Abstracts are sought for a collection of essays on music in sports video games. While this topic might seem niche, the sheer popularity of sports video games justifies its existence as an analysis of how their development impacted preparation, selection and consumption of music. Karen Collins (2007) writes that “audio can play a more limited role in certain genres of games,” giving sports games as an example of video games with less “elaborate” audio. Indeed, music in sports video games is mostly non-diegetic – with the characters in the game not hearing it, hence not reacting to it in any way – and rather linear than adaptive, however, it is an important environmental and immersive element. Audio can equally as successfully contribute to the overall experience of realism, as well as take the gamer– which is a term I use to differentiate between the basketball/football/hockey/etc. players on a team and the person controlling them during the video game – out of the world of the game. This applies to in-game music as well. Therefore, abstracts from scholars of various backgrounds and disciplines within the humanities are sought for an edited collection on music in sports video games. Considering the lack of academic works devoted to the topic, the collection will be groundbreaking. As observed by Rod Munday, “it is worth remembering that computer-generated environments make no natural sounds: hence the importance of music and sound effects to give them meaning.” Therefore, sound selection is always intentional across all video game genres, but only in sports video games it becomes a dialogue or a compromise between real-world sports sounds (arena noises, fan chants, subcultures tied to particular sports), fan expectations and sponsorship deals. A lot of that has to do with the sport the game depicts. As observed by Jonathan Long and Karl Spracken (2021), “there are many aspects to the role of music in sport and the relationship between the two; whether for example music is used to celebrate a sport or sporting moment, to provide a musical narrative to a sporting story, to be used as a medium for sporting aesthetic expression.” The most basic division one can introduce is between music used in: introductory videos, menus, and during competitions. All three are to some extent dependent on real-life disciplines and competitions. The introductory videos are somewhat of a lost art in sports video games, but in the late 1990s and early 2000s they played a vital role in bridging the gap between the discipline they were depicting and the game itself. And music was an important part of that process, as proven by the funky and flashy introduction to *NBA Live 2000* or the subdued, yet fitting music behind Ray Lewis’ pompous speech in the opening video to *Madden NFL 13*. Analysis of the usage of music in these segments is, however, fairly limited to their enclosed nature, as they are montages of game-day footage or animations which introduce the game, rather than a part of the game *per se*. In his seminal book, *Sport in Consumer Culture*, John Horne (2006) writes that unlike pop music, sport “serves more as a bridge rather than a barrier between generations.” However, the first part of his observation does not apply to music used in sport video games, which make extensive use of old and new songs in the menus, introducing old songs to new fans. In no other video game genre is the menu music of such importance as in sports video games. The gamer spends a significant amount of time assembling the roster, going through the schedule or editing their avatar. Performing those actions in complete silence might lead to boredom, but on the flipside, after spending hours in the menu, listening to the same songs over again, the gamer may experience listener fatigue. Historically though, the usage of previously produced songs was beneficial to the games and the artists. The soundtrack to *NBA Live 2003* became the first video game soundtrack to ever go platinum, and the tracks, some of which were created with no intention of appearing in the game, were decontextualized and contextualized again, moving from “video game music” to “music from a video game” (Steven Beverburg Reale 2014). As for the gameplay, the music is oftentimes limited to arena sounds and fan chants, however, there are some instances of usage of music contributing to the overall experience, like in racing games or the *Tony Hawk Pro Skater* video game series, which made great use of the music the real-life skaters depicted in the game were listening to. Still, it must be stated that the proposed division is not nuanced enough to provide something more than a starting point to the discussion of this unexplored aspect of sports video games. Chapter proposals (roughly 300–500-word abstracts) and a short bio are due to December 1, 2026. The potential authors will be notified about acceptance by December 10, 2026. The abstracts will become a part of the book proposal, which will be sent out to publishers by the end of the year. The book is optimistically planned to be divided into three-four sections, 12-15 chapters in total, around 5,000-6,000 words per chapter. Please send abstracts and questions to: <lukasz.muniowski@usz.edu.pl>