Warner wants more money from Rock Band/Guitar Hero Games

[SirFozzie]

Warner Music (WMG): Rock Band, Guitar Hero Are Very Exciting. But We Want To Get Paid

Rock Games Battle for Bands : Rolling Stone

Seems like the proposed "Golden Goose" of the industry, ringtones, never took off to be the smash hit that they expected it to be. So now, the company has turned its greedy piggish eyes to the thing that drives the industry, currently. Video Games, and by that, I mean, the Rock Band and Guitar Hero series.

Per the RollingStone article, the band and the label already get 50 cents per song purchased (this is out of the $2/song standard price on XBox Live or the Playstation Store),which is more than they get from iTunes and other standard download sites. Not only that, but they don't have to be worried about anyone ripping the songs and placing them on file-sharing-sites. It's the best DRM possible.

But that's not enough for them, no way. In between desperate attempts to sue their own customers, they want to kill their new Golden Goose. (For example, Mötley Crûe debuted the first single from their new album on Rock Band, selling 48,000 playable copies. Compare that to their physical sales, or their online sales (It only sold 10K Copies on ALL download services)

But here was a (paraphrased) statement today during Warner Brothers online Q3 call...

But we have to be very careful that we do not allow an eco-system to occur where we do not get compensated properly. Like what happened with MTV, and now with Apple. And now [game developers] Activision and Harmonix [owned by Viacom] are in the same place. Amounts being paid to music industry for downloads, etc. are "far too small". The industry needs to participate much more fully. If that does not become the case, "we will not license to those games." Very small license fee per song, plus additional revenue if artist involved. But royalties far below what true value is.

Keep it up, Warner. Keep throttling the goose with the golden eggs.