Marking the first time their music will ever be available legally online digitally, The Beatles and MTV are expected to announce a deal tomorrow that will allow for the use of the band’s music in the hit game ‘Rock Band 2′.
Viacom, MTV’s parent, and The Beatles have been in negotiations for months and Viacom has issued media invitations to a “a global music project” teleconference tomorrow when the deal is expected to be announced.
The Wall Street Journal has cited “people familiar with the matter” in saying that the teleconference is absolutely about the Beatles music being licensed for Rock Band.
The Beatles have never licensed their music for digital distribution online and if the report is true, this deal would be a huge win for Rock Band which is in hot competition with Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero series.
Result for: beatles music
Marking the first time their music will ever be available legally digitally, The Beatles and MTV are expected to announce a deal tomorrow that will allow for the use of the band’s music in the hit game ‘Rock Band 2′.
Viacom, MTV’s parent, and The Beatles have been in negotiations for months and Viacom has issued media invitations to a “a global music project” teleconference tomorrow when the deal is expected to be announced.
The Wall Street Journal has cited “people familiar with the matter” in saying that the teleconference is absolutely about the Beatles music being licensed for Rock Band.
The Beatles have never licensed their music for digital distribution online and if the report is true, this deal would be a huge win for Rock Band which is in hot competition with Activision Blizzard’s Guitar Hero series.
Result for: beatles music
According to a new report published in the Financial Times, the Beatles are currently in discussions with both Activision and MTV in an effort to bring licensing for the band’s music to video games, most notably Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
The sources imply that any deal would be worth “several million dollars” and that the licensing deal could be struck within a matter of weeks or months.
One possible hurdle for the deal is that it needs to be approved by EMI who owns the master recordings for the band. Apple Corps will also need to sign off as they are in charge of the Beatles business interests.
Apple has been very selective with expanding licensing for the band and currently there are no authorized digital recordings of the Beatles available online.
