C418 (born Daniel Rosenfeld on May 9, 1989, in East Germany) is a German musician, composer, and sound designer best known for composing the iconic soundtrack to Minecraft. His minimalistic ambient work blends electronic, IDM, and progressive house influences, drawing inspiration from artists like Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, and Erik Satie. Born to parents who emigrated from the Soviet Union, Rosenfeld was introduced to music composition by his brother Harry Rosenfeld (known as C818), who gave him Ap...
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C418 (born Daniel Rosenfeld on May 9, 1989, in East Germany) is a German musician, composer, and sound designer best known for composing the iconic soundtrack to Minecraft. His minimalistic ambient work blends electronic, IDM, and progressive house influences, drawing inspiration from artists like Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, and Erik Satie. Born to parents who emigrated from the Soviet Union, Rosenfeld was introduced to music composition by his brother Harry Rosenfeld (known as C818), who gave him Aphex Twin CDs and showed him Impulse Tracker. His brother's username inspired the moniker C418, which Rosenfeld describes as "really cryptic and doesn't actually mean anything." He learned to create music using early versions of Schism Tracker and Ableton Live in the early 2000s, developing skills that would prove essential when working within Minecraft's limited 20-channel sound engine. Rosenfeld met Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson through the indie game development forum TIGSource in 2009. Given creative freedom, he composed atmospheric, nostalgic music that became integral to the game's identity. His soundtrack albums Minecraft - Volume Alpha (2011) and Minecraft - Volume Beta (2013) achieved massive success, with tracks like "Sweden" garnering hundreds of millions of streams. In August 2023, Volume Alpha reached #1 on Billboard's Emerging Artists chart, and in 2025, the complete album was added to the United States Library of Congress. While Rosenfeld completed a third Minecraft album, it remains unreleased due to licensing disagreements with Mojang owner Microsoft. Beyond Minecraft, Rosenfeld's discography includes Life Changing Moments Seem Minor in Pictures (2010), Circle (2010), one (2012), 148 (2015), 2 Years of Failure (2016), and Excursions (2018). He has also scored Minecraft: The Story of Mojang (2012), composed the theme for Netflix's Beyond Stranger Things, and created soundtracks for games including Cookie Clicker (2021) and Wanderstop (2025). Rosenfeld co-founded the indie game studio Ivy Road with developers Davey Wreden and Karla Zimonja. Rosenfeld is based in Austin, Texas, and continues to release music independently through Bandcamp and other platforms.
