Warner Music Wants "Guitar Hero," "Rock Band" to Pay Higher Licensing Fees

While CD sales have plunged, music video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band have been massively successful — so now record companies want a bigger piece of the gaming pie. Warner Music Group has begun demanding the makers of music-based video games pay more for song licenses. The company's chief executive, Edgar Bronfman, compared the clout of Guitar Hero and Rock Band to MTV and the iPod, saying, "The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small."

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Song Stories

“Is It True”

Brenda Lee | 1964

As the British Invasion reached its peak in 1964, Brenda Lee went from Nashville to London to record one of her hardest-rocking hits, her perky vocal backed by a stuttering, squalling guitar. That guitar was played by session musician Jimmy Page, yet to skyrocket to fame with first the Yardbirds and then Led Zeppelin. "She said to me, 'I've come here to make a record with the British sound,'" remembered producer Mickie Most. "She felt she wouldn't get the same sound in Nashville because they're only just catching up on the British beat group sound of about six months ago."

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