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MTV’s Rock Band game not boycotting Warner Music, they’re just not using their music
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 3 March 2009
MTV Games has denied claims made by Wired magazine that it is boycotting Warner Music with regard to sourcing music for its ‘Rock Band’ pretend-to-play game. That said, it has stopped asking the major for permission to use their music in the gaming franchise because it knows they won’t agree to their terms or price offer, so you can see where Wired’s claims came from.
All this follows comments made by Warner chief Edgar Bronfman Jr last year when he said that the record companies weren’t getting their fair share from the then booming ‘Guitar Hero’ and ‘Rock Band’ franchises. He said that his company would be asking for high licence fees from the gaming companies moving forward.
According to Billboard, MTV Games has so far refused to pay those higher licence fees. Because Warner won’t except the old rates offered, various approaches by the ‘Rock Band’ makers to the major have been knocked back, so much so the gaming company has decided to stop asking until some kind of general deal can be reached between the two companies regarding rates.
Some Warner artists have been available to download via the ‘Rock Band’ platform quite recently, but they all stem from deals reached before Bronfman’s ruling last August.
Insiders say Warner is happy to not participate in ‘Rock Band’ until a more favourable licensing deal can be done, in much the same way its catalogue is still not on YouTube following its demands for more money off them.
That said, some wonder if that strategy will work with MTV Games – while YouTube’s claims to be the world’s biggest video jukebox are hindered by a lack of Warner content, the ‘Rock Band’ download service is by no means comprehensive, so the lack of Warner artists will probably go unnoticed by most. MTV, that is to say, probably have less to lose on this one that Warner.
