14 DAY TRIAL // We reported a while ago that Warner Music president Edgar Bronfman declared that he thought music companies were not getting enough revenue from the developers of music games, like Harmonix and Activision. He said that, without the tracks the music companies supply, the music simulation games cannot be great successes.
Now the Chief Executive Officer of Activision has gone on record as saying that maybe the current arrangement is flawed because it should be music companies like Warner Music paying money to those creating games that promote their music.
Talking to the Wall Street Journal, Kotick said that “There's a misunderstanding of the value we bring to the catalog. When you look at the impact it can have on Aerosmith, Van Halen or Metallica, it's really significant, so much so that you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse”.
Recently, Activision reported that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith managed to bring in more money for the band than any individual record they put out and that music featured in Guitar Hero sees huge increases in sales.
Kotick also mentioned that “We have lots of music to choose from, lots of artists to choose from. A 12-year-old kid has no idea who Steven Tyler is or who Aerosmith is. The bulk of our consumers will tell you they're not purchasing the products based on the songs that are included. They're purchasing based on how fun the songs are to play when they're playing them”.
There are already some artists who launch their albums using the videogames medium concomitantly with releasing them in stores and the music industry is right to feel threatened by gaming companies like Activision.