Guitar Hero III songs see massive digital sales increase
By Dave Parrack
It seems if a record company want to sell their songs and give a band on their label a boost, there’s no better way of doing it than getting featured in a rhythm game. Digital sales of tracks featured in Guitar Hero III have apparently seen a dramatic hike since its release.
For the uninitiated (yes there are still a few people out there) Guitar Hero is a game which you play with a plastic guitar, and which sees you looking like a bit of a turnip, but you actually don’t care because it absolutely rocks. The songs are varied, with a mixture of genres, and styles, although all giving you the ability to strum out in your most lucid air guitar style.
It now seems that the massive success of the Guitar Hero franchise isn’t just good for its developers and publishers, but also for the artists who get featured on the soundtrack.
Ars Technica are claiming that the latest Soundscan sales figures show that some of the tracks featured have seen a massive increase in digital sales since the game was released last month.
The Strokes’ ‘Reptilia’ is the example they use, with the figures showing that in the week Guitar Hero III was released, digital downloads of the track 127 percent on the previous week. The following week saw another 96 percent jump in sales, and the trend has reportedly continued on since.
A music industry source claimed:
“No labels are really advertising their bands being in GH III, and even if they did most of the ‘fans’ already have a copy of the bands’ most popular song before GH III came out. It’s not far-fetched to assume that these are new people willing to pay for a new song.”
“It doesn’t appear to matter if you’re in the main game or are a bonus song; huge gains are seen everywhere. As long as your song ships with the game and you offer the track to be downloaded digitally, you see an increase.”
So what does this mean for future Guitar Hero games? Well, I can’t see the developers having quite such a hard time getting big names to contribute to the soundtracks in the future, as the bands themselves, and their record label masters will surely sniff a profit here.
Rhythm action games could become the new adverts or television shows, the associated media of choice for new or upcoming artists to find exposure and a bigger audience. Expect Guitar Hero 4 and Rock Band 2 to include names which have been strangely absent from the series so far, as if there’s one thing musicians like more than a crowd, it’s money.. and possibly drugs.
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