COPYCENSE

"In the past three years, particularly this year, the link between the music industry and the video game industry — the former in a revenue slump, the latter on a revenue high — has gotten only closer.

"For example, the rock-punk band Incubus wrote music for Halo 2, and Snoop Dogg’s cover of the Doors classic ‘Riders on the Storm’ made its debut on Need for Speed Underground 2. Both games were released last month.

"For artists as established as Green Day, whose ‘American Idiot’ has just been nominated for a Grammy as record of the year, winning a spot on Madden NFL’s soundtrack is like having a 20-second commercial on ‘Monday Night Football’ or ‘Desperate Housewives.’ For an up-and-comer such as the Game, it’s an even bigger deal, the kind of break that gives instant celebrity. For both, it’s a new route to an old audience, as sure a bet as any when it comes to grabbing a prized demographic: 18-to-34-year-old males, 75 percent of whom play video games, according to Nielsen Interactive Entertainment."

Jose Antonio Vargas. Musicians Are Making Tracks to Video Games. WashingtonPost.com. Dec. 9, 2004.

(Editor�s Note: The Post allows free access to their stories on the Web for 14 days before sending the stories to the paper�s fee-based Archives.)

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