VGMusic.com

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Videogame Music Archive

VGMusic.com's main page with logo
URL http://www.vgmusic.com/
Commercial? No
Type of site Music website
Registration Optional
Owner Mike Newman
Created by Mike Newman
Launched 1996-12-19
Current status Active

The Videogame Music Archive, also known as VGMusic.com or VGMA, is a well-known website that archives MIDI sequences of video game music, ranging from tunes of the NES era to modern pieces featured in Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 games. Currently, there are over 25,000 MIDI files hosted on the site.

The owner of the website is Michael Newman (Yaginuma), who graduated from the University of Connecticut and who is a chemical engineer by day.

Contents

[edit] Purpose

VGMusic.com accepts remakes, arrangements, and remixes of video game music in MIDI format. When the site was first started, the emphasis was on quantity rather than quality. In more recent years, the staff have been rejecting files that they believe are not good enough, although the rule is more relaxed if a particular song does not exist in the archive. The staff have also started to reject direct reproductions or rips from original game soundtracks, partly to minimize Copyright infringement issues.

The files archived are sequenced by the general public, and are submitted to the site for approval by staff members before being added to the actual archive. Sequencers do not receive money for submitting their sequences, and no paid staff sequencers are employed by the site.

[edit] Submission process and site standards

The site maintains a large list of rules for users to follow submitting files, though these are often ignored. Files are submitted through a web form, accessed by clicking Accept on the rules page. There is no error-checking done on names or e-mail addresses, which frequently causes problems if a sequencer needs to be contacted, or if fake information is given.

Updates occur infrequently; the staff asserts that infrequent large updates are much easier to perform than frequent smaller ones [1]. However, a list of newly uploaded files is available to the public.

The staff can remove any file at their discretion if they feel it is not up to the site's standards. However, many files that were accepted in the site's early days have been grandfathered in, despite not meeting these standards.

[edit] Controversy and reform

Some music is allowed and not allowed. Video game music composer Bobby Prince threatened a lawsuit[specify]. The PC section of the site was removed. It was reinstated again several years later, with warning to not upload rips or conversions of music taken from an actual game. There is also a list of composers whose work is not accepted on the site for any reason.

Conversions from emulator formats were banned on August 4, 2004.

[edit] Community

The VGMusic community has a forum and an official IRC channel.

[edit] Papers

In addition to hosting music, VGMusic.com also hosts several academic papers related to video game music.

[edit] In the media

  • Kushner, David (October 2003), “Videogame Deejays”, Official Playstation Magazine US 

[edit] External links