Game On - Video Game Music in 2020 and Beyond

Music and video games have been best friends since the classic 8-bit chip soundtracks of the 1980s, through the needle drop playlists of Grand Theft Auto in the late 90s, and into the present day, where gaming end-users can do anything from programming their own playlists in games such as Roblox, through to listening to original adaptive scores recorded by orchestras in studios that even large feature films can no longer afford to use.

What opportunities exist, both for AAA+ games in terms of placement of music as well as scoring, through to the growing crowd-funded independent gaming sector? Do you need to learn how to use games engines such as Unity to be a games composer? Is production music used in the sector at all and which gaming music supervisors are curating the huge sports games playlists? And where does score end and sound design begin? This panel unpacks the landscape of music and games through the pandemic and into 2021 and lay out pathways that emerging rights holders and composers can follow to gain a seat at visual media’s most dynamic, fast-moving and exciting sector.

• Eric Kalver (Music Supervisor, Activision Blizzard, US)
• Ted Kocher (Sr. Editor & Music Supervisor, Playstation, US)
• Raphaella Lima (Global Music Partnerships & Marketing, EA Games, US)
• Jake Versluis (VP of AR, Position Music, US)

• Emily Weber (Vice President & Head of Sync, Position Music, US)