Music, Video-game Industries Continue to Harmonize
Now that selling song downloads through video games has achieved liftoff, the business appears poised to rocket into orbit.
In 2008, “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” users downloaded more than 50 million tracks from the games. Game-linked song downloads are expected to surge in the coming year as the music-simulation games continue to extend their reach in the marketplace and, more important, other games allow users to buy and download songs as well.
“What comes with the success of ‘Rock Band’ and ‘Guitar Hero’ is the microscopic view of what the potential of music in this medium can be,” said Steve Schnur, worldwide executive of music and marketing for “Rock Band” distributor Electronic Arts.
“There are other titles that continue to be not just successful, but outsell these games by wide margins,” Schnur said. “So the question isn’t, What’s the next ‘Rock Band’? The question is, When can we take the model of a 24/7, day-by-day musical relationship with not only music games, but with every game? I believe this is the year that’s going to happen.”
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