As a collector and reviewer of MMORPG soundtracks, I owe a great debt to fellow music lovers who take the time to somehow extract files from the game directories and make these tracks available to the world at large. YouTube has been an invaluable treasure trove of MMO music, thanks to these devoted fans, and I thought I would give some of them props today for their hard and continuing work.
While there are plenty of channels where you might see a person post a playlist at one point for a single game, there are a handful of YouTubers who see their mission to continually post new music for ongoing online games. Today we are going to look at five channels and the game soundtracks that they cover. We’re talking hours and hours of music at your fingertips here, so set aside your plans for the rest of the day and get listening!
Yann: RuneScape soundtracks
Considering just how staggeringly massive and continually updated RuneScape’s soundtrack is — seriously, it’s the largest MMO soundtrack in existence, as far as I know — I am in awe of the work Yann has done to continually catalog all of the tracks that Jagex is pumping out on a regular basis. If there’s a new update or event, changes are Yann will have a handful of tracks up within a day or so! Bonus points for using RuneScape’s colorful art for backgrounds.
Mekkah Dee: Final Fantasy XIV and Black Desert soundtracks
Speaking of large soundtracks, you don’t get much bigger than FFXIV! Mekkah Dee has an obvious passion for eastern scores, and while she covers a variety of single-player titles (particularly from the Final Fantasy franchise), both FFXIV and Black Desert’s scores get a lot of play on her channel. She’s also touched base with Monster Hunter World and Destiny. If you’re looking for the latest and greatest from these games, this is your one-stop shop!
Evillix: Guild Wars 2 soundtracks
While ArenaNet is generally pretty good about getting out Guild Wars 2’s soundtrack on SoundCloud and through official releases, you’ll want to hit up Evillix for the latest and greatest track releases without the long wait. Did you know that the fourth season of the living world already has an astounding 49 music tracks to its name? I didn’t until I checked this channel’s playlist!
Tom Kalmar: Lord of the Rings Online soundtracks
While LOTRO is a pretty well-known and -covered soundtrack on YouTube, most playlists tend to falter past the official releases. Yet for the past year or so, Tom Kalmar has been diligently gathering all of the new music that’s come out, especially pieces from the updates and not the expansions. It’s here that you’ll find the lovely new tunes for Northern Mirkwood, for example — here, and pretty much nowhere else.
Edward RubyRunner: Wizard101 soundtracks
While Wizard101 doesn’t get a lot of attention for its soundtrack, let me assure you that it’s pretty extensive at this point — and still growing! Edward RubyRunner has done a great job staying on top of the latest tracks from this game, racking up almost 100 pieces at this point (as well as a handful of Pirate101 tunes).
So if you love MMO music, go give these channels some love and subscribe to them to enjoy a regular stream of releases!
MMOs are meant to be heard as well as seen, and chances are that music ties your memories to these games more than you might realize. Every two weeks Jukebox Heroes listens through a game soundtrack and picks out the highlights to share and discuss. And if you like this column, then don’t miss the author’s MMO music podcast, Battle Bards!
