Over the last few years, I’ve done what I can to get my hands on just about every kind of game music soundtrack that I could get my hands on (well, only getting the ‘good’ ones), and I have a smallish collection going (about 15 titles spanning multiple systems). Some of them came free with some promotion or other, some were imports, and some were special orders that I almost had to have inside contacts to get. I’ve even gone through the trouble of making my own CDs by recording and editing the output of my consoles.
Why is it this hard? I have game upon game that have wonderful soundtracks that I would absolutely love to hear outside of the normal game environment. Some of the newer games even have orchestrated soundtracks. It should be relatively easy to throw those on a CD and sell them for however much they think that they’re worth.
Maybe no one buys them. As much as I hate to admit it, I might be in the minority. I’ll go out and get the Final Fantasy IV Soundtrack and play it loudly and proudly in my car all over town, but I don’t know anyone else who does. Of all the stores that I’ve been to, I only know of one store (outside of the Internet) that sells game music soundtracks and that’s Electronics Boutique (well, local to me, anyway). Trying to find them anywhere else without paying a fortune for import fees is next to impossible. Although, importing is certainly a good way to get the music from elsewhere, I hate spending $25 or so on one disc, regardless of how good it is.
Time for me to head out. I need my Final Fantasy VII music fix.