‘So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star?’

The increasingly low barriers to entering the music industry have generated an oversupply of music-related products. As recorded music competes with illegal downloads and a range of entertainment alternatives including DVDs, video games, cell phones and the internet itself, the quintessential question facing major labels and individual musicians is ‘how do we make money from making music?’ Because of recent restructuring the music industry has literally been sent back to square one and tasked with reevaluating its whole business plan. For researchers, however, the ways in which the music industry answers this fundamental question may pave the way for other industries including TV and film which are beginning to face similar market failures.

One recent solution involves adding musical content and value to new and existing products. So instead of selling CDs, bands are licensing their songs to video games and other outlets. Early returns seem to be positive –  in 2007, for example, the combined U.S. sales of Rock Band and Guitar Hero were $935 million, which was $100 million higher than all of the music downloaded from Apple’s iTunes music store that same year.

When I first saw this stat, I asked myself why games like Rock Band are so popular and why so many people now prefer to consume music in alternative ways. Playing a music-themed video game instead of sitting on a cosy bean bag chair with a lava lamp and listening to Dark Side of the Moon.

One answer is that as people have become more creative and hands-on in their working lives. This is spilling over in to the consumption/entertainment  sphere. Moreover, as many creative people and especially kids don’t get the opportunity to express their creativity at school or at their jobs, when they get home they have a pent-up demand for an interactive stimulus. As a result, games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero are so popular because they offer the chance to engage actively and manipulate the experience and musical content. You physically mimic playing different instruments and ‘create’ your own profiles and solos in the songs, for example. In contrast, even the best albums only allow you to listen passively to content that was locked in when it was originally produced.

My theory as a music researcher and musician is that passive consumption of music no longer corresponds with our lifestyles and need for creative expression and hands on interaction. Does this mean people will stop making recorded music? Of course not, but there is mounting evidence that the most successful music-related products in the marketplace have an active or experiential element to them.