It arguably wasn’t until 2019 when the crossover between music and gaming produced its peanut butter and chocolate moment: Marshmello’s DJ set in Fortnite, which turned heads after drawing an audience of 10 million people. Following subsequent blockbuster integrations with artists like Travis Scott (Fortnite) and Lil Nas X (Roblox), the power of gaming finally hit home in the music industry — and executives and artists began scrambling to capitalize on it.
Given the stark contrasts between the two industries, that’s easier said than done. The gaming business thrives on low friction, low barriers to entry, free access, high engagement and small, incremental micro revenue streams, derived from broad global distribution to gamers around the globe. The music industry delights in friction, enjoys high barriers to entry with unintelligible rights, rules and norms, abhors the word “free” and prefers just a handful of enormous revenue streams from partners who can be readily controlled.
Historically, these differences caused a gap between the two industries. Many viable music-centric games died on the vine or floundered endlessly in the licensing process, resulting in years of lost opportunities. Gaming studios hired composers to create original compositions rather than stumble through the morass of music rights or risk giving up too big a share of revenues. Music companies insisted on trying to license entire catalogs of music to gaming companies and were perplexed as to why these studios opted not to sign up for market share-based deals.
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