What is the Hold Up With Record Companies and Artists with Rock Band?
This is something I am CONSTANTLY thinking about. Truly, what is holding record labels from putting content out for Rock Band. The way I look at it, it is almost free marketing! Seriously, all a company has to do is allow EA/MTV/Harmonix to create the content when given the music. It is something that boggles my mind everyday.
Now, I understand there are a couple of things holding back the content:
- EA may be throttling content so that every pack gets it own time to shine- Yea, this is fair but, I would love to see more content. Has Xbox Live noticed less downloads per game since going on a(n) (almost) weekly schedule of two new games? If not, there is no reason why EA should hold back.
- The Artists do not want their content on the game- This one would boggle my mind completely. Like above, it is free advertising/marketing. I will be the first to say that I have LEGALLY purchased music from the Zune Marketplace just because I liked playing the song on a game (in most cases it was Guitar Hero songs, but that is irregardless). What about a now defunct band? Outside of band fights, this is essentially getting money for a band without even having to do anything! Now...there are some bands that think quite highly of their music and don't license it often, see Led Zeppelin. But those bands, at least I consider are few and far in between.
- The Songs don't fit the game- The benefit to Rock Band having a guitar, a bass, a drum set and a mic is that there is a lot you can do with the game. For me, I am DEFINETLY looking to pick up the drums in the next couple of weeks. Side Note: My birthday is a week from Monday...so if any one wants to send me a working Xbox 360 drum set...use the contact button up top :). Anyone continuing on, the same benefit is also its song selection downfall. You have to have all four parts to be a song. There are great instrumental songs that I would love to have on Rock Band, but without vocals, you cant render that fourth person useless. This goes for all songs that have 3/4ths of the equation.
- The Music Industry is slow, archaic and doesn't see the benefit- Being a NIN, my thoughts on the music industry may be skewed. (Thanks for the NIN Content though!). But even with that said, the music industry is slow to the new technologies and it is showing. CD sales are constantly dropping and you are finally getting your things together for the digital age. Just get with the program. Like I said, this is almost FREE MARKETING. I have an idea for the record labels:
- New band is coming out or a new album by a Band- Build Rock Band into your marketing strategy. Give Harmonix $500k-1 mil, and sell the songs at $1 for a week or two. After that raise it after that. Or, you can forgo giving Harmonix money, and just give them the ability to use the song and they sell it for $1 (which, I presume is what they get per song when sold at $1.99) for a set amount of time. After X number of downloads, you or the artist them gets a portion of what is sold. Really, if this is done, you end up MAKING money on this marketing!
I am still loving Rock Band, and am looking forward to more content, especially NIN content. It just annoys me that they are kind of slow with rolling out more content. I should also note that this really sprouts from me wanting Audioslave. They are almost PERFECT for this game.