The music industry's getting pretty excited too. Unlike members of the Napster generation, who grew up believing that music should be free, the under-12 set are learning that songs have value. Activision and MTV are selling song downloads specifically designed to work with their games. Adding tracks to your library costs twice what you pay on iTunes, and for the artists and labels, who get a hefty royalty, those $2 fees are starting to add up. ''[Compared with iTunes,] the artist's split is bigger,'' says Mötley Crüe manager Allen Kovac. ''And if you own the masters and the publishing, it's humongous.'' Fans have already bought more than 44 million downloads through Guitar Hero and Rock Band. ''And we're just getting going,'' says president of MTV Networks Music Van Toffler. ''Imagine the catalogs we can unleash.''
For once-mighty rock bands now struggling to get noticed, this is excellent news. When Activision teamed with Aerosmith in June to release Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, sales topped $50 million. Metallica will release a gameplay version of their new album, Death Magnetic, on Sept. 12, the same day it hits stores, and there's also talk of a stand-alone Guitar Hero: Metallica. Guns N' Roses say they will offer a single off Chinese Democracy exclusively through Rock Band, taking a cue from Mötley Crüe, whose latest single sold five times better as a Rock Band download than on iTunes. Mötley Crüe also partnered with the game for this summer's multi-act Crüefest tour, running a contest at each venue where the winning players got to perform on stage in front of thousands just before the headlining slot — their rock-star dreams fully realized thanks to all that practice.
Skeptics might point out that these developments seem to benefit musty classic acts more than new artists — that this all could be better for the music industry than for music itself. But rhythm games are helping break new bands, too. The Texas rock group Flyleaf, for example, saw their debut album shoot past the platinum mark after the song ''I'm So Sick'' was featured on Rock Band. The companies behind both games are being bombarded by labels looking to place up-and-coming artists, but they're trying to avoid turning off fans by forcing new acts on them too quickly. ''People can smell marketing these days,'' says MTV senior VP Paul Degooyer, who plays a big role in picking Rock Band's songs. ''We get offered a lot, but the games shouldn't be jumping ahead of something.''
NEXT PAGE: ''We had a lot of doors shut on us, no question. Artists didn't want to work with us. They thought, 'Cheap little toy guitar? I don't want my name associated with that.'''
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