Aerosmith News

Derrik J Lang and James Wigney
July 27, 2008
HeraldSun.com.au

TAPPING on fake instruments and screeching into microphones connected to video game consoles has become lucrative for music and gaming industries.

Downloadable tunes for music-based games Guitar Hero, Rock Band and SingStar are as vital as iTunes itself - and one of the last ways to expose youngsters to classic rock.

The genre will evolve again on August 6 when game publisher Activision and developer Neversoft release Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, the first such play-along rhythm game pegged to one band, instead of featuring a multi-artist compilation more akin to one of those Now That's What I Call Music! albums.

"The game is really about the spirit of guitar music," Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton says.

"It's all about being into music that sounds powerful, energetic and lush. You're rhythmically pushing buttons that create a certain reaction or sound along with the music.

"You can't say it doesn't have any musical relevance. It does."

Players start out as lead guitarist Joe Perry and can unlock Hamilton and Brad Whitford while playing in virtual versions of venues where Aerosmith once rocked.

Perry admits he is ordinary at the game, although he embraced the idea having seen his sons and road crew's passion for playing and wanted to jump on board before the opportunity and the technology passed the band by.

"When I see this new generation of kids getting turned on to this music because of the video games, it really perks me up," Perry says.

"But I noticed that they didn't have any Aerosmith songs on the first or the second one and I freaked out because I thought, 'This is the future, this is where the music business is going'."

While regular versions of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and SingStar come loaded with songs by bands like The Rolling Stones and Radiohead, the most recent incarnations of the games allow players to go online and download additional tracks for $1-3 per song, depending on the game.

The downloading doesn't stop there. Because the songs for the games can't be burned onto a CD or uploaded to an MP3 player, many players turn to other digital download services for their own copies - and also dig deeper into an artist's discography.

All that musical consumption is equalling big bucks for the flailing music industry. "Revenue back to the music industry can be huge," says entertainment and new media lawyer Paul Menes, who's brokered such arrangements.

"Getting your music in a video game was formerly all about the publicity, but because of the amount of sales these games are bringing in these days, the labels want to get paid. It's no longer just a vehicle for promotion."

The backstage deals vary. Typically, music publishers and musicians are paid advance royalties if their work is included on the original game disc.

More copies of the game sold equal more royalties back to the music-makers.

The same goes for revenue generated by those augmented new downloads, which are released every month.

Song downloads for MTV Games and Harmonix's Rock Band - which allows gamers to thrash with friends both online and in-person on various faux instruments, including a drumset - have passed the 12 million mark, according Paul DeGooyer, MTV senior vice president of electronic games and music.

In May, Motley Crue released the title track from their new album Saints of Los Angeles in two places before the record's June release date: Rock Band and iTunes.

The Rock Band sales of Saints of Los Angeles were actually five times higher than on iTunes, according to Billboard. Instead of an animated interface like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, the SingStar series broadcasts artists' music videos as players attempt to achieve a perfect pitch.

PlayStation 3's SingStar also takes a cue from YouTube with SingStar Online, which invites crooners to upload their performances as well as watch and rate others online.

The next evolution of the genre could reshape not just the music industry, but music as a whole. Guitar Hero World Tour - the recently announced fourth iteration of the franchise that started this trend - will feature a Rock Band-like assemblage of peripheral instruments and the ability to compose digital music from scratch.

Some of the biggest names in rock are also set to become part of the Guitar Hero world: including one of the greatest ever, Jimi Hendrix, and rock gods Metallica.

Metallica's next album, Death Magnetic, will be released in its entirety as downloadable content for Guitar Hero III and Guitar Hero World Tour.

Hendrix will make an appearance on World Tour with Purple Haze and Wind Cries Mary on the disc and further tracks available for download later on.

Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS is already due for a sequel, called Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades.

Games publisher Konami, who recently sued Rock Band makers Harmonix for infringement of patent, will be bringing out their own band simulator, dubbed Rock Revolution, for all platforms.