RockBand Surpasses 40M Songs & $1B in Sales

Yes, that’s billion with a B, and only in North America during the past 15 months reports the NPD Group. MTV, the publisher of the game, has distributed 40 million songs through the RockBand platform since its launch in 2007.

Here’s how it breaks down:

  • 614 songs included on discs and the in-game music store
  • 269 artists represented
  • 40 million paid songs sold
  • 11 albums released to RockBand (AC/DC Live, The Cars, Motley Crue, Foo Fighters, Pixies, Judas Priest, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Megadeth, Rush, No Doubt, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and custom compilations from The Who, Nirvana, The Grateful Dead, Boston)

I’m not surprised at all to see the game succeeding so well, and would even argue that RockBand and Guitar Hero present very unique oportunities for artists to promote thier music in a market in which it’s increasingly tough to cut through the noise.

The entertainment industry is changing. Video games are no kiddie-time joke anymore. Gaming is a big boy industry opperating on the same plane as movies and music; and they deserve the same ammount of respect. One of the most notable differences is that the Video Game industry is on the rise, and music and movies seem to be on the decline with regards to revenue and entertainment marketshare.

Think of some of your favorite bands right now. How did you first hear about them? Yael Naim broke through after scoring her song in the MacBook Air commercial. I first heard Sigur Ros on the Vanilla Sky soundtrack. M.I.A. blew up after landing “Paper Planes” in Pineapple Express. You get the idea. Bands that can push songs on other mediums are able to gain exposure and success in new markets, translating that success into album sales.

Is there an outlet you could be tapping to promote your music? Don’t wait for somebody special to stumble upon your MySpace page; there are 5 billion other bands doing the same thing and that ship has long sailed. Get on Google, look up indie film festivals, independent game developers and conferences, etc. Email them offering your songs to be featured in their films and games. Who knows? One of them might just blow up, carrying your tracks with it.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 28th, 2009 at 12:13 am. It is filed under wax and tagged with , , , , , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.