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Comment by kylecazar | Hacker News Reader

I've found that most every song I've searched for on YouTube is on there in one form another (music video, lyrics video, etc). I have YouTube premium, so I don't see ads, and can download the videos.

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I mostly consume videogame soundtracks as my background music. My downloader script solves several problems:

- I can play the entire OST on company / otherwise awful internet, where bandwidth is not free

- The player doesn't pause midway through every 3rd track to obnoxiously ask me if I'm "still listening"

- When the OST inevitably vanishes from youtube, I still have it to listen to

(Mind that many of these OSTs are not available for purchase where I live, so this isn't a "vote with my wallet" sort of situation. Nintendo in particular is real bad about this.)

There are other more elegant solutions, but unfortunately the means through which I've purchased the game's soundtrack the normal way (the game itself) is generally a poor means to actually listen to it. I would pay for this service if it existed; where's spotify for soundtracks? But no, it doesn't exist, so tech solutions get to deal with the problems. I do at least pay for YouTube Premium, that's the closest thing, but I'm not going to suffer its various inconveniences if there's a better option for the actual playback.

What video games? Are they video games you played with friends and family? Do you associate meaningful life events with the games or the songs?

I want to write a song about video game music and I’d like to, erhm, “borrow” parts of your life story. :D

Dozens and dozens, too many to list. Modern favorites include Celeste, Hades, Ibb and Obb, Shovel Knight, Paper Mario: The Origami King, and Cadence of Hyrule, just to name a few.

No life events really, it's just that when I code I prefer my music to not have lyrics, and soundtracks are pretty much perfect for that. They're often designed as background tracks anyway, and a given soundtrack tends to have consistent atmosphere, good for setting the mood for some task.

Sometimes they're just good songs? For example the soundtrack to Nier: Replicant could go head to head with anything big name Hollywood composers have written.

There's got to be some social reason why you're listening to Nier: Replicant as opposed to something else.

I didn't expect any downvotes, but it seems I hit a nerve.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone, that wasn't my intention, I just don't know anything about the kinds of people who would listen to video game soundtracks. I figured there might be some stories to share.

I think it was just your comment maybe felt like it was implying they were doing something weird or unusual.

I also listen to a lot of video game music when coding. Why? One night, years ago, I got talking to an Uber driver about music and he shared a Spotify playlist of video game tracks. Years later, I generally listen to the full soundtracks of the games he included in that playlist (most of which I’ve never played or even heard of). Thanks Munib!

I sometimes listen to video game soundtracks while I work. Usually older stuff in my case: Legacy of the Wizard (NES), Shadowgate (NES), Final Fantasy IV/VI (SNES), etc.

I don't have a particularly interesting story to share. The music is familiar and brings back good memories; it is energizing; and it is easy to listen to.

In the original game setting, the music would play in the background and hype you up for whatever task you were trying to accomplish. Nowadays, instead of attempting to defeat the Warlock Lord, I'm trying to finish a section of a research paper. Both tasks, at least in my view, call for the same mood.

I listen to video game soundtracks almost exclusively for background music. It’s not that I don’t like mainstream pop music. It’s just that the lyrics get stuck in my head and drive me crazy. Video game music can also get stuck in my head but it’s much less intrusive without lyrics.

I think I also just get bored of a lot of songs if I listen to them too much. I don’t get bored of game music though. I am not sure why.

Game music was expected and assumed to be looped and heard a million times as you play the game. Especially older titles with limited song options.

Nier: Replicant and Nier: Automata have some of the best music I have ever heard from a game soundtrack.

I read an article that said video game music is ideally suited for when you want music that won't distract you, as it's literally intended for such circumstances. So that's why I mostly go for videogame OSTs when writing, coding, etc. I've played almost none of the games.

Yeah but YouTube premium doesn't work the same way, sure you can download but it doesn't give you an mp4 or anything?

The YouTube frontend downloads the video file (the .mp4) from googlevideo.com/videoplayback and adds it to a locally playable playlist.

However, the implementation is really wacky.

If you are online and you go to watch a video that you have previously downloaded, then instead of serving you the locally cached version through the service worker, instead the frontend redownloads the whole video.

Again, and again, every time you watch it.

So if your goal is to save mobile data, or if your goal is to save a video that might possibly be deleted in the future, it is not working.

Does the YouTube app really download the video again each time you play it? I have noticed that downloaded videos always play in full quality. (In fact, that's the main reason I use downloads: play a short, stop it, go to history, download the short, then play it again. Because shorts have no quality control option, and also no download option except from the watch history. Shorts have a very weird and annoying UI. It's also impossible to add them to a playlist.)

its more like download in netflix/spotify where the downloaded content is on your device but not directly accessible, only via the application (or website).

on the other hand, if you have yt premium, you have yt music

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