Gamers Love Their Music

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120081,tk,dn031705X,00.asp

"Care for an MP3 with that frag? Companies that want to boost sales of music and portable music players should consider marketing to a growing, but untapped audience--hard-core gamers--according to the results of a survey by IDC and IGN Entertainment. Gamers are spending hours each week playing computer games, but are also big consumers of music and audio devices, the survey of more than 6000 gamers found. However, rather than trying to pry gamers away from the warm glow of their LCD screens to go see a show, the music industry should look for ways to integrate music with video games, such as tying audio devices and services into games or marketing online music and gaming services together, according to an IDC report."

I think the idea of integrating music into games is really interesting - although some games have great musical scores/soundtracks, a lot of them do not. Imagine having popular tunes integrated into the game, changing songs at key moments, etc. Then having a way to easily buy/rent the tracks when you exit the game - kind of like what the WB does with some of it's TV shows. I watch Smallville, and in most shows they have a couple of great songs, which I often look up on Napster or add to my Amazon wishlist. Anyone do the same?

[Jason Dunn]

http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,120081,tk,dn031705X,00.asp

"Care for an MP3 with that frag? Companies that want to boost sales of music and portable music players should consider marketing to a growing, but untapped audience--hard-core gamers--according to the results of a survey by IDC and IGN Entertainment. Gamers are spending hours each week playing computer games, but are also big consumers of music and audio devices, the survey of more than 6000 gamers found. However, rather than trying to pry gamers away from the warm glow of their LCD screens to go see a show, the music industry should look for ways to integrate music with video games, such as tying audio devices and services into games or marketing online music and gaming services together, according to an IDC report."

I think the idea of integrating music into games is really interesting - although some games have great musical scores/soundtracks, a lot of them do not. Imagine having popular tunes integrated into the game, changing songs at key moments, etc. Then having a way to easily buy/rent the tracks when you exit the game - kind of like what the WB does with some of it's TV shows. I watch Smallville, and in most shows they have a couple of great songs, which I often look up on Napster or add to my Amazon wishlist. Anyone do the same?

[RWC_Zippy]

I've never looked up songs from a TV show but have wanted to track down songs from various commercials. I like sites like WhatsThatCalled or AdTunes to look up cool songs, or snippets of songs, used in commercials.

[Chris Gohlke]

I thought the Grand Theft Auto concept of using the different radio stations with lots of good music was pretty cool. I've got the box set of the soundtracks and it rocks.

[Jason Dunn]

Originally Posted by Chris Gohlke

I thought the Grand Theft Auto concept of using the different radio stations with lots of good music was pretty cool. I've got the box set of the soundtracks and it rocks.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that - great example! I've never played GTA more than a few minutes, but I've seen the soundtracks. :-)

[Lee Yuan Sheng]

Oh, I loved that. I still remember the talk show in GTA3 - Hilarious, and I'm still amazed they actually took time to script that out!