We’re in a golden age of video game concerts proper now. Lots of followers have flocked to concerts resembling Closing Fantasy’s Distant Worlds and Closing Symphony, Genshin Live performance Tour, the Game Music Pageant in London that includes performances of Baldur’s Gate 3 and The Final of Us, and Stardew Valley’s Pageant of Seasons.
A rising variety of video game corporations at the moment are internet hosting and importing full-length concerts for followers world wide to take pleasure in on-line as effectively.
Though this sudden explosion of game concerts would possibly appear to be a comparatively new phenomenon, their historical past dates again to 1987 with Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama’s Household Basic Live performance in Japan. It wasn’t till 2003 that video game concerts lastly hit Western shores with Thomas Böcker’s 2003 Symphonic Game Music Live performance in Germany, the place their recognition has been rising ever since.
Whereas there are extra video game concerts than ever earlier than, pulling them collectively is not simple.
However do not let that deter you. No matter how massive or small your studio is, there’s at all times a method you can embrace game concerts. With that in thoughts, I needed to share a number of the key issues I’ve picked up over a decade of manufacturing and creating video game concerts, in addition to highlighting the advantages that game concerts can carry to your studio.
What goes into making a video game live performance?
Video game concerts require experience throughout quite a lot of roles and tasks together with licensing, manufacturing, reserving, advertising and marketing/branding, orchestration, well being & security, merchandising, and financing. Some game studios might need in-house groups to deal with a few of this (like licensing), however they’re going to nonetheless be required to rent and handle relationships with exterior companions for the areas they do not.
Selecting your IP and track curation
You may want to begin by selecting the IP you are basing your video game live performance on. This can be pretty simple in case you’re working in-house at a game studio and easily need to construct a live performance round a single franchise, however you may nonetheless want to contemplate an overarching theme on your live performance: is that this going to be an anniversary live performance celebrating music from all through the franchise, or does your franchise lend itself effectively to being curated in a sure method? For instance, for Stardew Valley: Pageant of Seasons, we curated the music round particular seasons within the game.
Give cautious consideration to the songs that make an look in your set checklist – however keep in mind you can’t please everybody. Typically, you may be working alongside the game’s composer to resolve which songs make it in. When you have an IP with a number of music, you may must steadiness highlighting new songs (maybe to advertise new releases) whereas guaranteeing fan favourites nonetheless make it in.
Give cautious consideration to the songs that make an look in your set checklist – however keep in mind you can’t please everybody
Information, resembling Spotify streams or YouTube performs, can make it easier to curate a setlist of what followers need to hear however do not underestimate the ability of a memorable deep-cut well-placed in your setlist. And if some songs do not make it in, you can at all times revisit them in future concerts by rotating setlists.
Licensing
Whereas some studios could utterly personal the rights to the IP they need to create a live performance for, that does not at all times imply they’re going to personal the music. Based on the 2023 Game Audio Industry Survey, greater than 91.2% of AAA game soundtracks are written on a work-for-hire foundation the place the copyright of the music is owned by the studio or writer. Nevertheless, this drops to 83.6% for midcore video games and 44% for indie video games.
If the game composer retains copyright possession of the music, it’s possible you’ll want to hunt permission and re-license this music for wider performances. Equally, game composers could also be entitled to royalties in the event that they’re registered with a Performing Rights Organisation (PRO). This cash is paid by the related PRO and would require cue sheets to be crammed out additional down the road by venues to make sure the related composer(s) are paid.
Video game live performance licensing contracts require a very completely different template than commonplace licensing offers as a result of completely different strategies of compensation (income shares on tickets offered, and so on.) and varied ancillary usages of the IP (resembling merchandising and advertising and marketing). And, in case you’re engaged on a live performance that options licensed music, you’ll doubtless want separate agreements, maybe immediately with separate artists or labels.
There is not any such factor as a normal contract. Should you’ve ever puzzled why a sure franchise is lacking from an enormous writer’s live performance repertoire, it is doubtless resulting from licensing issues.
Should you’ve ever puzzled why a sure franchise is lacking from an enormous writer’s live performance repertoire, it is doubtless resulting from licensing issues
Arranging music for stay performances
As soon as you have chosen the video game IP you may be making a live performance round and sorted out the required licensing, you may want somebody to take the game’s sheet music (if it exists in any respect) and prepare it for a band, orchestra, or choir. In some circumstances, that is finest carried out in partnership with the game(s)’s composer(s), particularly in the event that they’re classically educated and have expertise with orchestral preparations.
Typically, you’ll need to rent an orchestrator or arranger who will work with you and the composer(s) on new preparations. They’re going to require entry to music stems from the Digital Audio Workspace (DAW) the composer was working in, resembling Professional Instruments or Logic classes.
You additionally must be aware of finances at this level and think about the next:
- How many musicians will characteristic in your efficiency?
- What does your instrumentation appear to be? Will your preparations characteristic specialist world devices? Even ‘commonplace’ devices resembling timpani can be costly to rent!
- Are you arranging for an orchestra, a jazz band, or a rock band?
- Should you’re arranging music for an orchestra, what number of components will you be writing for? Are you trying to work with a smaller chamber orchestra or bigger symphony orchestra?
Arranging and orchestrating is without doubt one of the most essential components of manufacturing for a video game live performance, and can take months if not years to get proper as a result of varied amends and suggestions processes. It ought to by no means be rushed.
Logistics and key prices to contemplate
That is the place issues can get difficult, and likewise very costly relying on the dimensions and scale of your live performance manufacturing.
Hiring musicians
You may must resolve on what number of dates you are doing and the place you need to carry out. As a lot as you might need a dream date in thoughts (to align with a significant anniversary, maybe), you are working to the provision of venues and bands/orchestras – who are sometimes booked out years prematurely. This implies you may typically be working with them to search out gaps of their calendar and work out essentially the most applicable dates consequently.
We managed to e book the Sydney Opera Home for a yet-to-be-announced tour’s premiere, which occurs to be on the anniversary of the game launch AND on a Saturday, the perfect day for these concerts to happen. That is basically a one-in-a-million probability, however with correct advance planning (18 months lead time) you can improve your possibilities of this stuff taking place.
Orchestra charges can differ considerably based on location and union rates, and people prices can shortly add up, particularly within the US. It is exhausting to provide a baseline for prices, however they can sometimes vary from between $30,000 to $120,000 for a full orchestra rent, and that is with none further prices for visitor soloists specialising in less-traditional devices.
Whereas most live performance producers work with orchestras which are native, such because the London Metropolitan Orchestra or Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for London, or have a community of native contractors to rent pick-up orchestras in every market, others will take a single orchestra on tour with them. There are benefits and drawbacks to this. The upside is you are working with the identical musicians each night time, who might be extremely accustomed to your repertoire of music compared to a neighborhood orchestra that can solely have a restricted quantity of rehearsal time earlier than the efficiency.
In fact, in case you’re taking an orchestra on the street with you, you may must finances for transport, catering, lodging, and the related insurance coverage insurance policies. Typically, that is solely viable from a value perspective with an extremely well-coordinated tour path to minimise transport and lodging prices.
Venue charges and tour reserving
Just like musician charges, venue charges can differ considerably relying on the size of your manufacturing. Be lifelike with the recognition of your IP, and gauge venue measurement on what number of different performances you are planning in that market. There is a smart motive why most video game concerts for mainstay franchises solely have a handful of UK reveals within the greatest cities resembling London, Birmingham, Glasgow, and Manchester. When you have too many reveals in shut proximity to one another, you threat cannibalizing attendance charges and ticket gross sales.
Additionally, game gross sales and streaming information can make it easier to decide the place your followers are, so that you can guarantee that your tour will hit that market. We had no concept that certainly one of our live performance IPs was extremely well-liked in South Korea till the game studio shared their gross sales information with us, and that resulted in us including two Seoul concerts to our tour which offered out inside minutes.
Game gross sales and streaming information can make it easier to decide the place your followers are, so that you can guarantee that your tour will hit that market
Ticket prices
It goes with out saying that you just need to make certain your live performance productions are worthwhile whereas additionally guaranteeing ticket costs are truthful and accessible for purchasers. You may must account for your entire prices and ticketing charges when figuring out ticket costs, which is completed at the side of the venue and promoters.
Manufacturing prices
Some video game concerts select to have an enormous display screen displaying game footage and different video content material behind the band or orchestra as they play, whereas others simply give attention to the music. Including a video aspect into your manufacturing will increase prices as you may want somebody to create and edit that video footage, guaranteeing it transitions easily based on what the orchestra is enjoying. Usually, a display screen is simply viable in venues of 1,500+ seats, however you can nonetheless ship an immersive efficiency even in smaller venues with artistic manufacturing parts, such because the temper lighting that evokes sure scenes from the game.
Insurance coverage
Any respected venue you’re employed with would require you to take out insurance coverage insurance policies to guard all events concerned with the live performance. These embrace issues like employees compensation insurance coverage, all-risk property insurance coverage, and industrial common legal responsibility insurances.
PR, advertising and marketing, and promoting
In fact, you additionally must finances for advertising and marketing and promoting of the live performance. The large distinction right here that many game studios won’t be used to is the significance of native advertising and marketing. Whereas ticket gross sales will at all times benefit from an enormous PR push to mainstream gaming publications as a part of a live performance announcement, it is essential to finances for native promoting campaigns.
Specialist paid promoting campaigns with strict focusing on standards can be helpful right here, as can extra conventional advert placements in native publications, on-line and in print. You can additionally companion with video game influencers to assist generate consciousness of your live performance.
Advantages of video game concerts
Whereas creating video game concerts requires lots of work, do not forget that nearly all the tasks described above can be outsourced to a specialist manufacturing companion, or packaged in a licensing deal that ensures the studio retains all approval rights on any visible and musical property. One of many greatest advantages of doing so is the income generated from licensing charges paid by the manufacturing companion to the game studio, which can attain vital quantities for bigger excursions.
Extra income streams can even be generated by the sale of bespoke merchandise resembling clothes, game soundtracks, live performance packages, and extra. You might want to file your game live performance and launch the recording on CD, vinyl, or digital platforms, which not solely heightens consciousness of your game IP and generates new advertising and marketing beats, however can additionally generate income for years to return.
We surveyed 770 video game live performance followers shortly after the Stardew Valley Pageant of Seasons Tour and located that the overwhelming majority of followers would play the game, purchase merchandise, or take heed to the soundtrack on Spotify after attending the present(s).
The survey discovered that:
- 98% of respondents had been ‘doubtless’ or ‘very doubtless’ to replay Stardew Valley after attending a present.
- 85% of respondents had been ‘doubtless’ or ‘very doubtless’ to take heed to the Stardew Valley soundtrack on streaming companies after attending a present.
- 70% of respondents had been ‘doubtless’ or ‘very doubtless’ to purchase merchandise after attending a present.
Working your individual surveys like this within the aftermath of a present is a good way to not solely gauge fan reception, however get concepts for future concerts in case you ask followers what music they wish to hear subsequent time, or possibly what merchandise they wish to purchase.
There are many belongings you can do to make the live performance look really feel ‘additional particular’ for attendees too. It is commonplace for video game concerts to characteristic visitor appearances from their composers, and your script for the conductor or presenter can incorporate in-jokes or narrative parts from the related franchise(s) to maintain attendees entertained in between songs.
Finally, video game concerts are a implausible approach to generate lots of optimistic sentiment round a selected game franchise whereas offering a spot for video game followers to have a good time their favorite video games (normally in unbelievable cosplay!) exterior of conventions – that are sadly turning into fewer and much between!