Music Industry Conflicted On Guitar Hero, Rock Band 140
Wired is running a story about the friction between the music industry and music-based games, such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Despite the fact that these games are very successful and are drawing a great deal of attention to the music represented in the games, the industry is not pleased with the licensing arrangements that allow the games to use their songs. Quoting: "Putting the brakes on music gaming would hurt everyone in the ailing music industry. Instead of demanding greater profit participation, Warner should be angling for creative participation. Thirty years ago, Hollywood took a similar threat — the VCR — and turned it into a new source of revenue, building customer loyalty in the process. The music industry could use new games the same way — but its track record suggests that it won't."
Stupid (Score:5, Interesting)
That's their job, though (Score:5, Interesting)
That's their job, though. They're supposed to make the most money they can for their shareholders, not run a charity. If they think they can sell something for more money, well, they're _supposed_ to ask for more money.
Now whether they're smart about it, is a whole other question. (E.g., too often I see companies shooting themselves in the foot for millions so some department can save cents or so the CEO's shares rise 2 cents in the very short term.) Whether their means are acceptable is another good question. (E.g., the RIAA lawsuit carpet bombing) But acting as if wanting money was a by itself a capital sin is kinda missing the point.
Re:Yeah yeah yeah... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is great though, for the public. The reason is, because the RIAA is treading on *dangerously* thin ice here, and apparently they aren't aware. These games work every bit as well and are every bit as fun even if every single song is from an indie group that no one has heard of before. If they don't watch it, they might just get what they're asking for, and they're going to suddenly find the masses discovering whole new sources of indie music that can be had legitimately at a fair market price without hassle, and the RIAA will start to die sooner rather than later. I really hope they do try to push the music game developers. The only people they can possibly hurt are themselves.
Re:Yeah yeah yeah... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is true, actually. I believe the first two guitar hero games came with bonus tracks from some of the developers themselves (I couldn't reliably name names, but I think "Freezepop" was one of them) and they were just as fun to play (if not more) as the rest of the songs on the game.
I am also not satisfied (Score:5, Interesting)
The music that comes from the music industry on DDR games or Hottest Party is the boring part of the game (well, not all of them, but most). Why not eliminate these tracks and put more native JPOP stuff on it that really makes fun? I would buy the games also without the music of the people who complain here. I've already ask Konami about it before. And now I'm even a bit happy that the music industry wants more money. This will perhaps minimize the impact of them on the music style. NAOKI and others, make more music for DDR!!
Also... I haven't bought any music CDs for more than a decade, because I am very picky (I cannot really find what I need) and I don't like the greed. Some few licensed music tracks from the games (that also are sold by the music industry) are really good and I have actually considered to buy them. But I am seeing this greed again and I have enough for another decade. They cannot offer almost anything for me and complain.
And let's not forget. On DDR/HP (I don't know guitar hero and stuff like that) the licensed songs are only covers, because the originals sound poor to me.
Re:Yeah yeah yeah... (Score:5, Interesting)
Sure, and I'm not saying that's not the case. But if you think the next Rock Band and Guitar Hero games won't sell millions of copies because they didn't use any RIAA songs, you're lying to yourself. People will discover that there's damn good music out there that's not from the RIAA, and that's a genie that is impossible to stuff back into the bottle. Plenty of school kids will buy and play the games regardless of where the music comes from, and word-of-mouth will do the rest.
Re:Can we get rid of the music "industry" soon? (Score:4, Interesting)
To my mind, the base of the problem with the recording industry is that the labels are seen as some kind of conferrer of magical "blessed" status -- that if you work really hard, maybe some label will come and "sign you": sweep you off your feet to a wondrous world of superstardom, like you're Cinderella or something (not the band).
They should be thought of (and hired as) service providers: consulting, recording, reproduction, distribution, marketing. These are services they should simply charge set rates for to anyone who wants them and forget about controlling artists or enforcing (or holding) copyright. They (and we) would have a lot fewer headaches this way, I'm sure.
Re:So why allow your music to be in the game? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Yeah yeah yeah... (Score:1, Interesting)
There are a bunch of Harmonix bands" [wikipedia.org] that feature in the first two Guitar Hero games and Rock Band with some great songs, I picked up an album from Honest Bob And The Factory-To-Dealer Incentives off the back of "Hey" in Guitar Hero.
You've got to have a balance, though. I didn't get Guitar Hero to press coloured buttons in time to songs I'd never heard of, I got it to play Smoke on the Water and Crossroads to a screaming crowd (yes, I'm perfectly aware this is a delusional fantasy; no, I don't care that it's not playing a real guitar and chicks aren't impressed). The beauty of the system was the way it interspersed those songs with others, introducing the player to new stuff from both established bands they hadn't listened to before and the indie bands of the bonus tracks (oblig. xkcd [xkcd.com]).
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Stupid (Score:3, Interesting)
Over the objections of its tech-savvy students, the morons leading Houston's School of Communication actually renamed their college after that technophobe.
http://www.class.uh.edu/comm/
http://www.class.uh.edu/comm/pages/files/Jack%20Valenti%20media%20hits%20summary.pdf
It makes me exceptionally embarassed to be one of their graduates. Here I am trying to work to make the world BETTER for copyrighted works, and there they are enshrining someone whose entire point of view was "fuck the consumer."
Re:Can we get rid of the music "industry" soon? (Score:3, Interesting)
I was thinking the same thing. Why is it the "Music Industries" music, not the song writer's or artist's music?
For bonus points, did anyone watch the Academy Awards this year? Generally they trot out that that piracy takes food off of tables or that Hollywood produced film keeps the tired, depressed masses from putting a bullet in their collective heads. This year it was that movies are produced by professionals. Even though it wasn't stated explicitly, it seemed to imply that non-cartel produced material was somehow dangerous. Creepy direction to go; public health fear mongering I mean. I'm just waiting to hear that it is the cartels who keep backwards masking our or properly controlled so that little Jimmy doesn't get addicted to meth.
Re:Stupid (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:The music industry (Score:2, Interesting)
I've always gotten the feeling that the music industry is pissed because they can't strongarm the market price for their commodity anymore. Until the rise of file-sharing, they had a much greater hold on the channels of distribution of their goods, which gave them the ability to artificially inflate the price. There were always people copying songs from the radio, or dubbing from one tape to another, but the loss in quality (and the processes involved) made it more attractive to just buy the music from dealers.
Once CDs became a more mainstream method of music distribution, the quality loss pretty much dropped out of the equation, and the relentless march of technology reduced the complexity of the process and lowered the cost of the necessary hardware, thereby lowering the bar for and increasing the attractiveness of copying music.
Hindsight, being 20/20, paints a fairly clear picture of the way the market adapts to artificially restrictive conditions. In this case, it took several decades, but that isn't always the case.
feldicus
Re:Yeah yeah yeah... (Score:2, Interesting)
Granted I'm not a school kid. But I have disposable income, and I didn't buy Rock Band or Guitar Hero for a big market band.
In fact, I got my mom (who will be 60 this year) into Buckethead by getting her to play Jorden on Guitar Hero II.
The majority of these games are not purchased by school age kids, even if they are FOR school age kids. You know you'd steal the Wii from your kid to play Rock Band. And after you're hooked, you'll buy the next one even if your kid doesn't ask you for it.
Re:Stupid (Score:2, Interesting)
The next music distribution platform?? (Score:0, Interesting)
Yes, exactly! (posting anon because I just modded you up)
I only recently got into the Guitar Hero scene (V-day gift for the wife; we've been having a blast!). I can already see the enormous potential this has for the music industry - if the industry chooses to unleash that potential. They've already benefitted from my having bought the game in multiple ways:
Ideally, I'd like to see GH and RB become a generic iTunes-like platform for distribution of music - with extra value added that it's interactive for playing along. This could be a huge long-term cash cow for the music industry if they don't get too greedy and choke it off before it gets going.
Unfortunately, this dream will probably never happen. Roadblocks I see include:
So I'm not holding my breath. But just think how cool it would be to have a play-along music store with its catalog a significant fraction of what iTunes or Amazon has. How cool would that be? It's a nice dream, anyway.