Music Ally

There could be even closer links between the way music and music downloads for videogames are sold, according to MTV’s games boss Paul DeGooyer.

“We would love to see a world where in your premium bundle for the next Muse album, you’re able to also receive that album on your console of choice, and be able to play it,” he said, speaking at MIDEM’s Images & Brands summit this morning.

That’s ‘play’ in a game sense, obviously. DeGooyer also said that the launch of in-game download stores for Rock Band has changed the way the music industry sees gaming – it’s no longer just a licensing opportunity. The Rock Band games have now generated more than 60 million downloads, according to DeGooyer.

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The Beatles: Rock Band has now sold more than one million copies, according to the game’s publisher MTV Games.

However, that rosy figure is somewhat undermined by the fact that the company laid off 39 staff at the game’s developer Harmonix yesterday – 13% of its workforce. “This was a process and business decision unrelated to the performance of any MTV Games / Harmonix product,” says a spokesperson.

“The reason for the restructuring is due to better aligning our staffing to best suit our product development plans and schedules moving forward.” They also stress that no future games have been canned as a result of the layoffs. Which is good news for all the rock bands lobbying to get their own Rock Bands. If that makes sense.

An SEC filing made by RealNetworks states that MTV and RealNetworks are in talks about restructuring their joint venture participation in the music service Rhapsody, “to enable Rhapsody to operate more independently of either party.” The statement suggests that the pair might seek either a new investor or a buyer for Rhapsody. While services like Spotify get more press coverage and of course iTunes remains the giant of digital music, Rhapsody – launched in 2001 – is the most comprehensive music service from the point of view of editorial and categorisation. It has 750,000 subscribers paying between $12.99 and $14.99 per month but many of these are music fans using the service a lot – and therefore costing Rhapsody money. If Apple was to introduce a subscription service it would wipe out much of Rhapsody’s remaining appeal, whcih is why finding a new owner for it could make sense.

Yesterday saw the release of The Beatles back catalogue as remastered CDs, not to mention the launch of console game The Beatles: Rock Band. Having grabbed a copy of the latter, we have to say we’re hugely impressed with the care and attention to detail that have gone into it. One question though: do The Kids really care?

Much of the talk leading up to the game’s release has claimed that yes, they’ll care a lot. In fact, the game has been pitched as the vehicle to bring The Beatles’ music to a whole new generation – i.e. youngsters. And while we wouldn’t be surprised to find out that’s how MTV and Harmonix sold the idea to the surviving Beatles (not to mention Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison), it’s actually a hard theory to swallow.

It would be more accurate, surely, to suggest that The Beatles: Rock Band will appeal mainly to a.) existing Rock Band owners of a certain age, and b.) big Beatles fans who don’t have Rock Band but will buy this version. That points to a thirty and fourtysomething demographic – the same people, in fact, who’ll have been lining up to buy the remastered CDs yesterday.

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MTV has guaranteed a minimum royalties payment of $10 million to Beatles rightsholders for its The Beatles: Rock Band game, which comes out next week – but if it sells as expected, the payments will top $40 million.

“The royalty rates on this are not even comparable to anything that has been done before,” Sony/ATV Music Publishing chairman Martin Bandier tells the Los Angeles Times. MTV is clearly counting on the Fab Four’s console-owning fanbase being willing to shell out for the game, which includes custom-designed instruments.

Meanwhile, MTV has launched a new initiative called Rock Band Bar Nights, to support bars holding Rock Band Nights. Participating pubs get a free five-song playable demo of the Beatles game.

And in not-necessarily-related news, Apple has confirmed that it will hold a music-focused “special event” on 9th September, the same day as The Beatles: Rock Band goes on sale – not to mention the band’s remastered back catalogue on CD. It could be co-incidence, but expect plenty of chatter about a Beatles iTunes deal in the days ahead.

(If Apple launches a Yellow Submarine iPod touch next Wednesday, remember, you heard it here first).

MTV has announced plans for something called the Rock Band Network, which will launch later this year. It will allow any artist, signed or unsigned, to submit their songs to be made available to download and play within the Rock Band console game. Labels and artists will submit songs, which will then be converted for Rock Band by (more…)

4music, the music TV channel launched last August by UK broadcaster Channel 4, and Box TV Network, has already captured 20% of all UK music TV viewing for 16-34 year-olds, it claimed today.

The channel is apparently the 25th most-watchec channel in the UK, and in Freeview homes, it’s the 12th most popular. However, head of T4 and music Neil McCallum says 4music isn’t stopping there.

“Our stated aim internally is that we want to be in the Top 10 digital channels,” he said at a press event this morning. When we think about competition, it’s nothing to do with MTV2 or MTV Base or Amp, Flaunt or other music channels. We’re talking about ITV2, BBC 3, Sky One, Living and Dave.”

McCallum also drew a direct comparison between 4music and MTV One. “Our channel is very much about music: it’s 90% music skewed, compared to MTV One which is less than 5%,” he said.

MTV has announced that its Rock Band franchise has now sold more than $1 billion worth of games at retail, while also saying that it’s the top-selling game of 2008.

The company has also provided an update on track sales through the games’ integrated download stores – it’s up to 40 million paid downloads now. Small beer next to iTunes, of course, but impressive in the context of console music games.

It took 15 months to pass the $1bn retail sales mark, although we wonder if the news will spur more anger at Warner Music Group, which has argued that console firms should pay more to license its music, given the huge revenues they’re making from the games.

That’s what an article in Wired Magazine headlined “Why the Music Industry Hates Guitar Hero” is claiming. It mostly treads old ground in the dispute between Warner Music Group and the publishers of console music games – with the label looking for more licensing dosh.

However, it seems the games firms aren’t taking these demands lying down – Wired claims that MTV Games is now boycotting WMG artists in its Rock Band games as a result.

As ever, the dispute could shut off an important new source of revenues for labels and artists – Wired also claims that Aerosmith made more money from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith than from any single album in the band’s history.

We’re shizzling our nizzles at the news today that a selection of Snoop Dogg tracks is coming to the Rock Band console game, although exact details and dates haven’t been announced.

However, it’s part of a wider deal between Snoop and Rock Band owner MTV. He’ll be hosting a new variety show, Dogg After Dark, on MTV, while the broadcaster will help “distribute and promote” his new Malice In Wonderland album.

You want Snoop quotes? You got `em! “We felt it was the right time to let Snoop Dogg back on MTV so we could continue to run thangs with music, movies, DVDs and bring Hip-Hop to Rock Band,” says the rapper.