Getting your music in a video game was formerly all about the publicity, but because of the amount of sales these games are bringing in these days, the labels want to get paid. It’s no longer just a vehicle for promotion. Here are some key quotes regarding royalty payments for music inclusion in those games.

The backstage deals vary. Typically, music publishers and musicians are paid advance royalties if their work is included on the original game disc. More copies of the game sold equal more royalties back to the music-makers. The same goes for revenue generated by those augmented new downloads, which are released every month.

“These games can’t exist without the music,” said Alex Hackford, Sony Computer Entertainment America’s artist and repertoire manager. “Musicians deserve these royalties. We pay what I view to be a very reasonable advance royalty. Then, the product goes out and sells and perpetuates the music and mystique of these Artists and their catalogs.”

Additionally, there’s a new play-along music game out exclusively for PlayStation 3 called “SingStar” that broadcasts Artists’ music videos as players attempt to sing along and achieve a perfect pitch. “SingStar” also takes a cue from YouTube with “SingStar Online,” which invites players to upload their performances as well as watch and rate others online.

The Associated Press: Play-along video game genre amps up music industry

—————-
Now playing: Weezer - Heart Songs
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis

DENVER (Billboard) - Games like “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero III” have proved their ability to breathe new life into classic rock sales. But can they do the same for new music?

Last month, Mötley Crüe decided to find out. The band placed its new single, the title track from “Saints of Los Angeles,” for sale as a downloadable track on “Rock Band” well in advance of the album’s release date, which has been pushed back to June 24. The only other place to obtain the track was iTunes.

According to data provided by the band’s management, Tenth Street Entertainment, the track was downloaded more than 47,000 times via the Xbox 360 version of the game alone in the first week after it became available. (”Rock Band” publisher MTV Networks was unable to independently verify these figures, and total downloads that include the PlayStation 3 version of the game were not available.)

By comparison, the same track received slightly more than 10,000 downloads via digital services like iTunes and Amazon, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

That’s a pretty big discrepancy considering that music bought via “Rock Band” can’t be transferred to a portable music player or even a computer for later enjoyment. It can be played only via the game.

FINDING THE AUDIENCE

Tenth Street CEO Allen Kovac shrugs off the gap in sales between formats, pointing out that a sale is a sale. In an age of rampant piracy, reaching fans where they are willing to spend money is the primary goal.

“We do research on every artist we have, and the research said that the people who bought Mötley Crüe music and tickets play ‘Rock Band” and video games … (so) it was our inclination to go there,” he says. “As marketers, it’s our job to find the audience. If our audience tells us they’re sitting at Xbox and PlayStation, that’s our job to do that.”

In slightly more than six months, the number of songs downloaded to the “Rock Band” game has surpassed 10 million tracks, according to MTV Networks, while song downloads from “Guitar Hero” passed 15 million, according to Activision. With more than 100 songs available for download via the “Rock Band” platform, that’s an average of 100,000 downloads per song sold through the game.

That average, though, is somewhat skewed: Since new songs are added to the “Rock Band” store weekly, tracks available for sale since November have sold more than tracks added just last week. Still, it’s an impressive figure.

By all accounts, catalog tracks sell best. Seven of the top 10 best-selling songs available on “Rock Band” are catalog titles; the other three are more recent, but still a few years old. Of all the songs available for download on “Rock Band,” more than 75 percent are catalog tracks. The rest is primarily music released within the past year. Only a handful of songs are previously unreleased new music or music from unknown acts using the game to get noticed.

TURNING THE TIDE

One such example is new metal act Black Tide. When its “Light From Above” album was released November 11, 2007, the single “Shockwave” sold only a few hundred copies per week, barely registering on Nielsen SoundScan. The week before being featured as a downloadable song on “Rock Band” on March 11, the single sold 1,000 downloads. Two weeks later, download sales doubled.

Yet sales on “Rock Band” were 10 times that of those on iTunes and other stores. In the six weeks following the “Rock Band” debut, “Shockwave” sold 6,000 digital downloads via online retailers, compared with an estimated 60,000 downloads via the game.

And “Rock Band” isn’t the only game hawking new music. Def Leppard chose to release its new single “Nine Lives” as part of a three-song bundle on “Guitar Hero III” on April 24, along with past hits “Photograph” and “Rock of Ages.”

The “Guitar Hero III” download totals are unavailable, but first-week figures from SoundScan show that it sold about 7,000 downloads. The album it was meant to promote, “Songs From the Sparkle Lounge,” sold only 55,000 physical and digital units combined in its first week.

But Tenth Street’s Kovac says “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero” sales don’t necessarily need to convert to album or digital download sales on a one-to-one basis to count as successful. Today’s generation of music fans, he says, may be interested only in buying the game version of new music, enabling an interactive experience that has been sorely lacking lately.

“The resurgence of rock has happened because of ‘Rock Band’ and ‘Guitar Hero,’” he says. “And the reason is because of the interaction with the audience. The more music marketing people look at interaction with the audience as opposed to only radio or a video, the more lasting the experience will be and the longer the artists’ career will be.”

Incidentally, Guitar Hero III Mobile has become one of the fastest selling games in mobile gaming history. It has shattered mobile game records with nearly 1 million downloads, including monthly subscriptions, across all wireless service providers. More than 250,000 songs are played every day by mobile subscribers across the U.S. The set list currently consists of 18 songs and 3 new songs are added every month.

And in case you haven’t heard, an Aerosmith version of Guitar Hero is due out at the end of this month. Metallica will be the next band to receive the full-on Guitar Hero treatment as a Metallica version of the game is due in early 2009, ending months of speculation about which band would be featured next.

Due in late October 2008, Guitar Hero IV (World Tour) will introduce massive changes to the traditionally guitar-focused series, starting with a drum set addition meant to knock Rock Band’s kit offstage and a Battle of the Bands mode which allows eight players to join online and challenge each other band-to-band to determine who is the best of the best.

Game developers Activision and Neversoft have said they will release more downloadable songs for Guitar Hero IV than they have for Guitar Hero III and plan to introduce a new music-creation tool. The new Studio Mode will let users not only freely jam over songs in the game but also create and upload their own original tracks. Using a vertically-scrolling grid, you’ll be able to record rhythm, lead, melody, bass and drums (sorry, no vocals) and create loops and effects.

Music just doesn’t get any more engaging than these incredible games - the live experience or otherwise.

Rock Acts Ringing Up Sales Via Video Games — Reuters / Billboard

Guitar Hero IV Details Revealed — IGN

Guitar Hero® III Mobile Rocks Its Way To Bestseller Status — Hands-On Mobile

—————-
Now playing: My Morning Jacket - I’m Amazed
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis

At present, the format remains a growing niche, and an interesting trend. According to shipment figures supplied by the RIAA, sales of vinyl LPs and EPs moved to 1.3 million units in 2007, up 36.6 percent from 2006 figures. That represents a dip from 1997, which featured a total of 2.7 million units.

“Right now, we’re selling about $100,000 a month worth of vinyl,” Boston indie music store Newbury Comics cofounder and chief executive Mike Dreese recently told the Boston Globe. Dreese pointed to annual gains of 20 percent over the past five years, and an 80 percent surge this year. It’s a throwback to something that’s tangible,” he says. “The CD was a tremendous sonic package, but from a graphic standpoint, it was a disaster. People still want a connection to an Artist, and vinyl connects them in a way that an erasable file doesn’t.”

Josh Bizar, sales director for musicdirect, a company that specializes in analog products ranging from new and reissued vinyl to turntables adds,

“It’s unbelievable how much vinyl’s coming out. We’re seeing this explosion of young people under 25 who never even saw an LP as a child running toward a format that was pronounced dead before they were even born. If a title has any kind of mass appeal, it’s coming out on vinyl today.”

“Owning a record album is certainly a lot cooler than owning a digital subset of zeroes and ones on a computer. And the simple act of playing an LP takes a certain single-mindedness that seems to go beyond today’s culture of multitasking. It’s not as easy as just pushing a button.”

Sales of albums and accessories like needle cartridges and record cleaners have jumped 300 percent in each of the past four years. Sales of turntables have spiked 500 percent annually during the same time span.

Indie label Merge Records founder Mac McCaughan estimates that for every 10 albums his label puts out as a digital download or CD, eight get a vinyl release. “It’s not going to come back and replace CDs or MP3s,” he says. “If you do it right and make the vinyl heavy and make the packaging nice, it’s everything that people liked about music in the first place.”

Newbury Comics: Vinyl Selling $100,000 Monthly — Digital Music News

Vinyl Goes From Throwback To Comeback — The Boston Globe

—————-
Now playing: Elbow - One Day Like This
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis

Participating touring bands will have content featured on the Denny’s microsite dennysallnighter.com including photos, bios, tour dates posted, and one streamed song.

The bulk of participating bands are developing acts, but Denny’s also brokered broader deals with high-profile bands Taking Back Sunday (Warner Bros.), Eagles of Death Metal (Rekords Rekords / Downtown), The All-American Rejects (Interscope), and Plain White T’s (Hollywood Records) — they will create Rock Star Menus consisting of a dish concocted by one of the bands.

In return, the featured band will be expected to visit three Denny’s a month, mention their Denny’s visits on their respective Web sites and post pictures of themselves at Denny’s. Every two months six new bands will be “adopted” and added to the site.

“In value driven times, we know that bands obviously need to eat. We felt good about being able to offer support and have people out there drumming up support,” said Michael Polydoroff, director of sales promotion and licensing, Denny’s. “We looked at a myriad of bands, posted on Sonicbids.com back in March and worked with Filter [Magazine] to narrow down the list. We were looking for great brands who have a huge online following and who will work hard for us.“

Denny’s Adopts Up And Coming Bands — Billboard.biz

Denny’s Late-Night Grub Suddenly Sounds Nice… — Digital Music News

—————-
Now playing: No Age - Cappo
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis

Fans can grab the album in a variety of formats, including MP3, various lossless (FLAC or Apple), or 24-bit/96-KHz WAV files (better than CD quality). Vinyl and CD versions will go on sale in July.

Not only is The Slip available for free, but it was released under the Creative Commons “attribution noncommercial share-alike” license. A note on the NIN.com site says: “We encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc.”

Additionally, Nine Inch Nails announced a unique concert pre-sale that offers registered fans the best seats, a ticket imprinted with their name, early venue access and more. Simply put, Reznor is paving the way for the next generation of musicians who control their content and thrive via a direct connection to fans.

Lefsetz chimes in on the NIN promotion, and while I agree with many of his observations, I am at odds with him saying that Reznor did it wrong by offering an entire album at once:

“As for Trent dropping another album… I wouldn’t do it this way. Maybe he sees the record as a cohesive whole. But the key in the future is a little bit on a regular basis. Because this is what fans WANT! New music, more info, they want to feed their addiction. Rather than drop a load on them infrequently, give them something they can ponder for a few days or a week, then leave them hungry for a MONTH FROM NOW!”

Although this is a very progressive idea, one that Mark Cuban offered a few months ago, this isn’t what I would’ve wanted and I don’t feel like serializing the free tracks is all that compelling. If it was done that way, I probably would’ve waited until the entire album was available before I would bother visiting the site and downloading the tracks. I really have to disagree with Lefsetz on this one.

Recently, the band Coldplay offered a free download of the new single off their forthcoming album, and although I am a casual fan of Coldplay (which is to say I bought three of their previous albums), I don’t feel compelled to retrieve their free track. Why? There’s no perception of value present for me - definitely not like there is when an entire album is offered for free.

So, I ran across this article at Hitwise Intelligence (graph above) that measures the share of US Internet visits of Radiohead vs. NIN vs. Coldplay websites. I guess you can say it measures a free album vs. a free track as suggested by the size of Radiohead’s spike (back in September ‘07) vs. Coldplay’s spike (this month). It will be interesting to see going forward if Coldplay’s website visits remain higher after the release of the single than before and also NIN - The Slip spike vs. Coldplay’s spike (as I don’t believe that is represented on the graph).

Again, I don’t believe releasing a single free track for download is substantial enough to get me to make an effort to visit an Artist’s website. Very little perception of value - even when I am a fan. Thanks Trent for the free album - definitely worth my time.

Nine Inch Nails Gives Fans The Slip | Listening Post from Wired.com

Lefsetz Letter » Blog Archive » Trent’s Album

This One’s On Me: Reznor Just Gives It Away — Digital Music News

Hitwise Intelligence: Coldplay Compared To NIN And Radiohead

—————-
Now playing: Nine Inch Nails - 1,000,000
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis

The move is being categorized as “a corporate decision to demonstrate their commitment to the independent sector in a manner we all appreciate: rather than simple lip service, they wrote a check,” by The Orchard and “a smart move by Zune at a time when concerns are being expressed over treatment of the indie community,” by IODA CEO Kevin Arnold.

Listening Post points out the move could increase pressure on MySpace Music, which was built by the indie sector, to start treating indies with the same degree of respect (read: money) that it gives to the major labels. The recent equity position offered to major labels by MySpace Music and cash advances by some new music services have led to concerns that the indie sector was not receiving its fair share.

Check out the Hypebot post for Microsoft Comments as well as full text of The Orchard letter.

Hypebot: Microsoft Sends Indie Labels Bonus Checks

Microsoft Zune Pays Bonus To Indie Labels | Listening Post from Wired.com

—————-
Now playing: Santogold - L.E.S. Artistes
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis

When a Fueled By Ramen band becomes popular, it starts to endorse the label’s other bands - often touring together.  Many of the bands were discovered by Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, and benefit from his implicit endorsement.

Label owner John Janick, is mentioned as someone who thrives on grass-roots promotion and not having any money. The label and its partners “know how to do things on the cheap.” The key quotes:

“Mr. Wentz set the pattern for Fueled by Ramen’s marketing strategy: blog often, tour hard and keep expenses down. When Mr. Janick signs bands, he tells them how hard they will work, not how rich they will become.”

“The main thing for me is making sure kids can go to one place and get everything from the artist. It’s a branding thing.”

While this might be considered a fresh and “alternative” strategy for the mainstream Rock genre, this type of endorsement has been happening for a very long time in the Hip-Hop scene. Additionally, this is something that happens everyday in music proto-markets when local bands put together gigs to play. No one ever really plays with a band they don’t like (or endorse). There is a social aspect to it - bands only want to gig with people they also want to hang out with for an evening.

An Alternative Approach To Marketing Rock Bands — New York Times

—————-
Now playing: The Hush Sound - Honey
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis

MediaFuturist: The Original David Bowie Quote On “Music Like Water”

David Bowie, 21st-Century Entrepreneur - New York Times

—————-
Now playing: David Bowie - Rebel Rebel
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis

What’s Really Keeping You From Where You Need To Be? It’s Not Piracy — Music Think Tank

—————-
Now playing: Born Ruffians - Foxes Mate For Life
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis

“In meetings with music labels here, they talk to me about releasing albums,” says Park. “They can’t accept that there’s no such thing anymore. Where I come from, CDs are nothing—they’re just souvenirs. I tell them, ‘Wake up!’”

South Korea is in many ways like America—America 40 years ago when rock was big and labels were booming. Back then, like South Korea now, the U.S. music industry was heavily focused on live performance, the release of hit singles, and the active cultivation of loyal fan bases through direct promotional activity. It’s the artist as brand: In South Korea, consumers don’t buy music; they buy a product relationship that reaches across every media platform and entertainment genre.

Biggest difference between US and South Korean markets? In South Korea, 80% of computers are linked to high speed cable. In the US, broadband penetration is only around 50%.

For Jin-Young Park, music sales are nearly a rounding error. It’s everything else that creates the success. According to a report from the Korea Times and business portal Chaebul.com, Jin-Young Park Entertainment generated $16.3 million in revenue in 2006 and $10 million in the first six months of 2007, of which music sales were the smallest part. The report estimated the company to be worth in excess of $100 million, making it the most valuable independent entertainment company in South Korea.

Music Impresario Jin-Young Park — Executive Articles — Portfolio.com

—————-
Now playing: DeVotchKa - Transliterator
via FoxyTunes

ShareThis