Making Beautiful Music

The revolution in gaming systems is continuing. Making music is the new way of things. Game companies continue to compete for the best music simulation game. Guitar Hero and Rock Band, from Activision and Harmonix respectively, are the top favorites. These companies tried to gain further popularity and loyalty from gamers at the E3 Media & Business Summit this year.

Harmonix enticed music gamers during E3 by throwing a rock concert featuring the British band The Who which is featured in their game Rock Band. Activision introduced their new version of Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero World Tour, that will compete with the full band set up of Rock Band with the addition of drums and vocals.

The music industry is also benefiting from music gaming. Rock Band and Guitar Hero are introducing classic hits and emerging artists to a new generation of music lovers. Music sales are thought to be going up because of this music gaming craze. The title track of Motley Crue’s new album Saints of Los Angeles sold five times as many copies on Rock Band than on iTunes as of the end of May. The band released the track as a playable Rock Band level prior to its store release.

What does this all mean for libraries? More and more libraries, especially public ones, are trying to provide for the current media trends and formats. DVD collections have become a standard in public libraries. Libraries are expanding to ebooks and other emerging formats. One demand that libraries are beginning to meet is that for games. Gamers are wanting to be able to check out games for their console systems at the library. Some public libraries have been developing their gaming collection over the past few years. Others are just beginning the process.

Librarians need to be aware of the gaming industry and what is changing and what is emerging as the next new thing if they want to have an actively circulating collection that is meeting the gaming needs of their patrons. One way that this could be done is by keeping tabs on the E3 Summit each year in order to learn about the new games that are emerging as well as updates in gaming systems and new versions of older games.

If libraries are going to build popular collections of games, music games are a must have. Music games are gaining a wide audience and are continuing to grow in popularity. However, these games are expensive and take up more space because of instruments. Libraries will need to consider music video games carefully when considering their gaming collection.

Kohler, Chris. “Gamemakers Hear the Music Loud and Clear at E3.” Wired. (18 July 2008). 20 July 2008. <http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/07/los-angeles---.html