Music amount

[Sirrus]

So I've been looking into options for music for our next upcoming game...
The game has essentially 10 unique settings, 50 levels so I'm looking for a music solution that would allow diversity for each setting, but not break the bank or the file size...

Options:

One long (15 minute) track that just loops
Pro: cheaper, music still diverse, after 15 minutes - if seemless - user shouldn't even notice
Cons: not unique per level, not giving a level -specific vibe

10 tracks
Pro: unique sound per level
cons: expensive, not to mention it would increase our file size a good amount

5 tracks
Pro: each track could have a specific mood...happy, spooky, upbeat, majestic, etc. so we could assign the appropriate track to the right level
cons: might be repetitive - especially if the levels with the assigned track are too close together

Any more options we could consider? I want to get cost and size down...Its going to be hard to be <15mb with more than 5 songs, or 15 minutes. Plus, the game is story driven so a unique sound for each area would be best suited.

Thoughts or ideas appreciated.

[joe]

If you want to keep the size small and want a lot of various tracks you can use the mod/xm or it - tracker-format.

[Artinum]

Perhaps you could change your approach. Ever played "Abe's Oddyssey"? Some wonderful music in that but no actual tracks - just some ambient background noise and some drum stuff kicks in when the action takes off. You're plodding happily along, something quiet and melodic in the background, then a Scrab spots you - the drums flare up!

The only other game I can think of that did something like this is Delphine's "Flashback" - just a little less subtly.

If this rather unusual technique doesn't appeal, then my suggestions for more normal tracks are:
(1) Variety is important. Even fifteen minutes will repeat on you after a while.
(2) If you're worried about filesize, how about an option to play the player's own MP3s?

[Sirrus]

Perhaps you could change your approach. Ever played "Abe's Oddyssey"? Some wonderful music in that but no actual tracks - just some ambient background noise and some drum stuff kicks in when the action takes off. You're plodding happily along, something quiet and melodic in the background, then a Scrab spots you - the drums flare up!

The only other game I can think of that did something like this is Delphine's "Flashback" - just a little less subtly.

If this rather unusual technique doesn't appeal, then my suggestions for more normal tracks are:
(1) Variety is important. Even fifteen minutes will repeat on you after a while.
(2) If you're worried about filesize, how about an option to play the player's own MP3s?

The game doesn't really lend itself to any of these options...
It is very story driven and being casual in nature needs to have some great personality with flowing music.

I'm pretty adverse to using modular music - it always sounds too beepy/MIDI-esque or too suited for techno. I'm interested in whimsical strings, etc.

Hmmm...