Bandai Namco launches music label for game soundtracks

Bandai Namco Europe has announced it has set up a music label for game soundtracks.

Earlier this month, the company released the soundtrack to Elden Ring on streaming. Clocking in at over three hours, the 67-track album features music composed by a variety of From Software veterans, with the likes of Tsukasa Saitoh, Shoi Miyazawa, Yuka Kitamura, Yoshimi Kudo, and Tai Tomisawa all contributing.

The second release from Bandai Namco is the soundtrack to role-playing game Tales Of Arise, which is also now available on a variety of streaming services.

“Since the first videogames and all throughout the history of the industry, music has always been a core component of the gaming experience,” reads a press release from Bandai Namco. “Music made the games’ memories last longer and followed the players into their daily lives with amazing soundtracks to go back to and relive the stories they played.”

“We strive to delight our fans with more than just games, so we decided to bring videogame music to as many listeners as possible.”

Banda Namco’s decision to release its soundtracks outside of the original games comes after a series of calls for Nintendo to do something similar.

One YouTuber had to remove over a dozen soundtracks from his channel after a series of copyright strikes were filed against him by Nintendo. “So many of those soundtracks have never gotten official releases. It’s frustrating but as I’ve said before it’s ultimately their choice to have their music blocked on the platform,” they wrote.

Another YouTuber deleted their channel entirely after receiving over 1300 strikes.

They too had asked Nintendo to “please put your soundtracks on Spotify and/or other music streaming services,” in 2019. “Namco, Square, Capcom and others have already seen the light, when will you?” but as it stands, it’s still impossible to legally listen to a bulk of Nintendo’s music outside of their games.

In other news, HBO has released the first trailer for its adaptation of The Last Of Us starring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey – check it out here.