Music of Minecraft

C418 German musician Daniel Rosenfeld had been making music under the moniker C418 since he was 15 years old, and was influenced by the electronic work of Aphex Twin. From 2007, he became active on online indie game community TIGSource where he met Markus Persson, who was still in the early stages of developing Minecraft. Rosenfeld was given creative freedom to create a soundtrack for the tech demo, and opted to make ambient music reminiscent of the works of Brian Eno and Vangelis. He was interested in "games with music that takes you completely by surprise," citing Dwarf Fortress as inspiration. Therefore, Rosenfeld wanted to "make something organic and partly electronic, partly acoustic" for Minecraft. Persson chose to commission the music from Rosenfeld, meaning the artist still retains ownership of all the music he made for Minecraft. She had previously handled the soundtrack for video game Celeste (2018), and had just released her debut studio album Oneknowing (2019). In composing music for Minecraft, she felt "immense pressure" to deliver due to the "very highly acclaimed score" already in the game. After submitting a demo, her goal with the "Nether Update" soundtrack was to see how far she "could push the sound of the piano until it resembled other things entirely." With her third contributions to the game in 2022, Raine wrote she wanted to "focus the musical style around more of a blend between synths and live instrumentation," while continuing to use "strings, piano, and woodwinds in places." == Albums ==

Minecraft – Volume Alpha The first installment of the game's soundtrack, Minecraft – Volume Alpha, was released digitally on 4 March 2011 independently by Rosenfeld. In June 2015, the record received its first pressing to vinyl and CD through American record label Ghostly. In 2022, the album was nominated for Top Dance/Electronic Album at the Billboard Music Awards. The album was met with positive reviews, with Andy Kellman from AllMusic praising its replay value, stating that "none of the recurring elements is pronounced or simple enough to become fatiguing with repeated play". In 2011, video game blog Kotaku called it one of the best video game soundtracks of that year. "Sweden", one of the songs in the album, is one of the most-streamed songs from a video game on Spotify, with over 225 million streams. In 2025, the complete album of Volume Alpha was added to the United States Library of Congress. Carla Hayden, the Librarian of Congress, said "These are the sounds of America--our wide-ranging history and culture. The National Recording Registry is our evolving nation's playlist." Minecraft – Volume Beta The second installment of the game's soundtrack, Volume Beta, was released on 9 November 2013. Like Volume Alpha, Volume Beta comprises most of the music featured in the game, including dedicated music for the game's nether and main menu. It also features music from trailers, and instrumentals not in the game's final release. In 2013 and 2023, the album appeared on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, peaking at number 14 both times. It received its first pressing to vinyl and CD through Ghostly in 2020. The mostly ambient album has a generally darker tone than its precursor. Rosenfeld described the track "Alpha" as a medley and "a celebration of past music from Volume Alpha." The first song he had composed with the clear intent for the game's "creative mode" to have a distinct soundtrack was "Blind Spots". Rosenfeld stated he "didn't want to remember them for their death, but the happiness they showed every day of their life." Several songs on the album are remakes of themes from the prior soundtrack album Volume Alpha; "Ki", "Moog City 2", "Mutation", and "Beginning 2" are remakes of the songs "Key", "Moog City", "Minecraft", and "Beginning", respectively. Minecraft: Nether Update On 10 April 2020, it was announced Lena Raine had composed music for the game's "Nether Update". Unlike Rosenfeld's independently released albums, Raine's work is owned by and published through Microsoft Studios Music. Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs On 20 October 2021, the fourth official release of the Minecraft soundtrack was released, with 10 new tracks coinciding with the game's "Caves & Cliffs" update. Seven of them were composed by Raine, including "Otherside", a new in-game music disc, and three were handled by Japanese composer Kumi Tanioka, known for her work in the Final Fantasy series. Minecraft: The Wild Update The fifth installment of the game's soundtrack, including songs introduced in "The Wild Update", was released on 20 April 2022. It contains three new tracks by Raine, and a new music disc, "Five", composed by Mojang audio director Samuel Åberg. The album combines music from Cherof, Tanioka and Raine for the first time. Minecraft: Chase the Skies On 13 May 2025, the soundtrack to the "Chase the Skies" update was released, including six songs composed by Amos Roddy. == Unreleased third C418 album==

In a 2011 Reddit AmA, Daniel Rosenfeld stated his plans to create a third soundtrack album, Volume Final, after the release of Minecraft – Volume Beta. Rosenfeld first revealed development of the album in a 2015 interview with Fact Magazine, commenting, "I'll still work on Minecraft, so there'll probably be another album. In fact, it's gonna be more ambient than the others, just as an experiment." He also noted listeners' own applications of his previous works, remarking, "I'm interested in seeing how people use music as a sleep aid, so I think on the next album I might put a bonus track on there that's just 15 minutes of complete ambience and see what people think." Rosenfeld again expressed interest in composing an ambient bonus track for his third album in a tweet posted in December of that year. In a 2017 tweet, the musician confirmed the album's existence and said that it was set for future release, but that work on it at that point was "still far from done". Rosenfeld additionally stated that the record would be longer than the previous two albums combined, which in total clocks in at over 3 hours and 18 minutes. Rosenfeld additionally reiterated on Twitter that the third album would not be called "Minecraft – Volume Gamma", deviating from the Greek Alphabet naming convention used in the previous two Minecraft albums he composed. Of the work Rosenfeld did on the third volume, he commented, "When I started making a third Minecraft album, I didn't expect it to have this much work involved. I think I'm seeing the end of the tunnel?" On 8 January 2021, Rosenfeld was asked in an interview with Anthony Fantano whether or not the third volume of the soundtrack was still in production. Rosenfeld responded, saying, "I have something—I consider it finished—but things have become complicated, especially as Minecraft is now a big property, so I don't know." Later that year, he would elaborate on his Discord server, saying: Rosenfeld said in 2025 that he was glad that his time with Minecraft was "chosen for me that it's done" so he could focus on a normal career—Rosenfeld made note of "a lot of ruminations going on" about whether he would release a work for Minecraft again, and said that he would be content if he does not complete further work for the game. == Further contributions ==

Singles On 16 July 2018, three new songs from C418 were added to the game for "Update Aquatic". It marked the first new contributions from Rosenfeld to Minecraft since Minecraft - Volume Beta in 2013. The three tracks were released digitally from August – "Dragon Fish" on 9 August, "Shuniji" on 10 November, and "Axolotl" on 12 December 2018. Rosenfeld was asked by Mojang to create music with "slow beats" for the aquatic music, in a style similar to the music of Donkey Kong Country, though after he first wrote the songs, Mojang wanted more of the "Donkey Kong Country" aspect. Rosenfeld slowed the music down and brought out more high frequencies, and Mojang was satisfied. DLC soundtrack While Rosenfeld once composed holiday themed music in downloadable content (DLC) for console editions of the game in 2014, British composer Gareth Coker has been responsible for the bulk of music for DLC in the Legacy Console Editions. On 21 December 2016, Coker released the albums Battle & Tumble, Chinese Mythology, and Greek Mythology to complement three downloadable packs in the Legacy Console Editions. Two more records of similar themes, Norse Mythology and Egyptian Mythology, were released in December 2017 and May 2018 respectively. Coker's final album for DLC was for the Glide Mini Game, releasing on 22 December 2020. Unlike previous work by Rosenfeld, all of Coker's albums for Minecraft were released under Microsoft's own label. == Reception ==

The soundtrack's minimalistic and melancholic composition has been praised by critics. Keith Stuart of The Guardian noted that Rosenfeld's "wilting, minimalist tracks, slow-paced and slightly melancholy, recall the ambient works of Satie and Eno", calling it the game's "perfect accompaniment." Much of the soundtrack's retrospective praise has been directed at Volume Alpha, where Evan Tridone of The Review called the album "arguably the best ambient album to be released this decade." Writing for Kotaku, Luke Plunkett praised it as a "great album" and as "tranquil as a good night's sleep." The staff teams of several news outlets have considered the Minecraft soundtrack to be among the best video game soundtracks of all time. These include the editorial teams of NME, Digital Trends, GamesRadar+, and VG247. In 2022, the Minecraft soundtrack placed at number 54 on Australian radio station ABC Classic's top 100 countdown, as voted by listeners. == Charts ==

Volume Alpha charts Weekly charts Year-end charts Volume Beta charts == References ==