SEPT. 16, 2008 • In an indirect response to music industry complaints that it doesn’t receive enough compensation from popular games such as Guitar Hero, Activision Blizzard presented Universal Music Group president Zach Horowitz to an analyst meeting. Horowitz said music tracks used in Guitar Hero saw a two or threefold in sales. As example, My Name is Jonas from Weezer’s 1994 album, saw a sales increase 10 times after it appeared in Guitar Hero III.
Impact: The sinking music industry clearly needs the game industry as a proven driver of sales. A product like Guitar Hero can be somewhat discriminating in the type of music it picks. Of course, the music industry wants a larger piece of the pie, but clearly the bargaining power currently is now on the side of the game companies.
