Laced Records: Games companies are "leaving money on the table" with their soundtracks
While video game merchandise typically tends to centre around figures, apparel, and collector's items, there's an increasing demand for video game music – to the point where there are well established games-centric labels such as Laced Records.
Laced was founded by CEO Danny Kelleher in 2015, and has since worked on almost 80 IPs across 250 releases, with clients including Devolver, Bethesda, Capcom, Sega, Ubisoft, and Bandai Namco.
Of all the services that Laced provides, its record label is in the most demand. It recently partnered with Remedy once again to release the Alan Wake 2 soundtrack, which dropped on May 13 to mark the franchise's 14th anniversary.
The soundtrack features Petri Alanko's original score, in addition to songs featured in-game performed by singer-songwriter Poe and Martti Suosalo (who plays Ahti in both Alan Wake 2 and Control).
Laced last worked with Remedy for Control, releasing the vinyl and digital release of its soundtrack in 2020.
"Remedy are just really lovely people, and we pitched very hard to bring in Alan Wake 2 as it was something we really wanted," Kelleher tells GamesIndustry.biz.
He notes that Remedy was really supportive and heavily involved throughout the whole process, particularly for the eventual vinyl release that both Remedy and Laced have alluded to online.
"We sent Remedy some copies of our previous vinyls because they wanted to put some of their artwork together," Kelleher explains. "Sometimes we do all the artwork, sometimes the client wants to. With Remedy, they love to get hands-on and have creative direction on the artwork, so we're excited to see what they come up with."
Laced has seen increased demand for physical content in the form of its vinyl and CD releases, but sales performance can "vary massively" between AAA and indie titles.
"It's not as simple as 'if it's AAA, it's going to sell really well, if it's indie it's not'," Kelleher notes. "We've definitely seen that if you get the right indie game, they can
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
