Activision: Labels should owe Guitar Hero, not reverse

http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/09/...sion-labe.html

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Originally Posted by Eliot van Buskirk, in story at Wired

Guitar Hero, Rock Band and other music-oriented videogames are the latest hotly contested licensing battleground for music, as executives on both sides of the equation question the deals that allow songs to be used in the games.

Last month, feisty Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr. said he'll pull Warner's music from future releases of Guitar Hero unless the game's developer, Activision/Blizzard, starts paying more to include the label's songs in the game.

Activision/Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick (pictured) fired back by telling the Wall Street Journal (which apparently doesn't like people linking to it) that record labels should feel lucky to have their wares included in the game because of its widespread promotional impact.

"When you look at the impact [the game] can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it's really significant -- so much so that you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse," said Kotick. "The bulk of our consumers will tell you they're not purchasing the products based on the songs that are included, they're purchasing based on how fun the songs are to play when they're playing them."

In other words, labels should pay developers for their music's inclusion in the games, because people want the games more than they want to play specific songs. This assertion makes sense, in a way. Anecdotal evidence indicates that songs played within the game are featured more often on mainstream radio, and at least one other label says sales of songs included in the games have skyrocketed, contradicting Bronfman's implication that these games lack promotional value.

Zach Horowitz, head of Universal Music Group, told a group of analysts earlier this month that songs included in the game regularly see their sales jump 200 to 300 percent and in one case (Weezer's "My Name Is Jonas") sales increased about 1,000 percent as a result of inclusion in Guitar Hero. If that's the case, Bronfman's claim that music game developers should pay higher licensing fees to labels rings hollow. Horowitz and Kotick make more sense than Bronfman on this issue, because -- at this point anyway -- Guitar Hero and Rock Band are promotional platforms for the sale of music.

There's just one problem with the idea of labels paying to get their songs into the games. In return, they'll surely want control over which music gets included. If that happens, gamers can expect whatever the labels are pushing at a given time shoehorned into these games rather than developers choosing songs based solely on their rockingness quotient. Such a system would probably dilute the games' promotional value while turning off gamers, which is why the deals for licensing music to these videogames should stay exactly the way they are.

Game developers and record labels have struck a balance that currently seems to be working well for both sides, which is probably why they're so desperate to mess with it. How does that saying go again? If it ain't broke, someone will break it?

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I don't think labels should pay to get their songs in the games, for the reason in the above story. However, Warner Music Group should not feel entitled to higher licensing fees. Universal Music Group's Zach Horowitz does beg to differ with WMG boss and ungrateful bastard Edgar Bronfman Jr.

Warner Music can GTFO. Let the GH team license more Universal tracks instead.

I wish Harmonix was still doing GH sometimes. :(

III is a big let-down.

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Originally Posted by YellerDog

I wish Harmonix was still doing GH sometimes. :(

III is a big let-down.

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Harmonix is working on something much better. Fuck GH. It's time has passed.

IBTN. After playing Rock Band, it's almost painful to go back to GH.

I played GH2 the most of of any of the music games, so I'm a bit fond of it.

I can count the number of times I've played Rock Band on one hand, though it's totally amazing.


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I've played it three times. I have enough digits left over to tell you to go fuck yourself.

Oh my goodness.

Chalk it up to "everyone I know sucks and I'm not buying a bunch of plastic instruments just for me".

Yellerdog is retarded when it comes to games. Why bother to play anything that comes out this generation when all you do is bitch and bitch about how great everything was yesterday.

Hm? I like Rock Band. I just never get a chance to play it. I'm just lamenting Guitar Hero sucking ass as of 3.

Shit was PRETTY GREAT yesterday, mind you. Mod box = 99% of anything I'll ever want to play. Fuck your "new games". :D

The other 1% is Rock Band and XBLA shit.

No, he's right. It does suck that GH sucks now, because RB is great but really damn inconvenient to play.

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Originally Posted by Grave

No, he's right. It does suck that GH sucks now, because RB is great but really damn inconvenient to play.

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How is GH any less inconvenient? With RB, you wanna play guitar? Play Guitar. Drums? Then play the drums. You don't have to have other people play the instruments. It plays just as good, if not better, than GH as well as having several different instruments to play and a shit ton more DL content.

I never did consider buying just RB and a guitar. That's not a bad idea, come to think of it.

it's the best idea. RB is awesome confirmed.

Also, labels smoke crack confirmed.

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Originally Posted by ElCapitan

How is GH any less inconvenient? With RB, you wanna play guitar? Play Guitar. Drums? Then play the drums. You don't have to have other people play the instruments. It plays just as good, if not better, than GH as well as having several different instruments to play and a shit ton more DL content.

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And with online World Tour, if you can get any of your lame-ass friends together you can at least all jam out through the interwebs.

GH is dead to me. RB is much better for the reasons listed above. I'm not interested in GH:WT because most of the stuff on there that I care about is already on RB2.

And boo to the greedy record companies. They're corrupt as hell and owned by the mafia anyway, so what do you expect?

RB is so much better than any other music game out there. The DLC catalog alone makes it a worthy purchase, your library is limited by (mostly) your budget.

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Originally Posted by kingoffighters

RB is so much better than any other music game out there. The DLC catalog alone makes it a worthy purchase, your library is limited by (mostly) your budget.

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And if you get the 120G HD.