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How the ‘Minecraft’ Game Score Unexpectedly Became Big Business For Its Composer

Daniel 'C418' Rosenfeld wrote the Minecraft score and turned down Microsoft's offer to buy it. Billions of streams later, he reflects on the decision.

Because no one anticipated the game’s whirlwind success, or had the budget to properly pay him back in 2009, Rosenfeld was compensated for his work with a small fee and 100% ownership over Minecraft ’s now-iconic score. The score, Minecraft Volume Alpha, which is distributed via TuneCore, was certified gold by the RIAA in 2023, and this month, it was inducted into the Library of Congress by the National Recording Registry, which cited it as an “audio treasure worthy of preservation.” Rosenfeld even has fans of his own who often congregate in a Discord server devoted to talking about his work, which includes the scores for other games such as Catacomb Snatch and Wanderstop.

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