Guitar Hero and Rock Band See Huge Downloads, Increasing Music Sales

log1385 writes "More than 5 million songs have been sold as downloads for Guitar Hero III since November, and Rock Band has seen some 2.5 million downloads just in the last two months. These games are positive financial experiences for music labels outside of the Xbox Live/PlayStation Networks, as well. Songs included in the two games have seen bumps in popularity through other commercial outlets as well. Though not huge, they are noticeable enough to prompt future projects. 'MTVN already has plans to expand its outreach to artists, creating additional game expansions -- as both physical products and downloadable content -- around specific music genres and even artists. "We are talking to tons of bands, from indie to the most established ... to release not necessarily their entire catalog, but maybe some of their classic albums and do special packages around that," [MTV division president Van Toffler] said.'" Rock Band has certainly worked on me - I've been buying tracks to listen to the drum parts.

Comments

Everything old is new again

[XxtraLarGe]

As a 37 year old step father, I get a real kick out of seeing my step-son getting into Aerosmith, Kiss, The Who and other classic/hard rock acts on iTunes. Some of them were around in my formative years, and Guitar Hero has now made the younger generation realize how good a lot of these songs are too. He got Guitar Hero 3 + a $25 iTunes card for Christmas, and most of the songs he's downloaded have come from the Guitar Hero series.

Re:My biggest issue with rock band...

[bigstrat2003]

No, the initial run of Rock Band guitars was poorly built. The second run, as far as I've read on the forums, is quite nice. Indeed, after my original guitar broke within 24 hrs of buying the game, the replacement I got works beautifully. Best fake guitar I could ask for.