The Dissemination of Night Drive Turbo

Two years ago today I released my first synthwave track on SoundCloud, Night Drive Turbo. After following many influential synthwave artists for years before this, I finally decided it was time to compose and produce my own music in this style. So I did just that as a little test. A test to first see if I could do it, and then as a test to see if there would be any interest.

All I wanted was for people to hear it, so I gave it away for free and decided to be very liberal with any usage inquiries. Now two years later, I’ve discovered fortuitously how good of a decision this was because my music has wound up in several interesting projects! Some came with permission and some without, but it’s all good. My music seems to have found the purpose I was long after in the first place, and I’m excited to share my findings.

Retro Gaming and Computer Videos featuring “Night Drive Turbo”

First up is Nostalgia Nerd, a.k.a Peter Alex Leigh. I don’t remember when he first contacted me about using the track, but he’s gone on to produce some really cool videos about the history of retro gaming computers from the 1980’s and my music seems to be the perfect underscore! Check out his videos featuring the track below and listen for my other track, Reflection of Paradise, towards the end of the video about the Sinclair ZX81:

Gaming Mouse Commercial featuring “Night Drive Turbo”

Next up was the surprise of discovering the use of my track in a video about the Redragon Smilodon Gaming Mouse from HighTech.com.gr. I don’t remember anyone contacting me about using my track for this, but I’m happy to hear it continuing to support the gaming industry. I think I’m starting to see a trend here. Check it out:

“Night Drive Turbo” credited sound-alike: “Rad Future”

This was the most flattering discovery by far! The following music by erenik is a sound-alike of my track commissioned by someone who really liked the structure of my song and was used in an endless-runner game. More games, yeah! I put my music out into the universe to be used and referenced, and now that the style and structure has been emulated by another composer/producer who was very cool to give me proper credit, I feel extremely validated. Sure, it would have been great to have my track used in the game itself or have been asked to do the sound-alike myself, but it’s all good. I never knew this would happen and I think it’s awesome. Check it out:

Playlists featuring “Night Drive Turbo”

Finally, I also discovered several YouTube playlists that featured the track, and now I’m amongst all of the other synthwave artists I’ve been listening to for all the years building up to putting out my own music. This is truly full circle. Check them out:

New Retro Wave by Adam Beggy
Track #4

Electro Space by Minter064
Track #15

Chillmusik by Jonas Blomstedt
Track #16

Polu-čovek, polu-VHS by Strahinja Radenković
Track #46

My Own Rad Future

Now that I see what can happen with my synthwave music without even trying that hard, I know how important it is to start putting out more music. I’ve been sitting on some really cool new tracks for a while now, and I think I’ve waited long enough! I will continue the same free SoundCloud model and perhaps start thinking about charging affordable licensing fees when interest arises for other usage.

As for Night Drive Turbo, if you’re interested in using the track, go ahead and use it! Just give me proper credit as the other content creators have, and be sure to follow my SoundCloud channel for new music coming soon!!