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RIAA turns to video game market for sales
RIAA turns to video game market for sales?
Posted by Luis on December 31, 2003 at 1:11 PM (printer friendly)
From Yahoo! News --
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Once an afterthought in the production process, video game soundtracks increasingly use original music to reach new listeners who blur traditional entertainment boundaries.
"Record companies are realizing that this is the new radio," says Greg O'Connor-Read, founder of Music4Games.com and an agent for video game composers.
In addition to licensing existing tunes, record companies also are commissioning new works for games. Big names have written music for games now on the shelves for the holiday season. Hip-hop performer Snoop Dogg created three original songs for "True Crime: Streets of L.A." Rock icon Peter Gabriel contributed a track for "Uru: Ages Beyond Myst," released Nov. 11, and will write an original composition for the next, as-yet-untitled, "Myst" puzzle game.
"The acts themselves play video games, so they're a lot more willing to get their songs in the game," says Scott Lee, product manager for "Project Gotham Racing 2." That game's soundtrack uses prerecorded music and deejay banter from real radio stations, including Chicago's WPWX-FM 92.3 and WKQX-FM 101.1.
"It's no secret that the record industry is in deep trouble," said Randy Winograd of HSI, a Los Angeles production house for TV ads, music videos and game music. "Consumers would rather download than pay $15 for a CD, leaving the record industry scrambling for revenue. How do they monetize music? License to video games."
Typical music budgets for video game makers have tripled over the last three years to $150,000 from $50,000, according to Tommy Tallarico, president of Game Audio Network Guild, or G.A.N.G., an organization that focuses on improving music in interactive media.
G.A.N.G. also has persuaded U.S. musicians' unions to lower rates charged for working on video games, leading to more American musicians performing on such titles as the recently released "Medal of Honor: Rising Sun" and "Call of Duty."
Asia and Europe have recognized the power of video game soundtracks for years. Symphonic versions of video game music fill stores in Japan. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts recently added an awards category for video game music. In the United States, game soundtracks are slowly showing up on the shelves of large department stores and music stores.
As programmers push video chips to new limits -- with realistically moving humans and mood-creating, natural-looking shadows -- game companies are turning to soundtracks to further separate themselves from their competitors.
For instance, players who preordered the comic book-style spy game "XIII," from UbiSoft, received the jazzy soundtrack on a separate CD. Electronic Arts is hyping its "NBA Live" hip-hop soundtrack with a Web site devoted to playing music taken from the game. EA also is pushing its "SSX 3" snowboarding soundtrack with its own CD.
Sales aren't earth-shattering yet: Since its release in February 2002, "SSX Tricky" has sold 1,800 soundtrack units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But in a sign that buyers may be catching on, the sequel "SSX 3" already has sold 1,800 units since its release Sept. 30.
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Wow. Well, whether this is a good thing or a bad thing, no one is for sure. Everyone who is into games knows that a game is nothing without a supporting sound track to swallow you up into the moment. This is true from the days of old on the Sega Master System and the NES. Currently, games have a whole orchestra to create beautiful music to match the feel of a WWII game perfectly, or a professional synthesizer to create the right environment for a game based in the future.
It's no secret in Japan and the UK, that game sound tracks sell like mad. A lot of solid gamers here in the US put down some money for soundtracks to be shipped straight to their homes in online shops. But, unfortunately, if the RIAA steps into this foreign territory of games, and expects to focus on it alone for their money, I can only see disaster.
Prices on games may rise to five, maybe ten dollars more, to cover costs for such "professionalism" in the game's sound track. All this to compensate the artist, I'm sure, (right). Covers of games will have a picture of the "big artist" hired for creating the sound track for the game, for example, picture the game .hack, a fairly good series now reaching its final installment in the series. On the cover you see the usual art created for great titles, but on the bottom right of the DVD case, you see an image of Britney Spears taking up 1/4th of the cover art, and with big yellow text next to it that reads, "WITH MUSIC FROM YOUR FAVORITE SINGER!"
Well, it seems that instead of listening to consumers, the RIAA is deciding to slowly slink towards a completely different industry to try and squeeze more money out of their consumers, (all eight of them). If artists demand for certain amount of money to create the soundtracks for games, one can definately expect an increase in price for the games themselves.
This is just more of a sign, however, that our friends over at the RIAA are losing the battle; turning heads over to another area they never even bothered to consider that it existed. Just like online stores!
There is more to that article, by the way. You can find it here.
Jin
http://www.boycott-riaa.com/article/9707
What a fuck else does the RIAA wants?
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I own this... nerdy what?
