Hi everyone,
I'm new to this forum and happy to be here

I thought I would start by giving my point of view on the importance of collaboration between symphonic orchestras and game music publishers and hear what you all think.
You probably know about the PLAY! Symphony. For the two years that it has been running, it has been considered a great success. As it had its Europe debut here in the Concert Hall in Stockholm shows sold out in 14 days despite fairly high ticket prices, rumours being that some tickets later even went on the black market (for a Royal Philharmonic orchestra concert!) for as much as 2000 SEK, which is roughly 250 USD.
One could think the success with the PLAY! Symphony should be a real win-win project, for both game music as well as for the symphonic orchestras participating.
As for the kind of music we love, we not only get to hear it come alive in a way that takes it to a whole new level. The fact that it is being performed by professional orchestras also raises awareness and gives great credit to a genre that is still very novel. This in its turn may raise the bar for game music and could contribute to its development. As for orchestras, unless we're talking the Vienna Philharmonic and perhaps a few others, game music concerts give an opportunity to actually "fill houses", let the musicians do something other than the usual repertoire (which is often greatly appreciated) and most importantly, the game music concerts are a way for orchestras to attract a whole new audience.
Sadly, as I have heard from people "in the business", arranging events like PLAY! is not quite as fruitful as one may think. Apparently, the royalties demanded by game music publishers (not composers) for people to be able to perform the music they "own" are insanely high. So high that even with full houses, economically, it's still only a matter of breaking even. As the business of classical music works nowadays, breaking even in many cases is seen a success, so I think we can all look forward to more similar things to happen. However, if it weren't for some publishers, I think it would be possible for organizers to arrange these kinds of concerts more frequently and possibly even to lower prices.

I think everyone is having a part in this. The symphonic orchestra, sadly, in many ways is a phenomenon going downhill. Slowly, but nonetheless steadily. Have a look at the average audience at a "normal" concert. At a game music concert, you could probably lower it by some 50 years. With the immense music scene today, I don't think orchestras can expect people to eventually turn to them as they have before. It's not that the youth of today doesn't appreciate the treasure that has been left behind during the past centuries; instead, they have so much to choose from, and haven't been introduced to it properly. It took me getting a film music fan to become interested in classical music. I learned that film and game composers were taking a lot of inspiration from it and that in its turn made me want to get deeper into it. If only to get inspiration for my own composing.
I hope publishers, organizers and fans can come together to promote game music and keep the symphonic orchestra alive. Everyone would benefit.

I really can't do justice to such a well thought post, but, in two words: You're right.

Is the reason that the other 290-something people that have read it haven't commented because they think they can't do it justice?

Cheers!

Anyone with a musical background who's honest with themselves knows good and well that movie music and now music from video games are the heirs of the Classical tradition. And just like Classical music in its day, our music is *very* popular -privately, anyway. It's not yet become "fashionable." And because it hasn't, it won't be played.

Classical music culture is very very insular. Understand that there's no money in classical music except at the very pinnacle, and most people can't live on selfless devotion to the music itself, so those that don't make do with prestige. There's social status in being able to say that you play Stravinsky and Rachmaninov. No one knows their music (even the people who play it! I dare you to find a melody you could repeat from memory in The Firebird), but by god, saying it sounds impressive! But now, what if you couldn't say that anymore, but had to say you played a concert of music from Mario Brothers? What if you had to say you conducted a concert of Mario Brothers music? Prestige = Zero.

And remember, there's no money in Classical music! Symphonies are almost universally insolvent organizations. There's a very few that can put themselves in the black most years, but for every one that can, twenty get by only through begging donations from: big companies that need an image boost & tax writeoffs, rich people who want to appear cultured and support the arts, and rich people who honestly love music -in that order. Think about it like someone in the business would: what does it matter if you can sell out one or two concerts a year playing music for greasy-faced couch potatoes who wouldn't know good music if it hit them in the face? If the orchestra plays too much of the "wrong kind of music," the symphony's image will suffer and all those donors will spend their money on the Art Academy this year! Screw the chance of financial success, orchestras need stability.

Royalties -hah! You bet a symphony would object to those, they're used to playing music without any. But that's an excuse.
This won't change on it's own until years later when our contemporaries are in charge the orchestras. Until then, something would have to *force* the change. It would be very easy to do (relatively speaking, that is); lunches with the board of directors, petitions, donations with contingencies...essentially, it would take a geek lobbyist. It's simple, but we won't hear the music we want to hear until we make it happen.