As
album sales continue to decline, gadgets and games may help ensure the survival of the music business. Indeed, the most tech-savvy bands
are already recording songs for distribution exclusively through new channels
opened up by the iPhone, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
"I
don’t really look at the last 10 years of music business as a
negative," Weezer bassist Scott Shriner told Wired.com. "A lot of
people are sad — nobody buys records anymore and everyone’s
downloading and all that. But I think there’s more interest in music
than ever, and I just want to use technology to reach people as much as
possible."
Sad or not, the rise of digital music has been a double-edged sword for artists and their record labels. The fourth quarter of 2008 looks to be the worst ever in terms of CD sales — down 27 percent to date — as consumers abandon physical media in favor of downloads. On the plus side, the streamlined distribution of music by services such as the iTunes Store as well as
illegal P2P channels has people listening to more music than ever
before. Given the exploding popularity of digital music, MP3
players and music-based videogames, many bands have embraced, rather
than resisted, the newly gadget-centric universe.
Hoping to gain exposure and give album sales a boost, artists are distributing their music through iPhone games, Rock Band and remixing wizards. What do they have in common? They give fans a way to engage the music more interactively, turning them from listeners into
participants, riding the social-networking wave better known as Web
2.0. And we can expect this trend to continue, moving beyond game
consoles and the iPhone onto other handsets and mobile devices. Why simply play music when you can play with it?
"Working with videogame developers, it’s not surprising that they have an innovative take that the music industry can capitalize on," said Susan Kevorkian, program director of consumer markets at IDC. "This is just a time when the music industry needs to develop not just one key new channel, but multiple ones."
Weezer has used the new technology to promote and distribute its music more than most bands have, and in innovative ways. For instance, lead singer Rivers
Cuomo fielded a collaborative songwriting project recently, posting a series of videos collecting contributions from fans on YouTube. Cuomo will choose the best video responses and knit them into a song titled, "Let’s Write a Sawng."
Also, Weezer’s latest Red Album was
one of the first to be sold on a microSD card in October 2008. And most recently,
Weezer recorded covers of Christmas songs exclusively for an iPhone rhythm game called Christmas With Weezer, selling it through the phenomenally successful App Store.
Another group piggybacking off the iPhone’s success, Nine Inch Nails, is selling a similar rhythm game in the App Store for $5. It includes tracks from the albums The Slip and Ghosts I-IV.
Developers and bands are loath to disclose just how much artists are
making off these iPhone games. But we know that Apple takes 33
percent of each sale in the iPhone App Store, so the remainder is
shared between the game developer Tapulous and the artists. That’s potentially a
far better split than most artists get from music labels.
The idea to sell songs through iPhone games comes from the vastly popular console game Rock Band, a booming success. Artists old and new, including Weezer, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Radiohead, are selling some of their songs through the Rock Band
music store for $2 a track. This method is an effective hook to
get players to pay for music, because the fans get to play with the
music, not just listen to it. (Downloading Radiohead’s song "My Iron
Lung," for example, allows Rock Band
players to sing, bang drum pads and play fake guitars along with the
original track.)
Rock Band developer Harmonix announced last week that its store surpassed 28 million song downloads. And the sequel — Rock Band 2 — was the third bestselling game in the United States in September.
Gerd Leonhard, a media futurist who authored the book Future of Music, explained that hopping on digital distribution channels such as Rock Band will take awhile to pay off, but the earnings will be big. According to Leonhard, the Rock Band
Store takes about 30 percent of each transaction, while 65 cents of
every dollar goes to the label, and the artist earns about 6 cents.
"It’s all about getting an audience," Leonhard said. "When they get
the audience, eventually they get the money. Part of the problem in the
current industry is they’re thinking money before they have an
audience. With [games like Rock Band] we’re seeing a shift in priorities."
On top of giving album sales a boost, distribution methods like Rock Band are just plain fun for bands, too, Weezer’s Shriner said.
"Down
the street these kids had me come down and play ‘My Name Is Jonas,’ and
they played on Expert and they absolutely annihilated me, so that was a
good time for them," Shriner said. "It’s kind of bad to get beat by a
bunch of 15-year-olds playing your own song, but I’m a good sport."
Radiohead took a bold step when it offered the new album In Rainbows using a donation model, asking listeners to pay anything they wanted. Analysts estimated
that the band earned millions in donations, and there was a glimmer of hope
that this method would revitalize the music industry. But three months
later, the band shut down the promotion, saying it was a short-lived success that likely couldn’t be repeated.
Radiohead
hasn’t given up, though. The band’s internet campaign remains one of
the most noteworthy in the music industry: Instead of asking for
donations, the band is inviting fans to remix its music. The latest song up for grabs is "Reckoner."
For the same amount you’d pay for a regular track, you get the song
broken into "stems" — bass, lead vocals, backing vocals, guitar, piano,
strings and drums.
But why should huge bands like Radiohead be
the only ones to bank off community-mixed music? Radiohead’s idea gave
birth to a startup called MixMatchMusic that’s aimed at getting smaller and independent bands in the interactivity game, too. Like
Radiohead’s remix project, MixMatchMusic allows artists to sell their
music as remixable stems. Participating artists earn 85 cents for every
dollar of sales on the site.
"A remix promotion is a great way to give fans a new interactive music
experience that really makes them care about the music, and it also
really more actively engages them," said Alan Khalfin, director of music at MixMatchMusic.
"You could argue Beethoven is a remix of his own creativity of Mozart.
You can argue that early rock and roll is a remix of African rhythms and
the mashup of R&B and country…. This idea of remixing is going to
become more and more important in the overall music landscape."
With 1,500 members, MixMatchMusic is still in its infancy, but the
site is quickly gaining momentum. Just recently punk rock band Slightly
Stoopid signed up to do a remix promotion through the site. And smaller
artists such as The Bayliens, Trifonic and MC Lars are working on remix campaigns as well.
"It’s really hard developing fans when there are a million other bands on MySpace," said Laurence Trifon, keyboardist of electronica duo Trifonic. "So with MixMatchMusic we’re just trying to get the fans engaged with our music. I feel you have to do anything you can to stand out and be more appealing."
Clearly, new tech-savvy methods are working, and they’re effective enough to sway The Beatles. The British pop-rock band recently entered into a deal with Harmonix to make a Beatles music game. This move signifies a change of heart for The Beatles, who are continuing to avoid selling their music through the iTunes Store.
"The Beatles continue to evolve with the passing of time and how
wonderful that The Beatles’ legacy will find its natural progression
into the 21st century through the computerized world we live in," said Beatles drummer Ringo Star, in a statement. "Let
the games commence."
Screenshot: Weezer, Nine Inch Nails and Daft Punk recently released music games for the popular iPhone.
Photo: Brothers Laurence and Brian Trifon are using a remix wizard to promote their electronica band Trifonic. Jon Snyder/Wired.com
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