Ever wish you had that cool theme from Medal of Honor on your iPod? How about using sounds from The Sims as ringtones on your mobile phone? Electronic Arts has the solution for you! Partnering with Vancouver’s Nettwerk Music Group, a privately-owned music label and management company, EA plans to launch EA Recordings, a new distribution label which will bring themes, songs, and other tracks from some of its most popular gaming titles to online music distributors like iTunes, Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, MSN, AOL Music Now, and others.
With EA Recordings, Electronic Arts becomes the first interactive entertainment company to start its own music imprint for direct sales. EA hopes to further capitalize on the significance of video games in many player’s lives, and provide fans a simple way to get their favorite music, which is often difficult or impossible to find via other channels.
And EA controls a surprising amount of music: the company says more than 3,000 minutes of wholly-owned musical compositions which have been featured in its game franchises, ranging from orchestral works to original songs and game beats by prominent artists and composers such as Sean Callery, Mark Mothersbaugh, Joe Satriani, and Paul Oakenfold.
“audiences today are media masters