AEROSMITH is a household name in the rock and roll scene. Since its formation in 1970 in Boston, the group released their first self-titled album in 1973.
Called, “America’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” and “The Bad Boys of Boston”, Aerosmith has gone on to sell more than 150 million records worldwide and with four Grammy awards, the band has influenced a generation of music lovers across the globe.
While having sold so many records worldwide, did Aerosmith make more money from Guitar Hero than any of their albums?
Do you know if this is true?
Verdict:
TRUE
According to the head of Activision, the band has made more money from licensing their songs and images for Guitar Hero, where the Aerosmith game made more money than any of their albums.
Gizmodo unearthed an old PC Magazine which highlighted Aerosmith’s Guitar Hero success and while each band member has an estimated fortune of over US$100mil, as of 2008, the majority of their money has come from the famous video game.
How interesting is that! In 2009, the band had licensed 29 of their songs to Activision, the American publisher behind the franchise Guitar Hero.
“Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” went on sale and brought in over US$25 million (almost 600,000 copies) in its first market week alone. To date, the video game has sold over four million copies.
“In contrast, Rolling Stone notes, Aerosmith's 2004 album Honkin' on Bobo only sold about 160,000 copies and grossed about US$2mil in its first week of sales.
According to Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision, Aerosmith's "version of Guitar Hero generated far more in revenues than any Aerosmith album ever has," as reported by Vox.com.
Aerosmith’s Guitar Hero’s success is a reality of musicians making less money from album or streaming sales and instead see these musicians make more money from endorsements, cross-promotions, concerts, and video games.
Sadly, even big-name musicians are feeling the pinch and are greatly affected by the new music business ways.
According to Rolling Stones magazine, in 2014, only 257 million albums (CD, vinyl, and digital) were sold, an 11% drop from 2013, which saw 289 million albums sold while digital sales were down 9.4% from the previous year.
This begs the question, how are musicians supposed to make a profit when people aren’t willing to pay for music anymore?
What if the real money-making strategy is Aerosmith’s way?
References:
1. https://gizmodo.com/aerosmith-
3. https://theweek.com/arts-life/
