Piano Squall - VG Piano arrangements for MS Charity

[Nulion]

I don't think anybody's posted on this one before, and I just now stumbled across it myself, but there's apparently a guy out there who's greated a new piano arrangement album called GAME, as a fundraiser for multiple sclerosis.

The thing's got piano arrangements from Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, a bunch of Final Fantasy games, Mega Man, Tetris, Super Mario World, and a couple of piano arrangements from anime (Cowboy Bebop, Naruto, Evangelion, Full Metal Alchemist, and InuYasha). He's got a demo track on there you can listen to, as well.

The majority of the music is from games though, and at $9.99 per CD, 20% of which going towards MS research, it would be pretty cool to give this guy some support.

I read that he'd done this same thing last year, and raised around $9600 for the cause.

http://www.pianosquall.com/

[Forty-second]

I've ordered it

[Arek the Absolute]

Only 20%? That is beyond lame for stuff I can just either get here for free or watch on youtube.

If the dude wants to this in the name of charity, 80% should go to charity while he keeps the other 20% for production cost. This guy is profiting off of a charity that he is barely sending any funds to.

Fuck this I say.

[The Coop]

Only 20%? That is beyond lame for stuff I can just either get here for free or watch on youtube.

If the dude wants to this in the name of charity, 80% should go to charity while he keeps the other 20% for production cost. This guy is profiting off of a charity that he is barely sending any funds to.

Fuck this I say.

Pretty much, but I think 90%/10% would be better. It's cool that he's willing to do this and all, and recouping any production costs is fine, but uuuhhhhhh... charity's about giving, not making money for your time on top of it. If he wanted to make money from it, then he should have done something else for the charity, and saved these tunes for normal release. Or better still, split it in half so that one nine song CD was for profit ($8.99), and the other was for charity (also $8.99).

[Trenthian]

::post opinion here::

[Hemophiliac]

this guy was at a convention i was at recently and got kicked out due to stupidity.

[RealFolkBlues]

this guy was at a convention i was at recently and got kicked out due to stupidity.

That makes sense. A 20% give rate doesn't though. Being the son of a woman who had MS, I really wanted this to be cool, but damn, that is borderline PETA quality bullshit. Is this guy just attaching a charitable notion to an album to get it to sell, or is he just dumb? I don't know, but I guess I should wish him luck or something.

[suzumebachi]

this guy was at a convention i was at recently and got kicked out due to stupidity.

oh? please do explain.

[Arek the Absolute]

Yes, details would be nice. I want to know how this douche bag got thrown out of a place where one would otherwise expect to love him.

Guess most convention people are smarter than I give them credit for.

EDIT: Just listened to some of his demo stuff, and boy does this guy fucking suck. What is worse, is that Hemo pointed out that most of this shit sounds sequenced. What a fucking douchebag. Amateurs on youtube make better shit than this, and they do it for free. This guy can burn for pulling this sort of scam AND getting away with it. Making money with this crap is horrible.

[BigBoss]

I think to spite him we should pirate the album.

[Dhsu]

I like how people have no problem with someone selling VG albums, but once he gives 20% of the sales to charity he is a scumbag. I am sort of wondering what's up with the EA deal though. And (how) did he get the licensing for this? Also, how does he make a profit while OUS has lost money on every album since T&S? I need to find out how this guy got so popular, and do that.

[Arek the Absolute]

stfu dhsu D:<

[Hemophiliac]

I like how people have no problem with someone selling VG albums, but once he gives 20% of the sales to charity he is a scumbag.

if you are talking about liscensing to copyright holders, then it appears he's actually done the smart thing and liscensed the works.

[Arek the Absolute]

OUS does not guilt people into buying their albums by saying that it is for charity. This guy is basically pulling a bait by guilt trap.

"OH HEY GUYS IM DOING THIS ALBUM FOR CHARITY PLEASE SUPPORT FYI ITS FOR CHARITY :D" is a whole lot different from OUS's approach of "Buy our stuff. If you don't, we don't give a shit."

[The Pezman]

I don't know what to say about the charity thing. Perhaps EA, and not him, designated the charity/profit ratio. If that's true (and it's altogether likely given how much control the publisher has) I'm not surprised, since this is the kind of bullshit EA pulls on a regular basis.

I've never had a problem with the guy himself. In fact, I hoped he'd be at VGL. He definitely plays the stuff himself, as is evidenced by the videos on his site. Have you looked at the sheet music he provides? It's frickin intense.

What about his demo sounds sequenced, anyway?

[The Coop]

I like how people have no problem with someone selling VG albums, but once he gives 20% of the sales to charity he is a scumbag.

Well, not everyone is peachy with the concept of remixers selling what so many others give freely

But regarding the charity, it's not so much him being a scumbag, as it is the whole thing coming across as using a charity as a selling point. We've seen it constantly over the years, as people use charities for a photo op, or they publicize their donations on national TV or what have you. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people give to charity each year, but most of them don't say a word about it, because they're not after the notoriety or publicity. They do it to help, and leave it at that. If he wants to give to charity, then he should just do it, and not tack it on to his site as an announcement and selling point... especially with him potentially keeping 80% of the sales.

I believe that's what part of the issue is.

[RealFolkBlues]

Well, not everyone is peachy with the concept of remixers selling what so many others give freely

But regarding the charity, it's not so much him being a scumbag, as it is the whole thing coming across as using a charity as a selling point. We've seen it constantly over the years, as people use charities for a photo op, or they publicize their donations on national TV or what have you. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people give to charity each year, but most of them don't say a word about it, because they're not after the notoriety or publicity. They do it to help, and leave it at that. If he wants to give to charity, then he should just do it, and not tack it on to his site as an announcement and selling point... especially with him keeping 80% of the sales.

I believe that's what part of the issue is.

Well put, as usual, Coop.

It's possible that this guy is just naive or something, and doesn't realize this comes off as pulling on heart strings to loosen the purse strings, but I for one think he's aware of what he's doing. It's not quite worth damning him to hell, guys, but it is kind of poopy to donate so little and call it charity.

[BardicKnowledge]

This guy is good enough for me to watch him on Youtube, but I don't know about spending actual cash that could be put to use cleaning my clothes or buying more ramen. The charity dangling aside, I just don't think he's _that_ good.

[Dhsu]

He does mostly covers, but that's what people like. His actual playing is decent I think.

[herograw]

Well, not everyone is peachy with the concept of remixers selling what so many others give freely

But regarding the charity, it's not so much him being a scumbag, as it is the whole thing coming across as using a charity as a selling point. We've seen it constantly over the years, as people use charities for a photo op, or they publicize their donations on national TV or what have you. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people give to charity each year, but most of them don't say a word about it, because they're not after the notoriety or publicity. They do it to help, and leave it at that. If he wants to give to charity, then he should just do it, and not tack it on to his site as an announcement and selling point... especially with him keeping 80% of the sales.

I believe that's what part of the issue is.

Silently donating to a charity doesn't exactly raise much awareness for said cause, now does it? Perhaps you guys are right, and this guy's a dick. Regardless, I don't understand why internet fags always assume the worst. Don't buy his stuff if you think he's an ass.

[Fishy]

Before GAME, I have always been limited to raising money for charity on-site at concerts through the sale of Piano Squall posters. Thanks to you and the generous matching pledge of my employer Electronic Arts, we were able to raise $8,600 for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and $4,000 for Race for the Cure in 2006.

I put my whole heart into making GAME, and all I really want is for you to enjoy it. I know that the price is unusually low for a new CD, especially when all of the tracks are licensed, but music has never been about profit to me. I just want you to own it, hear it, and relive the emotions of playing these games and seeing these anime for the first time. To me, this is a performer’s greatest reward.

Yes thats cheesy ass, but I don't think he's using it as a selling point for his own personal gain. He's right in saying thats a very low CD price considering its all covers. If he was trying to make money he wouldn't be doing it like this. It sounds more like its EA trying to use him to make money.

[Hawkwing]

My dad has MS.

So I will personally send a thank you letter to anyone who buys this CD if you send me your address in a private message.

And all you guys can bitch about how its only 20% but how much have you donated to help MS research? At least hes doing SOMETHING to help.

[Drack]

20% > 0%

Saying the entire enterprise is for charity is a lie, but at least he's giving SOMETHING.

However, I think I read somewhere, the Bible perhaps, not to brag about donating money. It should be done out of kindness, not to get fame, or in this case, fortune.

[The Coop]

And all you guys can bitch about how its only 20% but how much have you donated to help MS research? At least hes doing SOMETHING to help.

Who says we haven't? As I said earlier, donations to charity aren't about publicizing yourself, making yourself look better in the eyes of others, or (in the potential case of this) bringing in a few more dollars for yourself. It's about giving. If someone feels the need to brag and point out what they're giving, then you start to question just how focused they are on the giving aspect. Yes, that's a somewhat cynical way of looking at it, but that's my stance. Give, and leave it at that. Why boast about it?

herograw- It's not difficult to assume the worst these days. Someone's always trying to scam people out of money, and using the concept of "This is for charity" as a means to pull in more money for the scam has been done plenty of times. You want to believe that someone's doing something straight from the heart, but it's not always easy to do this... especially over the last few years. As I mentioned in a previous post, with the way this thing's set up, it simply doesn't come across very well.

If this guy's having to give the other 80% to EA, SquareEnix and them, then kudos to him for giving what little he was getting from the deal. As far as I know, no one's taking anything away from the previous donations he's made, or his willingness to give. What some people are questioning however, as I said before, is his tacking the charity on to his site as a selling point. Whether it's intended to be one or not, it is a selling point, and that doesn't sit well with everyone. It can easily come across as using the charity portion of the sales, to increase what he gets to pocket. Whether or not that's the case, no one knows, but that's how it can be interpreted.

Edit: Cleaned up my thoughts a bit.

[herograw]

To the consummate pianist Di Wu (www.DiWuPiano.com) for teaching me how to make music, to Rosina Bové, my first teacher, for letting me play Uematsu when all the other kids were playing Mozart, to the great sages Mustin, Gino Castro, Jim Lewis, Benjamin Tisdale, David Silverman, Tim Flanagan, and Jeff Kleist for imparting upon me their most valuable counsel, and to Dr. Charles and Lori Gluck, my loving parents and greatest allies, who taught me that life’s all about doing what you love.

Interesting that his purchasable musics were being compared to OUS earlier, as he gives thanks to Mustin.

EDIT: I sent him an email. He pockets the other 80%. AHEM, I mean "the

remainder is already being used to fund [his] next MS project, which has

been in the works for several months now."