Crazy how time flies, right? Well, it's already been four weeks since my last video game music rundown. Remember: I told you last month that it was the most crammed July I had ever encountered since I began tracking new VGM releases in 2022. I can now confidently say the same about August, which saw exactly 128 new albums drop on streaming services. Here's what you need to know about it.
Mind you, the soundtrack to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth remains undefeated in terms of raw track count (175). August's longest album was actually the original soundtrack to the hit indie game Look Outside, featuring 74 tracks composed by Eric Shumaker, Noncollision Obj, Francis Coulombe, and Jacob J. Ritz. Learn more about it right here.
August 28 was the busiest day of last month with 17 new drops. I certainly felt the heat—publishing seven articles to cover it all. Square Enix, Sony, Marvel, and numerous indie studios all chose to release their soundtracks on the very same day. In case you missed it, you can get a head start on the upcoming PS5 exclusive Marvel's Wolverine with its stunning soundtrack by David Fleming.
As usual, orchestral remains the leading genre among new releases, albeit what I dub "downtempo" (meaning slow-paced, calm music—not actual, Bonobo-core downtempo) is slowly catching up on the overall leaderboard. To my surprise, "neoretro" soundtracks (e.g., Look Outside) seem to be losing traction compared to last year. More concerning, though, is the amount of AI-generated soundtracks released on streaming platforms.
You could argue that 16 out of nearly a thousand OSTs isn't a huge deal, but I spotted 11 AI soundtracks in August alone, which feels concerning enough to me. It shows that studios relying on AI for their music now feel confident enough to distribute their soundtracks on streaming services—even though these are instantly flagged by DSPs like Deezer or Tidal. Suffice to say, I'm only talking about AI-generated soundtracks that actually make it to Spotify and the like; most game devs obviously use tools like Suno or Udio to generate low-effort music for their game without any plan to ever release it.
Find more VGM data over at my dedicated website, and support me on Patreon to get access to exclusive playlists, and my ever-growing video game soundtracks database, in which I log every single OST I listen to, daily.
