Hi, I'm Chris — you might know me as Dj Cutman — the Founder & Final Boss of GameChops.
GameChops is the world’s most popular video game music label, with over a billion streams and over two thousand licensed video game covers. The label serves as a pillar of support for musicians, illustrators, designers, and engineers all over the world.
But the story started in a humble little recording studio in Ithaca, NY.
In 2010, I was working as a studio engineer recording and mixing indie hip hop. One of my clients and I bonded after hours about our mutual love for video games.
We exchanged music, I shared my collection of game soundtracks, he shared his collection of drum loops and production samples. We spent hours chopping up video game sounds and putting them to beats. Those were the first Game Chops.
Our First Convention
Later that year I attended my first video game convention, MAGFest, and it changed everything for me. For the first time in my life, I was surrounded by a community of gamers and musicians.
I had grown up in the 90s, where video games were still seen as a kind of weird thing. I had a few friends who I gamed with, but it was mostly a solitary activity.
Being around so many like-minded and creative people gave me a sense of purpose. I realized I could take the audio engineering skills I was building – mixing, mastering, music production – and apply them to a scene that I loved: video game music.
The Path to Licensing Our Covers
At the time, VGM covers were mostly a bedroom producer’s hobby. Talented people were making awesome arrangements, but the recordings rarely got a professional mix. Streaming didn't exist yet, but I thought it would be so cool to get some video game music on the place we did go to get music – iTunes.
I started researching cover song licensing. After some time and saving money up from my recording sessions, I bought my first cover song licenses from The Harry Fox Agency. That was the beginning of GameChops.
When streaming platforms took off a decade later, we were ready. We had built a licensed catalog of VGM covers at a time when almost nobody else was doing it. The years of consistent releases to iTunes propelled GameChops to become the largest catalog of licensed video game music on Spotify. Today, our music has surpassed a billion streams.
How We Make Records
Every GameChops release is fully licensed, because we believe the original composers deserve to be compensated when their work inspires new creativity. Our licenses for our vinyl releases are managed by the awesome team over at EasySong.com.
In the old days, I personally mastered every release that came out on GameChops. These days, we have a team of mix and mastering engineers who are the best in their genres working on exciting new projects. For vinyl, we bring in Nick Townsend at Townsend Mastering, who specializes in cutting for the format.
Our records are pressed at Furnace Record Pressing, one of the most respected plants in the industry, known for rigorous quality assurance and multi-phase testing. Jackets are printed on 20pt SBS board with a premium matte varnish.
Every pressing features unique colorways, many of them hand-poured one-of-a-kind variants. When you buy a GameChops record, you're supporting a team of artists and musicians creating some of the best game-inspired music on the planet.
Our Artists
GameChops works with a roster of world-class musicians who bring different styles and influences to game music.
The Deku Trio is our in-house jazz band, arranged by Rob Araujo — a pianist and producer best known for his work as Shopan with Lofi Girl and Chillhop. The Deku Trio's debut album earned the label its first BBC radio play, featured on the jazz program Round Midnight, and the series has been covered multiple times by Polygon, GoNintendo, Nintendo Life, and many more
Sixth Station Trio is a classically trained chamber ensemble whose debut GameChops album, Zelda Classics, launched to coverage from NME, Screen Rant, GoNintendo, Zelda Dungeon, and more. The album was recorded live at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and features an album length video of the performance.
Coffee Date is a multi-instrumentalist and singer who brings organic warmth to everything they touch. From Violin to cello, kalimba and ukelele, Coffee Date has a sound all her own.
Mikel is chill beat producer, but we wouldn’t call him “lofi” – He’s the musician who popularized chill hiphop instrumentals in the VGM scene — his Zelda & Chill is one of our most-streamed albums of all time.
What Drives Us
GameChops has been doing this since 2010. What started as two friends late night in a studio has grown into a label with international acclaim, massive streams, BBC airplay, and coverage in major gaming and music press. But the goal hasn't changed: take the music we love from video games, put it in the hands of exceptional musicians, and give it the mix it deserves.
All while supporting the composers, illustrators, designers, engineers, session players, arrangers, publishers, and producers that make it all happen.
If you want to get in touch, visit our Contact page. And if you're a shop interested in stocking GameChops vinyl, we'd love to hear from you.