Chase Bethea

Chase Bethea, a distinguished Multi-Award Winning freelance Composer/Technical Music Designer for video games, has clinched prestigious awards like NYX and Global Music, alongside a nomination from VGMO (Video Game Music Online). He has been working professionally in the industry for over a decade and has shipped over 25 games thus far. He is known in the industry as of the most prolific and omnipresent composers in the video game industry today (IlIO) and the “Swiss Army knife of video game composition.” In his beginning career, Chase worked as an intern at Mobotory Games in 2011 while simultaneously going to school for his AA in Music Theory and Composition. He graduated with his AA from Audio Engineering from Los Angeles Recording School , his AA in Music Theory and Composition from Moorpark College and his BM in Media Composition from California State Northridge all with Honors.

Chase has received many accolades throughout his career. In 2010, he won Best Music in Motion Graphic and Poetry Award. In 2013, Chase’s score from the successful flash Horror game, “I Can’t Escape” (developed by Fancy Fish Games) received an honorable mention in the Indie Game Magazine. His second soundtrack for the game “Cubic Climber” earned a Noteworthy on Destructoid.com. In 2016, Chase was nominated for the 2015 Annual Game Music Awards – Artists of the Year – Independent Composer by VGMO (Video Game Music Online) in the entire industry. In 2021, he won an award for the AGROUND soundtrack from the NYX Game Awards. In 2023, Chase Bethea won another NYX Award for the remarkable video game score, “On the Peril of Parrots“and garnered two Global Music awards, one for the same score and the other recognizing his excellence as a composer. Two of these pieces are featured in NYC Jam Sessions VGM Real Book Vol. II. In March 2024, Chase was honoured with one of the industry’s most prestigious awards: the “Excellence in Artistry” Award from the Black in Gaming Foundation. This recognition serves as a testament to his consistent dedication and remarkable contributions to video game music within the industry. Chase has also scored Aztec Ride, a highly addictive fun mobile game that shipped on Google Play in October 2020 and was nominated for a Pocket Gamer Mobile Award. His music has been featured on multiple podcasts such as Pixelated Audio, Level with Emily, Sound of Play, Shure: LOUDER, Everybody’s Talking at Once, Games X Music, Super Gamer Podcast and Audio Modeling’s MIDI Talk. Much of his discography can be heard on many streaming platforms such as Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, Deezer, Tidal, iHeart Radio, Bandcamp and more.

Chase was selected to perform live at Indiecade(2019) and from 2020-2021 streamed on IndieCade’s Twitch channel weekly bringing his show “Game Audio Life” to that platform. Chase’s music was also performed live by the Virtual Video Game Orchestral at MAGWest 2022 as well as the Helix Collective in 2023. More of Chase’s accomplishments include being Game Revolution’s first team streamer as well as first Game Audio professional to be featured on a Gaming Website for his Behind the Scene composing series. He used to be a co-host of Game Audio Hour for three years. Chase was the first minority American Video Game Composer to be featured in the Museum of Making Music MIDI at 40 exhibit at the NAMM Museum in San Diego [2023 -2024]. In 2024, Chase made history as the first video game composer to join the prestigious Mogami Cable roster, further solidifying his impact in the industry. He is the first minority American video game composer to write an article on adaptive music in games for Recording Magazine—the first article on video game music published in the magazine in 20 years [2024]. In addition, Chase was the IASIG (Interactive Audio Special Interest Group) Chair (2022-2024).

Chase has also done over 55 talks as a guest speaker at many conferences such as Global Game Jam (Keynote Speaker), GDC (Game Developers Conference)(4x), Pocket Gamer Connect, PAX, Audiokinetic, MAGWEST (3x), MAGFest, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants)(2x) IGDA, GameSound Con, Berklee College of Music (3x), Game Devs of Color,(2x) ADC (Audio Developers Conference), A2IM, Indie Game Business and EPOS Gaming.

As a video game composer, Chase has brought his special signature sound to big libraries and has worked with written demos for Spitfire, Reason Studios and Soundiron, curated selections for Native Instruments Sounds.com, been added to the artist roster of the legendary, ILIO and Q Up Arts . Chase has also collaborated with Shure Microphones and Mojave Audio, further expanding his influence in the industry. In addition, he has made two article debuts on the website of the music gear conglomerate, Sweetwater. Chase also contributed music to the 2023 Set 10 Team Fight Tactic Remix Rumble Soundtrack.