming industry has been very risk-averse lately. So we see that everyone concentrates on their core franchises, mainly the biggest ones. And when you do this, you risk doing all the same. That’s not what the publishing brand team wanted to do. We decided why not take a risk and do something that we’ve never done at this scale. The pop music worked well with the main theme.’
It’s your turn, composers!
Paul Deetman: ‘How could composers work with you or get their custom tracks on one of your platforms?’
Codie Childs explains that the process is often quite long and starts when the game development starts. ‘We might get involved as a music team to help shape the budget as they pitch the project to the stakeholders, for example. When there’s a demo of the game, we’ll often help early on by using reference tracks and shaping an overall tone for the game with music. It’s very similar to film in that way. But if you’re engaging a composer to write music for what could be a 60-hour game, there’s a lot involved with figuring out all the cues and overall the whole production. We use our knowledge of working composers who are out there, who are available, and our contacts in the industry. We can brief people and say we’re looking for this sound. Who would you recommend? That kind of thing. So make yourself known!’
We use our knowledge of working composers who are out there, who are available, and our contacts in the industry.
Codie Childs
Julia Chourgnoz-Vilano adds: ‘Obviously, networking does a lot. Sending your work to the email address of a music supervisor also works. But what’s going to put you at the top and bring you more consideration is how well you can explain your vision. For example, if you’re pitching for an Assassin’s Creed, being able to work with instruments from the setting helps. That’s what we’re going to be looking after. We’re not creating soundtracks for people to listen to and love them and for these to be trendy and buzzy. We’re creating soundtracks to accompany you through your game experience because, you know, you’re experiencing a game. You’re living a game – and there’s no life without music’.
