The guys over at humblebundle.com are at it again, but this time with a music-only bundle. Now, we have a bone to pick with these guys, since their promotional material suggests that this is some sort of new/premier idea, to offer a bunch of music related to games and/or of interest to gamers. Anyone who knows the full backstory behind the creation of the Indie Game Music Bundle (gamemusicbundle.com) will either laugh or choke at the idea that this is the first big game music bundle, or that Rosen and crew only got this idea *now.*
But, laying aside that petty grievance, this bundle does have some really good stuff in it. There are a total of 6 albums here (if you pay extra to unlock everything). In my mind, the two coolest items here are Christopher Tin’s “Calling All Dawns” (Audi’s review here, our podcast interview with Tin here). Tin serves as a sort of front-man for this bundle, delivering a great video message to potential purchasers of the bundle. His flabbergasted response to the mere existence of Linux users is hilarious, and all in good fun. Considering Tin is a two-time grammy award winner (thanks to “Calling All Dawns” and, specifically, the new recording of the Civilization IV opening theme “Baba Yetu”), this album certainly deserves the headlining spot.
However, the bundle also includes an entirely new album. Sort of, anyway. It’s a digital-only “best of” album for Hitoshi Sakimoto’s Valkyria Chronicles music. This compilation album includes music from all three games, even with the third game being absent from the English-language market. Be sure to check out vgmdb’s listing of the album so you know which tracks are on the album (a total of 24 songs!). If you haven’t already imported some or all of these OSTs, that’s a mighty fine deal for some of Sakimoto’s best work in recent years.
Beyond that, the bundle also has a Jonathan Coulton “best of” album (Portal‘s Still Alive, and many others), MC Frontalot’s “Favoritism,” They Might Be Giant’s “album raises new thoughts and troubling questions,” and OK Go’s “Twelve Remixes of Four Songs.”
Great music for a good price. Seriously, if you don’t have “Calling All Dawns” already, that album alone is worth the price of entry, and I’d argue most any of the other albums are also worth the bundle “unlock” minimum (currently a little over $8). Enjoy!
Tags: Bundles, Calling All Dawns, Christopher Tin, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Humble Bundle, Humble Music Bundle, Valkyria Chronicles
FYI the Humble folks say it’s been being planned for over a year, so they probably have good cause to say it the idea is reasonably original, even if they didn’t release it first.
Yeah … that’s not what I’m referring to. I’m not sure what all I’m at liberty to say, but let’s just say they had a chance to be cooperative instead of competitive. And that was >1 year ago too, so the timeline presented doesn’t make me feel any more comfortable about it.
I think it would be wise to give a little context. For someone like me, who has no idea about any bad blood among various humble bundlers, it sounds petty to jab at the humblebundle.com guys about originality. Granted, Christopher Tin talks about “the first game music bundle ever”, but among tweets and e-mail messages, I don’t remember they ever calling this initiative original or anything like “first big game music bundle”. This also isn’t written anywhere on their website. Moreover, despite Tin’s mistake (he may have been misinformed, of course), we who care know there has been other, and bigger game music bundles. I don’t really get the “cooperative vs competitive” stuff. Aren’t these bundles supposed to raise money for charity and creators? Is there any reason to mistrust either initiative? I hope not.
More than likely, Tin’s message was composed by the team behind the HB website, so I’m certainly not faulting him for anything!
And I’m not suggesting there’s bad blood. When you say “it sounds petty to jab…” … well right, that’s why I listed it as a “petty grievance.”
There is no reason to mistrust either initiative as to the legitimacy of their enterprise. Indeed, they are bringing in money for the artists and for charities that otherwise *never* would be coming in. But don’t think the “Tip” portion is just barely keeping them afloat. As an operation, they’ve grown, and it’s because of the amount coming in via the “tip.”
Let me put it to you this way: what if the site that already had an enormous, established brand (humblebundle.com) had been the ones to garner support for musicians like Francisco Cerda, Kan Gao, Laura Shigihara, and others who were featured on gamemusicbundle?
That’s all I’m saying. That’s what I mean by competitive vs cooperative. The musicians had to go somewhere to forge their own slice of the pie, and then it turns out humblebundle already had something in the works, just with bigger names among musicians.
I’m not saying any more than that. I think y’all ought to get the picture by now.
Patrick, thanks for clearing things up for me; I admit I was being a bit dense. Frankly, I thought these artists were a bit “too big” for the “humble INDIE bundle”, but didn’t really pay much attention. My fault.
Just a side anecdote: last week, there was a Steam sale and many games were being sold in “humble bundles”. Since Steam is enormous compared to the various indie bundles, I wonder how many people will think theirs is the “main” bundle. Not cool.
In a perfect reality, one bundle outlet would exist – if only to cease the endless barrage of everyone suddenly leapfrogging off the back of an “originator” and clogging up the internet with dozens of them and devaluing and deflating the charm held within them in the process. Sadly, we don’t live in the mind of a Golden Age comic book writer.
This is a bit apples and oranges though. Yes, there’s game music in this bundle but there’s also a lot of non-game music as well. It’s a music bundle that happens to at least acknowledge those of us who might have a bit different taste than the rest.
Would it have been awesome of Wolfire to get in touch with Whelchel and co. to spearhead the more specific indie game music bundle into atmospheric heights? Hell yeah but if that were to happen then I think we wouldn’t have seen 3 of the latter and would’ve been forced to wait as time permitted for everything to organize properly. That this alone had been in the pipes for a year+ and is only now coming to fruition for Wolfire and the artists involved is evident that the turn-around for music is much less than it is games.
Pablo — no apologies required. And yeah, the “Indie Bundles” on Steam were ridiculous. Steam summer sale was fantastic, but not a one of those bundles made much sense to me (many of them weren’t even from indie studios. There was a friggin’ Ys game in one of them…).
Jacob — wow. This is the most thoughtful and worthwhile statement I’ve read yet about the world of bundlemania. It’s all so very true, and you are definitely right to point out that this bundle isn’t exactly a “game music” bundle, even though it has the Valkyria Chronicles album and a few hand-picked game favorites (Baba Yetu, Still Alive).
Thanks so much for the feedback on this.
Patrick – I guess I tend to get wrapped up in comments. Yeah, I was more or less on the nose with the obviousness, fair to call me out on it.
I feel mostly the same way as you expressed it in your article about this – I view it as a little insulting to what came before (even if those involved don’t intend it to insult or otherwise take it as an insult) but at the same time can’t fault Wolfire and the artists involved in this over doing what they did. Who knows what door this bundle might open up for the future? We might see Wolfire reaching out to the indie composers who might not have seen the levels of success such as Tin or Coulton.
The sting is there but there’s hope for the future if they continue with this trend. It would definitely be the needed platform to help propel some very deserving talent in the indie game composing scene to new heights and hopefully that’s exactly what happens. Unfortunately we’re cursed with the uncertainty of it all until it actually happens. Until then I’m satisfied with future IGMB releases.
You had me at Sakimoto and Tin (though I already own ‘Calling All Dawns”). I’ll be sure to pick this bundle up later this week. Thanks for the posting! 🙂