“Go F*ck Yourself”: English Band Slams Rockstar after Company Offers Only $7,500 to Use Its Song in GTA VI

[Tsing]

Rockstar Games, the American video game publisher and parent company of the studio behind some of the world's most celebrated game franchises, including Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, and Red Dead Redemption, are actually cheapskates, according to the details of a planned licensing deal for GTA VI that Martyn Ware, the keyboardist for English synth-pop band Heaven 17, shared on X last week.

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[Riccochet]

Welp. Some no name keyboardist from an 80's band that virtually no one has ever heard of, is now out $7500, for a song that probably no one knows about.

 

[Denpepe]

It's not a lot of money, but they do use a lot of songs so it quickly adds up

 

[Brian_B]

Another song for you:
“Take the Money and Run”

 

[Grimlakin]

You know what... I support the artist valuing their work. But all rockstar has to do is find an ok cover band... licensing the lyrics from the publisher... and do their own recording. Do that for a few tracks and boom cheaper versions of the same songs. Freaking movies and TV shows do it all the time.

 

[MadMummy76]

Is your work worth more because it is used in a billion dollar project? Do programmers get paid 10x when working on GTA VI as opposed to a "normal" AAA game? Somehow I don't think so.

 

[Denpepe]

But all rockstar has to do is find an ok cover band... licensing the lyrics from the publisher... and do their own recording.

They have enough choice in music, plenty of artists will happily comply to make that not worth their time, that's only an option if for some reason you need a specific song, but for a GTA game with hundreds of songs it does not realy matter.

 

[Grimlakin]

They have enough choice in music, plenty of artists will happily comply to make that not worth their time, that's only an option if for some reason you need a specific song, but for a GTA game with hundreds of songs it does not realy matter.

Depending on where and how they wanted to use the music sure. But the fact that the single player (my favorite part) plays out like a heist/mafia movie (my favorite.) they may have scenes that they want/need specific music as envisioned by the creative director/music coordinator.

Video games especially rockstar games have easily surpassed movie production costs and ROI. So spending to get the songs they want shouldn't be a big deal. And I feel that the artists are justified in charging whatever they want based on the contract of use.

Clearly the artist isn't wholesaling their work on some artists portal where it's the same price based on a scaling use.

For instance... if you make a movie. And show it in theaters. Those theaters are paying a license based on a viewership. The licensing to the songs or other content is based on expected distribution and consumption of content.

Sometimes it's just a boon to the song writer/creator and they like the work so they make special deals because it's going to be good for them. (Think Stranger Things season 3 or I presume the Deadpool Movies.)

But in whole the prospective audience of the music is built into the cost of licensing said music. Or other media.

Hell you think that if GTA had a Pepsi cola brand in it somewhere that they wouldn't be charging pepsi OUT THE *** to pay of that placement that's going to be in the view of potentially millions of consumers... and a hell of a lot more eyeball time than a 30 second commercial on TV that nobody watches?