‘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.”