WHY VIDEO GAMES ARE VALUABLE MARKETING TOOLS FOR ARTISTS
The annual updates in sports video games never fail to create a frenzy. Seasonal tweaks to gameplay, updates to team rosters, and polarizing changes to player ratings come and go, but a vibrant soundtrack lives on for years. Placement on these soundtracks can benefit independent artists in a way that fosters more longevity than a 30-second advertisement or social media campaign. It’s important to know the inner-workings of this intersection between video games and marketing to maximize your avenues of building a fan base.
Good music sometimes simply needs a proper opportunity for exposure. Video games, film, and TV create an organic avenue for artists to receive new ears to their tracks with the potential to create a long-term bond.
THE UNIQUE MARKETING VALUE
When consumers get their hands on a new game, it typically takes over their focus for an entire era of their life. If your song is attached to users’ memory of playing a new favorite game for the first time or becomes the soundtrack to the one thing helping them unwind after a long day, then they are more likely to want to engage with your song in real life, too.
For instance, songs in NBA 2K16 embedded themselves in the psyche of enough Gen-Z’ers that nostalgic TikToks about the soundtrack garner hundreds of thousands of likes and comments about what the soundtrack reminds them of.
Video game soundtracks could arguably be more impactful than television soundtracks. Take Insecure, for example. The popular TV show has developed a great track record for using its soundtrack to shed light on undiscovered artists. However, its corresponding official Spotify playlist boasts over 320 songs. To compare, Madden NFL ’21’s Spotify playlist only lists 18 songs. The limited amount of songs placed equals more opportunities for attention.
THE BUSINESS APPEAL
To begin, a sync (or “synchronization”) is the attachment of a song onto visual media. Syncs continue to amass more value as media to move towards a digital, on-demand space.
Landing a sync placement, specifically on video games, calls for the convincing of a music supervisor dedicated to managing the ins and outs of sync licensing. These supervisors serve as gatekeepers responsible for soundtracking media. Morgan Rhodes, a music supervisor credited with selecting tracks for various Ava DuVernay films, branded sync placement as “sort of the new A&R” in a March 2020 NPR article.
The royalty pie can get a little tricky once a placement successfully takes place. When you record a song, there are two halves of rights created - the master and the publishing. When dealing with sync placements, you’re only dealing with the publishing half.
Either a music publisher or the artist’s team negotiates the fee for the sync with the visual producer. The fee associated with any sync license is based on key factors such as:
Scope of use (the type of media music will run on)
How long the sync will run
The location where the sync will air
Supervisors aren’t always concerned with selecting the hottest new song. They want to pick a track that works best for a particular spot regardless of previous commercial success, which naturally gives independent artists a fairer chance. Placements fulfill a shared need between artists’ desire for exposure and a visual producer’s desire to bolster the storytelling of visual content.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Let's look at a specific case of video games serving as great incubators of traffic for artists. Perhaps there's a desire to do it yourself and avoid the complications of boardroom deals and music supervisors.
Let’s take a look at NBA2K for example: NBA2K has been the top-rated and top-selling NBA video game simulation series of the past two decades. Music has always been at the core of the NBA2K experience. In 2018, Travis Scott curated the NBA 2K19 soundtrack. The year following, UnitedMasters partnered with 2K for NBA 2K20. The NBA2K20 x UnitedMasters 2K Beats: The Search campaign resulted in NBA superstar Kevin Durant and UM Founder/CEO Steve Stoute handpicking 10 artists to join an already loaded 46 song soundtrack featuring Ariana Grande, Drake, the late Juice WRLD, and many more. These 10 artists were selected from over 10,000 submissions via the UnitedMasters app. Receiving a placement on a video game soundtrack carries an additional value with the advent of digital streaming platforms (DSPs).
Game developers creating official playlists for soundtracks on these outlets not only provides a readily accessible capsule of nostalgia but helps interested listeners easily identify lesser-known artists included in these games. For reference, the official NBA 2K20 soundtrack has nearly 120K likes on Spotify.
Many of the artists selected by UnitedMasters during the 2K20 campaign witnessed career heights for their songs spotlighted in 2K. New Haven rhymer Lee Bezel’s “Big Duffy” currently has more than 880K streams on Spotify alone, while Rif’s “Kites” sits at over 770K Spotify streams.
UnitedMasters once again will accept submissions for NBA 2K21 through its 2K Beats: The Search contest until Nov. 30, 2020.