‘Everybody wants to be in’: How songs are chosen for EA FC

“Most musicians, one of our dreams, one our goals – it’s not the Grammys, it’s not the Oscars – it’s to get a song on Fifa, man.”

That’s Femi Koleoso, from Ezra Collective, on why getting on Fifa – now known as EA FC – is such a big deal.

Each year, around a hundred songs get selected for the soundtrack of the world’s favourite football video game.

But how do they get chosen from the countless acts desperate to make their name on it?

“It’s a brutal question to answer,” EA’s president of music, Steve Schnur, told me, as he gave the BBC a rare peek behind the curtain of how the game studio makes its decisions.

“We go through thousands and thousands of songs,” he says

“At the very beginning, I was flying around like a madman, looking everywhere for the next great thing.

“Now, humbly speaking, everybody wants to be in EA FC, so people come to us.”

But of course, the process is not really about the acts – but the gamer.

“I can’t always base it on who we like or who we have history with,” Mr Schnur said.

“Ultimately, my boss is the player, the person that bought the copy of the game, sometimes with their parents’ money.”

He told me the tune has to “fit a tone”, though there is no specific genre.

“Even if a song doesn’t end up in the game, there’s many songs that you probably hear on Radio 1 where you go, that’s an EA FC band, or that’s an EA FC song,” he told me.

“They can be popular – it can be Skepta, it can be Dua Lipa – but we also want to make sure it’s that band from York that you haven’t heard of yet.”

But, if you’re that unheard of band, how does EA even find out that you exist?

Simply put, a lot of digging.

“There’s a band from Yorkshire, they’re 15 and 16 years old, that I came across online recently, and I reached out to them and said I’m Steve Schnur from EA Sports FC,” he said.

“They sent me these Instagram messages back immediately, saying, ‘is this a joke?'”

Exciting for the band – which Mr Schnur would not name – but he says it’s a thrill for him too.

“Nothing’s better than reaching out to that band and literally saying, out of the blue, ‘hey, I want to put you in the game this year’,” he said.

For the bands, it can be transformative – for acts including Kasabian and Catfish and the Bottlemen, getting exposure on Fifa helped them go on to become household names.

One of the tracks on this year’s game is from British act, Good Neighbours, comprised of Oli Fox and Scott Verill.

They may be a long way from a Kasabian-style stadium tour – but they’ve got a song in EA FC 25.

“It’s unreal,” Scott told me.

“I’ve played the game since I was a kid, and I’ve always discovered bands through playing it.”

The connection with the game extends to their fans too.

“Ever since we’ve started posting music online, all our fans have always been like: ‘get this on EA FC’,” he said.

Where bands once might have hoped someone from a record label would unexpectedly turn up, now there is hype around the possible appearance of a gaming industry representative.

“Someone teased us with a rumour – someone from EA is going to be at your gig tonight – it was crazy… and then we just had a sick gig, I guess,” Scott said.

But that’s not the only link between Good Neighbours, football and EA FC.

Morgan Fox, Oli’s brother, plays professional football for QPR – and has featured in Fifa since his debut for Charlton in 2013.

“He’s been on it for some time, and it’s been a real frustration of mine,” he joked.

“Literally since we were kids we’ve played it together in a horrible rivalry growing up, and then only the penny dropped maybe about 10 years ago that we could possibly exist on the same game.

“Our parents would finally be proud of us, and all those evenings wasted in our childhood playing FIFA, and when we finally ticked it off, we got a nice message from mum and dad saying that they’re very proud.”

Who needs a Grammy?