Games A Boon For Music Industry?

In these times of recession, nearly every industry is looking for a meal ticket and a recent New York Times “Freakanomics” blog post touched on video games’ ability to keep the music biz alive and well.

Guest writer David Edery, who happens to work for Xbox Live Arcade, riffed on games like “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” and the dramatic effect they’ve had on music consumption in the country, generating “hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for their respective publishers.”

To clarify, Edery broke down the highlights.

For starters, the special Aerosmith edition of “Guitar Hero” that debuted in July has resulted in more revenue for the band than any of its individual albums, he noted.

Photo: AP Photo

Mohegan Sun Arena, Uncasville, Conn.

When The Who took a similar step, rereleasing 12 of their hits through “Rock Band,” the band’s Nielsen SoundScan numbers reportedly increased 159 percent.

But it’s not just classic rock being embraced by gamers. Edery also reported that Mötley Crüe’s new single, “Saints of Los Angeles,” sold more than five times as many units through the “Rock Band” store than through iTunes its first week of release.

Still, the folks over at music blog Idolator had their own spin on things, and took Edery to task for comparing apples to oranges in the case of Aerosmith’s “Guitar Hero” success.

“It’s a video game, not an album; people aren’t buying it to hear the tracks, which they could hear elsewhere in a more convenient way, and the revenue realized from their Guitar Hero wouldn’t have been possible without the band already having released so many giant-selling albums,” blogger Mike Barthel wrote.

It’s pretty likely the band wouldn’t have such success in the gaming world without healthy touring numbers either. A quick look at Aerosmith’s North American totals in 2007 showed the band moved more than 210,000 tickets that averaged about $70 each, which makes those “Guitar Hero” sales (reportedly around $8 million) look less significant.