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The Video game Music Archive, also known as VGMusic.com or VGMA, is a website that archives MIDI sequences of video game music, ranging from tunes of the NES era to modern pieces featured in Xbox One, Wii U and PS4 games. Currently, there are over 30,000 MIDI sequences hosted on the site across approximately 47 gaming platforms. The SNES directory has the most MIDI sequences of any directory on this site. VGMusic.com is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, video game music websites online. The owner of the website is Michael Newman (Yaginuma), who graduated from the University of Connecticut and who is a
chemical engineer In the field of engineering, a chemical engineer is a professional, equipped with the knowledge of chemical engineering, who works principally in the chemical industry to convert basic raw materials into a variety of products and deals with the ...
by day. Day-to-day site operations are maintained by a small team of volunteer staff members, performing tasks such as server administration, site updates and archive maintenance.


General

VGMusic.com accepts remakes/covers, arrangements, and remixes of video game music in MIDI format. The MIDI sequences are typically General MIDI and GM2 standard, but sequences that use proprietary MIDI standards like Roland GS and
Yamaha XG Yamaha XG (EXtended General MIDI) is an extension to the General MIDI standard, created by Yamaha. It is similar in purpose to the Roland GS standard. Features Relative to General MIDI, XG gained popularity by increasing the number of availa ...
are also available on the site. Formerly RIFF MIDI (RMI) format sequences were also available, but currently only MIDI types 0 and 1 (MID) are available. The community is driven by a user-base of musicians from around the world, who transcribe the music into midi format by ear using sequencing software. In addition to the music sections for game consoles and home computer systems, there is also a
Medley Medley or Medleys may refer to: Sports *Medley swimming, races requiring multiple swimming styles * Medley relay races at track meets Music *Medley (music), multiple pieces strung together People *Medley (surname), list of people with this nam ...
section. Submitted medleys consist of music selections from anything between one game and multiple games and franchises; the style or theme of the medleys is at the discretion of the sequencers. There is also a Piano Only section, which hosts sequences transcribed to use two MIDI tracks, one for each hand on piano. These sequences can subsequently be opened using appropriate score-writing software, and printed out as
sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses List of musical symbols, musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chord (music), chords of a song or instrumental Musical composition, musical piece. Like ...
. Arrangements for
piano duet According to the ''Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', there are two kinds of piano duet: "those for two players at one instrument, and those in which each of the two pianists has an instrument to themself." In American usage the former is ...
and
organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...
are also accepted. No users receive money for submitting their sequences, and there are no paid staff sequencers employed by the site.


Submission process and site standards

When the site was initially launched, there was a greater emphasis on quantity rather than quality, but the expected quality of submissions has risen as the user base and popularity of the site has steadily increased over its life-time. The standards are typically lower for songs not currently in the archive, and are often elevated for songs that have been sequenced many times before. The expected quality of remixes is also high. Updates occur infrequently; the staff asserts that infrequent large updates are easier to perform than frequent smaller ones with the way the site is currently designed.Frequently Asked Questions – General Site Questions
/ref> E-mail notifications are sent when files are accepted or rejected, occasionally with feedback with advice for improving the sequence for later revisions or informing the user on what they could do to ensure their sequence is accepted on subsequent submissions. However, there is currently no error-checking done on names or e-mail addresses, meaning users that submit false information will not receive e-mails. Any file can be removed at the discretion of the staff if they feel it is not up to the site's standards, even after approval. However, many files that were accepted in the site's early days have been grandfathered in, despite not meeting the current standards.


Controversy and reform

Some music is not permitted to be hosted on the site, at the request of the original composers. The PC section of the site was also removed, but reinstated again several years later, with a warning to not upload rips or conversions of music taken directly from games. There is also a list of composers whose work is not accepted on the site for any apparent reason. The site rejects direct reproductions and rips from original game soundtracks, as well as conversions. This was primarily to minimize copyright infringement issues, but also because of the typically poor quality of conversions, and to focus the site on content created entirely by the users.


Papers

In addition to hosting music, VGMusic.com also hosts several academic papers related to video game music.
Video Game Music: Not Just Kid Stuff
by Matthew Belinke

by Eric Pidkameny

by Daniel DeCastro


In the media

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References


External links


Official Website

Official Forums
(Broken)
VGMusic IRC chatroom information

VGMusic.com Status
- Livejournal Group run by VGMusic.com staff to report the site's downtime status {{DEFAULTSORT:Vgmusic.Com emulated music formats Video game music websites Internet properties established in 1996 American music websites