VIDEO GAMES Record companies offer up some tunes

Performers are getting a piece of the action by doing songs for video games.
By ERIC GWINN
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Once an afterthought in the production process, video game soundtracks increasingly use original music to reach new listeners who blur traditional entertainment boundaries.
"Record companies are realizing that this is the new radio," says Greg O'Connor-Read, founder of Music4Games.com and an agent for video game composers.
In addition to licensing tunes, record companies also are commissioning new works for games. Big names have written music for games on the shelves. Hip-hop performer Snoop Dogg created three original songs for "True Crime: Streets of L.A." Rock icon Peter Gabriel contributed a track for "Uru: Ages Beyond Myst," released Nov. 11, and will write an original composition for the next, as-yet-untitled, "Myst" puzzle game.
"The acts themselves play video games, so they're a lot more willing to get their songs in the game," says Scott Lee, product manager for "Project Gotham Racing 2." That game's soundtrack uses prerecorded music and deejay banter from real radio stations.
A troubled industry
"It's no secret that the record industry is in deep trouble," said Randy Winograd of HSI, a Los Angeles production house for TV ads, music videos and game music. "Consumers would rather download than pay $15 for a CD, leaving the record industry scrambling for revenue. How do they monetize music? License to video games."
Typical music budgets for video game makers have tripled over the last three years to $150,000 from $50,000, according to Tommy Tallarico, president of Game Audio Network Guild, or G.A.N.G., an organization that focuses on improving music in interactive media.
G.A.N.G. also has persuaded U.S. musicians' unions to lower rates charged for working on video games, leading to more American musicians performing on such titles as the recently released "Medal of Honor: Rising Sun" and "Call of Duty."
Asia and Europe have recognized the power of video game soundtracks for years. Symphonic versions of video game music fill stores in Japan. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts recently added an awards category for video game music. In the United States, game soundtracks are slowly showing up on the shelves of large department stores and music stores.
Separating themselves
As programmers push video chips to new limits -- with realistically moving humans and mood-creating, natural-looking shadows -- game companies are turning to soundtracks to further separate themselves from their competitors.
For instance, players who preordered the comic book-style spy game "XIII," from UbiSoft, received the jazzy soundtrack on a separate CD. Electronic Arts is hyping its "NBA Live" hip-hop soundtrack with a Web site devoted to playing music taken from the game. EA also is pushing its "SSX 3" snowboarding soundtrack with its own CD.
Sales aren't earth-shattering yet: Since its release in February 2002, "SSX Tricky" has sold 1,800 soundtrack units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. But in a sign that buyers may be catching on, the sequel "SSX 3" already has sold more than 1,800 units since its release Sept. 30.
The benchmark for soundtracks is the seven-CD effort from the hot-selling "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," released a year ago. Tempting buyers with secret game codes and '80s tunes ranging from Ozzy Osbourne's "Bark at the Moon" to Grand Master Flash's "The Message," the "Vice City" soundtrack has found its audience.
Each "Vice City" CD offers very real tunes from the fictional radio stations in the seminal drive-anywhere-do-anything game that has sold 10.5 million copies. The most popular CD, "V-Rock," sold 42,300 copies of music from Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Osbourne. Together, the CDs totaled 142,200 units sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan.