I know what you mean, the thing is companies like Tokyopop and Mars Colony tried to do the whole localizing import music thing, but it never really count on outside of the people already in the scene.  So what incentive will there be for other companies to do it?  And while I agree about bonus soundtrack CDs with games being a great way to promote the medium, I think too many people look at it like that's how it should be, a free novelty.  Why pay almost as much for the soundtrack as you did for the original game?  And with all the downloadable material out there so easily accessed, how many people who are actually developing an interest in game music do you think will pay $30 per album? Not many.

Nemo wrote:

I know what you mean, the thing is companies like Tokyopop and Mars Colony tried to do the whole localizing import music thing, but it never really count on outside of the people already in the scene.  So what incentive will there be for other companies to do it?  And while I agree about bonus soundtrack CDs with games being a great way to promote the medium, I think too many people look at it like that's how it should be, a free novelty.  Why pay almost as much for the soundtrack as you did for the original game?  And with all the downloadable material out there so easily accessed, how many people who are actually developing an interest in game music do you think will pay $30 per album? Not many.

I think the price and distribution of albums prevents adoption overall.  For example, there are people in the gamefaqs forums that sometimes ask if there is a soundtrack for a given game.  Usually, a savvy fellow gamer points them to gamemusic.com or play-asia.com, but the original poster then balks at the price.  Then, you have posters just flat out ask where to download the soundtrack.  People want the content but aren't willing to pay the price to import.  It's bad enough that some people complain about the prices of domestic CDs, so the high cost of importing makes it much harder to attract fans.

In other cases, I've given a few legit soundtracks to a friend who liked the music in games and gave him URLs to thosr online stores, but he never increased his VGM collection on his own.

And nowadays, with the improvement in instrument quality, I am finding a slight decline in composition quality.  Apparently, there was a phase of Celtic and atmospheric music, which are genres I am not interested in.