Are Games the Future for the Music Industry?

Blake Hannon - Knight Ridder/Tribune

In many ways, the music industry is struggling to survive. CD sales are decreasing every year. Artists who used to sell more than a million copies in their first week are only managing to sell a few hundred thousand. And major labels and radio are losing their influence in music's digital revolution.

Now, major artists and up-and-comers are having to explore other options to get music out to a wider audience, and thanks to the popularity of video games, licensing music for those games is becoming a viable option for success.

If you've played a video game in the last few years, you've undoubtedly noticed that some of the most popular titles feature music that isn't just old-school blips and bleeps. You can hear Ozzy Osborne and Timbaland on "Madden NFL 09." The last few "Grand Theft Auto" video games have radio stations filled with familiar and underground artists. In addition to punk rock, you'll notice songs by Frank Sinatra and Johnny Cash in "Tony Hawk Underground 2" and tracks by Heart and Bob Dylan in "Shaun White Snowboarding."

Jason Shields, bassist for the indie rock group The Capsules out of Lawrence, Kan., says his band has licensed tracks for a free online video game called "Division: The Great Divine," and the groups's music will be featured in an upcoming video game release for XBox 360, Playstation 3 and PCs in late 2009. Shields is excited about the possibilities having his band's music in video games could create.

"We've definitely been able to expose our music to a different audience through games," Shields says. "The project we have coming out at the end of (2009) has the potential to reach millions of homes, and that's an incredible opportunity."

In the games previously mentioned, the soundtracks have not been the appeal. But in the popular "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" franchises, the music is the main attraction.

These titles, which allow gamers to play plastic instruments along with the color-coded "notes" and "chords" on the screen, have sold millions of copies, becoming video game phenomena, one that Kelly Gatts, music manager at Hastings Books, Music and Video in St. Joseph, hasn't experienced in her eight years as an employee.

"I've never seen anything like it before," she says.

The game has also meant big business for the musical artists and labels involved. But the music industry wasn't sold on it at first. When the first "Guitar Hero" title was released in 2005 for the Playstation 2, there were only around 30 covers of popular tracks and a few songs from independent artists.

What a difference a few years makes. Now, "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" titles feature dozens of original master recordings spanning five decades and numerous genres, exposing players to music of legendary artists and relative unknowns.

"I know that there is a huge push from a lot of record labels right now trying to get their bands in these games," says Bryn Bennett, video game programmer for Harmonix, the gaming company that created the original "Guitar Hero" and is now the creative force behind the games rival music title "Rock Band." "Who wouldn't want to put their song in front of millions of kids who may not have known who your music was?"

Bennett has not only seen these games' influence from the inside, he's also felt them as a member of an up-and-coming band. Bennett is part of the indie metal band Bang Camaro from Boston. The band was a Boston buzz band that had only ventured as far from home as New York to play shows. That all changed when its track "Push Push Lady Lightening" was featured on "Guitar Hero II."

"As soon as the game came out, we were able to tour nationally," Bennett says.

Since then, Bang Camaro has licensed additional tracks for "Rock Band" and "Rock Band 2." Now, you don't have to just go online or buy "Rock Band" to hear Bang Camaro anymore. You can actually catch the band on TV Jan. 6 when it performs on "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," a gig Bennett believes was possible thanks to the band's video game exposure.

"Being in the games has jumped us to a new level," he says. "All of these things have lined up for us and we really have the games to thank."

New features on "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero" games have given artists and labels more profitable possibilities. In addition to the games featured tracks, gamers can go online and download hundreds of additional songs for about $2 per song or "track packs" featuring bundles of three and six songs. According to RollingStone.com, a $2 download can earn artists around 50 cents, more of a percentage than they would fetch from iTunes and other download sites.

"It really helps us out financially in a big way," says Ralph Jaccodine, Bang Camaro's manager.

Now, the popularity of "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" are causing more established artists to come to the table to collaborate. Aerosmith lent part of its catalog out for the "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" title, which sold 567,000 copies in its first week of release, more than four times what their last album sold in its first week. Both Guns N' Roses and Motley Crue debuted new singles on "Rock Band," while AC/DC licensed an exclusive track pack sold at Walmart featuring a live performance. But the two biggest announcements came in the past few months, with confirmation that Metallica would have its own "Guitar Hero" title released in 2009 and "Rock Band" securing rights to The Beatles catalog for an upcoming game.

As artists continue to tap new ways to get their music to a massive audience, video games seem to be one of the best options the industry has.

"It's longer lasting. It's on a shelf and people get to hear it again and again and again for years and years to come," Jaccodine says. "I think video games are filling in the gap for what major labels used to do and what radio used to do."

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