Daniel Rosenfeld (born 9 May 1989), known professionally as C418 (pronounced "see four eighteen"), is a German composer and record producer. Known for his minimalistic ambient work, he rose to fame as the original composer and sound designer for the 2011 sandbox video game Minecraft. Acclaimed for its nostalgic value and relaxing quality, his music for the game is considered one of the greatest video game soundtracks ever composed.
Rosenfeld was first introduced to music production by his brother Harry, and took it up as a hobby. He met game developer Markus Persson on the online forum TIGSource, and became the sound designer and composer for Persson's project Minecraft. Rosenfeld released the soundtrack albums Volume Alpha (2011) and Volume Beta (2013) for the game, and scored the documentary Minecraft: The Story of Mojang with the album One (2012). He released the album 148 (2015), wrote and produced the theme for Beyond Stranger Things, and released Dief (both 2017).
While a third Minecraft album has not emerged, Rosenfeld released the studio album Excursions (2018) and scored the Steam release of Cookie Clicker (2021). Rosenfeld co-founded the independent video game studio Ivy Road with developers Davey Wreden and Karla Zimonja. He composed the soundtrack for their first game, Wanderstop (2025). In August 2023, he was ranked at #1 on Billboard magazine's emerging artists chart.
Rosenfeld was born in East Germany in 1989. His father was a goldsmith, and his family had a musical background before they pursued other careers. He learned to create music on early versions of Schism Tracker (a popular clone of Impulse Tracker) and Ableton Live in the early 2000s, both rudimentary tools at the time. It was his brother, Harry Rosenfeld, who introduced him to music composition through Ableton, commenting that "even an idiot" can successfully create music with it. His brother was also known as C818, from which he chose the name C418, claiming that the name is "really cryptic and doesn't actually mean anything." Rosenfeld has also stated that he was "mediocre at school," but learning basic music theory and English came easy to him.
Rosenfeld started releasing music on Bandcamp after Danny Baranowsky suggested releasing his music on the site. In 2007, Rosenfeld started a blog known as "Blödsinn am Mittwoch" (English: "Silliness on Wednesday"), where he posted a new song every week. This was around the same time when he became interested in game development and audio, which resulted in him joining the indie game development forum TIGSource, where he became involved with numerous smaller games and game developers. Among them, Rosenfeld unofficially released the soundtracks of Zombie Dog in Crazyland and Mubbly Tower on an old blog. Later, Rosenfeld started making albums and releasing them on his blog and Bandcamp, as a hobby.
His first release was the 2007 EP BPS, and shortly thereafter, in 2008, he challenged himself to make a studio album as quickly as possible, for fun, prioritizing quantity over quality. The Whatever Director's Cut was released on his blog as BAM #30 and on his Bandcamp, where it was available until it was removed in 2013, due to Rosenfeld's dislike of the album.
Also in 2008, Rosenfeld released Mixes, a 25-minute medley containing remixes of songs previously posted on the blog. Also released were the EP Sine and his second studio album, Zweitonegoismus, which expressed his discontent with working in an assembly line factory. Rosenfeld showed the album to his co-worker prior to releasing it, prompting them to ask "why the hell [he was] still working there".
2009–2013: Minecraft, becoming a freelance composer, and One
In early 2009, Rosenfeld began collaborating with Minecraft creator Markus "Notch" Persson through TIGSource. Rosenfeld was responsible for the sound effects and music in Persson's work-in-progress video game Minecraft. The sound engine in the still early Java game was not very powerful, so Rosenfeld had to be creative in his approach to creating sound effects and music.
In January 2010, Rosenfeld's fourth studio album A Cobblers Tee Thug, a collaborative work with his friend Sohnemann was released. The album was the result of a challenge the two musicians had set themselves to make a full-length LP in the short time they spent together over the New Year. In March 2010, Rosenfeld released the album circle, originally created in 2008 and intended as the soundtrack for an unpublished indie game bearing the same name, created by an unknown developer. In August of that same year, Rosenfeld released Life Changing Moments Seem Minor in Pictures. The album was recorded while Rosenfeld was still residing within Germany, and at the time of releasing the album he had been requested to work for military services after quitting his job, which he managed to avoid by performing other labour. The album also contains parts of the original soundtrack to Ezo, a game Rosenfeld independently developed for Ludum Dare.
In 2011, two compilation albums, Little Things and Seven Years of Server Data, were released on Bandcamp for free. Both albums contained various unused or unfinished tracks, some made for game projects that had never come to fruition.
In 2011 a series of compilation albums with songs from various projects were released on Bandcamp for free, including Little Things, I Forgot Something, Didn't I. (a B-side to 72 Minutes of Fame), and Seven Years of Server Data.
While still working on Minecraft as a freelance artist, Rosenfeld was not on staff at Mojang, the company behind Minecraft. Rosenfeld still owns the rights to all his music in the game, and has released two albums featuring songs from the Minecraft soundtrack. The first soundtrack, Minecraft – Volume Alpha, was digitally released on 4 March 2011 on his Bandcamp page. The Guardian has compared his compositions to those of Brian Eno and Erik Satie because of their minimalistic, ambient quality.
Later that year, when Minecraft became available to the general public as an early access title, it rapidly became popular. Rosenfeld, who up until that point had worked at an assembly line for a company in Stollberg, could now pursue music as his primary source of income. This inspired his 2011 studio album, 72 Minutes of Fame, the content of which mostly revolves around this lifestyle-defining moment in Rosenfeld's life. This album was the first of Rosenfeld's works to have a physical release, and was released on Bandcamp on 19 July 2011, preceded by one day by its B-side, I forgot something, didn't I.
Almost half a year later, 2 Player Productions began production on a documentary of the development of Minecraft, titled Minecraft: The Story of Mojang. Rosenfeld was requested to create the soundtrack for this documentary, which was ultimately released as his 2012 album, One. Vice called it a "gleeful and unobtrusive collection of short melodic instrumentals that skip around daintily like cute little bashful kittens, but with a dark self-deprecating humour lurking beneath".
2013–2016: Minecraft - Volume Beta, 0x10c, and 148
On 9 November 2013, Rosenfeld released the second album of the official soundtrack for Minecraft, titled Minecraft – Volume Beta. Many of the new songs were made for features of the game that were not present when the first volume was produced; i.e. the Nether or the End. In 2020, the soundtrack was released in physical format with Ghostly International and reprints of the Minecraft - Volume Alpha physical releases were also released. The Volume Beta releases consisted of a double CD edition of the album, a vinyl record which came in black and a red "fire" splatter color, and a limited edition of the vinyl pressed on a magenta translucent material which was at first exclusive to Europe but was later re-pressed internationally. Additionally, on 13 June 2025 Ghostly International released both Minecraft – Volume Alpha and Minecraft – Volume Beta on cassette tape, separately and as a bundle.