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The Music Industry isn’t Dead – It Just Changed Its Address

Rock Band
Image via Wikipedia

If you haven’t played Guitar Hero or Rock Band yet, you should stop reading this, and head out to invest in one of these game systems. Why? They allow a relatively talentless guy (like me) make, or pretend to make, real music.

Sure, right now the selections are mostly classic and modern rock. There’s no jazz, free jazz, classical or electronic compositions, and the instrumentation is limited. But aside from being a lot of fun, these games demonstrate the power of participation.

From the New York Times:

Both Rock Band and Guitar Hero have helped the ailing music industry by licensing songs and using online networks to sell additional tracks for gamers to play along with. Those tracks, which usually sell for around $2 each, are more profitable for record companies and musicians than iTunes sales.

MTV, which has focused more than Activision on selling additional songs online, recently announced that it had sold 15 million tracks, and sales are especially impressive for hard-rock bands. During the week in June when Motley Crue released Saints of Los Angeles,the first single from its new album, the song sold 14,000 copies on iTunes and 48,000 on Rock Band through Microsoft‘s Xbox Live network, said Allen Kovac, founder of the group’s management company and record label.

Perhaps more important, Rock Band is introducing young listeners to older bands they might not know. Mr. Kovac said that Motley Crue‘s exposure in the game helped it sell more albums because gamers spend significant time with the band’s music. “I credit Rock Band for bringing in the younger audience,” Mr. Kovac said. “The people who downloaded that song aren’tt just listening to it, they’re interacting with it.”

If this is where the music industry is heading, perhaps that’s a good thing. Now that the new or next generations of Rock Band and Guitar Hero allow gamers to compose their own music and share with others, how long will it be before bands release the unmixed tracks of their songs for these games? Players would then use their favorite artist’s songs as a basis for creating new music, and thus completely blurring the distinction between artist and listener.

Oh, and apparently the artists can make some money in the process.

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