Record label holder WMG thinks it ought to be entitled to a bigger cut of music gaming success
The music gaming genre is increasingly lucrative thanks to the mainstream success of franchises like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, soon to be joined by Konami's Rock Revolution. However, music company Warner Music Group believes that producers of such games will need to start paying bigger dues to the music industry when licensing tracks for use with their titles.
WMG itself already licenses tracks from artists and labels included in various Guitar Hero games. Speaking to Reuters, WMG CEO Edgar Bronfman sees the growth of music gaming as a signifigant step akin to the launch of Apple's iPod, or MTV:
"The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small."
Looks like it's wants a bigger share of that growing pie, in which case we can expect WMG to start bumping up licensing fees for upcoming music game sequels and expansion packs. Will the music gaming market decide to stand firm against the labels like Apple did?
Besides, more money to the music industry means higher prices for the game, not to mention it may hit the indie bands hard. :/