Guitar Hero Boss Ponders Subscription Service
The founder of Guitar Hero says that music subscriptions and transferring of songs to your library may be on the horizon.
In an interview with the Seattle Times [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010333810_brier23.html], Kai Huang, founder of Red Octane Games, discussed the future of the Guitar Hero series. Huang said that the company is trying to attract fans of other genres of music besides rock, despite lackluster sales of DJ Hero. The company is also looking into providing a service where paying a monthly fee would allow unlimited downloads of songs, as well as letting customers transfer music in the game to their personal libraries.
Legal issues may impede transfer of music and subscriptions but Huang acknowledged that Red Octane is working with music companies to sort it out. "Today there are licensing issues with just being able to pull in your own music library and play games. But we know people love that idea and they want that to happen. We have been exploring and continue to explore how we can put those features in and make something like that happen."
In regards to a music subscription service, Huang added, "That's definitely one of the things we would love to do. There are a lot of issues around music licensing. Consumers want it; I know I want it. We're trying to make that happen."
Huang would like to open up rhythm games to as many genres of music as possible. "We're really just at the beginning of music games," he said. "What we love and what we're constantly looking at is, how do you expose people to new music and new instruments? In the U.S., country music is obviously very popular. Globally, classical music has always been very interesting. Latin music - there are just so many different genres of music and instruments that haven't been tapped into yet."
The combination of playing a song in a game and listening to a song on your MP3 player is one that will allow games like Guitar Hero reach new customers. Imagine buying a song once, and then being able to play it on whatever format you desire. That feels like the future and I'm glad that someone is trying to make it happen.
I will also buy Classical Pianist Hero when it comes out.
Source: Seattle Times [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010333810_brier23.html]
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The founder of Guitar Hero says that music subscriptions and transferring of songs to your library may be on the horizon.
In an interview with the Seattle Times [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010333810_brier23.html], Kai Huang, founder of Red Octane Games, discussed the future of the Guitar Hero series. Huang said that the company is trying to attract fans of other genres of music besides rock, despite lackluster sales of DJ Hero. The company is also looking into providing a service where paying a monthly fee would allow unlimited downloads of songs, as well as letting customers transfer music in the game to their personal libraries.
Legal issues may impede transfer of music and subscriptions but Huang acknowledged that Red Octane is working with music companies to sort it out. "Today there are licensing issues with just being able to pull in your own music library and play games. But we know people love that idea and they want that to happen. We have been exploring and continue to explore how we can put those features in and make something like that happen."
In regards to a music subscription service, Huang added, "That's definitely one of the things we would love to do. There are a lot of issues around music licensing. Consumers want it; I know I want it. We're trying to make that happen."
Huang would like to open up rhythm games to as many genres of music as possible. "We're really just at the beginning of music games," he said. "What we love and what we're constantly looking at is, how do you expose people to new music and new instruments? In the U.S., country music is obviously very popular. Globally, classical music has always been very interesting. Latin music - there are just so many different genres of music and instruments that haven't been tapped into yet."
The combination of playing a song in a game and listening to a song on your MP3 player is one that will allow games like Guitar Hero reach new customers. Imagine buying a song once, and then being able to play it on whatever format you desire. That feels like the future and I'm glad that someone is trying to make it happen.
I will also buy Classical Pianist Hero when it comes out.
Source: Seattle Times [http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2010333810_brier23.html]
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