Video game music has improved since Ms. Pac-Man, but no one has mistaken those sophisticated bleeps for their favorite radio station. At least until now.

Gaming giant Electronic Arts has created EA Trax, a music department that licenses exclusive cuts for EA games and consults producers to make sure the sound is authentic. One of the first EA Trax-aided games is NBA Live 2003 which features songs from Fabolous and Busta Rhymes, and in-game music by hip-hop producer Just Blaze.

Though licensing music for video games isn’t anything new, actually having music made exclusively for video games is, said EA Worldwide Executive of Music Steve Schnur. “Before it was more like catalog music. I looked at a competitor’s title where they were bragging about having DMX and Luda on there… but all of it was released between 1999 and 2001, songs we’ve all heard before and wore out.”

Luckily EA is working with the various labels to release game music compilations so you won’t have to play to hear the music. Participating labels include Electra, Capitol, Atlantic, Interscope, Dreamworks, MCA, Lava and Island/Def Jam. EA also is looking to do label-driven games including a wrestling title featuring Def Jam rappers.

Just Blaze, a hardcore gamer who once considered making them instead of playing them, thinks that authentic, original game music is a step in the right direction. “I respect [EA], since most companies might license a couple of hip-hop songs, but the music in the rest of the game sounds like techno or some guy in Iowa trying to sound like hip-hop,” he said.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 1st, 2002 at 2:45 am and is filed under Journalism, Music, The Source, The Source, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.