So they want the companies to go back to recording their own covers of the songs and in essence receive a whooppe-doop zero instead of whatever non-zero sums they are receiving atm?

Wahrheit

If there was a way you could Download tunes for RB or GH illegally, everyone one and their blow-dryer headphone wearing mom would be doing it.

so just be happy with what you've got music industry.

mr30gZune

Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. said in an earnings call today that his horribly broken industry doesn't know how to stop losing money, so he's going to desperately squeeze the gaming industry until they get fed up and start signing Warner's acts away from them, gradually eliminating whatever vestigial purpose the traditional music business might still have left.

Campion of Drymouth

@stryker1800: simply put* my grammar is not so great.

stryker1800

@superapplekid: well other then the fact that as far as i know vinyls are generally more expensive, the cds are so expensive because the label is simply putting taking all the profit from them. bands like nile make money on touring not their cds. and dethklok being the best selling album has a lot to do with its publicity how many real bands get that kind of tv time even that late at night, and most people just bought it cuz they thought the show as funny.

stryker1800

"I'm looking for pound notes, loose change, bad cheques - anything!
Gimme some monaaaayyy."

:-)

prawnmatic

@superapplekid: *fine, typo

superapplekid

@Guild_Navigator: Yeah, I was thinking exactly the same thing. Warner can go eat a dick.

@stryker1800: What's sick about this is that Warner probably gets no bigger a cut of the cost of GH/RB tracks than the artist themselves. That's only bad news if you're in an industry that has overcharged its customers for decades and has gotten used to profits far in excess of what is deserved.

Just to put it in perspective: Warner's profit this year was $51 million. It's not like they're losing money.

But, as GH1 showed us, covers work just fine. So if they do decide to play hardball, developers will just go back to recording their own versions of hit songs.

freakout

@stryker1800: I was going to comment on the lack of punctuation (and did, HA!) but the last part got to me, because my friend just paid $20 for the new Nile record on vinyl. I don't like that there stuff could be so expensive, yet they'd see very little profit. Then again, its death metal, and you're talking about an industry where the best selling record of all time is by dethklok, a fake band.

@Spoiler Duck: Keep in mind they licensed the songs in the first place. They already made the deals, they're just changing it now because they didn't think it would do as well. That being said, it's find if they demand more money for future deals if the market grows so long as it doesn't interfere with Harmonix still making a profit enough to want to put out more games/DLC

superapplekid

Who's surprised? As long as the game industry actively involves the likes of the greedy music and movie companies, so will they have to deal with their money-grubbing ways (and that means we will, too). The glamorization of the gaming industry suddenly doesn't seem so hot (although it never did to me).

burpingcat

@Demonbird:
Balready? How did I do that?

Demonbird

Aw the giant mega corporation isn't making enough millions. TFB.

Emperor_Guam

If they balready had a deal in place to license those songs well then tough cookies. they will just have to try strong arming Activision and Harmonix when they go to put a new game together.

Executive 1: What's that I smell?
Executive 2: That would be success and profits sir.
Executive 1: Ah, I love it!
Executive 2: Uh, it's not ours...
Executive 1: It will be, number 2, it will be...

Demonbird

Another example of why the music industry giants are dying.

Grocerspride

wah wah fucking wah

gadjet

@Struct09: itunes overall all probably makes them more money though, seeing as how it has a much broader library than rockband and guitar hero

stryker1800

@knifey-spoonie: ditto

Joebob-X

According to this [www.rollingstone.com] they already get around 50 cents per song, which is more than they get from iTunes.

Struct09

@Spoiler Duck: I think the point is that regardless of the royalties they're getting now, it's actually been seen that bands who appear in rock band and guitar hero have seen significant sales increases for their albums. Now Warner is biting the hand that's feeding them new life.

Joebob-X

@Spoiler Duck: if the money was going to the artists and not the company, i wouldnt mind so much. but you know WB is just doing this so they can make more money and not pay anything to the people who actually make the music.

knifey-spoonie

Of course they do. CD sales are in the tank and only picked up by folks who still like having a real copy or the maybe 2 million folks who don't know how to use Pirate's Bay yet.

And of course, the slipping stocks, profit and sales has them ready to not only kill the goose that lays the golden egg but disembowel it because those eggs it's getting now just aren't big enough, oh no.

Does Warner really want to play chicken and possibly open folks up even more to the indie music scene and artists who won't demand a arm and a leg for use of their tracks? Is this really in the best interest of the artists who are likely seeing more fans and more money from folks who love GH and RB?

I'd say not, but hey, Warner knows best.

Foxstar Sixtail

I wonder if THIS is why everyone hates the recording industry?

Magic 8 Ball, what do you say? *shake* *shake*

"ALL SIGNS POINT TO 'YES'."

Mansteak

@Guild_Navigator: i was so hungry too

invictus13

greedy cunt

noliferuin (PSN+XBL)

Well done to everyone who has the psychic ability to state Warner is in the wrong without knowing the numbers of the situation!

Spoiler Duck

they dont need more money, the bands i listen to are lucky if they get 5% of all profit from one cd, that is fucking rediculous so i have much respect for bands like radiohead although i dont like their music but they put the music out themselves ensuring they get all the profit. and mind you the bands i listen are metal so dont give me that they are doing well for themselves, for anyone who knows the band nile their lead singer lives in an apartment about 5 ten minutes from my house and in no way is doing any better then myself. the simple fact is that most musicians who sign on with a major record label or even a smaller but still corporate owned label get screwed in the end.

stryker1800

Wow. They have a problem with EVERYTHING. They're NEVER satisfied. I wish for Warner Bros. to have a slow, painful death in it industry.

bakalhau

Someone finally makes a new market where people will actually buy your music instead of stealing it and you come into their house and take a big dump on their dinner table. Real classy WB.

Guild_Navigator

Awesome Spinal Tap picture.

"Stop wastin' my time
You know what I want
You know what I need
Or maybe you don't

Do I have to come right flat out and tell you everything?
Gimme some money, gimme some money"

If we had some solid numbers that they pay per license, that would allow the public to feel something about this more than "meh".

Jypsy

Oh, you poor music industry! You must be so upset now that you're going out of business because you don't make any mone-Oh, wait, no.

Aye Mak Sicur

What would this "true value" entail? That the recording industry (excluding the artists, of course) takes 99% of the profits?

SmilingPolitely

epic pic... gimma soooome monnney

jaws3people0

R.I.P. Stumpy Peeps

xot

So wait...all of those studies that have linked GH/RB to increased album purchases isn't enough?

TRT-X

Record company wants more money.

In other news, sky is blue, grass is green, and Pope is Catholic.

Johnny_Under

Usually, when bored, I pick the post that is in favour of the record companies and prove it wrong, because it's so easy yet satisfying.

I haven't found a post in favour of the record companies...

lumpi

Spoiler: WB read about Exxon profits, had a meeting where they discussed how they can get to that point.

thefremen

This is such dangerous territory and treading on thin ice to have an entirely new generation of fans do a 180 and not give two shits about your artists when there's plenty of other bands (mainstream, indie, and others) willing to take those spots in rhythm games.

I pray that Warner goes through with this and Edgar Bronfman Jr. learns a valuable lesson about pissing off their fanbase.

Okay...pissing them off further.

Genocyde

They also wanted more money from iTunes, something to the tune of 70 cents per song? The music industry is composed of the greediest assholes on the planet. They wanted more money so they charged more for albums-bad albums-and people went to the internet to get it for free. When they conceded to legal internet downloading where people could get the music they actually wanted, a la carte for reasonable prices, the music industry decided they wanted a bigger cut. And now that we've finally got a marketing model in Rock Band where songs are never more expensive than $2-the same price, I should add, for a full episode or feature video on iTunes or Xbox Live-the music industry wants even more proceeds, which would raise the entire cost price and put us right back to the bullshit prices that came along with Guitar Hero's DLC...wasn't it like $5 for 3 songs or something?

TheHeartless

Sounds like someone got ahold of the 360 DLC sales figures.

Also, the whole "we will not license to those games" threat is just that. A threat. They wouldn't possibly be that stupid. Sure, they're dumb enough to think anyone would actually believe their blatant bluff tactics, but they can't be so dense as to think it would actually benefit them to remove a major source of advertising such as music games. Because 15 Timmy down the block sure as hell isn't listening to Rush because he saw them on TV.

Then again, they say the same bullshit about radio play, which the damn record industry wouldn't even exist without.

justhesh

Hope it's not considered spamming to repost a comment you made months ago, because I need to.... feel free to scroll your wheel a few times if you don't like long-winded rubbish.

My premise: Warner would be very, very stupid to do anything that might get them locked out of rhythm games. Like, say, demanding a bigger take of the profits. Why? This is why.

The old-school music industry is dying. Everyone knows it; the artists, the executives, the fans. Most of them believe it's piracy that's killing the music industry - or at least, that's what they spout in public. That's not the whole truth, though; piracy has been an issue for the music industry since the invention of the tape recorder. No, what's killing the music industry is the endless diet of manufactured pop tripe they've been feeding people for the last decade or so. By selling music that is (in the majority) unoriginal, over-produced, repetetive meh that is forgotten five seconds after it's heard, the music industry has lead many of it's best customers - youth - to simply disengage from it. Music? That's what you put on in the background, for the sake of some white noise. There's almost no emotional impact anymore.

In today's high-tech world, there's just too many other, more interesting things to do than listen to bland music. For awhile now, it's looked like music's death at the hands of terminal boredom was inevitable.

And then along came Guitar Hero.

Guitar Hero (along with Rock Band and all the endless spinoffs and ripoffs that its success will inspire) are the music industry's salvation. While many snooty, arrogant folks pompously declare it's nothing like a real instrument, most of us who've played the game know that the distinction is not that simple. You may only be pressing stupid coloured buttons, but when you get good at Guitar Hero you feel a primal, instinctive connection with the music that goes way beyond just passively listening to it; it lets you look through a tiny window at what it feels like to make music.

The benefits of this to the music industry are twofold; one, it's undoubtedly going to inspire many, many kids to go out and try their luck with a real guitar. Of course many will be failures, but there's also going to be lots who really do well. In short it's going to inspire a brand-new generation of people to try their hand as musicians, when such a thought may never even have crossed their mind before Guitar Hero.

Two, it forces its audience to engage with the music. If you're not losing yourself in the song and the rhythm, you won't beat it and you can't hear it. Like music? You have to work for it in Guitar Hero. You have to think about it: seperate all the various bits and pieces of the band and focus on your particular part only. And when you can do that, you suddenly can appreciate those songs you hear on the radio on a whole new level: you can understand how each bit contributes to the whole in a way you probably didn't before.

Guitar Hero will be the salvation of the music industry because it's going to re-popularise the idea of music as entertainment for its own sake, not just as background white noise. Indeed, it already has; the popularity of the game has grown with each new release, from cult to mainstream in only a couple of years. Nearly everyone I know now has played Guitar Hero at least once, or at least heard about it, even those who pay no attention to video games at all. It's a fixture at parties nowadays; for some it's the reason to even have a party. And once music has again taken its rightful place as proper entertainment, you'll see a recovery in sales, both digital and physical.

In short: rhythm games are possibly one of the most powerful avenues for introducing people to new music that the industy has ever seen. Warner should be very, very wary of shooting themselves in the foot here. Making money from the game doesn't matter so much as people enjoying your music in it so much they go on to buy albums, and merchandise, and tickets to your live shows. That's where the money is to be made out of this.

Careful, Warner.

freakout

@superapplekid: and both of your points are sad facts, nile are cool guys they deserve every bit of the money from those cds, i know for a fact that karl pours alot of work into it, not only writting the music and lyrics but also in improving his own skills, he takes lessons at the same place as me whenever hes in town. him and most "underground" lets say bands deserve way more then what they get.

stryker1800

*Sigh* Honestly, between this and pushing DRM, the industry is seeming more out of touch then ever.

trogam

Warner needs more money like we need higher gas prices.

ChaoticInfinityX

@Wahrheit: while i dont play either rock band or guitar hero(i prefer the real instruments) i imagine that for the well trained ear the real song would be much better than a cover especially if companies cut corners not getting good enough players to do the covers. i for one when i played the first guitar hero absolutely hated the pantera songs because it was the actually artist and i could hear it in every aspect of the song.

stryker1800

@stryker1800: Vinyl, I'm sure, is more expensive to make, but certainly not enough to justify the price. I was getting at the fact that they didn't lower the price of it because they were less known, but would rather get as much out of it as possible, yet the band still doesn't do so well. In fact, most vinyl sells for the price of the CD (highly variable depending on where you shop though).

I understand dethklok is a different beast than a lot of real metal acts, so it's not an actual arguement - just a sad, sad fact.

superapplekid

Here's a little accountancy nerdwerks: WMG puts it's video game revenue in a category called "Synchronization" which also includes movies, TV shows, and commercials. In their 3rd quarter 2008 10-Q filed on today, they claimed revenue of $67 million for the previous 9 months.

Activision paid $86 million in Intellectual Property licenses in the 9 months prior to their last 10-Q in Feb. of this year.

White Speed Receiver

let them take their songs. let them bury themselves

tralfaz23

This is just classic music business. If it were up to them, they'd abolish the internet and video games and go back to selling vinyl records and ass-raping artists.

I knew it was just a matter of time before they started getting greedy and resisting what is one of the most lucrative ways of making money left for the music industry.

There's always a music industry backlash against every new medium. They blame the new medium for falling sales and resist until it's impossible to resist any longer. For a business that's supposed to be on the pulse of the American public, they're surprisingly backwards about how they do business.

DarthAthema

Great. So they're bored with suing their customers for hundreds of thousands of dollars, pocketing the wins, then spitting on their artists.
Now they want to apply the same winning business model, only substituting tech companies for consumers.

Now I know how the tiny mammal rodents felt watching the dinosaurs whithering and dying before my eyes.

And it feels really good.

Trai_Dep

+ Watch video

DiscipleofJamzy

@Dalren: either your in favor of the music industry or you messed up that statement.

stryker1800

I hope Rock Band/GH give it to them. Less music = bad.

Dalren

My bet is that they don't want more per song, but they want a portion of the game sales. They get a portion of every Zune sold. They have said they want the same from Apple.

eggfou

To Celebrate that statement, I'm gonna download me some entire Discography of WB artits.

Distribution shouldn't own the rights.

Arthois

Look motherfucker, you can either have some money, or you can have none at all. It wouldn't pain me more to bury you rich than to bury you poor.

Intellectualdiot

I don't get it. You're all obviously ok with paying $2 a song. How are you upset that the songs' owners want more than 25% of that? Instead, shouldn't everyone be complaining about how much MTV/EA are taking for themselves?

damncrackmonkey

This is completely flabbergasting.

Record companies, STOP BEING DICKS

thefais

Mmmm, sweet delicious capitalism. Yes, savoury! Oh? Get more juice out of Beetles even though it's already at a fair price? MMMMMM! Yes! Yes! YES! YES! OH GOD, YES!

...I won't have what they're having.

Mister_CrazyGuy

@Daizaru1: I'll still buy it. There will just be less people buying ALL the DLC, which I think is silly anyway. You should only really buy what you REALLY like.

Dalren

DLC prices skyrocket, suddenly nobody buys any DLC. It's already more expensive than iTunes and lacks the portability. Their greed will kill these games.

Daizaru1

Boo-frickin'-hoo! So instead of wringing 6 billion out of a public that is more than wise to their bullshit,Warner will ONLY make 5.9 billion... Maybe they should get into the oil business?

rameses2

Greedy POS suits...

ihateeverything

Mo' money mo' problems.

HoxtonHero

@trogam: That is why i can only dream about another band like Led Zeppelin :(

Mike918

leave it up to the RIAA to shoot itself and bite the hand that feeds it at the same time.

y2julio

If they're not careful, Activision and Harmonix will start publishing the music themselves. That would be a nice lump in their tea.

psychobaka

I've purchased CDs I never would have considered before Guitar Hero/Rock Band. I think they should be happy that someone's playing the good guy here.

psychobaka

Oh, and to show where this is going, a quick listing of WMG tracks from the current Rock Band DLC credits:

* Serj Tankian
* Grateful Dead
* Stone Temple Pilots
* Ramones
* B-52's
* Faith No More
* Hives
* Metallica
* Red Hot Chili Peppers
* Disturbed
* Muse
* Paramore
* possibly Radiohead, in as much as it mentions Warner Chappell (related?)

Note that that's only DLC from one game.

Jazhuis

@y2julio: How appropriate that it be a NIN song title.

justhesh

My favorite part?

He called for greater industry participation, threating "we will not license to those games" if higher royalties don't fall in line with the "true value" of the game's music.

Did the CEO of Warner just flat-out call for price-fixing within the industry?!

Jazhuis

I'm a little nervous here, as I think they're wanting higher prices for the songs. Bad idea. No one's going to pay $3 a song. That's lame. I can get albums for the $3-$6 range.

Narsil

Wow - there's a surprise - Warner Music wants more money? Of the big four record distributors, Warner are probably the greediest.

As has been mentioned time and again, they are but 1 out of the four major record conglomerates, sure it would be nice to Metallica and RHCP in the games, but if WMG wants too much money, I don't think people would notice if Universal, SonyBMG or EMI picked up the slack and added even more of their catalogue to the mix.

CanadianGrizzly

@freakout:
Well put. I've said this same thing on occasion. This is the first time since music was sold as a recording rather than as sheet music that a majority of people have been forced to single out a particular portion of a song and made to appreciate the REAL effort it takes to create it. It's a like a delicate balance between sheet music and radio play. You're not quite playing it but you're paying enough attention to feel more of a kinship with the talent who did create it. That's really a beautiful thing. It pushed me to start taking drum lessons too (something I always considered but was never convinced to attempt until Rock Band.)

Mommar

@DarthAthema: What do you mean "go back to" ass-raping artists?

badasscat

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was getting paid to advertise his product.

lonkley

@Guild_Navigator:
Oh but sir he runs a music company that should have nothing to do with the artists music being in the game in the first place! Of course he deserves gratuitous amounts of money that he in no way earned!

GreyFoxV1

I dont' know what they crying about...not like warner invented the game. I hate guitar hero and rock band...but they deserve the success. Music is music...music game is different. They happen to put 2 together and make it successful. If warner wants, they can make their own music game...you know...with pianos instead of drums and guitar.

karateka

@Jazhuis: I was going to ask for a list like that. Honestly, I can't say I'd really miss any of their tunes if they decided to not license any more. Good riddance, IMO.

0x15e

Sigh, after I read about the first few poor college kids who were fined tens of thousands of dollars (all the while more than likely also racking up tens of thousands of dollars in student loans), I stopped buying CDs. Now if I want to listen to music, I have Rhapsody and a Roku so I can pretty much stream anything I am interested in all throughout my house and still give the artists a little money. The RIAA really looks like it is doing its best to implode faster than Enron.

negativexer0

and they wonder why we steal music.

MisterMcThursday

@freakout: You just wrote what I feel about the music industry. Your response was great, I'm now a follower and you get my nomination for comment of the week, even though it may have been from an older comment.

kylo4

@zoesch: Replace R&D with A&R, I'm a dumbass at writing long posts :P

zoesch

Hard to makea call on this without knowing the royalities being paid out. However, Activision madea fucking lot of money last year with GH3, so I'm inclined to agree they may be getting a little more money out of these licenses than the people that actually own the songs. Plastic guitars and a recycled rhythem game don't cost that much to make.

KirbyMorph

Incoming wall of text post:

I work in the music industry, been doing so since the mid 90's as an artist, engineer and producer. I work only with small bands (I have other things that pay the bills full time) that I enjoy regardless of style.

I have also been a gamer since the 70's.

So I've never understood why gamers think it's horrible that people pirate games but find it OK to pirate movies or music. In fact, they act as if people are stupid for buying CD's (Hey, some CD art are so awesome it deserves to be held in your hands, The Ocean's Precambrian... I'm looking at you)

They also act as if all bands are major label artists swimming in pools of money, blow, hookers and champagne.

The reality is, most musicians struggle to pay the bills due to declining sales and increased costs, the whole industry has been in a major cost cutting mood since 2002, studio hour prices going down, equipment manufacturers going out of business due to cost issues, bands dropped because with declining sales they couldn't meet contractual terms and so on.

Couple that with the "Music should be free" mentality and you can start seeing the doom and gloom most of us live with daily.

Touring used to be a good source of income, guess what? Most of the income came from CD and merchandise sales at the gigs, now gigs are bringing in less people than ever and those who go aren't interested in buying merch anymore due to the state of the economy.

The industry has reasons to be concerned... that said...

As I mentioned earlier, I work mostly with indie/unsigned hardcore, punk, metal, industrial and prog bands (And some signed ones too) and in those genres the industry isn't doing that bad, dedicated fans, album leaks used for promotion and not as a substitute for the real record, small but packed gigs and fans who want and love to buy merch...

I'm the kind of person who thinks music games are a godsend for the industry, but the whole thing has been mismanaged to the point where if something isn't done right now you'll find less and less music on your music games.

Have you ever wondered why they pick so many covers? It's because when you play a cover you only have to pay songwriting royalties to the original composer and not mechanical rights to the original recording, that means an extra 10-20c per track that goes to the developer's pocket without doing anything and 10-20c less to the artist who created the recording in the first place (Including producers and engineers who have a points agreement for royalties).

It is a royal rip-off, and most people seem very happy about it since they're not that aware of the situation.

Then you have a problem with gamers automatically hating on any artist that's not their favorite appearing on a music game, how many people complained about The Haunted or At The Gates appearing in Rock Band? How many people said it was "gay" to see Colplay featured in Guitar Hero? (I don't like Coldplay for the record)... I could go on, but you get my point.

And the cherry on the cake? Neither Harmonix or Red Octane have actual R&D people on their roster so the music selection is smaller and seemingly random.

In conclusion, music games could be a great way to keep the industry alive... if they are managed right.

zoesch

@damncrackmonkey: That 25% is more than they're getting from Itunes, where their product IS the entire product. Are they the ones converting the songs into usable rhythm game content? Are they the ones charting each part of each song for multiple difficulties to make them as accurate and fun as possible? Are they the ones running the servers to provide the content to the customer? The answer you're looking for is no. They do the same amount of work and provide the same content (except technically less, since you can't take DLC with you portably), yet they're getting more per song than from the most popular digital music service there is. In short, yeah, MTV / EA / Harmonix deserve the large portion of the money made off downloaded songs since they're the ones doing all of the work to make it playable.

NinjaMarion

Fuck the Warners.

They've screwed over so many bands, including my favorite, Wilco. For that matter, the entire record industry has fucked with my three of my top 5 bands, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, and Wilco.

HotFootMcCook

"Our initial reaction to Bronfman's kvetching is that the music industry should be careful not to shoot itself in the foot..."

You're kidding me;

The music industry still had an actual foot left to shoot at?

I had no idea.

wonder6oy

@Spoiler Duck: This is due to the fact that the music industry as a whole is now utterly despised by this generation. They have been so utterly "evil" for lack of a better word that they have evaporated any good will they once had.

Valhawk

@wonder6oy: It's not their foot, technically. They've taken so many arms and legs over the years from their artists, they've got a surplus of parts.

justhesh

@Valhawk: The funny thing is, they really have done nothing wrong either. Blame pirates for their "evil".

Dalren

I don't even know what all bands are on Warner, but I hope if it's just that one company, Harmonix and Neversoft tell them to F*** off instead of caving in. Bands benefit from being in Rock Band and Guitar Hero as consumers get exposed to new music.
If they give in, this means higher DLC prices or fewer songs on the game disc, no way MTV and Activision let their profit margin shrink when they can just pass off the extra cost to us consumers.

XbhaskarX

Maybe Warner should've come up with their own game five or ten years ago... Getting paid for the innovation of others sure must be a bitch.

cio

@justhesh: I doubt their shareholders would ever let them consider going through with such a threat, as I can only imagine the only two places you're going to see any real growth of revenue is from online stores such as iTunes, Rhapsody, and their ilk, and video gaming, two exploitable sources that are constantly gaining more steam. Now, perhaps they could do the smarter thing and push to get more of their product into gaming instead of charging more, but... smart isn't always what I'd ask for from a huge corporation, as I don't like wasting my precious wishes.

Ampillion, Dayman. Fighter of the Nightman.

I would also like to note this is not a rare event. Anytime you are very successful using someone else's property there is often a re-negotiation of fees. For example, in commercial real-estate your lease will have a base rent and additional rate based on total sales. This sucks if your store is doing really well because you have to pay more rent as well, however, you will be making more money regardless so you wind up stuck profiting less, but still profiting.

Activision and Harmonix are stuck with a decent product that can only be improved with new music. This means they have to pay what ever they can for popular songs. Unless they realize the power they have as a new media format and start really pushing user generated content they will stay stuck.

Uglyshoe

seems dumb on the music industry's part. Cause according to them nobody buys cd's anymore its all pirated, so this is pretty much a surefire way to have people actually pay for music. but that's the RIAA for you...fucking retarded and never looking at the big picture. Im sure they want something absolutely ridiculous too. Oh and the fact that they're going about it as if they're going to fucking war. personally i think the record industry itself should get NOTHING and it should go to the artists and people who actually make the music possible...a jackassin an office is not one of those people.

demonknightinuyasha

Y'know, the money isn't solely profited to the game industry. Its shared with the artists and producers too, of course. Don't be greedy.

King Seafoam

You would think labels would be excited to find a way to introduce young kids to their back catalog. They have no other way to catch that market.

I would just like to see them raise the costs, forcing the game developers to cut corners on coding. Nothing makes a song unlistenable quicker then a bad rhythm game.

Uglyshoe

They said the same thing a few years ago about $.99 tracks on itunes. Look how far that got.

iameleveneight

@demonknightinuyasha:
It's Warner saying this, not the Recording Industry Artists of America.

Mommar

This is an interesting perspective really, but it certainly smacks of "Oh shit! We didn't know this was going to be so successful, now we want a bigger cut of something we really had no hand in creating!" I definitely agree that the music labels are indispensable to RB/GH, and the holders of the rights to the music should get a fair share, but I wonder if they ask Chevy for bigger royalties when they sell cars based on ads featuring John Mellencamp or Aerosmith.

MSUSteve

kinda lame I'm not playing Bat Country right now because WB probablly wanted too much money for it so Rockband had to go with Afterlife or Afterglow or whatever the hell that lame-ass A7X song is. Lets not forget all the coverbands in these games because the music industry wants a butt load of cash for the master tracks, let alone the popular songs.

moderndarkelf

Warner is really playing with fire here. Music games have been shown to increase the sale of CDs as people get interested in music they were never interested in before. All they have to do is make an Indie Rock version of one of these games. I am sure most of the Indie labels/bands would kill for a chance to be featured in a game like this and be willing to do it practically free for the exposure. Then millions of people are exposed to the world on Indie labels and music.

Warskull

@SmilingPolitely:
even if they had 99% of the profit , sooner or later they will ask for 100% , i think they lost so much money with their sucky music since everyone download song from p2p, they now see a possible gold mine with games like rockband and guitar hero

DethKl0k666

That's Bronfman for you. He said similar things about wanting a bigger piece of the iPod's "revenue stream" a year or so ago:

[apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com]

Mightion

He can talk all he wants but if the dlc tracks start costing more.. or my favorite games Rock Band and Guitar Hero start losing songs because of this.. I'm going to say FUCK YOU IN THE A SIR

JustOneFix

"He painted a gloomy picture of being fiscally left behind while rhythm games profited from in-game tracks and downloads, pointing to MTV and Apple as having built successful business off of licensing."

This is what happens when others try to build successful businesses off of changing technology while you just sue every one hoping nothing will change.

vellocet

This is rediculous and the kind of attitude that swings around and stabs them in the eye later on, which they will blame on something/someone else rather than see the connection. Personally i have spent more money on rockband DLC than i have spent on CDs and legal internet downloads combined. Plus Rockband has introduced me to music that i wouldnt normally have considered listening to or otherwise been exposed to which may well turn into other sales of those titles in the future.

Its a bit like good retail customer service, sometimes advising someone not to buy a particular product from your store earns you a repeat customer for life.

Crankyhobo

A music executive's office....you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.

The sad thing is likely a good chunk of change is already NOT going to the artists anyway, and good ol' WB wants that money to fill some 23 year old exec's bank account and not the artists that made the music.

Mal-Content