Your Song Featured in Guitar Hero II

JamesO writes "RedOctane has launched a competition in which budding musicians can get a song featured in Guitar Hero II." From the article: "To enter simply submit your song at beaguitarhero.com before 11:59 p.m. PST on June 30, 2006. There are a few rules that each entered song must adhere to though. The song must be from independent artists, must be an original piece, and must fall under the 'hard rock' or 'heavy metal' genre. The track must also feature a lead guitar. The winner will get their song featured in Guitar Hero II, plus will be eligible for additional publicity through the game's launch promotion." The winner also gets a kickass set of prizes, including a guitar, drumset, and wah pedal.

Guitar, drumkit and wah pedal vs royalties...

[AEther141]

Looks like someone's gonna get totally screwed over. These contests are almost invariably the same - a cheap way of aquiring content, with the T&Cs robbing the young, naive winner of their rights as an artist. Photography contests are notorious for this, with the prize often going to a friend of the sponsor and the runner-up images appearing all over the place after being sold through stock libraries. The majority of wildlife and nature calendars get their images this way.

Re:Guitar, drumkit and wah pedal vs royalties...

[lennart78]

I disagree. If your song gets featured, it will mean a lot of exposure, which to independent artists is very valuable.

Re:Guitar, drumkit and wah pedal vs royalties...

[Hannah E. Davis]

Well... yes and no. It is a cheap way of acquiring content, but for a relatively unknown band, this could also be the chance of a lifetime. Free advertising in the sequel to an extremely popular game is not something to take lightly. Whereas a photographer contributing to a calender would just another essentially anonymous source in yet another generic wildlife calender, the band that wins this contest is actually going to stand out.

They did this for the first game too.

[merreborn]

"Graveyard BBQ" won last year. The song's one of my top 10 favorites to play.

It's really a win-win-win situation. Harmonix gets some cool songs free, you get to play kickass songs you've never heard, and indie artists you've _never_ heard of get some publicity. There were a good dozen songs by Boston-area indy bands that you could unlock in the first game, that were totally separate from the main set of songs you had to play through to advance -- and half of those bands included Harmonix staff members.