Back in April of this year, Motley Crue announced that it would release its single, ‘Saints of Los Angeles’ not just on iTunes but also on the hit video game Rock Band. For those of you that have been living under a rock, Rock Band is a game that allows the player to simulate playing a guitar while following notes on a screen to their favorite songs. Certain versions of Rock Band allow you to download new songs off the Internet; enter opportunity.
So what were the results of this experiment? The obvious results, which are widely reported, were a 5X greater purchase record through Rock Band than through iTunes! 47,000 sales through Rock Band and only 10,000 on iTunes during the first week.
The thing that I find most interesting is the use of a new technology to leverage marketing in a novel way. By being the first band to promote their song on a video game(and on an extremely popular game), Motley Crue did several things: they opened their song to a brand new audience and new market to be listened to over and over and over and over again, they created an incredible PR buzz and received enormous publicity by being the first to use video games as a marketing platform for a new song, and they chose a medium that will virally spread from gamer to gamer and be played repeatedly and loved for being part of challenging game play. It is very likely that many who buy the song for Rock Band will eventually buy it from iTunes as well.
Rock Band can only hold so many songs and this gimmick won’t work for everyone, but bands don’t seem to be getting the message and jumping on the band wagon. Def Leppard has decided to similarly release their new song ‘Nine Lives’ on Guitar Hero III and there is still a lot of room for bands here to make a smart marketing play, but the window won’t stay open forever.
