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Original scores.

raijinmeister#1931 raijinmeister
raijinmeister#1931
 Member Posts: 192 Arc User
edited August 2023 in Star Trek Online General Discussion
Anybody knows why this game has none of the iconic Star Trek original scores from the Movies?

I can't find why a game licensing by CBS has none of those great themes.
Post edited by baddmoonrizin on

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    somtaawkharsomtaawkhar Member Posts: 10,222 Arc User
    edited June 2021 Answer ✓
    evilmark444 wrote: »
    1) The license didn't include the original music
    As I recall, this is the reason.

    Cryptic has to separately license the music from the TV shows/movies, and its very expensive. They have complained about, more then once, the cost of licensing the TOS "fight music" from Amok Time, for use in the Coliseum mission. They've had to pay out big for it.

    Its almost certainly in due part to the complex maze that is copyright laws. CBS own Star Trek, but things made for Star Trek like music, and some characters/concepts, belong to the original creators of those pieces of music/ideas. Even if CBS is legally allowed to use it themselves in Star Trek freely, 3rd party companies like Cryptic have to license it individually, even if they already have the Star Trek license from CBS.

    This is also why there is pretty much no content from TAS in STO. Its all caught up in the web of licensing legalities.
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    kurtronkurtron Member Posts: 190 Arc User
    Answer ✓
    smokebailey wrote: »
    What I want to know is WHEN is this track going to be back in sector?

    Probably around the same time we get a T6 Nova and those Klingon War episodes revamped and returned.

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    evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    edited June 2021
    I see two possibilities:
    1) The license didn't include the original music
    or
    2) They didn't want YouTubers and Streamers to get hit with copyright claims

    If it's the former then it'll simply never happen, if it's the latter then it would be nice if they added an option to use either Cryptic music or licensed Trek music but it would probably be more work than it's worth. There IS (or at least was at launch, haven't used it since then) a built in media player that can/could play any music you want, but unfortunately it doesn't replace any specific game tracks so it's not very useful.

    If I could have my way, in-combat music in STO would be one of these three songs:
    https://youtu.be/SNNu0rqp3mo

    https://youtu.be/YS2TLEWHO0E

    https://youtu.be/iTstNuaJXqM
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    vetteguy904vetteguy904 Member Posts: 3,857 Arc User
    Yup. the license for most movie soundtracks lie with the artist (if a song) or with the composer(if instrumental)
    In Top Gun, the licenst for Take My Breath Away was held by Gorgio Moroder who wrote the song, and Berlin has provisions to play it since they were the original artist.
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    smokebaileysmokebailey Member Posts: 4,664 Arc User
    What I want to know is WHEN is this track going to be back in sector? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGT1-nf1n3I
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    thegrandnagus1thegrandnagus1 Member Posts: 5,165 Arc User
    Regarding the licensing, all of the Trek games I remember playing over the years have their own original music too.
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    phoenixc#0738 phoenixc
    phoenixc#0738
         Member Posts: 5,507 Arc User
    edited June 2021
    vetteguy904 wrote: »
    Yup. the license for most movie soundtracks lie with the artist (if a song) or with the composer(if instrumental)
    In Top Gun, the licenst for Take My Breath Away was held by Gorgio Moroder who wrote the song, and Berlin has provisions to play it since they were the original artist.

    That is why the DVD version of the original Birds of Prey is such a disappointment. Like its companion Smallville (and Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy) lot of the style and feel of the show depended heavily on the cultural reference effect of all the familiar popular songs by major artists in each episode but Warner decided to get cheaper licenses to use them which only included the option to use them in on-air/cable broadcasts of the series.

    Then when it came time to put it out on DVD they did not want to put much effort or expense into renegotiating and so substituted a lot of bland generic scores for anything that the artists did not just tell them to treat the same as the on-air stuff instead.
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    legendarylycan#5411 legendarylycan
    legendarylycan#5411
         Member Posts: 37,280 Arc User
    Song and Music licenses must be really expensive to maintain, because I remember the first...Two, I think? seasons of Married...with children used 'Love and marriage' as its theme, but then they switched over to a different track, with similar music and no vocals, for the remaining seasons.​​
    Like special weapons from other Star Trek games? Wondering if they can be replicated in STO even a little bit? Check this out: https://forum.arcgames.com/startrekonline/discussion/1262277/a-mostly-comprehensive-guide-to-star-trek-videogame-special-weapons-and-their-sto-equivalents

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    evilmark444evilmark444 Member Posts: 6,950 Arc User
    somtaawkhar wrote: »
    CBS own Star Trek, but things made for Star Trek like music, and some characters/concepts, belong to the original creators of those pieces of music/ideas.

    Something I'm curious about is why they wouldn't purchase the music outright when they had the artist compose it, sure it would be more expensive but it would also have given them complete control over it's licensing.
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    edrickvellorinedrickvellorin Member Posts: 346 Arc User
    edited June 2021
    evilmark444 wrote: »
    somtaawkhar wrote: »
    CBS own Star Trek, but things made for Star Trek like music, and some characters/concepts, belong to the original creators of those pieces of music/ideas.

    Something I'm curious about is why they wouldn't purchase the music outright when they had the artist compose it, sure it would be more expensive but it would also have given them complete control over it's licensing.

    You're assuming the artist would even give them that option. I would think music artists in general are going to want to license music so they can collect royalties. I mean, Star Trek shows are still on the air, so the artists (or their estates) may still be getting royalties, even for music from ToS.

    Another possible complication, the Star Trek movies were produced by Paramount Pictures rather then CBS, and when STO started CBS and Paramount were separate companies. (Paramount being owned by Viacom) They only merged again in 2019. So I'm not sure who had what rights to specific assets from when STO started up until the end of 2019.
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    raijinmeister#1931 raijinmeister
    raijinmeister#1931
         Member Posts: 192 Arc User
    evilmark444 wrote: »
    I see two possibilities:
    1) The license didn't include the original music
    or
    2) They didn't want YouTubers and Streamers to get hit with copyright claims

    If it's the former then it'll simply never happen, if it's the latter then it would be nice if they added an option to use either Cryptic music or licensed Trek music but it would probably be more work than it's worth. There IS (or at least was at launch, haven't used it since then) a built in media player that can/could play any music you want, but unfortunately it doesn't replace any specific game tracks so it's not very useful.

    If I could have my way, in-combat music in STO would be one of these three songs:
    https://youtu.be/SNNu0rqp3mo

    https://youtu.be/YS2TLEWHO0E

    https://youtu.be/iTstNuaJXqM

    That was my first suspicion.

    I will keep the thread open for now because the points brought here were very interesting and the environment is very civil.

    Thanks for all the replies. If someone has more info about it please feel free to post it.
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    spiritbornspiritborn Member Posts: 4,263 Arc User
    A lot of pre-Disney Star Wars games had original scores made for the game and not just tracks from the movies and those were published by the IP owners (Lucasarts was a part of Lucasfilm) unlike Cryptic who aren't owned by the IP holder for Star Trek.
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