Video games have slowly but surely emerged as a rising force in entertainment venues. The recent acceptance of video games as a substantial entertainment venue has led to creative cross marketing ventures. To some extent, most have proven to be rather successful. This emerging effort to use games as a source of selling things such as music has been seen before, but is being touted as Phase 2 with the recent release of Grand Theft Auto IV.

It can be said that Phase 1 began with games such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero III, where success has been found in the selling of musical tracks through their respective platforms. This type of avenue is limited at best, as both of these games are rhythm-based, and as such, consumers purchase their music for use with them. The consumer is then never able to take their purchase outside of the game and listen to it on an MP3 player. That is, until now.

GTA IV includes a feature that allows gamers to tag a song they like from the soundtrack and receive more information about it. From there, they learn about the title and artist and can then store these songs in a custom playlist on Amazon.com's digital music store for purchase at a later date. Within the game, there is a "buy" button which allows gamers to purchase songs that they hear on the fly.

Senior vice president of marketing and licensing for EMI Music North America stated, "It's a very big deal for us. We're continually looking for new ways to sell our music. There are millions of people buying 'Grand Theft Auto,' and we hope they will enjoy the music and in turn buy those tracks."

With this business model laid out, it could open the door to a great deal of profit sharing between video game developers and the music industry. With sales plummeting, several music labels are vying for any possible way to sell their music to the masses. GTA IV, with its record setting sales statistics, could prove to be a very viable means of transport for music purchases that may otherwise never happen.

Source: Reuters