A more detailed discussion about Riot Games’s newest League of Legends music product: Sessions.
Riot Games announced its new music project, Sessions: Vi, earlier yesterday, which was developed by numerous experienced musicians and beat-makers, including Chromonicci, Junior State, Laxcity, Tennyson, and many other artists.
The album is a 37-track instrumental journey with a focus on laid-back sounds and relaxing, lyric-free tracks, and it stands out as a wholly distinct effort from Riot’s music team. The business has never attempted a musical production of this scope and length before. Furthermore, Sessions: Vi carves out a new niche in the music business by serving as a totally safe-to-use album that streamers and content makers may use as background music for their broadcasts and other types of content.
“We saw how hard music can be for content creators,” said Toa Dunn, director of music at Riot Games. “The music industry is catching up to how digital fans are, and we really wanted to help our players, fans and communities. We know they’re having a hard time and we want to build an opportunity space where we could deliver value.”
Arcording to Riot, this project “is the result of a promise that Riot Games Music made a year ago: To create new music that would be safe to stream and free to use—something to help address a small part of the copyright pains seen from creators and streamers around the world.”
Riot’s Sessions: Vi is the first part of the Sessions series, and the company has stated that further works are in the pipeline. This first album in the series was inspired by and titled after Vi, a champion from the League of Legends universe. Fans of League will remember Vi as a hearty, determined, and valiant protector of her hometown of Piltover, but this album seeks to portray the character in a new, more casual way.
“This is something that we’re interested in investing in and learning from,” Dunn explained. “There’s many directions that we can take on projects like these. The aesthetics, the vibes, and the paths that we can take are unlimited. If things continue to happen in a great way, I can see us developing more projects like Sessions.”
Riot’s Sessions: Vi is the first full-length album to be distributed on streaming services since the remix album Warsongs in 2016. Since then, the Riot music team has grown significantly. Through major in-house initiatives like True Damage and K/DA, as well as outreaching partnerships with organizations like Spotify, the corporation has increased its musical reach.
“We’re always building upon what music means for us. We love doing it. We’re going to continue to build this year and beyond,” Dunn shared. “People should keep an eye out for what we’re going to be doing. We’re only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the power that music has. We’re excited about what music can do for our games, esports, and the communities that support them.”
Sessions: Vi is now available to stream in full on major music streaming platforms such as Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube.