89.7 Growl FM: Your (Underground) Road to Fame - Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Music Contest

[LeKill3rFou]

I have a question, should the track be minimal 2-3 minutes and no longer than 3 minutes, or can it be longer than 3 minutes?.

From my understanding of the "rules" in the original post, I think 2 minutes is the minimum and 3 minutes is the maximum
"It can be an instrumental track or a song (vocals need to be in English, Spanish, Japanese or Chinese) between 2:00 and 3:00 minutes long."

 

[ColinChaos88]

I'm so fucking stoked on this!! I've been waiting for an opportunity like this since launch, and now that it's actually happening, even if I don't get on the playlist, I just seriously appreciate the fact that 15 artists in a similar position actually get the recognition and I can't wait to listen to Growl FM!!
I've already submitted a brand new track for this, but to give you an idea of my approach, here's something clearly Cyberpunk-inspired from over a year ago. SO fucking hyped!!!

Synaptic Breakdown, by Chaos Tracer

5 track album

chaosdemiserecords.bandcamp.com

Post automatically merged: Nov 12, 2022

I have a question, should the track be minimal 2-3 minutes and no longer than 3 minutes, or can it be longer than 3 minutes?.

Between 2 and 3 minutes, like a radio edit. Good practice, actually!

 

[XITJUNK]

.

 

[XITJUNK]

Hello again guys. I found this post on Reddit asking about the rights of the music. Can some one here or from CDPR comment this so we can understand better ?

Reddit post by:

“Vague wording in the contract has me a bit worried about signing away rights I never intended to so i sent an email to their legal but if anyone has done so already and knows whats up that'd be great.

It's this section here: "The Winners will enter into a copyright transfer agreement with the Organizer, in which the Winner will transfer all economic copyrights and related rights to the winning Entry to the Organizer, including, but not limited to, a possibility to use the Entry or its elements in Organizer's games and marketing materials. "

Then theres the possibility of using your own song in a social media post and whether that would be allowed per CDPR's fan content policy as the copyright would now be owned by them.

Also did you know that they have this in their fan content policy: "So, we kindly ask that you give us from the moment of creation of your fan content a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, worldwide, sub-licensable, royalty-free licence to use, modify, reproduce, create derivative works from, distribute, exploit, transmit, perform and communicate your fan content in connection with our games."

So basically any song entered into the contest could be reasonably considered fan content and used by them even if you don't win.”

this last part really worried me. Hope they don’t use tracks that don’t win. That would be totally bad

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

may be its time , players who wants make this challenge don't be to wooried about "contract , policy" ..."
to resume the fan contents , its all only about want to use fan contents on marketing , comunity purpose without thinking fan make / put some law suit agains them xD

time to time , i pusblih pack song ( selling , or free content ) on Unity Store , Market Store for developpers
both of them having similar rules , they can pick contents from creator for event live stream or advertasing creator content , community for their engine .

indeed people need to becarefull but i hope they don't follow some "crazy" trend or imagine they make a song that make them billionaire ^^
take this challenge , as a cool contest and winner can grap some subtantial fair cash price

 

[XITJUNK]

may be its time , players who wants make this challenge don't be to wooried about "contract , policy" ..."
to resume the fan contents , its all only about want to use fan contents on marketing , comunity purpose without thinking fan make / put some law suit agains them xD

time to time , i pusblih pack song ( selling , or free content ) on Unity Store , Market Store for developpers
both of them having similar rules , they can pick contents from creator for event live stream or advertasing creator content , community for their engine .

indeed people need to becarefull but i hope they don't follow some "crazy" trend or imagine they make a song that make them billionaire ^^
take this challenge , as a cool contest and winner can grap some subtantial fair cash price

i am just worried about the react if you don’t win, they still use the tracks and have the rights too

 

[LeKill3rFou]

i am just worried about the react if you don’t win, they still use the tracks and have the rights too

I could be wrong, but I assume (again, could be wrong), it's only for the purpose of the contest. If you don't win, they can keep the song on their website for example. But they can't use your song in a trailer unrelated to the contest.

By publishing your Entry, you (the Contestant) grant us (the Organizer), a non-exclusive, worldwide,
non-transferable, royalty-free license to use the Entry for the purpose of the Contest, including
providing the Entry to the Contest Committee, to the community of players, as well as publishing it on
our websites. This license covers in particular the following forms of exploitation:
● producing copies of the Entry using all techniques;
● distribution and dissemination of the Entry in all channels;
● making the Entry available in a manner allowing any person to access the Entry in a place and
at a time selected by them.

 

[XITJUNK]

I could be wrong, but I assume (again, could be wrong), it's only for the purpose of the contest. If you don't win, they can keep the song on their website for example. But they can't use your song in a trailer unrelated to the contest.

yeah and that it’s not fair. Cause people are working hard for this. Even if they put your name in credits of videos (most people don’t even see them), is not good enough

Post automatically merged: Nov 13, 2022

I could be wrong, but I assume (again, could be wrong), it's only for the purpose of the contest. If you don't win, they can keep the song on their website for example. But they can't use your song in a trailer unrelated to the contest.

“will be terminated immediately if the Contestant does not become a Winner on the announcement day referred to in § 3 point 2 above.” What’s about this? They can’t use it if you don’t win right?

 

[LeKill3rFou]

yeah and that it’s not fair. Cause people are working hard for this. Even if they put your name in credits of videos (most people don’t even see them), is not good enough

I will quote @spacefiddle :

Folks, there's no need to spread panic about the copyright transfer terms, let alone the licensing wording.

It may surprise you to learn that under the standard, typical, old-fashioned pre-streaming "record deal" that every band supposedly wished for, the arists in all cases *retained no ownership nor control of any kind over their music.* We won't even get into how the big up-front signing bonus, if you got one, was actially a *loan that the record label would recoup from sales before you saw a dime of profit,* and that most bands' income mostly came from merch sales during shows and maybe a portion of venue ticket sales- which is why so many bands tried touring all the time everywhere in as large a venue as possible.

This is nowhere near that level of sjullduggery; this is how CDPR needs to protect itself from 15 strangers it knows nothing about. Without the copyright transfer, a litigious lunatic could turn around and demand royalties from streamers on Twitch and videos on YouTube, not to mention, say, a track with vocals where there's the songwriting royalities, the performance royalities, the composition roy- you get the idea now i hope.

And it's not like they're asking for a full-length album of your magnum opus - it's a 2-3 minute track for use in a game's radio station mostly heard while driving. Yes, you are agreeing to effectively give this short, simple, themed piece to CDPR for them to own. Welcome to freelance sound design.

So please, read up and educate yourself on the subject if it's new to you, but stop trying to scare people off or stir up some kind of outrage over what's actually a fairly mild and common way the industry does, and must, work for everyone.

TL;DR you are supposed to be creating a track *for this purpose* not giving away your life's work.

If you don't win, I can't see them delete all the posts, tweets, whatever... i.e everything related to the contest everywhere on the web. But they're not allowed to use the "non-winner songs" in the game or any commercial product outside of the contest itself.
And again, I repet myself too, if you don't agree with this rules, simply don't participate. Very simple

“will be terminated immediately if the Contestant does not become a Winner on the announcement day referred to in § 3 point 2 above.” What’s about this? They can’t use it if you don’t win right?

That's the "deal", if you don't win, they can't use it anymore (but they can let your "content" published for the contest purpose).

 

[ColinChaos88]

I'd just be stoked to be associated with the game in any way, really. It's my favourite game ever. I've never played through a story as many times in my life, or bothered with this level of completion in any game before or since.

 

[XITJUNK]

what about some drum n bass or dubstep to the growl fm radio?

btw can we use voices from the characters of the game?

 

[LeKill3rFou]

btw can we use voices from the characters of the game?

Accroding to the rules, I could suggest to avoid

By publishing your Entry, you also declare that:

• the Entry is a result of your own and independent work;
• you exclusively own all author’s personal and economic copyrights to the Entry, in particular the right to use it and to dispose of its use throughout all the fields of exploitation and to receive remuneration for the use of the Entry;
• you have an exclusive right to grant permission for performance of the derivative copyrights;
• your economic copyrights, as referred to in points above, are neither limited nor encumbered with any third-party rights, and that they do not infringe any rights of the third parties (other than the Organizer);
• you have not granted any license to use the Entry within any scope.

Characters voices in the game are not the result of your own and independant work, and will involve third-party rights, even if this third-party is CDPR themself.

 

[eylyn]

So, I've been hesitant to wade into the contest fairness thing...but...to me, this is a passion project-type thing. The contest prize and everything comes after my want to show my love for the game—in that sense the prize is just a bonus, official recognition a cherry on top. All I can do is put my love into it and see how it does. (Don't get me wrong, it would be so cool to be one of the winners, but I'm re-learning how to do this specifically for the contest, and I was never very good at it to begin with.) I know some others are gonna enter specifically for the prize, but...that's not me. The contest stipulations seem more than fair to me.

That being said, it would be interesting to know whether the "we invite you to create a musical work inspired by Cyberpunk 2077" in the contest's FAQ and §1.2 of the ruleset means they're considering the entries as fan content or not. I'm hedging on the side of not, given §9.2.b, but...perhaps that's because my brain pings "not all works inspired by other works are derivative in the way fan works inherently are". /shrug

So excited for this!
Submitted a few days ago, loved the creating the track especially for this. You can check out a snippet here if you're interested.
I've tried to capture a mixture of underground genres which I feel could really work in 2077 - Witchhouse, Breakcore, and Techno

Thank you so much for posting this! I've been wondering where my track fits in genre-wise and had no idea whether I could find it. The words that had popped into my head were "industrial trance", but after finding recommendations based on it I wasn't sure it really fit... I don't think I've found its home yet, but I have found some cool producers through searching breakcore and witchcore. Your snippet is sick.

 

[treesayshi2]

Can we use any of the names/terms in the cyberpunk game or edgerunner anime? Like arasaka corp, cyberpsychosis, mizutani, etc.? Or does everything need to be purely original, including the song title?

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Can we use any of the names/terms in the cyberpunk game or edgerunner anime? Like arasaka corp, cyberpsychosis, mizutani, etc.? Or does everything need to be purely original, including the song title?

I could be wrong, but I don't think it should be a problem if you add lyrics in your song and use Cyberpunk terms/names, as long as the "voices" don't come from the game.
So for example, it should be fine if it's me singing that in the song (sorry in advance^^)
"The path of glory is the dream I follow"
"Like Johnny did a long while ago"

 

[ColinChaos88]

I've used "gonks", "chooms" and "chooh", so I'd sincerely hope that you can use terminology from the universe...

 

[LaqunaEnd]

I hesitate to call this "advice" because I don't have any kind of inside track - I don't know any better than you all - so call it "an idea from some random internet person" and take it with a grain of salt.

If the premise of the contest is that you're an artist in universe and your song is on the radio - then pretend you exist in universe and write from there. If something isn't explicitly referenced in universe then not only does CDPR probably not have the rights - it wouldn't make sense to reference it anyway. As a being in the universe you wouldn't have been exposed to it and no one else in universe would know what you're talking about either. Same with knowledge of events that a random musician in universe would or wouldn't have..

I'd (well, I DID, not I WOULD) personally take it a step further and suggest not "scoring" the game. I've heard a lot of entries on youtube that sound like someone in 2022 making music for a game set in 2077.. It's not "bad" music by any means, and it might even be what CDPR is looking for - but if you're going with the premise then you're not someone in 2022 making music for a game set in 2077, you're someone in 2077 making music for the radio/people of 2077. I basically treated the actual composing process as an RPG..

Was that a good idea? ::
But it makes sense to me.. for whatever that's worth.
Regardless, I'm pretty sure the approach will safeguard me from any implied technical disqualifications.

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

I hesitate to call this "advice" because I don't have any kind of inside track - I don't know any better than you all - so call it "an idea from some random internet person" and take it with a grain of salt.

If the premise of the contest is that you're an artist in universe and your song is on the radio - then pretend you exist in universe and write from there. If something isn't explicitly referenced in universe then not only does CDPR probably not have the rights - it wouldn't make sense to reference it anyway. As a being in the universe you wouldn't have been exposed to it and no one else in universe would know what you're talking about either. Same with knowledge of events that a random musician in universe would or wouldn't have..

I'd (well, I DID, not I WOULD) personally take it a step further and suggest not "scoring" the game. I've heard a lot of entries on youtube that sound like someone in 2022 making music for a game set in 2077.. It's not "bad" music by any means, and it might even be what CDPR is looking for - but if you're going with the premise then you're not someone in 2022 making music for a game set in 2077, you're someone in 2077 making music for the radio/people of 2077. I basically treated the actual composing process as an RPG..

Was that a good idea? ::
But it makes sense to me.. for whatever that's worth.
Regardless, I'm pretty sure the approach will safeguard me from any implied technical disqualifications.

on this kind of contest indeed , there's different appraoch ( layer )
- what the composer imagine
- what CRDP looking for
- What feel a music radio on 2077 lore .

but to know when its comes to sound design / music on video game , mostly go for "diegetic feature" .
to resume this , take a looks at the "cantina music" on first star wars film , we can see a band playing music with exotic instruments , thats its diegetic music , music follow the lore and its a part of the narration . now see the music on the Lords of ring , great music , that support the narration but itsn't diegetic music .

reminds me in the film Judge dread ( the one with sylverstone stalone ) when the first time he listen the music radio on the car xD , can't imagine this kind of music based on jingle on cyberpunk 2077 adverstasing

wich one we need to follow ..?
may be both but keep in mind the music is for the radio when driving . it'll be not suitable to make a "themed" music , those kind of music when on a game your on Menu . or going to themed combat music ..the other point to see
- if player listen the music , can he hear the others feeback audio in game ( imagine a geat trance track but player can't listen of the world game when driving , no feeback on speed gears , breaks , drift , ..)
- overflowing music , a track can be good but become "annoying" ( to loud , big large spectral frequence .. ) , when player is too focus on the music when doing activity it can be an issues ( that's the case on some few fps with big/great music , but player always turn off music )

in fact there's no rules on music composing
(even sometimes on the process , we may follow some code genre based on what kind of game , themed lore )

 

[eylyn]

I hesitate to call this "advice" because I don't have any kind of inside track - I don't know any better than you all - so call it "an idea from some random internet person" and take it with a grain of salt.

If the premise of the contest is that you're an artist in universe and your song is on the radio - then pretend you exist in universe and write from there. If something isn't explicitly referenced in universe then not only does CDPR probably not have the rights - it wouldn't make sense to reference it anyway. As a being in the universe you wouldn't have been exposed to it and no one else in universe would know what you're talking about either. Same with knowledge of events that a random musician in universe would or wouldn't have..

I'd (well, I DID, not I WOULD) personally take it a step further and suggest not "scoring" the game. I've heard a lot of entries on youtube that sound like someone in 2022 making music for a game set in 2077.. It's not "bad" music by any means, and it might even be what CDPR is looking for - but if you're going with the premise then you're not someone in 2022 making music for a game set in 2077, you're someone in 2077 making music for the radio/people of 2077. I basically treated the actual composing process as an RPG..

Was that a good idea? ::
But it makes sense to me.. for whatever that's worth.
Regardless, I'm pretty sure the approach will safeguard me from any implied technical disqualifications.

Eeeeee! I'm so glad someone else is thinking along the same wavelength. This is basically what I'm doing to convince myself to be comfortable with entering—this is an underground radio station and I'm guessing not everything on it's gonna polished-polished. It feels appropriate that some more rough-around-the-edges artists might get featured on it. Obvs I'm still going to try my best with mixing and stuff, but there's a level of raw that might or might not be suitable for the station, whatever the genre ends up being (if the station even sticks to a single one).

I just hope I don't make their ears bleed. Or if I do, that they like it.

 

[ColinChaos88]

I hesitate to call this "advice" because I don't have any kind of inside track - I don't know any better than you all - so call it "an idea from some random internet person" and take it with a grain of salt.

If the premise of the contest is that you're an artist in universe and your song is on the radio - then pretend you exist in universe and write from there. If something isn't explicitly referenced in universe then not only does CDPR probably not have the rights - it wouldn't make sense to reference it anyway. As a being in the universe you wouldn't have been exposed to it and no one else in universe would know what you're talking about either. Same with knowledge of events that a random musician in universe would or wouldn't have..

I'd (well, I DID, not I WOULD) personally take it a step further and suggest not "scoring" the game. I've heard a lot of entries on youtube that sound like someone in 2022 making music for a game set in 2077.. It's not "bad" music by any means, and it might even be what CDPR is looking for - but if you're going with the premise then you're not someone in 2022 making music for a game set in 2077, you're someone in 2077 making music for the radio/people of 2077. I basically treated the actual composing process as an RPG..

Was that a good idea? ::
But it makes sense to me.. for whatever that's worth.
Regardless, I'm pretty sure the approach will safeguard me from any implied technical disqualifications.

As far as I'm concerned it's a GREAT idea!
A whole new level of RPG!

That's exactly what I went for, but I stopped playing the game for the duration of the writing process so as not to try fit a sound already existing within the Cyberpunk universe, but rather come up with my own variation based on how I felt when I thought about Night City.
This is contrast to the EP that I did last year which I wrote and recorded between gaming sessions.