“Rock Band” Offering Up Fresh Revenue Stream For Record Labels
The addictive new video game Rock Band, where multiple gamers use controllers to mimic guitar riffs, bass lines, drum lines, and vocals, is opening up a new revenue stream for record labels that are selling their music through Microsoft’s XBOX Live Marketplace.
In the eight weeks since the game has been released, 2.5 million songs have been downloaded for $2 a piece. Additionally, Activision claims it has sold 5 million songs for its game, Guitar Hero.
Initially with games like Guitar Hero, music labels were trepidatious about releasing their own content and the games actually had to use cover bands. But now that it’s obviously this not only a good source of revenue, but also exposure, labels and bands are lining up to get their songs into the game.
Currently, only about three new songs a week are being released for Rock Band, but that number may increase as demand does and as more programmers get involved in actually making the songs playable along with the game.
In the article from TechDirt where I saw this from, a couple of commenters noted that at some point soon, the game may be hacked and users will be able to program songs into the game themselves, and soon users may be downloading these songs on peer-to-peer sites. Unless, of course, the platform is opened to third party publishers.
Rock Band and Guitar Hero are change the face of gaming and giving a much need jolt of adrenaline to the music industry– especially rock music. If everybody plays their cards right, it may be quite lucrative for everybody.
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