The Soundtrack to Braid
Many people have been saying they like the music in Braid, and would like to get a hold of the soundtrack.
I don’t have the rights to redistribute the music, but all of the songs were licensed from magnatune.com, where you can listen to them for free and buy high-quality versions of the albums they are on at very low prices that you yourself choose (if you really like the song and want to support the musician, you can choose to pay a lot!)
Here’s a list of the tracks in Braid and links to the Magnatune pages where you can find them. (These songs are also listed in the credits to Braid).
- “Maenam”, by Jami Sieber, from the album Hidden Sky.
- “Undercurrent” and “The Darkening Ground”, by Jami Sieber, from the album Lush Mechanique.
- “Tell It By Heart” and “Long Past Gone”, by Jami Sieber, from the album Second Sight.
- “Downstream”, by Shira Kammen, from the album Music of Waters.
- “Lullaby Set”, by Shira Kammen and Swan, from the album Wild Wood.
- “Romanesca”, by Cheryl Ann Fulton, from the album The Once and Future Harp.
August 6th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I’m amazed and impressed that you assembled the soundtrack from existing pieces like this. I’ll definitely buy these tracks.
August 6th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
Love the soundtrack, thanks for the list.
Dunno where else to put this, but I just went through the leaderboards and there are already almost ten thousand ppl listed. Not sure if you mentioned this before, but how many sold games do you need to make a profit? Shouldn’t be too far way now…
August 6th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I did it this way because I knew that (a) I could find music of the mood and texture that I wanted [though it was very difficult!], and (b) the music was made by artists who really cared about the music they were doing, a lot; and that feeling makes its way into the final game.
I didn’t want to try and commission game musicians to make songs, especially with a very low audio budget — the result is just not the same emotionally, even if it’s a high quality song, because they aren’t invested in the same way. And even just a high-quality song is hard to get, because there are a lot of not-so-hot game musicians out there.
August 6th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
As you can see from the track list, the songs are from a small group of artists, too, which helped the game cohere musically.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
Thank you for this. It’s like you know exactly what the players want! Are these in order as they appear? I’m purchasing them all and want to know the ideal track listing.
Thank you for making a fantastic, and charming game.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
I didn’t pay attention to the ordering when I made this list; I just grouped them by artist and album. Probably they are not in order.
(The idea of order is a little nebulous since you can visit the later worlds in a few different orders; but maybe there is only one song that gets introduced in world 5 or after? Hmm, I don’t remember!)
August 6th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
Yeah, I guess that does make sense. Thanks for the quick response!
August 6th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
Thanks a million for telling folks where you got the music from! I blogged about your *fabulous* game on the Magnatune blog:
http://blogs.magnatune.com/buckman/2008/08/braid-video-gam.html
- john from Magnatune
August 6th, 2008 at 6:35 pm
Thank you for this information. After having played the trial for a few minutes (which of course led me to buy the full version) I was immediately drawn to the game, and the music had a big part in this. Interesting approach you took to the music and a right one it seems, as the result is excellent in my humble opinion.
I wish you and the team who were involved in Braid the best of luck in the future, and that you may be able to continue making the games you want. Hopefully the game will sell well and many people get to experience this fantastic game. If the critics’ opinions are reflected in actual sales, you should be fine.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Thank you for posting your soundtrack source, and also congratulations to you and your team on being able to create, work and finish a product that innovates in gameplay and tells a great story, not only through perfect writing in the texts, but with music that fits the world. Good luck on any other projects in your future.
August 6th, 2008 at 7:43 pm
thanks for the links to the music. it fit so well with the game, i thought you had an artists create it just for the game. looks like i’ll be buying some of their music [so relaxing but yet i can work to it and get stuff done].
thanks.
August 6th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
You can also download each song off iTunes. Their are in the “Plus” format (no DRM) for .99 cents a piece.
Jonathan, Braid is amazing. Thank you!
August 7th, 2008 at 5:32 am
[...] The music in the game is licensed from Magnatune and the Braid Blog lists all the sources. [...]
August 7th, 2008 at 6:22 am
I just wanted to say thanks for putting an excellent soundtrack to go along with an excellent game. I havent played a video game where I swell up with emotion where both the music and story hits me in a long long time (chrono trigger maybe?). Thanks again and i hope you have a long feature in videogames.
August 7th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Ah cool. I’ve used Magnatune for other projects. Really great collection of music and a great group of people behind it.
August 7th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Hey man, Getting the game next week. Played through the trial and it sold me. One thing is I am glad you listed the music, because it has introduced me to some artists that I never would have thought to look for otherwise. Also, for those of you looking, you can find each of these artist through Emusic.com; I just did a search since I have a subscription there. (Good service for indie and lesser known artists btw.)
Great job, looking forward to playing through the game. Will there ever be a level editor?
August 7th, 2008 at 12:40 pm
I just want to congratulate you for a great gaming experience. I’ve never played something as unique as Braid.
Excellent choice of music, too. It helps with the overall feel of the game. I looked for the tracks in iTunes and made an iMix available. All songs are iTunes Plus: 256-Kbit, no DRM. Here’s the link, http://tinyurl.com/braidst
August 7th, 2008 at 1:27 pm
thank’s from barcelona for this fantastic and amazing game. graphics and the ost are superb. it’s a piece of something new. please, we’ll waiting for more.
ohh, and the intro…wau!!!
August 7th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
@gerry: props for the imix.
@jonathan: thx for a great game w/ fantastic audio and a mesmerizing visual style.
August 7th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
Thanks for the excellent soundtrack list. The music captivated me from the very beginning and is very tastefully chosen. It definately makes great ‘thinking’ music and never distracted me from stopping to think about the puzzles (other than it being very beautifully compelling??).
It’s quite incredible to see this game finally fall into gamers hands. It’s just as incredible now as it was 2 years ago when I had a chance to sit down with it at GDC06. Most likely you don’t remember; I was flipping out quite hard - in a good way, mind - when I was playing it. Some of the graphics were quite different then, but a lot of the dream-like feel of the backdrops was mostly intact, if still a little WIP. I think my behaviour may have embarrassed you a little. Allow me to take this chance to apologise!
I can only hope to see more Braid in the future, but for now, I’m still enjoying the afterglow.
August 7th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
I’ve created a playlist at the iTunes store where you can buy the entire Braid soundtrack as one set:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=287680699
August 7th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
hi, great game, great concept, great music!!
but i noticed that i know the second part of this violin song from an album of Mike Oldfield. how come it is not listed in the music tracklist? or did one of those musicians cover his song?
August 8th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Hi!! I just bought the game because i loved the trail version (i was deciding since it came out wheter to buy it because of its price, but i came to my senses and thought it was worth it!)
The music is one of the many best part (for me) of the game, its so calm and peaceful! Thankyou for providing sources, i will definitely purchase the soundtrack!!! At check out some of the musician artists other works!
August 8th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Loved the soundtrack. This is a great way for relatively unknown artists to get their music out there. I’m definitely getting these albums.
August 8th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Jonathan, THANK YOU for this fantastic game!!! I love it; it’s worth every penny!! Even my girlfriend can’t get enough of it. It is just so finely crafted, so extremely well put together… I hope you make at least a decent amount of money so that you can work on level packs. Here’s hoping!
Oh, and the soundtrack is also fantastic. Especially with the time manipulation. Awesome!
August 8th, 2008 at 5:48 pm
It reminds me a lot of Ecco the Dolphin from back in the day… right after all your friends get taken away and you’re so alone…
Way to set the tone…
August 8th, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I really just want to say a couple things;
This game is easily a work of art in so many ways. Just from the music and the environments I saw from screenshots, I knew it was a haunting tale that did not set the happy tones I thought I was seeing. Just incredible. The only thing was I walked away feeling troubled and down because the story was left such a riddle. I have full faith that it was supposed to cohese with a little thought, but I hate thinking it all may be just one big bag of metaphors.. Does anyone have a definitine solution for me? Please.. I really am troubled by this.
August 9th, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Hi, the game and music is so nice, still trying to beat some timeattacks.
But I checked for the Mike Oldfield song I talked about some posts above. It is The Song Of The Sun.
Downstream has the same melody. Nice to hear a new version of that song, because I really loved it.
Or did Shira Kammen did the song for Oldfield too many years ago? Just wondering.
You can check it out here for example.
http://www.amazon.de/Voyager-Mike-Oldfield/dp/B0000072O2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1218337294&sr=8-1
August 9th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
I don’t know — it is possible that the song is traditional.
August 9th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Hearing the track during the demo had me pulling out Mike Oldfield’s ‘Voyager’ album as well. The writing credit on the disc sleave is to Bieito Romero, so I figured on it being a traditional tune as well.
Congratulations Johnathan, Braid is a refreshing take on a favorite game type.
August 10th, 2008 at 6:03 am
I made an iMix of the music on iTunes for people in the UK here. It really is a great soundtrack.
August 10th, 2008 at 8:39 am
God man, thank you so much for making this. As a person who wants to work on indie games badly I enjoyed the hell out of Braid.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:43 am
[...] the music. It’s wonderful, and you should hear it. It’s one of the most unusual soundtracks to a game that I’ve heard, and really helps [...]
August 10th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Holy Cow!!! I just checked out ‘Song of the Sun’ by Mike Oldfield and indeed the ‘A’ section of the tune is the same as the Bieto Romano tune (the second tune) used in ‘Downstream’ - I learned it from his Galician group ‘Plenilunia’. (credited on the CD)
Anyway, Thanks so much to the creator of this game for using our music!
All the Best,
Shira Kammen
August 10th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Hi, thanks for the link. I bought Hidden Sky. It’s amazing.
And since I’m here, Mister Jonathan Blow, you have my deepest thanks for the tremendous work you’ve put into Braid. The game blew me away.
August 10th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
Hi, thanks for your great game (solved all puzzles except the last one in 5-4… I had to look it up because I spent more than 2 hour on that one… arrgh).
I am not only impressed by the music (good choice), but also what you did with it by playing the music also backwards… the sound design of Braid is very clever. Some lesser game might had missed that point, but you nailed it.
I remember the epilogue, where everything goes backwards and when you rewind you get the music forward, and if you rewind 2x the music is 2x as fast and it is quite dramatic…
so I wished some review would have put some emphasis on the sound design of Braid
cheers,George
August 11th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I just wanted to say that I have known for Magnatune for quite a while and to see an independent game developer using Magnatune to license basically independent music artists shows a lot of class to me. Way to combine the best independent work in multiple artistic fields. Top notch!
August 11th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
All of these albums (and more from the same artists) are available on Ruckus, for you college students.
August 13th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
“Downstream” really catched me from the demo and I HAD to buy the game.
As some said, it was really supriced how good the song was even backwards. Something you never notice in any other game
The Game itself is so great too, I did not thought it was made by one person alone (+artist) before I read it. Just amasing.
Your game was downloaded 28,500 time (full Version) in the first 3 days, wow. that is great, I think it will sell 400.000+ in this Year. Congrats.
Please use that money to give us more games of yours. We will sure buy them!
August 15th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
All of these tracks appear to be on iTunes.
August 17th, 2008 at 7:02 am
braid is an EXCEPTIONAL piece of art, and the music fits like a glove. Congratulations to all the team for this masterpiece!
August 17th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
This game is brilliant, and now I think you’ve just created a few additional sales for the musicians. I’m listening to your interview with Major Nelson right now, and just heard you mention magnatune (with which I was already familiar) as your source for music. That’s awesome. I’m glad I can get the music separated from the game.
Thank you all for the game.
August 17th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Just wanted to say what a fantastic job you did with this game. I was sucked in the moment the demo loaded. I’ve never been mentally tested, exhausted, and thrilled to such extremes in any video game before. Its great to see Xbox Live Arcade becoming an outlet for works such as this that would have little place in the console market.
August 18th, 2008 at 5:22 am
The music is phenominal! Congrats on a well made game i’d have to say it was one of the best I’ve played hands down. One question I do have though is what is the song in level 1-1 “Braid”?
August 18th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
I finally got all the tracks. I then played through enough of the game to come up with the order they’re heard (if you play the worlds and stages in order):
Maenam (overworld)
Downstream
Lullaby Set
Romanesca
Tell It By Heart
The Darkening Ground
Undercurrent
Beautiful music. I’m listening to it right now.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Sorry, I missed “Long Past Gone”, after “Tell it By Heart”. I wish I could edit the above post.
August 18th, 2008 at 1:55 pm
I believe it’s Undercurrent played in reverse. It’s such a stunning, haunting piece when played that way. I’ll never be able to just “listen” to it as a song without feeling the welling emotions accompanying that scene.
August 18th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
I just checked, and yeah, it’s Undercurrent.
BONUS: My Anti-Spam word was “princess”
^_^ That made my day.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:29 am
K thx! thats definately it. I agree with you HTTenrai its really crazy played that way i like it though… I dont know how to make songs play in reverse though
August 19th, 2008 at 7:26 am
These are also available via emusic: http://www.emusic.com
August 19th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Wow, beautiful music. Thanks for this and thanks for the game. It’s amazing how you were able to find disparate artists and pull together a cohesive soundtrack. It felt like the music was made for the game. It’s pretty cool that you were able to find the right music, considering. Did you use Pandora or something like that? What song did you start with?
Once again, good work.
August 20th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Shira, “O Son do Ar” is compossed by Bieito Romero, from the group “Luar Na Lubre” (Plenilunio is the name of the CD). Here is their webpage: http://www.luarnalubre.com
And the original song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MO7bUhJlAek
August 20th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I just beat Braid tonight and was more blown away than I thought I’d be. I am so happy to hear that the songs were single picked tracks from several albums. I have 5 or 6 new albums to buy! The music matched beautifully with the game. I’m having a hard time getting to bed right now, cause I just want to stay up and listen to all this new music Braid has introduced me to.
August 23rd, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I have started to lose intrest in playing videogames but Braid has renewed it. I am in love with the sound track and can’t wait to purchase the full version at the end of the month. ( I get paid) Please make more intelliegent games because this game is a work of art.
August 24th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Dunno if this thread has died yet, but I wanted to mention that the advantage of buying on Magnatune versus iTunes is that the artists get a substantially larger cut - 50% versus 10-15% if I recall. Short of buying directly through the artists, it’s the best way to support them.
August 25th, 2008 at 9:47 am
I’ve made a playlist file (M3U) for Winamp, Windows Media Player, etc. here: http://tinyurl.com/braid-soundtrack
August 28th, 2008 at 5:26 am
Sounds like a lovely, atypical game soundworld. If you’re ever on the look out for more music, I would be delighted to help. Though not a game composer, I believe the music I write could naturally be a part of this.
all the best to you!
–Ljova
August 28th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
Jonathan, I feel compelled to thank you for taking the time and effort to create such a masterful experience.
I’ve yet to complete the game, but the journey so far is completely unique and beautiful in the setting of a video game.
As an aspiring game artist, and someone who truly believes that games can be wonderful works of art, I must thank you for providing a superb example of how a game can transcend the genre.
Thank you.
August 28th, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Jonathan,
I wanted to thank you and those who helped make this game. I haven’t been this moved or challenged by a game in a long time. The suprise twist at the end blew my socks off… Almost as much as the music in the game. I love listening to it and alot of good memories and emotions surface when I do. Thanks again!
September 6th, 2008 at 6:07 pm
Just iTune’d the whole soundtrack. By any chance, how did you choose these fine artists for your music? Are you an independent label fan? Do they have any comments as well?
September 11th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Awesome!
I’m loving Braid, on my last puzzle piece in World 6 but I’m not going to look at a guide. You get such a great feeling when you work out how to solve a puzzle.
The music is superb so I’m getting these off iTunes now.
September 13th, 2008 at 6:37 pm
I’m wondering what license you used, or if you used one or just bought the songs. I’m thinking of using music from Megatune for a game I’ve developed for XNA Community Games, but the licensces the website generates are all still hundreds of dollars (per song), which is way out of the budget for this game…
September 13th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
I contacted Magnatune directly and talked to them about cutting a price break for an indie game. The deal they gave me was a bit better than what you’d get going from the menus on the web page — but I still did pay hundreds of dollars per song.
But I think they might be happy with the extra exposure they got from game licensing, so if you talk to them and explain that your game is super-low-budget, maybe they will cut you an appropriately-scaled deal.
Alternatively, if that doesn’t work out, there are plenty of individual musicians out there on the web who you could contact directly.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
This game is addicting and I usually get raged when I can’t do something in a video game, but the music in this game keep me calm. Such a great and innovative game. Thank you for making such a beautiful game
September 19th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
first of all I must say this game is just absolutely incredible……I’ve played it more than halo 3!! (no lie!) lol, I was wondering if the soundtrack in world 2 levels 3 and 4 are original….because I can’t seem to find it in the list…and that’s the absolute one track I MUST get from this game! I won’t sleep until I get it! (…speaking of sleeping….last night I actually went to level 4, turned off the tv, and went to sleep to that track, honestly, lol)
September 19th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
whoops, lol, found it……I feel so much happier now!
September 21st, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I just wanted to say that this game is absolutely amazing! It is brilliant in so many ways, not to mention it is also an absolute master piece!
Also, thank you so much for putting up the music online!
September 29th, 2008 at 6:35 am
I played Braid for the first time this weekend at a friend’s house on his 360. As soon as this game comes out for PC I will be buying it (not a 360 owner).
The music is fantastic and the game a work of art. Thank you Jonathan.
September 30th, 2008 at 11:45 pm
Actually, the http://www.xboxboys.com wrote a song about this game and it kicks ass!
October 1st, 2008 at 4:28 pm
The music in this game is what makes me want to keep playing it.
October 6th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Amazon MP3 doesn’t have a playlist feature that I could see, but everything from the soundtrack can be purchased from there as well.
Maenam (Jami Sieber)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000QLX8Z2
Undercurrent (Jami Sieber)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0014DJBMK
The Darkening Ground (Jami Sieber)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TPP2Y0
Tell It By Heart (Jami Sieber)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TPO8EA
Long Past Gone (Jami Sieber)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TPPV00
Downstream (Shira Kammen)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TPQKLE
Lullaby Set (Shira Kammen)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000TPU0JC
Romanesca (Cheryl Ann Fulton)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010ZPL3K
October 12th, 2008 at 7:38 pm
“(…speaking of sleeping….last night I actually went to level 4, turned off the tv, and went to sleep to that track, honestly, lol)”
LOL, I did the same thing on accident. I was up all night working on getting the stars (I love a real challange). I decided to ‘rest my eyelids’ for a minute and fell asleep to Downstream.
I have been preaching to my friends and family for years that games are an art form that can be as moving as a great movie or book. A game with great music, a compelling story and fun addictive gameplay is, in my opionion at least, a much more rewarding experince than sitting through a hollywood blockbuster. Unfortunatley, until recently, most non-gamers thought I was crazy. This game has and will continue to prove the value of games as a valid art form and entertainment medium in a society that is finally becoming more accepting of them as entertainment for everyone, not just kids.
Thanks for making such a great ‘experience’.
October 19th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
thank you so much for using jami sieber’s music. i have been wanting to use her pieces in my own work for years now, and haven’t released anything of merit yet. she is an extremely talented individual, and deserves this kind of attention from innovative media such as braid.
drMikey
October 24th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Has anyone told you that the music sounds like the music from Fargo?
October 31st, 2008 at 3:32 pm
If anyone is interested, I’ve created a CD cover for the soundtrack. In case any of you are compiling the songs into a soundtrack album.
http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l148/elranzer/Misc/braidost.png
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:47 am
Thank you for making this list! This music is awesome!
November 2nd, 2008 at 4:50 am
I just LOVE downstream by Shira Kammen. I’ll actually buy that one right now.
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:48 am
Thanks for a lovely game, and introducing us to some lovely music.
December 8th, 2008 at 6:00 am
i love all this songs. I’m looking for the sheet music for piano of ‘ Lullaby Set…anyone can help me? Thanks
December 11th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
The emotions that your game elicited, through brilliant story, were only compounded by the absolutely fantastic music you chose for the game. “Undercurrent” in particular, almost sounds as good backwards as forwards in the final level.
December 26th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
The game was, and still is, incredible. The sound and landscapes are a HUGE plus. On top of that, the puzzles were mindbending. I had a warped sense of reality after playing it where I felt I could indeed mess with time. Of course that feeling was only for about 30 seconds. Amazing masterpiece. The replay factor is huge too. Even if the puzzles are solved and one can play the speedruns almost perfect, the game can still be played and enjoyed. Another game like this would be widely accepted. I have hopes for a whole universe of games like Braid by you. Thank you again for a wonderful and spiritual experience to remember for the rest of my life. I know a few people who said your game sucked because it was too hard…..if I beat it, they can beat it. There is no excuse for that. Your game brings everyone into a new form of conciousness. These puzzles were very hard at first. Once I figured out one, though, the rest were coming to me naturally. A very well-balanced level structure. The puzzles were so simple after figuring them out. One by one I was conking myself in the noggin, wondering why I didn’t figure it out sooner. Especially that one level with the 2 pink doors. It was one of the “companion” ones. Amazing. Simply amazing. Thank you so much for a wonderful game.
December 29th, 2008 at 10:38 am
Thanks so much for posting this! I added the tracks (yes, all of them) on Project Playlist.
I downloaded the game (I was loving the demo) after my sister gave me some MS points for Christmas (too cheap to buy them myself, hah!) and I played until 7:30am beating the game.. oops? lol… but it’s an awesome game.
December 31st, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I’ll join in with the others with congratulations and praise for this truly unique game. Keep making games!
People have posted links to the iTunes mixes of the soundtrack for the US and the UK, I went ahead and created one for the Canadian store. Unfortunately I haven’t received the link yet, but every track is indeed available for Canada.
Cheers!
December 31st, 2008 at 2:45 pm
iTunes Store Canada iMix: http://tinyurl.com/9ozzl6
January 5th, 2009 at 3:53 am
Is this the list of all the musics? Or just the names of the albums used in the game?
January 5th, 2009 at 4:09 am
ah… I see that “and” word…
January 5th, 2009 at 4:45 pm
Just bought all these from Amazon. It’s been a while since I played Braid but this music is so distinctive that I’m immediately reminded of the game.
January 12th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
I tried the Braid demo yesterday and was immediately taken away by the music. Thanks for this post, I will be buying both the music and the game
January 19th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Supposedly you’ve been asked about Sheet Music for some while now.
Video game music, believe it or not, is incredibly popular amongst young musicians as much as film music. In fact, most people like learning to play video game music because it is so unique and many gamers don’t even notice the music, so it is an opportunity to play something others haven’t heard. Since the music in Braid is actually independent work from individual artists, it is very challenging to find any scores for it. As an idea, not only for publicity but to shut us game-music nerds up in addition (and if the artists agree), you could compile sheet music from the soundtrack into one neat little book.
Anyways, thank you for assembling the soundtrack here for us!
January 19th, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Hmmm, it sounds like a lot of work — I am not sure that the artists even have sheet music for their songs, and they are actively touring and very busy. I will bring this idea up to John at Magnatune next time I talk to him, though.
January 19th, 2009 at 9:31 pm
The game was amazing… absolutely amazing, and besides buying the game, I bought the music. The selection was beautifully picked. I must say, every aspect of that game was well thought out. Brilliant, what more can one say?
January 19th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
…And if you ever wanted someone to write music for you in the future, I would love to be a part of something even half as amazing as Braid! (I also wouldn’t want any money.)
January 23rd, 2009 at 12:28 am
Braid is twork of video game art…simply amazing!
After playing Braid, I had the inspiration that you should make a game about an Elemental living in an age of magic who rebels to against the fabric of his society to make his way to the world of man. This Elemental has the power to take on any of the forms of water (ice, steam, & water):
Ice: power to freeze and block objects, vulernable to sharp attacks & fire
Steam: power to fly and carry objects, vulnerable to wind
Water: power to flow in pipes & float objects, vulernable to fire and earth
On his journey he will be faced with many challenges that will require the careful use of his fledgling powers. However, his greatest challenge will be… (wait, I’m getting ahead of myself)! In my vision you’re supposed to make the game!
Thanks again for all the fun!
-KSR
January 25th, 2009 at 12:33 am
Goodness gracious, your CAPTCHA is Braid-themed.
I just went and got all eight tracks. Fantastic soundtrack. And it sounded as if it had been explicitly composed just for the game–I’m kind of amazed that it wasn’t. “Downstream” has been stuck in my head since I began playing.
What a fantastic game in every respect. I’ve been showing it to everyone I can… a lot of the time they don’t get it at first. “So it’s like Mario?” The problem is, all the coolest stuff is–almost by definition–the stuff that they really ought to be discovering for themselves. Then again, if I can’t open their eyes, they’re never going to discover anything at all…
Fortunately, people seem to “get it” by World 3.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:29 pm
Hello! I just wanted to add my praises to this already great list of comments. I heard about Braid through a gaming magazine and after viewing screen shots, I knew I had to play this game. After completing it, I could not stop thinking about what this game was for days.
I realized that the more I played, the less of a game it felt like. It became one of those rare instances where a game became more of an experience than anything else. The music in this game completely captures the feel and emotion of the story that’s created. I honestly feel a little sad knowing that I won’t play another game like this that completely changes everything you know about games for a long time. I look forward to the next project.
Unbelievable job. Simply incredible.
January 25th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
i love all this songs.Thanks so much for posting this!
March 1st, 2009 at 6:38 am
I’ve also compiled a list of the songs used in Braid:
http://twoday.tuwien.ac.at/pub/stories/322135/
I linked the albums & artists on magnatune and also the mp3 and ogg files. However, my list contains 8 songs (all songs that are mentioned here in the posting + the comments) instead of only 6. Funny thing: I knew some of the songs before I knew Braid, because I use to browse through magnatune.com and download albums I like (via amarok). I should by some of them, but I don’t have a credit card. :/
March 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I’m really glad you put up the soundtrack listing! I’ve downloaded one of Jami Seiber’s albums - it’s beatiful. I fell in love with the soundtrack as much as I did the game. Well Done.
March 5th, 2009 at 10:26 am
Hello, i am trying to find the song that is played in 2-2. Lullaby set sounds close, but it’s played in a different octave with a slightly different rhythm. If you could help, thanks a bunch. Very well put together game, btw, and the music is beutiful!
March 7th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Finished Braid last night, what can I say….just a big thanks for all the hard work from Jonathan and all involved in its creation.
There were moments of pure genius and some moments of ‘what the hell am I supposed to do here’ (World 4 stage 4, ‘Hunt’ being a particular headache for a while!)
All in all a breath of fresh air, up there with Portal for giving those old grey cells a workout…
Ohh, and of course, the music….
March 10th, 2009 at 10:04 am
I love this soundtrack and the game was fun/cool too. I have to admit though that I had to watch some youtube videos to finish certain parts of the game, Doh!
What a great idea to use music from those artists: Probably cheap for you to use in the game and listing them here helps spread the word about them! Quite a win-win situation!
March 18th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Finished Braid half an hour ago.
I love the game.
The story is indeed nothing short of amazing.
It reminded me of my past loves, unrequited feelings, regrets for errors made, misunderstanting, suffocating a person with too much love, trying to make her my ideal princess, and of a lot of other feelings about my past.
I can relate very much with a lot of the writings.
I love the way Tim is ’stuck’ into his emotions, in many ways, like frozen in time.
And the music plays a big part in conveying the emotions.
Kudos to Johnatan Blow for being able to make such a great game and to lend the great talent of amazing musical and visual artists to the gaming community.
Thank you for posting the tracks, i’ll buy them definetely.
My appreciation to everyone involved in the creation of the game.
Unconditioned love to them.
Matteo Neviani from Italy
April 6th, 2009 at 1:54 am
thanks for the imix links for itunes.
but these are not available in the german itunes store.
please help to purchase all the songs in the german store?
thanks
April 9th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
The official soundtrack is up for sale on Magnatune!
http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/braid-soundtrack/
April 18th, 2009 at 4:27 am
And the favor is returned.
April 18th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Great game, Jonathan. Just a question though; what’s the name of the song that plays during the final level of the game (Braid)?
April 19th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
I saw the trailer, and the moment I heard the last song, I immediately knew that this game was going to be amazing quality, not just because of what I saw, but the music choice.
I searched for the soundtracks, I found this — and I got even more inspired that, Jonathan, I infer one of the creators, or creator, actually gets in touch with his fan base. That is amazing, and the fact that even one artist came to this blog and thanked Jonathan for using his music– I’m just impressed. I’m currently listening to Jami Sieber, as I type this.
I’ve always loved this type of calm music, always. For example, I listen to the beauties of Enya’s music, and others. I just love this music.
I, as a aspiring composer (or something that has to do with film) am inspired by this whole game. So inspired, I think I will buy this game, to help you guys, to help the creation for more goodness.
And, the game actually looks pretty fun. I love artistic games, I’m usually an FPS guy, but this — again, beautiful.
Amazing Job. Keep this kinda stuff going!
Best of Luck!
April 25th, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I have been playing video games for practically all my life. I’ve seen and played virtually every kind of game you could imagine. This is already on my top 5 of all time. What an amazing premise, heartfelt and compelling. And the soundtrack is easily the best videogame soundtrack I have ever heard, hands down. It truly makes this game magic. I am downloading the songs from magnatune, and I’m making sure friends and family do the same. Best of luck in all your future endeavors, and please keep developing wonderful games like this one!!
April 27th, 2009 at 5:07 am
Wow thanks. Already brought it!
Now all i need is a screensaver, with that beautifull art/background from the game.. that would really be awesome!
May 9th, 2009 at 9:12 am
Beautiful music. I’d completely forgotten that I wanted to grab them off itunes until I was writing something for a D&D game and remembered that Romanesca would be perfect for the village.
Now I have some music for walking to work with for a while.
May 9th, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Hi, its de best game of plataform style, your sound, your graphci design, your everything.
i hope makeand other game with similar aprarience.
bye, from argentina- SGO
May 12th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Braid was such a beautiful game, and an inspiration.
I’m glad the soundtrack was released. I signed up to Magnatune today, and think it too is a great service.
May 24th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Ho. Lee. Crap. Yeah, I just picked up a couple of tunes from the list. After finishing the game in two days. >_> I can’t emphasize enough how much the music was a factor in drawing me into the haunting world you’ve created, and keeping me trapped there even when a puzzle frustrated me at first. Most of the puzzles, in fact, weren’t even frustrating, I would laugh and cheer when something went wrong or happened that I didn’t expect. The music, though, the music made this much more than a puzzle game. The music made the fragments of story leap into my heart like some sort of burrowing worm. The music made the demo less of a an option and more of a time bomb. The music made me take my hands off the keyboard and gape. The music made the time mechanic flow smoothly into the real world of the game, part of the visceral experience of a character, rather than a puzzle gimmick.
Yeah, the music’s pretty good. I think your game more than did it justice, too. Here’s hoping both you and the artists you chose continue to reap the rewards!
May 30th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Thanks for the links. Is it possible to get sheet music for any of the songs? I’d really like to learn how to play them, and I suck at transcribing stuff by ear.
I totally get where your coming from on the emotional thing. It’s the same with casual games - when you really don’t care about the end product, it’s not going to have near the same depth even if it is mechanically sound.
And yes, the music really helped give the game a peaceful, relaxed atmosphere, which helped to counterbalance the frustration you might feel if you’re on a really difficult puzzle. I was really disappointed on the fourth world, where the music is often off or playing backwards. It was like missing an old friend.
June 13th, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Noah, you just need this:
http://www.seventhstring.com/xscribe/overview.html
It’s brilliant, and no I’m not affiliated with it in any way, just a happy customer!
June 18th, 2009 at 2:57 pm
This game is wonderful, and the music is simply mesmerizing. Is it alright for me to blog about it using screesnhots of the game? Can’t resist introducing it to my friends XD
July 23rd, 2009 at 5:18 am
Those are really great! I’m buying the albums, and i further find it’s an interesting experience to turn off the game’s music and run the game to some of the music, particularly the Wild Wood album.
August 14th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Hi, I downloaded the Braid demo on steam and my jaw just dropped when I heard the music. Licensing tracks like this is like the Egg of Columbus: so simple and obvious, yet noone has really thought to do it, or at least not done it so well as you have.
I believe music is one of the most important factors to the success of a game even though most gamers don’t realize it. You’ve really inspired this old disillusioned game developer. Thanks for your brilliant contribution to the world of gaming Jonathan, you are my hero.
August 25th, 2009 at 10:06 am
Just beat the game for the fourth time. Like the music it features, the game never gets old. A timeless classic (no pun intended) that flies in the face of all videogame nay-sayers. Truly a work of art.
Please continue to make more awe-inspiring games.
August 29th, 2009 at 8:02 am
Fantastic game. Probably one of the best of all time. Jonathan, you are truly a genius. Anything we as a nameless group can do to help you make more games of this caliber.. please ask. Incredible.
August 29th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Great soundtrack and probably one of the most amazing games i’ve ever played!
But well, if you have some skills with a computer it really isn’t very hard to get it free. Just find the location of the songs, then get the .ogg files converted however you like, and BAM, there you have them…
September 17th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Whole album available here: http://magnatune.com/artists/albums/braid-soundtrack/
September 30th, 2009 at 9:33 am
hey there still missing one song… that song apairs in the second and five world it is quite similar to long past gone…
September 30th, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Nope, they are all listed here!
October 12th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
I’m making my own game and want to follow your way to get some beautiful space ambient tracks, however I was scared out by the licence prices in the “Video games” category. I’m also indie developer and game is probably not a video game, it’s just a space strategy. How did you decide licensing question?
October 12th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Hmm, have you tried sites like ccmixter.org? That might be more what you want…
October 18th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
You can also buy these tracks on emusic for <40c each. I bought Jami’s latest ablum for <$5
November 8th, 2009 at 1:42 am
Just bought the soundtrack off Magnatune for £10. Great game, great music.
January 19th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
I just can’t get enough of the music. Very captivating. The game is great as well. Thank you for posting the soundtrack. I just bought all these tracks and more on iTunes.
January 27th, 2010 at 5:31 pm
These tunes are just incredible- I wish more game designers took a page out of your book and used emotional, well-crafted music as an integral addition to their gameplay and artwork.