The Video Game Industry Just Won

The music industry has been around since music has been played. Its power is unmatched, its influence unrivaled. The behemoth corporations AMG, Sony, Warner, and EMI have battled endlessly in the American pursuit of profit, and they have verily succeeded. In the wake of the era of digital distribution, no artist was safe from the Industry titans' pressure to conform or die. Box sets on iTunes became commonplace for anyone serious about their listeners. Piracy went rampant, causing shakeups and controversies unsolved to this day.

All except for one. One band didn't give in. One band decided they wouldn't let their precious music into the hands of the digital monster. Time and time again, money has been thrown at this band, impossible amounts of money, all just to get them to go digital. Politics and in-fighting obstructed the process even further and eventually people assumed it was never going to happen.

That band would be the Beatles. And the Video Game Industry is reaping the profits of their digital future.

The Beatles: Rock Band was released yesterday to critical acclaim and huge sales. It would be the first time the rights to The Beatles' music would be given to a digital distributor such as a video game publisher. Not only is the music available, but previously unreleased studio conversation and an unreleased Christmas record laid down in 1963 has been released as an unlockable.

This is a humongous and epic victory for the video game industry and it is a great flexing of muscles, showing the other entertainment outlets that video games are a force to be afraid of. If they can get the Beatles to embrace digital distribution, then nothing is impossible.

Congratulations to Harmonix on putting this out successfully, and I hope gamers around the world are reveling in the success of this industry.