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Copyright and Monopolies





http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/arts/music/15POPL.html

For Musicians, Microsoft's Xbox Is No Jackpot

By NEIL STRAUSS

OS ANGELES, Nov. 14 - Tomorrow the Xbox, the new video-game
console from Microsoft, arrives in stores on the heels of a $500
million marketing blitz. But it doesn't seem as if much of that
money is going to the thousands of musicians who have provided
the company with songs to use in the games that will be played on
it.

 Though a band can typically make $10,000 to $20,000 when a song
is included in a video game, Microsoft has been asking musicians
to contribute their music to video games for pennies - and in
some cases no money at all, with no upfront fee and no royalties
on the back end. Musicians, from small, independent punk bands to
major-label artists, have been accepting this deal, hoping for
the promotional boost that comes with being heard in a game that
is played obsessively by teenagers across the country.

 Joining a band is not a lucrative career choice for most
musicians. Many who are signed to major labels spend their
careers in debt to those record companies, trying to earn back
advances and expenses. But the increasing use of contemporary
songs in movies, video games and advertisements has meant an
unexpected windfall for lesser-known and midlevel artists.

 Microsoft, however, is changing that dynamic. "I asked if we
could get any money, and they just said no," said Larry Cooper,
who runs Revelation Records, a punk, metal and hardcore label
that has several songs on the soundtrack to Amped, a snowboarding
game. "I almost thought that out of principle, if there's no
payment, we shouldn't do that kind of stuff. But I didn't want to
snip out an opportunity for a band that might want to do that
kind of promotion." Of the bands Mr. Cooper asked, all but one
agreed to provide free music to Microsoft.

 "I think they were just looking for cheap music, and that's why
they called a lot of small labels," Mr. Cooper continued. "I
asked them who else was on the soundtrack and made some
suggestions, but they said they wanted to stick with certain
labels because they didn't have to pay for licensing."

...
-- 
Kristian Köhntopp, NetUSE AG, Dr.-Hell-Straße, D-24107 Kiel
Tel: +49 431 386 435 00, Fax: +49 431 386 435 99

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