State of UO's soundtrack is among my favorite this-never-stops-to-amaze-me bits about the game. UO has a very good measure of profilic, nostalgic and well loved tunes.
... That are hardly ever used. Even 40 kbs midi version of Stones would be more welcome thing to hear than majority of the current void-of-soul blaargh.
Why Stones, for example, never appears in game at all is..incomprehensible to me. If it played on Login Screen, UO would have few thousand more players. I'm not even entirely kidding. You don't quit a game where log in screen sounds so beautiful. The song is like an invitation to classic, dignified adventure on worlds where sun is usually busy setting!
There are a lot of people who turn either sound or at the very least music off when playing video games. I've never really done that. To me, even an average soundtrack of a game adds to the experience and atmosphere. Modern day UO is among very few games where I actually have to turn music off. It is just too terribad. And plays too often. I believe this makes a serious problem that, on the other hand, would be very easy and cheap to fix.
Clearly it isn't even case of UO/EA losing the rights to classic Ultima soundtrack(s) in some weird way; Dawn's Music Box features many of the classic tunes that have been removed from game to make ample room for horrible songs everybody hates.