Breaking G.A.N.G. News: Austin Wintory s Soundtrack for Journey becomes the first videogame soundtrack to be nominated for a Grammy Award. In case you haven t yet heard the groundbreaking news: For the first time in history, a soundtrack album from a videogame, Austin Wintory s spellbinding soundtrack for Journey, has been nominated for the Grammy Award, Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.  I and the other officers of G.A.N.G. offer our hearty and well-deserved congratulations to Austin on this groundbreaking achievement.. What you may not know is the tremendous amount of the behind-the-scenes work and effort that went in making it possible for a game soundtrack even to be nominated...   Rewind to 1998, when composer Chance Thomas, put together a group of a dozen of the top game composers to formally lobby NARAS (which organizes the Grammys) to create a new Grammy category for videogame music. At the time, the Grammy for original score was called Best Instrumental Composition Writing for a Motion Picture or for Television. Videogame soundtracks weren t even eligible to even be nominated at the time! Chance and those of us in that group showed how game music had changed it was no longer Pacman and Donkey Kong-- but often included full orchestral scores deserving of recognition by the music industry. It was slow work, and NARAS declined to create a new category. However after continued lobbying, in 2000 NARAS agreed that videogame soundtracks warranted a closer look, and became technically eligible, as the soundtrack category was modified to become Best instrumental Composition Written for Motion Pictures, Television or Other Visual Media . Yes, 2 years of lobbying resulted in adding 4 words to the existing soundtrack category, with videogames falling under the catchall of and other visual media.    While significant, this still somehow put videogames below Motion Pictures and TV. A renewed concentrated effort was orchestrated by Chance, G.A.N.G., through its founder Tommy Tallarico and President Paul Lipson as well as EA s Steve Schnur, and NARAS s Leslie Ann Jones and Greg Gordon. Fast forward, and in 2011, Videogame music made history, getting additional attention from the music industry, as a song originally recorded for Civilization IV, included on Christopher Tin s album of original music, Baba Yetu, won the Grammy for "Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists. Although released on a solo album, that represented the first time a Grammy was awarded to a song that was originally written for a videogame! In 2012 recognizing the importance of the artform of videogame music, NARAS decided to place Videogames, Movies and Television on equal footing, re-naming the soundtrack category Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media. It is in that category, along with soundtracks for films composed by John Williams, Hans Zimmer and Howard Shore that Austin s Journey soundtrack will compete for the Grammy in 2013.   Once again, congratulations to Austin on this groundbreaking achievement. And we should all thank Chance Thomas and the others inside and outside of GANG who lobbied tirelessly for years to help teach the world of the importance of videogame music as an art form, making it deserving of respect and recognition through awards such as the Grammy. It is no coincidence that providing this kind of education about game audio to the broader community in this case NARAS-- is one of the core missions of G.A.N.G. --Brian Schmidt-President, Game Audio Network Guild