But there are challenges. Unlike picking a song for a movie, TV show, or commercial, Schnur must consider an incredibly broad demo. ''Madden is the hardest game to program,'' he says. ''I've gotta please a kid who only listens to hip-hop and another who listens to metal. I've gotta find 20 songs where a kid might only love one, but think the other 19 are kinda cool.''
There is, in fact, a rough guideline Schnur uses when vetting the few thousand cuts for the 20-plus-track Madden playlist. Rule No. 1: ''It has to be aggressive, it has to pump up the gameplay, it has to be in-your-face,'' he says. ''Which eliminates a few bands that I'd like to have — Snow Patrol or Coldplay — but ultimately they don't give you that effect. Game first.''
Rule No. 2: Resist outside pressure. ''Three years ago I listened to the [NFL] and placed Bon Jovi in the game, because they were kicking off the football season with a concert,'' says Schnur. ''That was a mistake, with all due respect to Bon Jovi. The feedback was mixed. We didn't listen to our own guts.''
And the most important maxim, Rule No. 3: The music has to be so new, so ahead of the trends, so forward-thinking, that it's not even on the pop-culture radar yet. Because of the long lead times of the gaming industry, Schnur and his three-person team of music geeks are currently working on the playlist for Madden NFL 2006, which won't hit shelves until August. ''It's a matter of being way ahead of the curve,'' says Schnur. ''If some adult on our production team says, 'I love that — I heard that last week,' it's too late. It can't be based on personal taste, because we need to satisfy 7 million kids at a time.''
When Schnur first started, finding the songs to please those millions of button pushers was a struggle. ''We'd run around from New York to London, trying to convince people why this space might be valuable to their new artist. It was a constant pitch,'' he remembers. ''Of the couple hundred songs that ended up on games, we had to seek out every single one. Now? There isn't one that isn't brought to us — it's done a complete 180.''
Which is why an entirely black-clad rapper named Stat Quo is now sitting politely in the EA office. Arriving directly from Dr. Dre's studio, the Atlanta-based rapper — a potential star who's been blessed with the imprimatur of no less than Eminem himself — is carrying a CD-R containing four possible smash singles. While his entourage lounges in comfy chairs, Stat Quo commands the stereo, cues up a track, and leans back, closing his eyes, pulling the brim of his hat down snug, and interlocking his fingers as the lush, baroque beat pumps out of the speakers. Twenty minutes later, his eyes perk up, and he waits for the judgment.
''I think we've just heard one of the most important records of the year, and one of the biggest records of the year,'' Schnur says excitedly. ''When you get on that Grammy stage next year, I want you to say thanks to EA!''
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