Hi there - thought some of you might be interested in this game music album helping to raise money for charity...

Video game pianist Piano Squall declares war on multiple sclerosis with debut album "GAME"

The CD features original arrangements and performances of theme songs from video games such as Final Fantasy, Mega Man, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Super Mario World.

More info here:
http://www.music4games.net/News_Display.aspx?id=627

Out of curiosity, where 80 ％ of all profits will go?

Oh snap!

Hm, and what does it mean by profits?  Does it mean that, using per cd numbers, after the manufacturing and shipping costs taken from the $10, that the remainder is profit?  That, assuming it is made and sent for $2, out of the $8 remaining $1.60 goes to charity?

To be honest I really don't care what he does with the money he gets from this, he can keep it all if he wants, but a bit of transparency regarding roughly how much will be donated per cd is nice to know.

Thanks for getting this thread back on track.  I agree with you and I really don't see the problem here.

This guy has always bugged me. Maybe I'm just envious because I wish I could play piano as well as he does. But seriously, he's just an Otaku who's made a business out of performing the work of Japanese composers. And I just don't understand how he got *EA* of all companies to support him.

And, I guess, I don't think his arrangements are all that great.

Ramza

I think he works for EA?

Anyway, what about The Videogame Pianist?  No difference, really.  It's still cool to see that people can get attention by playing game music. 

Wait, wait. You are saying that as if I did ill to this thread. Okay, that's as may be, but I just didn't know that there is no problem with a big firm being involved in selling other companies' (individuals') copyrighted work. So, I apologize for digressing in a wrong direction and I promise I'll keep my nonsense in mind.

How do you know EA doesn't have Square et al. permission or not?  I don't even care about this guy or the album, but at least he's donating money to charity which is something, regardless of the percentage, to give him credit for.

Why not just sell an album and give some proceeds to charity behind the scenes instead of promoting it that way.  90% of people who go about it like this guy are scam artists, when I want to give money to charity I donate directly, I don't need to use you as a middleman, I'm not 4 years old.

Considering it's backed by EA, I doubt it's a scam. 

Anyway, donating directly is fine, but people are less inclined to do so.  If they can get something they want in return, it's more of an incentive, and you don't feel bad about the purchase because you're helping a good cause. 

I don't doubt this guy is a nice guy and has some well-done arrangements, I just never liked the whole get "something in return for donating, portion of proceeds go to charity" thing.  Say for instance this guy would make X amount of money if he didn't include this disclaimer, but with it he's now donating 30% of his proceeds but his net profit increases 100%, he's now making 40% more profit for himself.  Basically anyone can do something like this for their own personal benefit.  Of course someone could say, who cares the cause is getting money they wouldn't have gotten before (maybe), so everyone wins.  So in that sense, I guess I can't complain, I've just always subscribed to kt2's notion "deeds not words". Don't sell something based on what you're going to do with the money, sell something based on its own worth and merit.

Well, considering the CD may well turn in no profit at all the "20% of the profit will be donated" promise is pretty much a low risk marketing ploy. For whoever finances the CD at worst it doesn't cost anything extra, and at best it ensures plenty publicity for free which would otherwise most likely cost more than the 20% of the profit promised to be donated. And I guess you expect more goodwill for EA than I commonly actually see among both gamers and vgm fans.

Eh. I disagree with his whole marketing ploy. All the profit should go toward the cause.

As in.. sell something original (not fan arrangements, you can get good ones for free at OC ReMix) and keep the profits for yourself and your record company like a real musician?  Yeah, sounds good to me.  To follow the trend, I'll also quote a kt2 track title and say "Leave Me Alone" (No Reality, track 9 FYI).  As in, stop bugging me about paying for subpar fan arrangements, I'd rather spend my money on real game music and donate to charities of my choosing on my own time.  Kthxbye.

-Mike

This guy has apparently done something similar in the past, and raised $8000 or so for some foundation doing the same type of thing.  Marketing ploy or not, it's not like vgm does that great as far as sales are concerned anyway.

As far as selling something original, that doesn't really work either.  It's not like anybody can record a piano album and sell CDs just because it's for some good cause.  The fact that they are arrangements of videogame music may be the only selling point the CD has (for people like you and me).  I doubt he'd fare very well recording piano arrangements of mainstream classical music and marketing it to the mainstream classical audience.

Also, not buying a fan CD because "Overlocked remix has better arrangements" is also a very poor attitude to have.  I think it's important to support artists who are putting their time and effort into creating (or arranging) something for you and I to listen to and enjoy.  It's that kind of crappy attitude towards videogame arranging that makes it hard for OneUp Studios and KFSS Studios to put out well-polished products.  If it really comes down to, "Why pay for something I can get for free elsewhere," why buy any game music for that matter?  To support the musician and/or the game developer maybe?  Arranging/remixing isn't easy, and I don't see why they don't deserve some sort of compensation for their time and effort if it's good work, regardless of there being "better and free" stuff out there.

Oh, and "keep the profits for yourself and your record company like a real musician."  I guess means videogame composers not real musicians because they are paid a single salary for their work, which then becomes property of the developer.  They're not making profits off their CD sales, so I guess they're not real musicians.    Yeah, I hope they stop making those Premium Arrange CDs and just write something original, like real musicians, because I can get great remixes on OCR!  Sugiyama, stop with the symphonic suite albums already and do something original! 

I'm just giving you a hard time, and I know you weren't taking it to that extreme, but that really is a silly thing to say.  If you're so against it, don't buy it.  No reason to bitch and moan about it as long as it's not deceptive and actually benefits all parties involved.

I would say that the suck factor of OUS and KFSS makes it hard to put out well-polished products.

I would say it's more along the lines of: why buy boring piano arrangements of "popular" VGM tunes when you can download more inventive and rewarding remixes elsewhere for free? Supporting and buying game music and composers is one thing; supporting subpar fan arrangements from someone that looks like an actor from live-action FFVIII yaoi is another.

I'll admit I haven't heard the album yet, so I am not aware of the quality (or lack thereof) of the arrangements.  If there are clips available, people should be able to figure out for themselves if it sucks and not to buy it, etc.  No reason for the general statement, "people need to stop trying to ride on somebody else's work and do their own thing."  Who cares what marketing ploy they use, really?  If it sucks, it sucks, and people won't support it regardless of what tactics they use to try to get people to buy it.

However, I did really dig a few of the albums offered by OUS.  Even more, I think everyone would agree that there are many great doujin albums that come out of Japan all the time. 

I'll just say I don't have any interest in piano VGM to begin with, but seeing the charity thing as a major selling point just invites suspicion, whether it intends to or not...If Konami reprinted the Konami Battle albums and I saw the same thing, I'd think the same thing. It's certainly not going to work as a selling point for me. It may for a different audience that I'm not aware of. Likewise, if Ailsean were putting out a full rock arranged VGM CD, I'd buy the album whether or not he's pocketing it all or giving some away to charity. The whole charity thing is just...odd.

And yeah, KFSS and OUS had issues of their own, ranging from poor decisions to various quality issues to various attitude problems all around. Always seemed to be little ground between their non-supporters/detractors and their flock of followers. What I think people take issue with is doing VGM arrangements as a side project and offering the arrangements as freebies vs trying to launch a music career with it. It's a real issue of commercialism vs a simple love of what you're doing and a lot of people see it as the former. What complicates that are sites like OCR and many independant arrangers who practically give the stuff away and are probably just happy with it as a hobby. It just so happens many people feel the ones giving it away produce better work than the ones who sell their work...Which isn't a good combination. I can care less about Piano Squall, but sign me up when Goat or housethegrate unleash some arranged album goodness on us.

Sugiyama keeps the rights to his music afaik.

Probably nobody if it weren't in the thread's title...

Yeah, I'm not sure about Sugiyama, but those were just examples.  There are countless examples.  And yeah, it's in the topic, but why cut down his effort based on the marketing strategy?  The product is what matters, and if it sucks, that's what's going to determine whether anyone buys it or not.

Wow, some people are harsher than me, I don't think there's any reason to rip this guy a new one.  I guess I'm in the minority in this whole thing as my stance is I probably would have bought an album like this (as I like supporting fan arrangement projects) before I found out about the whole charity thing, I just don't like what it says.  As a side note, I don't think this guy is a total leech, like someone else touched on, becoming a successful musician is hard enough as it is, so add to that the realm of instrumental and piano.  He's just using VGM as an avenue to showcase his talent (if he has any), as he apparently has some "original" compositions on the CD as well.  I've become a fan of peoples' own work I would haven't otherwise listened to or cared about if it wasn't for their VGM arrangement stuff.  So drop the whole "buy my CD to support a good cause" and I would be all for this.