Uematsu Goes iTunes
Final Fantasy's composer finally gets some proper soundtrack exposure.
Published: May 10, 2005
Game soundtracks aren't as bad a thing as you think. Sure, the stigma attached to them means you'll probably only be able to discuss them with sweaty, overweight/clammy, underweight nerds that appreciate this stuff way too much, but at least it's conversation. The problem was, the biggest contributing factor in determining who the pool of interested listeners was came down to the fact that until now, getting your hands on a Final Fantasy soundtrack was online possible online or in an import store -- and both options meant shelling out way too much cash.
Ah, but in the past couple years, we've seen something of a revolution in how music is sold. Napster is reborn as a legit music storehouse, and Real Networks, Sony Music and even Warner Music have taken to the web to sell their libraries of stuff on the cheap. It was Apple, of course, who lead the way to mainstream acceptance of the online music store, however, tethering their iPods to the iTunes Music Store and pioneering the art of cashing in on the $1 impulse buy.
The pricing plan and integration with the best-selling MP3 player on the market worked, and worked like gangbusters, revitalizing the ailing Apple and putting them on a pedestal few will reach for quite some time. With that kind of market share and exposure, it's not really a huge surprise that Square Enix decided to release Nobuo Uematsu's entire history of Final Fantasy soundtracks.
For anywhere between about $6 (for the earlier soundtracks) to $25 at the upper end (for more recent and multi-disc soundtracks), you can grab the tunes from not only all of Uematsu's work from Final Fantasy I - IX, but the collaborations he's done with other composers on the later work, some of those composers' add-on soundtracks, and even a couple of the hard-rockin' tributes to past games' battle music with The Black Mages.
In total, a whopping 15 albums, effectively giving U.S. fans the most comprehensive one-stop shop for Uematsu's work on the FF games, are available now, and serve as a nice tribute to the composer's work before he left Square to join fellow FF digital maestro Hironobu Sakaguchi at the newly-formed Mistwalker Studios, who will be working on Xbox 360 games going forward.
"I am thrilled that our soundtracks will finally be available to all the supportive American fans who have enjoyed our music over the years," Uematsu beamed in a terse little press release snippet.
"We’re expanding our business sphere beyond the traditional videogame in many ways," explains Ichiro Otobe, Square Enix's President and COO. "I’m excited to bring FINAL FANTASY music online by collaborating with Apple, an innovator in this arena. The iTunes Music Store is the perfect platform for our videogame soundtracks, which began as an early form of digital music."
While we're certainly not taking anything away from Uematsu's debut (he was apparently named to Time Magazine's "Time 100: The Next Wave" music pioneers list), but we're hoping this is a trend for Square Enix, who will release some of the work that other composers have done for their games, like Yasunori Mitsuda's Chrono Cross soundtrack, which some of us feel is the best games soundtrack ever made.
Yes, we're HUGE nerds.
Ah, but in the past couple years, we've seen something of a revolution in how music is sold. Napster is reborn as a legit music storehouse, and Real Networks, Sony Music and even Warner Music have taken to the web to sell their libraries of stuff on the cheap. It was Apple, of course, who lead the way to mainstream acceptance of the online music store, however, tethering their iPods to the iTunes Music Store and pioneering the art of cashing in on the $1 impulse buy.
The pricing plan and integration with the best-selling MP3 player on the market worked, and worked like gangbusters, revitalizing the ailing Apple and putting them on a pedestal few will reach for quite some time. With that kind of market share and exposure, it's not really a huge surprise that Square Enix decided to release Nobuo Uematsu's entire history of Final Fantasy soundtracks.
For anywhere between about $6 (for the earlier soundtracks) to $25 at the upper end (for more recent and multi-disc soundtracks), you can grab the tunes from not only all of Uematsu's work from Final Fantasy I - IX, but the collaborations he's done with other composers on the later work, some of those composers' add-on soundtracks, and even a couple of the hard-rockin' tributes to past games' battle music with The Black Mages.
In total, a whopping 15 albums, effectively giving U.S. fans the most comprehensive one-stop shop for Uematsu's work on the FF games, are available now, and serve as a nice tribute to the composer's work before he left Square to join fellow FF digital maestro Hironobu Sakaguchi at the newly-formed Mistwalker Studios, who will be working on Xbox 360 games going forward.
"I am thrilled that our soundtracks will finally be available to all the supportive American fans who have enjoyed our music over the years," Uematsu beamed in a terse little press release snippet.
"We’re expanding our business sphere beyond the traditional videogame in many ways," explains Ichiro Otobe, Square Enix's President and COO. "I’m excited to bring FINAL FANTASY music online by collaborating with Apple, an innovator in this arena. The iTunes Music Store is the perfect platform for our videogame soundtracks, which began as an early form of digital music."
While we're certainly not taking anything away from Uematsu's debut (he was apparently named to Time Magazine's "Time 100: The Next Wave" music pioneers list), but we're hoping this is a trend for Square Enix, who will release some of the work that other composers have done for their games, like Yasunori Mitsuda's Chrono Cross soundtrack, which some of us feel is the best games soundtrack ever made.
Yes, we're HUGE nerds.