Music licensing for video games has become a priority for the record industry, but not necessarily for the upfront cost. Video games like GTA, Rockband, and Guitar Hero have begun to occupy the spaces vacated by MTV and radio.
Grand Theft Auto IV - which was released last April - sold 3.6 million units on the first day of sale. Since then, it has grossed $500 million. It features the largest soundtrack for any video game so far. It is the first to include a feature that allows players to tag any song in the soundtrack for later purchase on Amazon.
When it comes to more music-driven games like "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band," publishers of hit songs are successfully demanding per-unit royalties instead of flat per-song rates. According to one publisher licensing music for both, rates range from a penny to 4 cents of each game sold, as well as 20% of the net proceeds from new songs that gamers can download that weren't included in the original game. This is in addition to upfront fees that can range from $5,000 t0 $20,000.
Stevie probably thinks GTA is some fun, car-racing game - or that's what her business team told her so they could sign the deal. The game is very controversial because of it's violent content, etc. She'd probably prefer Stand Back be used to sell deoderant than have Edge serve as the soundtrack to hooker beatdowns, murder and more.
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