Music For Videogames Also Sees Action On The Charts

A new survey of videogame enthusiasts finds that the placement of music in games is helping to drive CD sales.

In a poll by online marketing firm ElectricArtists of more than 1,000 videogame consumers aged 13-32, 40% of respondents said that after hearing a song they liked in a videogame, they bought the CD.

The survey also revealed that such developing artists as OK Go (Capitol), Good Charlotte (Daylight/Epic), Nappy Roots (Atlantic), and Trustcompany (Geffen/Interscope) have gained valuable exposure from being featured in videogames. All have tracks or CDs on current Billboard charts.

Additionally, the survey found that 74% of respondents think that soundtracks help sell videogames, 43% downloaded songs from a videogame soundtrack from such file-sharing networks as Kazaa, 40% learned of a new song or band from a videogame, 27% purchased music by new bands they discovered through the videogame, and 92% remembered the music well after they stopped playing.

Among the videogames identified as having the best soundtracks are the Final Fantasy series, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Castlevania, Shenmue, and the Tony Hawk and Metal Gear Solid series.

"More and more, the major record labels are looking toward videogames to help break new artists that might not have enough radio airplay or exposure on MTV to generate respectable sales," ElectricArtists CEO Marc Schiller says. "While the primary reason to buy the product remains fun and games, the music that adds pace and rhythm to them is having an impact on CD awareness and sales as well. The number of conversions from listener/players to music buyers is significant."

The findings come on the heels of a recent announcement from market-research firm the NPD Group that retail sales of videogame hardware, software, and accessories grew 10% in 2002. The videogame industry generated $10.3 billion in sales last year, driven by the popularity of titles like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (Billboard, Feb. 8).

Label executives say they see much promise in promoting acts through videogames—even if they are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward studies like ElectricArtists'. Capitol VP of new media Ted Mico says, "We are still at a very nascent stage in the development of music and games. Artists, labels, and game developers are still experimenting with all the possibilities. So it is too early to be able to quantify what the inclusion of a track or an artist in a game means in terms of CD sales. If these gaming trends continue, however, it's a pretty good bet that within a year we will break an artist solely through their presence in a videogame."

The most immediate impact labels see from game placement is in artist awareness.

Capitol act OK Go contributed the track "Get Over It" to Electronic Art's Madden 2003, the first project for the leading game publisher's EA Trax division that was designed to work with labels to develop and acquire music content from emerging and top acts (Billboard, Sept. 14, 2002). "Being included in the Madden game was a huge opportunity in the marketing of OK Go," Mico says. "Before the song was even shipped to radio, program directors were getting calls about the track because people were hearing it in the game."

J Records senior director of strategic marketing Donna Clower agrees that videogame promotion is helping build artist awareness. "We've been down that road with Busta Rhymes," she notes. Rhymes is a featured character in NBA Live 2003 from Electronic Arts, and the song "Here We Go" is featured on the soundtrack.

Schiller, who spent five years with House of Blues helping build online fan communities, started ElectricArtists about five years ago to leverage peer-to-peer communication and build distribution for new entertainment and consumer products. ElectricArtists has done a series of integrated gaming/music marketing campaigns for titles, including Activision's Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 game soundtrack.

"We looked for those Web sites that were influencing others and applied reverse engineering to go to these 'gatekeepers' when we came up with the survey idea," he notes. "While there had been a growing amount of activity between games companies and label artists, no one had actually tried to put the data together."

Completed early last December, the survey included "yes or no" questions, as well as "top five picks," "buying habits," and demographic data, with about 1,000 respondents completing all the data. Approximately 95% of the respondents were male, with about 83% from the U.S. The other respondents were from England, Canada, Australia, and Denmark—regions where videogame sales are strong and Internet usage high.

"The ElectricArtists survey results reinforce the power that the videogame industry has on the entertainment world," Ziff Davis Media game group senior VP Dale Strang says. "As a group, gamers are extremely active and influential music consumers [and] keenly aware of the effects games and music have on each other."

Going forward, Schiller emphasizes, "both [the music and gaming] industries need to invest in each other on a long-term basis."

He adds, "We also discovered that poorly chosen music can ruin a videogame, so aside from the opportunity to spread the word and reap sales benefits from well-coordinated games-to-music, this pairing must be done carefully and well."