Earlier this week composer, instrumentalist, vocalist and father of at least one other vocalist, Jeff Williams, has announced that the biggest issues surrounding the stolen RWBY soundtrack have been settled. The songs that the show’s fans bop enthusiastically to have been illegally pirated for months following the closure of Rooster Teeth (Roost in Peace 💀). An unknown scumbag or group of scumbags have stolen the streaming proceeds that should have went to the songs’ authors Jeff and Casey Lee Williams. According to calculations by bumbleby.com and the current-day song streaming revenue from Apple Music, Spotify and similar services, the combined millions of streams of the songs would earn a sum totaling tens of dollars.
Luckily for fans of the show’s fantastic soundtrack, the creators of this wonderful music and people who generally dislike blatant fraud, Jeff Williams has since managed to reclaim most of RWBY’s songs and has re-uploaded them to various music streaming services. Songs that are still missing include all the non-vocal tracks from background of the show’s episodes, as well as the entirety of the Volume 9 soundtrack, the restoration of the latter would fall under the watch of Casey Lee Williams instead.
Yet it wasn’t the missing songs that listeners noticed immediately, but the brand new album name and cover art, which was chosen because Jeff Williams “was unable to secure a license for the previous artwork and titles”. Note the quotation marks that are being used not only to quote the text, but also to highlight the hidden meaning behind the words. Editorialising!
The real reason for the change was obviously chosen for the benefit of all RWBY’s fans, or at least ones that are just barely extroverted enough to physically attend a social gathering. No longer will the passing of the aux cord be a trial that destroys even the bravest RWBY-watcher, as their friends inevitably ask: “Is this from those girl cartoons you watch?”. From now on, playing Time to Say Goodbye from the Part 2 soundtrack for the third time will be considered an “artsy move” as the album cover and name will trick unassuming friends that it’s from an indie artist from the early 2010s. Which is technically true. Huh.
The incredibly-named Songs Part One to Songs Part Eight are all available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music and this guy’s 2008 Mercedes-Benz.