VGML has released a series of free albums on Bandcamp showcasing the best member-contributed, VGM-inspired original music!
VGM Lounge is, and will always remain non-commercial, a not-for-profit community, made by the fans, for the fans. These albums are released to support our Discord server. The albums are designed to showcase the amazing talents of the community. VGML is about creating a greenhouse for member growth, a place to make friends, experiment, share, learn, thrive, and if they wish, break into the gaming industry.... and of course, make VGM. Therefor, these albums will be released as free to stream, with an option to pay for downloads if you would like to support the server.
We will not be publishing any music that is AI generated on our albums. All music needs to be created by real humans. This is about the art of music making.
The use of some AI assisted tools such as mastering tools is acceptable but you must indicate this when submitting tracks.
Our YouTube channel hosts both original and cover tracks. So if you are into creating VGM covers you can submit for YouTube consideration.
Our BandLab channel hosts all of the original tracks created by our members. This includes tracks that may not make it to our YouTube channel or Bandcamp albums and is designed to showcase up and coming members. Not all tracks may be as polished as other releases, but its a great way to encourage enthusiasts learning their craft.
Good question, glad you asked! The magic of VGM is that it can in fact encompass almost any style of music. VGM is not a genre itself, but there is a certain feeling to VGM and you know when it feels right. Basically if your music is actually in a game - it's VGM. If your music has influences from an existing game (but is wholly original) - it's VGM. If your music feels like it would fit into a video game - then it is probably VGM. It comes down to your judgement, and then to ours to accept or reject a track as VGM inspired. You will know if it is, and so will the fans.
These albums will be available for listening/personal use only, not for commercial use. They are published under CC BY-NC-ND, which means you can share tracks with friends to listen to them, but your can't use them for any commercial purposes and you can't make derivatives from the work, and you must attribute the composer if you do use their work in a not-for-profit project (that includes YouTube videos) AFTER you get their permission. You cannot use these tracks commercially (eg. in a game or film) without negotiating with the composer first.
Composers retain 100% copyright of their tracks, and there are no limitations on how those tracks can be published by the composer in the future. If you wish to discuss a track, contact the composer directly on VGML to discuss licensing.
The Bandcamp tracks will be available for download in FLAC format. If you would like to obtain a higher quality copy of the track please contract the composer directly.
You can join our Discord to talk directly to any of the composers, or just chat about VGM and enjoy the friendly well-managed community.
We are focusing on original work only for the themed albums please, so the tracks must be your original creations, and while they can be influenced by certain video games, they should not contain samples/melody lines or other elements that closely resemble tracks from the games OST. (No covers, mashups, or derivative works that would not pass a copyright check.) Cover though will be accepted for the YouTube channel.
We won't accept tracks with course language or that express strong personal/political/religious opinions. Mostly we prefer instrumental music, but in some cases vocal music is fine as well.
We won't accept music that is not of a reasonable quality/standard. It doesn't have to be perfect, but anything that feels incomplete or rough will be rejected. We are wanting our listeners to have a good experience and enjoy themselves.
Please load your track into Audacity or similar to check for clipping before submitting, and try to adjust your levels appropriately. Thanks. I prefer to not see tracks like this... :-)
Your track should be a single track and ideally less than 5 mins in length. Longer tracks may be included at my discretion. Do not submit more than one track in a file, and remove any leading or trailing silence please. Each track should be submitted individually to this form. Incorrectly formatted tracks may be rejected.
For albums on our Bandcamp site it is best to go high quality ... all tracks will be normalised and converted to FLAC for Bandcamp. Please, please, please check the output quality of your renders and set them to 16 Bit / 44.1 kHz. :-)
WAV files (sample rate must be 44100Hz, 320+ kbps)
Note: All files will be converted/normalised to MP3/192 kbps/constant bit rate to play on the radio as well.
Please aim for a loudness around -16 LUFS.
Important: File name standard: [your_discord_name].[track title].[ext]
We are no longer accepting tracks. Please just post your work to the Discord server to share it with members. Thanks.