[guan_yu]

The fact that he refers to music as "branding" makes me want to put my fist through his face. The soundtracks we all love, the ones from games such as Zelda, Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy... they're all monumental works of considerable effort and artistic merit. People remember these games, they're such classics because they were ... art. It's not branding in the same way the Mona Lisa isn't branding for Leonardo da Vinci.

[dpcan]

Music in games is most certainly part of the branding. Think of the opening chip tune to super Mario bros. Or the song that plays while the contra logo scrolled in.

Those songs are as much a part of the brand as the characters, titles, enemies, sounds, etc.

They are almost like jingles on commercials. They belong to the brand.

The fact that they are works of art, or how they are made, or who makes them means very little once they become part of the brand.

[PeterInouye]

@guan_yu: I definitely see music as art and not just a part of the IP/brand. But not all developers see music the same way, so I was just trying to appeal to their business sense--if not to their artistic sense too.

Music is part of the game, not a window dressing. But some of that music would never have been known without the game too--there's so many orchestral composers in the world, what are the odds that we'd really get to know one guy from Japan if it wasn't for Final Fantasy? And didn't he create the 'sound' of FF while at it? That's probably why I never really liked the FF series after Uematsu went over to Mistwalker.