Welcome to IN FOCUS, a new series presented by Downtown, exploring the ideas shaping the future of music and technology. 

Each episode spotlights a key theme and features short, candid conversations between our team and our clients or partners – deep diving into the questions, trends, and insights driving change across the industry. We share key takeaways from each conversation to help shed light on different areas of the music business and spark new ways of thinking about its future.

You can find all episodes of IN FOCUS on Downtown’s YouTube channel here.

IN FOCUS is also available as a podcast, listen to  all episodes released here.

Episode One: IN FOCUS: Sync Writing for games

Episode one sees Cabrea Casey, Downtown Music Publishing’s Director, Sync and A&R in conversation with artist, songwriter, and producer, Madge, to explore the process of writing for games.

Key takeaways:

– How the creative process shifts when writing for a game; understanding the story or character, and translating the narrative into music

– Finding the balance between maintaining your own artistic voice and aligning with the game’s world

– Building mutual trust with the game developers or studio – how collaboration shapes the end result

– Learning to let go of ego and approach the project as a true creative partnership

– Exploring how writing for games differs from other media, and what new opportunities or challenges this kind of work brings for songwriters