We recently discussed the fight brewing between the music industry and the popular music games, such as
Rock Band and
Guitar Hero, over the
licensing fees paid for songs used within the games. Well, Warner has stepped things up and
denied access to future songs without a payment increase. "Once the already-agreed-upon music runs out in the Summer however, the two companies will have to hammer out a new deal that's amenable to both. If MTV Games ends up giving Warner a larger slice of the pie, you have to think that the rest of the labels will begin asking for the same cut." The
Rock Band games have seen a steady stream of DLC additions to their song libraries, the most recent being
Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood album. Activision has been busily working on new
Guitar Hero content as well, revealing
details for Guitar Hero Greatest Hits, which is due out in June. Ben Heck (of
Xbox 360 laptop fame) has just put together a
breath controller for
Guitar Hero World Tour's bass drum, for those unable or unwilling to use the standard pedal.