Beatles to bless Rock Band
Drum along with Ringo
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Apple Corps, the Beatles' licensing company, is expected to announce a deal that brings the catalogue to the popular play-along game Rock Band today. Press received notification of a new "Global Music Project" partnership with Apple Corps from MTV yesterday. Viacom subsidiary MTV in turn owns the developer of Rock Band, Harmonix.
Apple Corps has snubbed the digital downloads market, but its reluctance doesn't seem so daft now, given the phenomenal growth of karaoke-style playalong games. Although digital song sales snagged over $2bn last year, most of which is through the other Apple's iTunes Store, the market for music-based games including Guitar Hero and Rock Band is almost as large at $1.2bn, and is growing at a far faster clip. By comparison, ringtones generated $7bn last year. That's serious money.
As with the Nintendo Wii, it demonstrates how successful technology companies can be when they remember the basics. And it also shows how much real value can be generated - and real dollars returned to creators - when the music business thinks about licensing, rather than merely shifting units.
One problem has already been posed in the Wall Street Journal, which trails today's announcement. With much of the Beatles' Baby Boomer audience old enough to be Steve Jobs' Dad - how appealing will the Beatles catalogue be to the partying twenty-somethings who have helped Rock Band ratchet up four million sales?
We'll doubtless find out when the press conference - scheduled for 2pm UK time (7am Pacific Time) - gets underway. But the answer's obvious. Just create an "indie edition" that features a bit less When I'm 64 and a bit more Paperback Writer - along with perennial stoner faves Rain and Flying.
Sorted. ®
COMMENTS
No, daddy, put on a *spinny* one
and so it was this very morning my two girls (2 & 4) got served I Am the Walrus @ 45rpm. Also, the 4yo can sing along with All Together Now.
Good music is good music. Even better if it's analogue and cranked up!
Re: Take this.....
"I believe they were originally invented to save Alex Lifeson's neck from the strain of carrying three guitars simultaneously."
Not sure about inventing guitar synths, but Alex Lifeson did invent a guitar rack/stand to allow him to switch, relatively easily, between electric and acoustic guitars during live shows - he originally sold it under 'The Omega Concern' moniker; both Lifeson and Geddy Lee made extensive use of pedal triggers in their live shows at the time (late 70s, early 80s)
That said, Rush were one of the first bands to make extensive use of synth triggers in their live shows (originally Moog Taurus/Taurus II bass pedals, then MIDI triggers and sequencers) and Neil Peart's current 'electronic kit' is basically a bunch of MIDI triggers hooked up to samplers and sequencers, so making a Rock Band-style controller sound like a guitar, Mellotron or frog-chorus isn't particularly difficult.
So I'm a Rush fan - coat's on, I'm already halfway out
whatever you do don't tell Ringo
He's busy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hskvHOwAOKE
instead contact this guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c96jSDK8bpY
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