MTV Supposedly Boycotting Warner Music Artists In Rock Band

from the nice-work,-Warner! dept

Wed, Feb 25th 2009 12:18pm — Mike Masnick

A bunch of folks have sent in an article from the latest issue of Wired Magazine about Warner Music's fight with the publishers of music video games, Rock Band and Guitar Hero. To be honest, the article doesn't cover much more ground than stories from last year, when Warner Music's Edgar Bronfman Jr. first demanded more money from the game publishers. But, it does include one juicy tidbit. After reposting Bronfman's silly quote demanding more money:

"In response, Rock Band publisher MTV Games is now boycotting Warner artists, according to a source close to the negotiations."

This is yet another example (in an increasingly long line) of how Warner Music's recent actions have done plenty to harm its artists. You may recall that a similarly ridiculous whine from Warner Music execs that YouTube wasn't paying enough money resulted in YouTube pulling all Warner Music videos from the site, pissing off many Warner Music artists. Other reports have noted that if musicians were blocked from getting their music in these video games, they might look to move to other labels as well.

And, of course, Warner Music's fight with the video game publishers is doubly stupid. Reports have shown that having your music in one of those games greatly increases sales of the music itself. So... the end result? Pissed off musicians who get less people hearing and interacting with and buying the music. It's amazing that Warner stays in business at all, with management foresight like that.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: boycott, guitar hero, music, rock band, video games
Companies: warner music

17 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2009 @ 12:50pm

Mike, perhaps you should change the title to "MTV Games" instead of "MTV" just to be 100% clear that it isn't the television station.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2009 @ 1:06pm
  
  Re:
  It's not confusing since MTV no longer shows any music.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Ima Fish, 25 Feb 2009 @ 1:12pm
    
    Re: Re:
    MTV showed music?!
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2009 @ 1:15pm
  
  Re:
  Have their DUNS number? Let's link to that too.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ima Fish, 25 Feb 2009 @ 12:56pm

Rock Band (and I'm assuming Guitar Hero too) does an amazing job of exposing music to people and giving old hits a second life.

My six year old daughter's favorite song is Survivor's Eye of the Tiger. My 7 year old son loves the Donna's New Kid in School. So, as just two examples, I bought both of those songs from Amazon to put on their respective players.

So here's the deal, where the life of Eye of the Tiger was dead, it is now a completely new song (to kids) and has a completely new life. Kids today will grow up, become adults, and will be in charge of choosing songs for commercials, movies, and TV shows. They'll pick nostalgic songs from their past, such as Eye of the Tiger. Which will give the song yet another life.

These two extra lives would never have happened with the song's inclusion in Rock Band 2. (And this does not include renewed interest in live performances.)

Warner Bros' thinking is way too short term on this issue and its artists are losing a huge opportunity along with gobs of cash.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- interval, 25 Feb 2009 @ 1:55pm
  
  Re:
  Its true. I've overheard my nephews talking excitedly about that "new band" Deep Purple and how they want to buy albums after playing Guitar Hero.*
  
  * I don't recall if it was DP exactly but it was a band of that era.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
- HFC, 26 Feb 2009 @ 7:27am
  
  Re:
  You are exactly right. My 7 year old daughter LOVES Eye of the Tiger. She even sang it to her grandmother as a birthday treat. Rock Band also got my daughter interested in Duran Duran, Paramour and others. I had already been feeding her plenty of rock music, but this game really widened her exposure. Plus, she's one hell of a drummer.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
DS, 25 Feb 2009 @ 1:33pm

Are they really 'boycotting', or just not paying the extra cash?

Hell, If I ran a record company, I'd put my songs in there for free.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Ima Fish, 25 Feb 2009 @ 1:42pm

"Are they really 'boycotting', or just not paying the extra cash?"

Both.

MTV Games is boycotting in that music from Warner Bros. is not being made available in Rock Band. But of course Warner Bros. could argue that it is boycotting Rock Band until MTV Games pays up more money.

"Hell, If I ran a record company, I'd put my songs in there for free."

Agreed. See my previously post.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2009 @ 3:28pm
  
  Re:
  Warner Bros and Warner Music are two seperate entities. Warner Music is no longer owned by Warner Bros.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2009 @ 2:13pm

Either they'll wake up or die
And I don't really care which. But I think if more businesses essentially give the record labels the finger, the record labels (and the other copyright cartel members) will eventually figure this out. But hopefully, by then it will be too late for them. I would be happy to deliver the message to Edgar in person: "Mr. Bronfman, MTV Games says you can go fuck yourself."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Paul`, 25 Feb 2009 @ 2:17pm

Frank Zappa was right, Warner Bros music is no good.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2009 @ 2:21pm

This is hilarious to me. I look forward to the news that Edgar Bronfman Jr. is on his hands and knees begging MTV to include Warner artists once again.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Maybe, 25 Feb 2009 @ 2:56pm

We Could Work on Freeing WKRP?
pretty please
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 25 Feb 2009 @ 9:18pm

This just in - Stockholder revolt emminent
They are a publically traded company - right?
Maybe they own controlling interest, but I would be more than pissed. Glad I do not own any of that paper.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Doug (profile), 26 Feb 2009 @ 6:10am

How?
Anyone want to explain to me how this man still has a job?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Killer_Tofu (profile), 26 Feb 2009 @ 6:33am

Good
The more they hasten their downfall, the better.
I cannot wait for the day that the current major labels are dead and gone.
Acts such as this and the YouTube incident will help show artists that these major labels are too dense to understand anything related to technology, and that they should be avoided at all costs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]