Guitar Hero: Label Says Show Me the Money

Gaming has come along way since the familiar grey console that featured a pixilated Mario and Luigi. Guitar Hero and Rock Band have become a staple pass-time for frat house parties and office get-togethers alike. With high demand for music that rocks, licensing for video games has label representatives ready to jump in the ring.

Gaming has come along way since the familiar grey console that featured a pixilated Mario and Luigi. Guitar Hero and Rock Band have become a staple pass-time for frat house parties and office get-togethers alike. With high demand for music that rocks, licensing for video games has label representatives ready to jump in the ring.

Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman is frustrated with past licensing deals for Guitar Hero. Bronfman says that he will pull the labels music from future releases if Activision/Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick doesn’t agree to sweeten up the deal. This beginning the match for “who owes who.”

Kotick explains that labels are the party seeing the major benefit of the deal, as the success of the game is amounting to record sales for the artist. “When you look at the impact [the game] can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it’s really significant — so much so that you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse,” said Kotick. “The bulk of our consumers will tell you they’re not purchasing the products based on the songs that are included, they’re purchasing based on how fun the songs are to play when they’re playing them.”

So will Guitar Hero be the high priced platform for labels to push music, or will labels be seeing the dollar signs for allowing gamers to rock?