I figured this would be a good use of my first frontpage post as i'm pretty sure this wouldn't reach the ppl i wanna reach if it weren't frontpaged (actually i think no one might be awake to read this at this time of day oh well). Anyway, hello!
I had noticed an issue some days ago with my music being available on the infamous impossible game clone: geometry dash 2.113.0.3. This track i got frontpaged had a lot more downloads than votes on it, something that often lets you know it has been used on gd, so I decided to re install the game and search the upload id in there, and I found this pile of garbage using the track. The problem here is that I was not whitelisted (or maybe i was, i don't know, there's no way to know really) and I didn't ever check this box in any of the tracks I uploaded to this site:
Immediately after noticing this issue (which in lazy speak actually means 5 days after) I went to complain in the help forums about it, and after a few days I received this private message from Tom Fulp:
So now that the issue is fixed and I know i'm apparently whitelisted I wanted to ask you, GD person: would you want to be able to use my music in the game, and if so, why?
The reason I won't ever check that global API box is that I can't see my music being used in the game, I simply believe it wouldn't fit with the rest of the music that's constantly featured in that game. And honestly I also fucking hate the game, it's frustrating to play through a map a thousand times before you're able to reach the fucking end, it's nearly impossible to sight read any of the user made maps, and the ui is an eyesore. Of course, this is just light hearted hate (if such term even exists) and I wouldn't really mind having my music featured in the game if ppl want it to be, but I'd like to know why some people would want that before I allow any of my tracks into the game.
Reading this you might be wondering what my music actually sounds like so I thought it'd be convenient to drop a link to my more "refined" works here for you to listen to and tell me if they'd fit in the game or not:
(If that looks like too much music for you to listen to, just listen a minute of the first 2 tracks)
I'd like to hear your thoughts (if anyone's even awake to read this at like 11pm). If I ever do allow some of my tracks to be used on GD it will be under the condition that no track I have an emotional connection with will ever be allowed, nor will any track that I just deem awful (i.e nothing from before 2022). Okay I think that's it for this post. Again, would like to hear your thoughts on this.
AlphaStormMusic
Hi! Not a GD player anymore, but reading through what you have to say, I just wanted to weigh in having dealt with this since it was introduced; the external API use tick box is really finnicky. I've had varying degrees of success with it working or not. It SHOULD supersede if you're on the whitelist or not, but as it's still a fairly new thing (even though it was introduced in February 2017), there are still developments I feel need to be done with it. Like I said, IT SHOULD TAKE PRIORITY OVER BEING ON THE WHITELIST! I don't understand why it doesn't always.
Worth noting, sometimes you end up on the whitelist even if you never had any contact with RobTop, because he seemingly listens to player demand. So, by simply being on the whitelist, you have an answer to your question of if people want your music in GD or not. However, this does not mean I agree with how it works. The problem comes in that RobTop is also notoriously hard to get in contact with AND in my experiences, doesn't even communicate back on such matters. I messaged and emailed him two years ago... nothing! And I have too wide an audio library (150+ songs) to check if every track works or not.
I say this with an avid hatred for the game myself. Trust me, if your only gripe with the game is the difficulty, that's not even the worst part. If you didn't go so deep into the weeds of the community like I did, do yourself a favor and KEEP IT THAT WAY! I've argued for the last almost five years that Geometry Dash's community is worse than UNDERTALE's ever was. Maybe not in the physical harm aspects like UNDERTALE saw, but there is so much toxicity that emanates from that community, it's not even funny. My worst years were spent while I was avidly playing that damn game.
If you really are fine with allowing some of your music's use in GD, more power to you, but know that if you go down that path and your music gets popular from Geometry Dash, that's all you'll likely ever be known by unless you strike yourself a professional record deal or something. Don't take my word as gospel, I can only speak to what I've personally seen and experienced being in the community. For all I know things have changed since 2018, but given what I've seen in the last year and a half... it hasn't by much.
Again, more power to you if you want to allow your music in the game, but don't say I didn't warn you. Alternatively, if you're worried about all this as a result of what I've said, turning off downloads for some reason typically does the trick that tells the API you don't want your music used in game. Worked for me anyway.
Leavesz
Thanks for your insight! The API should've been fixed as of yesterday's update and seeing how all my tracks are currently not allowed to download in the game it seems to be working fine now, I'll try messing around with it next time I upload anything to see if it actually does work how it's supposed to now.
I do find it weird that I'm on the whitelist, so far only 3 ppl have told me they'd like to use some of my music in the game, I think it'd be unlikely rob would listen to just 2 people and put ME on the whitelist because of them.
It's less about the difficulty and more about the repetitiveness of it, you HAVE to play a map more than ONCE to beat it and that is enough to piss me off. I was also gonna include a paragraph about the fanbase surrounding the game but I figured it'd be better not to since I don't know that much about it, though from what I've seen I can confidently say it is pretty childish, which I guess is to be expected given how the game is advertised, kids are assholes and they love flashy colours. I guess I've had the luck of never having to interact with the bad side of any community I've been involved in yet.
And yeah, becoming popular due to GD is also one of the concerns that I have in mind. Honestly though, I doubt that could happen anymore, ppl like what's familiar and dislike what's new to them so the chances of someone making a fucking "masterpiece" of a map featuring my music and blowing up on youtube are very fucking low, my music doesn't sound fuck like paragonX9 or dimrain47.
I may actually allow one or two tracks of mine to be used and see how ppl respond to that, maybe. Still need to think about this. Again, thx for your input.