While it is true that some of the biggest bands in the world leave their members rich beyond their wildest dreams, the same cannot be said for most in the music business. Even getting by can be difficult, as being a professional musician takes so much skill, and so much time, that it takes over other opportunities, making a traditional day job extremely difficult.
This is one of the reasons why bands try to diversify, spreading their music over as many avenues as possible to generate attention and bring in additional profit wherever possible. This ties into the misplaced idea that the greatest way to make money as a band is through a string of hits, but the reality is not quite so simple.
Rather than straight selling albums, the most rapidly growing common way in which musicians leverage their music is through other methods like merchandising and licensing. Movies, television, and radio have been more established on this front, but the explosive growth of video games over the last few decades is also proving ground ripe for exploration.
This can take many forms, covering the many shapes that modern gaming represents, with the potential here providing benefits on both sides of the aisle.
Perhaps the most obvious way gaming has helped musicians is in a manner analogous to traditional film and television licensing, which is the direct inclusion of tracks on the biggest releases. The first-person looter shooter Borderlands utilised this to great effect, using Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked from Cage the Elephant in its trailers and game intro.
Bringing in over 3 million in sales for the first game, eventually reaching around 4.5 million, a large number among the wide audience were directly introduced to a band and song which effectively became a symbol of the game’s theme and mood. When many people think of the first Borderlands game, they now think of this song, and the amount of indirect profit that this affords is frankly incalculable.
The more modern form of music’s inclusion within gaming can be found in the world of online casinos. This might come as a surprise to the uninitiated, but this is an enormously wide-spread and profitable industry and with this market have come new opportunities for bands both new and established.
Examples of this can be found in the websites responsible for reviews and critiques of the different casinos. While these focus on listing bonuses and major positive aspects, the services linked within contain games that directly benefit from professional and amateur musicians. The NetEnt-developed slot Guns N’ Roses, for example, is directly based on the band, drawing and generating attention in both directions.
For lesser-known musicians, the inclusion here can come in backing music which, while not the focus, can still draw attention with catchy riffs and tunes. As with the bigger named slots and major traditional video games, these can generate an entirely new audience, and this is an opportunity through which some newer names have been able to find success.
As the gaming industry is now worth more than even the film box office, while still being on the rise, it stands to reason that musicians also have more to gain than even by investigating the new potential it represents. Whether through more traditional licensing, or something more subtle to make headway, this is quickly becoming a staple of the music industry, and will only become more popular going forward.