The Power Of Video Games - Motley Crue Sell More Copies Of New Single On Rock Band Than iTunes
Music and video games have been awkward bed buddies in the past, with artists not often being happy to have their songs license for use in titles in case they are somehow cheapened. However, this all changed last generation with games such as Grand Theft Auto using official tracks from established artists to add credibility and realism to the game.
Then along came Guitar Hero and Singstar and the friendship fully blossomed in to a symbiotic relationship where both parties began to benefit greatly. In an article on another site, I argued the case for Guitar Hero having helped the music industry more than the RIAA and other such organisations ever could, as the game actively got me in to a few bands that I had never even heard of before.
Rock Band was then shown to have massively increased digital music sales after fans downloaded songs by the featured artists after falling in love with the tracks from the game. And now that trend has been shown to be continuing with rock band Motley Crue having reportedly sold more copies of their new single through Rock Band than they have done so far on iTunes.
Reuters reports that new single Saints of Los Angeles, the title track from their new album, was downloaded more than 47,000 times via the Xbox 360 version of the game in the first week after it became available. And that’s not even including the Playstation 3 version. The track only managed to sell 10,000 copies on iTunes, the only other place the track was available.
When you realise that the Rock Band version can only be played and not transferred to a portable music player or PC, this result is pretty astounding, and again shows what getting featured in a video game can do for a band.
I fully expect that at the time the next Guitar Hero comes out, and Rock Band 2 finally makes an appearance, bands will be queuing up around the block to be featured.
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