Electronics Arts puts soundtrack songs up for sale

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - After years of highlighting new bands through its many videogames, the world's largest game publisher is getting into the digital music game.

In a first for the videogame industry, Electronic Arts has opened a digital music store called EA Trax on its Web site, selling licensed and original music found on its videogame soundtracks.

The move highlights the increasing role the videogame industry is taking in the field of digital music. For years, the music industry has worked closely with videogame publishers to promote new acts and releases through their soundtracks, particularly in genres that don't get much radio airtime and that also appeal to the core gamer demographic of 18- to 35-year-old males.

Of late, however, many videogames have featured original music that is not released on CDs or other outlets. But EA worldwide executive of music and marketing Steve Schnur said the site's 6 million page views per month should enable the company to close the gap between music discovery and music acquisition in videogames.

"There was always that remaining frustration," he said, about hearing a song on a videogame soundtrack that is otherwise unavailable on the radio or online. "This is the beginning of closing that link."

DOUBLE DECKER

The EA Trax service has two levels. Like movie soundtracks, much of the music on videogame soundtracks has been previously released, so EA has teamed up with Apple to sell these tracks through the iTunes music store.

But videogames increasingly are adding original scores and custom songs -- such as Snoop Dogg's remix of the Doors' "Riders on the Storm" for the "Need for Speed Underground" soundtrack -- which EA owns the rights to under its EA Recordings joint venture with Nettwerk Music Group. For these tracks, Apple is linking not to iTunes but to an internal digital music store operated by Nettwerk. The tracks will be available without digital rights management and also as ringtones.

EA Recordings has made some of these tracks available to other digital retailers in the past year, but this is the first time the company is selling the music directly, through its own service.

For a music industry desperate to expand the digital music pie, the ability to sell music at the point of discovery could be the holy grail. And while the EA Trax store doesn't quite meet that need -- requiring gamers to go from their game console to their computer to buy a song -- it's certainly a first step that positions EA as a legitimate music provider.

EA will promote the EA Trax service within the videogames themselves, as well as in the user handbooks and other materials, and also will provide links on its popular Pogo.com online game service.

Ultimately, Schnur said, the goal is to help fans buy music directly from their videogame consoles.

The new generation of consoles -- specifically the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 -- is connected to the Internet 24/7 and features stores where users can buy and download various types of content. While at first this content consisted primarily of videogame upgrades, other forms of media are expected soon.

EA's move is just the latest in several that it has made into the music business as the digital music market grew. In February alone, EA also acquired online karaoke competition site SingShot and joined with MySpace to host an online talent contest called Burnout Bandslam.

Reuters/Billboard