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.

NO NO NO

[band-aid-brand]

This is exactly what I DON'T want to happen. Record companies start to realize that if they can get their songs into the games they might stand to make a buck. They'll start slipping Red Octane bribes to place their songs in the lineup. Then the games will become just as watered down as CD's are now. We'll end up paying (assuming we still support the game) sixty bucks for a game with four songs we actually enjoy and the rest will be crap.

I can see it now, Guitar hero XXXVII: Brittany and the Constantine ROCK THE NEW MILLENNIUM

Captcha: Dwindled, how fitting...

To be handled in the FIXED version

[WidescreenFreak]

Apparently, downloadable content is to be available with the Dolby-Pro-Logic-corrected version of GH3 for the Wii. From Joystiq:

The new, stereo-enabled discs will be free of charge through Activision, though they haven't announced exactly when they'd be available, or how they would be shipped out. Also, we're not exactly certain how DLC will work on the system (our Wii's system memory is already bogged down by VC gems like Donkey Kong Jr. Math and Urban Champion), but RedOctane is reportedly working feverishly with Nintendo to figure out a method of getting new songs on the Wii. Apparently, trying to wish them onto the system hasn't been working out very well.

I'm guessing that they're going to require the use of an SD card to store downloadable content, which is fine with me, considering the low prices of SD cards.