Artists whose songs are used in Guitar Hero and Rock Band get royalties from the sales of the games, and the games have sold like insane nutty crazy. In fact, revenue from both games in 2007 surpassed that of actual musical digital download revenues, which was the largest growing sector of sales for the music industry.
In other words, more money was generated by having a hit on a video game than on iTunes. This could be the first signs of a new economic model for bands: release your music for free, and make money on the inclusion rights. In fact, I’ll be that within a year I’ll be writing to you about a band that’s using just such a strategy, if they’re not already out there.
Rock Band, Guitar Hero Sales Outperform Digital Music Sales in 2007 [Primotech[
This alleged “music for free” model is not a model. Would we ask freelance writers to research and write magazine articles, give them away for free and then hope to recoup money on some mystic CD-Rom inclusion? Of course not. If you want something for nothing that is fine, but don’t expect all artists to support the habit.
yawn… Maybe the recording industry needs to wake up and realize that noone wants to pay $1 a song. They need to lower costs for consumers to say, okay, i won’t steal this because it’s illegal and i’m only saving ___ dollars. Think about it.
My girlfriend gives away free lap dances and she makes tons of money. She is an accountant