Photo: Jimmy PrescottDavid Edery, the worldwide games portfolio manager for Xbox Live Arcade, a research affiliate of the M.I.T. Comparative Media Studies Program, and author of the book Changing the Game: How Video Games Are Transforming the Future of Business, blogged here last week about video games. This is his second of two guest posts on the subject. Here’s an earlier relevant discussion about the music industry.
Can Guitar Hero Help Save the Music Industry?
By David Edery
A Guest Post
One of the most interesting developments in the video-game industry is the way that games are being used to jazz up — if not completely re-invent — other, more mature industries. There are several good examples of this phenomenon: the stuffed toy industry and the fitness industry, for example, but my focus for this guest post is the music industry.
While many people are familiar with now-ubiquitous games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero, few realize how dramatically these games have affected music consumption in the U.S.
Both Rock Band and Guitar Hero are extremely successful franchises that have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for their respective publishers. Players use controllers that resemble musical instruments (a guitar, a drum set, or a microphone) to “play” their favorite songs, which come bundled with the games or can be downloaded separately at extra cost. Think of it as the next generation of karaoke.
When Guitar Hero was first created by Harmonix (which is also the creator of Rock Band, not coincidentally), the music industry cared little for video games. How things have changed! The president of Universal Music Group claims that songs included in Guitar Hero will sell two to three times better.
Weezer’s “My Name is Jonas,” a song originally released in 1994, saw a tenfold increase in sales when included in Guitar Hero 3. More interestingly, a special version of Guitar Hero focused entirely on Aerosmith’s music resulted in more revenue for the band than any individual Aerosmith album.
I contacted MTV Networks and they were kind enough to share several interesting statistics. For example, Motley Crüe’s single “Saints of Los Angeles” premiered in the Rock Band Music Store day and date with its single release, and it sold more than five times as many units there as it did on iTunes in its first week.
Back in July, twelve of the The Who’s greatest hits were released for Rock Band, and in two weeks, fans purchased over 715,000 tracks. During the same two-week period, all twelve tracks experienced a 159 percent increase in SoundScan sales. (SoundScan measures physical CD sales, as well as digital music sales.)
And in August, Buckcherry’s new single “Rescue Me” was made available in Rock Band prior to the group’s new album release. The success of the download is credited with helping the new album Black Butterfly to debut at number eight on the Billboard Top 200.
No band, no matter how famous, has failed to take notice of this phenomenon. MTVN and the Beatles recently announced the development of an entirely new music game based solely on the Beatles’ music to be released during the 2009 holiday season. We can definitely expect more announcements of this sort in the years to come.
This is not simply a localized phenomenon. Businesses of all kinds are finding ways to use games and the principles they teach us to juice sales and re-invent moribund markets. And while not everything can be turned into a game, a great many things can be. After all, who ever really imagined that a game in which you solve math problems would become one of the great commercial success stories of the modern game industry?
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Having shredded my throat during a Rock Band session last night – and having risked RSI from playing some of those very demanding bass parts – I can testify to the game’s addictive qualities! Our rendition of Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) had to be heard to be believed…
As I understand it, the inclusion of DragonForce songs in Guitar Hero III helped their sales considerably; it seems Rock Band/Guitar Hero came along at just the right time to capitalise on a renewed interest in guitar-based music among the general public, and bands which are included get immediate exposure to a highly receptive audience, which can only be a good thing.
As a Weezer fan of many years’ standing, I’m especially pleased that their songs are getting heard by a new generation thanks to GH/RB (I also carolled along with Buddy Holly last night – what a great song).
Regarding the boost that bands experience if their music is included in games: Songs by ‘uncool’ bands such as Thin Lizzy, when included in the game, mean that fans – often teenagers – who might otherwise be put off by the band’s image, or who might not ever have heard of the group in the first place, are exposed to the music without any kind of preconception; and repeated practice sessions, to get that tricky bit at two minutes in just right, mean that they get lots of opportunities to get to know the music inside out.
Further individuation has to be the way to go, with more tracks from a wider range of artists. I’d love to see completely individual versions of the game – so you buy the game, the equipment and, say, 50 song credits, then go online to pick the 50 songs you’d like to download. Some sort of last.fm-style recommendation tool – if you like Metallica, why not try Megadeth? – could help people choose their ‘basket’ of songs.
I’d love it if more actual metal songs were available – but fear for my poor tender throat, if they are. Cookie monster vocals, if done incorrectly, are murder on the vocal cords…
Good article from USA Today on the Guitar Hero effect here:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-02-14-guitar-hero-effect_N.htm
rip jethro tull- what fun is an e-flute solo anyway?
you say no band, no matter how famous, has failed to take notice?
Led Zeppelin…?
I wish they could make something that was cool like GH or RB that would help my son with the stupid recorder they all have to learn in 4th grade (Recorder Hero?)…although I’m not sure I could take it if he practiced more than the requisite amount. Sadly, I think the only way to really make that work is to have it NOT sound like a recorder. And NOT have Hot Cross Buns on the freakin’ playlist.
I like Hot Cross Buns. I think there are several R&B songs on the subject, although they take a decidedly different angle.
I have a music studio and GH/RB has been a blessing and a curse with regard to teaching guitar.
We get kids that have decided to make the step from video game to real guitar, which is good for business…
But…
We lose the kids who realize that learning to play guitar will take longer than a weekend to master, which is how long it took to beat Guitar Hero I/II/III/World Tour.
What to do, what to do…
I love Rock Band, but the artist roster strongly reminds me of 80′s MTV — before black musicians got any play.
This was driven home to me recently when Guitar Hero III came out at Game Stop, and right next to it on the shelf was a newly released compilation cd of Aerosmith songs (or maybe it was AC/DC?). It was obvious that the ability to replay old favorites/classics was driving interest in my generation on music that everybody knew of, but nobody really listened to (regularly) anymore.