Videogame music Youtube links and a potential solution (2024)

I've been going through a couple of videogame music entries and a lot of the Youtube links for the music have been deleted for copyright violations.

But I know of a site that literally does nothing but host video game soundtracks: https://downloads.khinsider.com/ and I was thinking that we could use that as a link source. It's literal purpose is doing what we'd be using it for, and we don't have to worry about sources not being there tomorrow, because a lot of game entries here have huge holes in them on account of Youtube's tagging system.

IDK if that'd always work. Music from some of the more popular games or series like Final Fantasy and Undertale has been blacklisted on that site per request.

Edited by Piterpicher on Feb 17th 2021 at 7:22:27 PM

Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)

Is that... technically legal? I'm asking because we are not supposed to link to illegal scanlation sites under any circ*mstances, so logically the same applies here.

Also we don't need links in example context. If the writeup is entirely dependent on an outside link it can be commented out as a ZCE.

They are willing to listen to removal requests, so it's probably more legal than your average site of this kind.

Edited by Piterpicher on Feb 17th 2021 at 7:20:42 PM

Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)

Yeah, but my primary point is there'd be a pretty solid backup for most other games. Like use them primarily and use Youtube for (the few) games they don't cover. Either that or find some way to get around the copyright system.

Some of the pages I've gone to here have been literal holes. I can use Wayback to find out what it was, but it's still gone.

Edited by SpaceCaptainHarlock on Feb 17th 2021 at 10:23:18 AM

Nobody needs to be linking to anything. External links are a courtesy but are not required. Our stated policy is that external links should go to first-party sources whenever possible. For music, this means the original video or audio track from the licensor.

For example, if I want to link to The Weeknd's song "Blinding Lights" (completely off the top of my head; I totally haven't been singing it for weeks), the link would have to come from his official YouTube channel and nowhere else. If I want to link to the Super Bowl LV Halftime Show, the only valid source would be the NFL's YouTube channel, and so on.

Under no circ*mstances should third-party sources be used. This means we don't link to a Let's Play* of a video game in lieu of the game itself, a reaction video* to a song instead of the song itself, and so on. If someone rips a game's soundtrack and reposts it on YouTube, that is an illegal source and should not be linked.

*Unless the example is about the Let's Play or reaction video, in which case it is the first-party source.

We should also not use commercial sources. That means we can't link to the iTunes store, the Google Play store, the Amazon store, Netflix, or whatever. The exception is if the artist operates a first-party website. Those are fine, but links should go to the actual site and not a storefront.

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 17th 2021 at 2:48:56 PM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

Not the point. All external links should be to first-party sources. Use second-party (news sites, etc.) only if first-party sources are not available.

If Square does not officially publish its soundtracks in a non-commercial (free, not login-walled) format, we should not link to rips or any other third-party source.

(I should note that covers and licensed performances of copyrighted music are fine as long as they are released in a manner that otherwise complies with this policy.)

Edited by Fighteer on Feb 17th 2021 at 4:27:15 AM

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

...KH Insider literally has tons of audio and drama C Ds you could not hope to find anywhere else and allows easy downloads for almost everything. Whatever made anyone think it's legal?

"If you aren't him, then you apparently got your brain from the same discount retailer, so..." - Fighteer

Khinsider is a giant VGM piracy website that I have actually seen be recommended by piracy sources and pirates. No way in hell would it even come close to being legal.

Though what Fighteer is saying raises an interesting point: if we can't use uploads of VGM soundtracks on YouTube as links, what happens to all the Awesome Music subpages on video games?

Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Feb 19th 2021 at 9:01:11 AM

TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall

Weblinks Are Not Examples. Links can supplement an example, but examples have to be comprehensible without clicking on a link. Awesome Music examples have to describe the music. As for supplementary links to unofficial sources, I am not sure.

Edited by Twiddler on Feb 19th 2021 at 8:18:04 AM

We are under no obligation to link to VGM sources, and if they aren't official, they could be taken down at any time. It's not worth the hassle and it could potentially expose us to trouble if someone wanted to get litigous.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"

I don't feel like that's necessary. The chances of someone trying to take action against everyone linking to the video as well are probably as thin as a sheet of graphene.

Edited by Piterpicher on Feb 20th 2021 at 12:22:30 PM

Currently mostly inactive. An incremental game I tested: https://galaxy.click/play/176 (Gods of Incremental)

Some sort of effort to make all external audio-visual content links go to official sources is probably a good idea. From a wiki perspective, the major risk is dead links, but from an ethical perspective, we shouldn't condone or encourage stolen content.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"