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What do people look for in a music "pack"?

Started by November 17, 2017 11:19 AM
6 comments, last by cjmarsh 6 years, 11 months ago
Hello,
I'm looking into selling music "packs" on the Unity Asset Store and Unreal Marketplace and other sites.
 
How similar to each other should the pieces be in a pack?
And is it more important that most of the instruments in all songs are coherent, or that the moods the songs create are coherent, or the genre of the music itself?
I strongly believe that every pack needs variation to not get very boring, but how much variation?

I have been looking at other people's work and what popular packs seem to look like.
I'm getting mixed signals from them.
I've also looked at games with music that have had very strong impacts on my feelings and memories of the "overall experience" of the games, and tried to analyze how they do it.
 
For example: Trine and World of Goo.
Trine's soundtrack is very coherent both in terms of the instruments in each song and the uplifting spirit throughout the whole thing. Some pieces are slower and softer and others are much faster and exciting, but nothing is "sad" or "scary", and the instruments are very orchestral.
World of Goo has very varied music. Some instruments are recurring but for the most part the songs use very different instruments, genres and set different moods for different levels.
But it still manages to have a concentrated impact on the "overall feeling" that the music has on the game.
 
 
What are your thoughts?
Have you sold any music packs, or bought any for one of your own game?
What has made you pleased or disappointed with the content you got?

Thanks for reading!

I experimented with selling music for Unity, and honestly, I don't think users are looking for music packs, generally. There are more than enough people offering free music, few Unity developers make it far enough through development to care about music, and anyone likely to actually ship something usually wants custom music anyway.

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6 hours ago, Kylotan said:

I experimented with selling music for Unity, and honestly, I don't think users are looking for music packs, generally. There are more than enough people offering free music, few Unity developers make it far enough through development to care about music, and anyone likely to actually ship something usually wants custom music anyway.

I've gotten that feeling.
If I for example compare Unity's store to Unreal's, Unreal doesn't even allow free stuff.
That doesn't mean that Unreal's users can't get free assets and music elsewhere, but maybe they are more interested in buying music?

On 2017/11/18 at 2:16 AM, Robin Gerndt said:

I've gotten that feeling.
If I for example compare Unity's store to Unreal's, Unreal doesn't even allow free stuff.
That doesn't mean that Unreal's users can't get free assets and music elsewhere, but maybe they are more interested in buying music?

We can install other musics from other play , 

Well the thing about selling "packs" is that, well... if people don't like something in the pack they usually do not want to buy it. of course sure there may be a few people who do not know how to find a composer, or just want to slap something together. but successful games have their own composers in house, either on site, or on the pay roll so to speak.

 

if there was a market then it began on newgrounds a long time ago. And on that site you have trillions of people submitting their music free of charge. Even I am on there.

Newbie.

I'm just a begginer, but personally: mixable loops. These are easy to change on the run through snapshots... also, it would be more efficient than storing a full track. 

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I've bought music for games before and there are several things I look for when browsing music loops or packs in asset stores. Not only do I consider the technical quality of the pieces but also their overall value and if the theme matches my design.

When making a music pack of your own I'd suggest considering who your target audience is carefully. While professional studios can have long lists of music tracks tailored to their game, the indie developers who buy audio packs in asset stores are going to be more focused on getting the mileage out of their money. So, looped audio tracks are much more useful than just a traditional piece with a beginning, middle, and end. Also consider having the beginning and end of the tracks match for all main pieces in the pack. In addition, while music and audio are often neglected in indie development, it's often because developers are on a tight budget and/or timeline and that's where they can get away with spending less money and effort. To increase the value of your pack you might also add sound effects for UI, combat, environment, ambient, and misc applications. Also, consider what type of game it would be for and tailor it to fit a unified theme. Soft piano in a background melody might be good for some strategy or turn-based designs but not really for games all about or featuring intense action scenes. Basically, create themed packs with as much extra utility as possible.

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