Monday, February 23, 2009

What's Down Doc?

The number of artists from which Harmonix is willing to license from.

Warner Music Group (yeah, it was a long was to go for a Warner Bros. reference) claims that the amount they get in licensing and royalties from Rock Band are not enough. According to an article in Wired Magazine (via Rock Band Forums):
"The money Warner recieves for the use of its songs is 'paltry' [Bronfman] said, and if the game makers dont pony up more cash, 'we will not liscense to those games."

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

"...Aerosmith has reportedly earned more from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith than from any single album is the bands history."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner_Music_Group_artists

The shit kinda hit the fan a while ago with tons of Youtube videos of Playthroughs being taken down because of claims by Warner. The problem is that we don't really know how much. The most reasonable estimate I've seen is 9 cents per unit sold. The source isn't professional, but I said it's an estimate.

Here's a list of all the bands I'll be missing:
-AC/DC (HA! We already got the Track Pack!)
-Avenged Sevenfold (I loved Beast and The Harlot)
-The B-52s (No "Love Shack"?)
-Eric Clapton (No "Layla"?)
-Garbage (No "Cherry Lips"?)
-Green Day (NOOOOOO!!)
-Huey Lewis and the News (I thought their early work was a bit too new wave for me, but when Sports came out in '86, I thought they came into their own both commercially and artistically)
-Killswitch Engage (No "Holy Diver"?)
-Led Zepplin (Well that was a crapshoot anyway)
-My Chemical Romance, only for the possibility of "Desolation Row" in time for "The Watchmen"
-The Ramones
-R.E.M.
-Red Hot Chili Peppers
-The Sex Pistols
-The Stooges, therefore no Iggy Pop or "I Wanna Be Your Dog", "Search and Destroy", "The Passenger", "Lust for Life" and so on.
-Sugar Ray (remember, people, I grew up in the mid/late 90's)
-Hendrix
-Pantera (Surprisingly, Rock Revolution was the only rhythm game to get them...)

However, I'm thankful that the following bands will not be availbile, even though I am not required to download them:
-Phil Collins
-Dragonforce
-Nickelback

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