EA’s Steve Schnur Explains The Hype Behind The Madden Soundtrack

EA seems to want to make it clear that the announcement of Madden 09’s official soundtrack is an event, and music boss Steve Schnur told Kotaku about a few more promotions to drive the point home: First, Target’s pre-order bonus for the game will be an iTunes card that lets you download ten of the soundtrack songs free. Second, an artist from the soundtrack will be playing nightly on the Jimmy Kimmel Show beginning August 4th, and third, both past and current Madden artists will play at the first-ever “Maddenpalooza,” an all-day music and gaming event in conjunction with the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on August 11th.

We were curious: why is this massive music promotion for Madden such a huge deal to EA? It seems perplexing at first to see a publisher throw so much muscle behind a soundtrack. But it turns out there’s a rather sensible motivation behind it that seems to be a win-win for EA, music artists, and for the gaming audience (or would that be a win-win-win?)

Hit the jump for Kotaku’s full interview with Schnur: