Beyond the Game: How SEGA SOUND TEAM Is Shaping the Future of Game Music

Japanese game music has gone beyond the confines of simply being the soundtracks to games. It is evolving into a massive genre of content that permeates the lives of listeners around the world.

In the last installment of this special feature, Billboard Japan interviewed NexTone and talked about Game Music Academy, their new digital distribution business. This latest feature focuses on the SEGA SOUND TEAM. The music helmed by Sega sound producer Tomoya Ohtani has reached stunning streaming numbers, primarily in North America, and Ohtani’s presence rivals some of Japan’s top artists. The team is also behind Serani Poji, which has had several huge viral hits, and the music from the Sonic game series, which is drawing renewed attention due to the Sonic movies. The team’s influence seems almost limitless.

SEGA is using its massive library, which extends over a quarter of a century, as a collection of modern digital assets and passing it on to the next generation. Billboard JAPAN talked to Tomoya Ohtani, who leads SEGA SOUND TEAM, and to Ryo Kinoshita and Go Iwasaki, who are responsible for music licensing, about the team’s strategies and their passion for music production.

Mr. Ohtani, even from North American music streaming data, it’s clear that the music you’ve created has seen a huge number of plays over, and maintained its popularity for years. It’s become a part of the everyday lives of listeners. How does that make you feel?

Tomoya Ohtani: Honestly, I still find it surprising. I didn’t release almost any music last year, but the Sonic Frontiers soundtrack, from the 2022 hit, has consistently kept a solid number of plays, so I’m seeing my name surrounded by artists on the frontlines of J-Pop. I’ve sometimes wondered if I kept coming out with huge hits each year if I could climb even higher in the charts.

Did SEGA SOUND TEAM set its sights on the global stage from early on?

Ohtani: The first Sonic title I worked on was Sonic Adventure 2, in 2001. Even before that, my senior colleagues in the consumer sound segment were creating music with a global mindset. The first time I recorded overseas, I went to New York to record a rap segment. It was the first time I’d gone on a business trip after joining the company, but we all met up at the destination (laughs).

Partly because of the way the titles I worked on were used, at the time, our mentality wasn’t one of going step by step, starting by making a hit in Japan and then expanding to overseas markets. Even now, over two decades later, our stance is still the same, so it’s surprising that we’ve produced such huge results.

Sonic’s music is well-known even among people who don’t play the games. The Sonic sound has an identity that’s loved around the world. Where do you think that identity comes from?

Ohtani: I listen to a lot of Western music, and have throughout my musical journey, so I think that’s had some influence on the Sonic sound. But I don’t really try to make the music sound Western. I try to keep the Japanese pop sensibilities—that emotional feel—but with modern arrangements, like metalcore. I put out music that’s a pure mix of my own musical sensibilities, covering different genres, eras, and countries, and I feel like we’re in an era that’s receptive to that kind of music.

So the listeners don’t care about genre boundaries, either.

Ohtani: It seems like they don’t. There are no language barriers and no genre barriers. Even in the West, there are a lot of people who want to listen to Japanese anime music sung in the original Japanese. I think part of the identity is not overly focusing on culturizing the music.

I’m a composer who works closely with game developers, so I need to understand our games at a deeper level than anyone, and that’s something that I want to do. I approach games (that are currently in development) with the mindset of “I know I can make the best song for this game.”

In recent years, the Sonic the Hedgehog movie series has been a global hit. Have you seen any changes in the demographics of the music’s listeners?

Ohtani: There have been three movies so far, but Sonic the Hedgehog 3 had the most Sonic game musical references and arrangements. It also had a big impact on the number of plays of the originals.

Kinoshita: If you look at the numbers, you can clearly see growth in the number of plays of the songs that were used in the movies. What’s interesting is that there’s growth even for songs that weren’t directly used in the movie, but which are linked to characters that appear in the movie. Sonic the Hedgehog 3 focused on Shadow the Hedgehog, so there’s been a lot of growth in Shadow-related songs and the soundtracks of previous games in the series.

There have also been big viral hits outside of Sonic. Serani Poji’s songs generated a lot of buzz on TikTok. What do you think is behind that?

Kinoshita: At the end of 2023, we started to allow streaming of the Serani Poji album with the songs “Pipo Pipo” and “Where Is Smiley?” So far, those two have each been played over three billion times on TikTok. Actually, going back further, in around the summer of 2023, we realized that the number of plays was rising for some of our other songs. The world was turning its attention to older J-Pop, like Shibuya-kei and City Pop, and I think the world discovered Serani Poji first.

So it wasn’t a temporary boom, but instead more of a gradual growth?

Kinoshita: Right. After “Pipo Pipo” got big, “Where Is Smiley?” became a hit, and now people are discovering “Go-Go! Shoopergirl!” and “Goodbye My Sweet Strawberry.” I don’t think these just became popular because they were Shibuya-kei music, but because people recognized the quality of Serani Poji as an artist and the strength of the songs themselves.

Ohtani: Serani Poji’s first album came out in 1999, the same year that I joined Sega. I was fascinated by the production of Serani Poji, which was being led by a senior colleague, Tomoko Sasaki. She asked Yukihiro Fukutomi, producer of Pizzicato Five, to work on the project as a co-producer, so it went in a very polished Shibuya-kei direction. Sega has long had a culture of creating strong songs by combining in-house talent with outside professionals. I think this resurgence of popularity is proof that this process creates music that doesn’t lose its luster even after two decades.

You’ve been using the services of NexTone, which handles distribution and copyright management for music. Have you found this collaboration fruitful?

Kinoshita: It simply wouldn’t be feasible for us to handle the global reach of our music all on our own. Knowing that NexTone can collect usage fees around the world is extremely reassuring. In particular, there used to be worries that content ID management on YouTube would put an end to the culture of game Let’s Plays. But now, with the help of NexTone, we’ve been able to achieve our ideals, protecting our rights appropriately and generating revenue, without stopping Let’s Play videos.

Ohtani: As a creator, and as someone who values the fan base, I’m really thankful that they’ve enabled us to achieve this ideal, which doesn’t get in the way of user fun or creativity.

Have you felt any differences with respect to exposure for the creators themselves?

Ohtani: Every year, there are more and more live shows, fan meetings, and similar opportunities, but I think there’s still a long way to go with respect to creator branding. One thing that makes it difficult is that the creators are company employees, but even so, I’d like if we created a system that better enabled people to search for songs from the starting point of their creators. When I performed in Korea, fans were holding up plates with my name on them, and they were shouting out my name in unison. I remember thinking that they were great at stanning (laughs). I think that passion for artists is extremely important for music.

Kinoshita: When we do live shows in Japan, every year there are even more fans that come from overseas to see Ohtani-san. When you have more fans of composers, it becomes easier to put on a successful show, and this leads to more streaming plays. Going forward, I’d like to actively help out with artist branding.

Iwasaki: I think the kind of branding that makes young people find game music creators cool and admire them will ultimately make Sega’s content even more powerful. We’re going to keep on providing new content, both music and games, so be sure to keep your eyes and ears peeled.

—This interview by Yuki Tatsuta first appeared on Billboard Japan