According to RedOctane’s Co-Founder and President Kai Huang, old school rock outfit Aerosmith made more money out of the developer’s licensed hit Guitar Hero: Aerosmith than either of its last two albums.
"The kind of exposure that artists can get through the Guitar Hero platform is huge," Huang told APB in an extensive editorial. Later on the RedOctane boss opined that music video games would "become the biggest platform for music distribution in the world," though he insisted that such success would not damage the non-gaming music biz, or at least, not much.
"We still have great relationships with most of the (music) industry. We continue to really benefit each other," he said. "At the end of the day it’s about creating a great game for the users. We’ll figure this stuff out."
APB thinks record labels get rather less out of the music game phenomenon than the bands they represent. "An executive at a major record label, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the negotiations are sensitive, said the stream of income from games to labels doesn’t match the traditional business of signing and promoting hot artists," the site reports. "The executive said a typical record company still makes more from a single album that sells 3 million copies than from all its video game revenue combined."
Plenty more through the link.