Warner Unhappy With Rock Band And Guitar Hero

08 Aug 2008 at 14:24:46 by Andy Alderson

Warner Music has said it wants a bigger slice of the royalties for its tracks that appear in Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

According to Hexus, the company made the complaint in a Q3 earnings call and issued a thinly-veiled threat to the makers of  music games. Here's what was reportedly said:

"Games have enormous opportunity, and proves we have future business in non-traditional formats. 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 Activision and Harmonix are in the same place.

Amounts being paid to music industry for downloads, etc. "far too small". 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."

Does Warner Music have a fair claim to more royalties? Or is it an opportunistic gripe at the success of music games? Let us know what you think in the comments section.

Comment