The Enter *Active File A B I L L B O A R D E X P A N D E D S E C T I O N

Multimedia Music License To CD -ROM Drive CD ROMS Give Users /Listeners Opportunity To Play More Than The Music Publishers Keep Up With New Media's Opportunities And Challenges

BY MARILYN A. GILLEN out early next year from Santa assembled to play the in -game band as Monicabased startup Inscape, a it tries to overcome mind -stretching BY STEVE TRAI MAN Most impor- Warner Music Group/HBO joint ven- obstacles in order to make it to a gig. tant from peer - While music and technology's ture with founder Michael Nash. music's point of newest offspring -the En- 'We felt a little like bartenders that STONES' ROLLOUT The expanding use of music in an view, says Ben- hanced CD-learns to crawl, ended up being drunks-we ended up Virgin's hotly awaited Rolling exploding number of CD -ROMs in a ton, is that the coupling's firstborn product is on the wrong side of the bar somehow," Stones CD -ROM, developed by Los wider spectrum of entertainment pro- "with a grow- already testing its legs and pushing up Casale continues. "With CD -ROM, Angeles based Second Vision New grams beyond the initial game -based ing number of against the existing bounds of creative we're back in the director's chair cre- Media and distributed by GTE En- releases has led to a more focused look CD -ROM and possibilities and retail Pxp wtationc - tertainment, also is g ing a new - at all licensing aspects The growing E -CD projects with a strong slate of the highest-pro- "We are musicians first and fore- album tie -in and cross -promotion: The number of households owning multi- peermusic's Benton in the works, file and most hotly awaited music - most, but there is a lot more that we Stones' new "Stripped" album, an media computers with CD -ROM we're defi- based CD -ROMs ever. feel like we have to say than we can say Enhanced -CD due Nov. 14 from Virgin drives is augmented by others up- nitely willing Unlike their more traditional on an album," says Chris DeGarmo, Records, includes a "trailer" promoting grading older systems with external To to share some younger kin, these "full- blown" CD- guitarist for Queensryche, whose two - the CD -ROM, which hits stores Nov. 7. CD -ROM kits. °_ of the risks. ROMs - a P use music only as the jumping disc "Promised Land" also hits next For distributor GTE, which will also The National Music Publishers i 1 We want off point for a much deeper multime- year. The band originally had planned ship the music -intensive "Forrest Assn. (NMPA) and its subsidiary 111L every new dia experience, which can take a to film a documentary video about the Gump -Music, Artists & Times" to Harry Fox Agency (HFA) represents product to be myriad of forms, from the rich inter- making of their most recent album of stores Nov. 7, the one -two punch of more than 20,000 publishers. ASCAP, a success, but active autobiographies/biographies the same name, but eventually decided these big -name properties promises to BMI and SESAC license the right to Association if for some of, say, MCA's "On The Road With pave new inroads in what has until now perform publicly all copyrighted musi- reason it's B.B. King" (January) and GTE been a relatively tough sell. cal compositions of thousands of their less successful than anticipated, we're Entertainment's "Forrest Gump - "The general attitude [in software respective members. Record compa- not going to put the screws to the pro- Music, Artists And Times" (Nov. 7) to stores] is that music CD -ROMs haven't nies have an investment in their ducers. We take each project on its the "Myst"-type explorations possible been particularly hot properties," says respective catalogs, and individual own merits; our writers are eager to in EMI's "Queensryche: Promised Tim Pivnicny, director of product and publishers represent their songwrit- participate in the creation of a whole Land" (March) and Philips Media's channel marketing for GTE En- ers' rights. new product." "H.O.R.D.E. Festival CD -ROM" (Jan. tertainment. "While there has been Benton also observes that CD -ROM 30). some critical acclaim, there hasn't been FAIRLY FLEXIBLE is a particularly active emerging mar- The broad range also encompasses the sort of explosive hit they maybe All share the belief that there is a ket in France and, of course, Japan. the performance -heavy likes of "The would have liked to have seen." need for flexibility and fairness in "Having offices in 24 countries makes MTV Unplugged CD -ROM" (No- The release by Graphix Zone of the dealing with producers of the new CD- it that much easier for CD -ROM pro- vember) and the game- skewed ap- Bob Dylan CD -ROM "Highway 61 ROM programs. "The first CD -ROM ducers to contact us," notes Benton. proaches of Inscape's "Devo Presents Interactive" this past summer marked licensing activity for some of our pub- "For these producers, we have five The Adventures Of The Smart Patrol" the beginning of a shift, Pivnicny lishers began several years ago," new CD samplers out earlier this year, (early '96) and the Residents' "Bad Day believes, in that perception. "That recalls Ed Murphy, president and covering country, Latin and pop hits On The Midway" (Oct. 31), as well as showed that there was potentially a CEO of both NMPA and HFA. "We're from the '20s to the '90s. In Europe, such band -centric titles as Virgin's true mainstream audience for the first now starting to see some very sub- we've added a sixth sampler for key "Rolling Stones Voodoo Lounge time," he says. stantial royalty payments in the most markets over there and may do a CD- Interactive CD -ROM" (Nov. 7) and Chuck Cortright, president/CEO of recent quarter -as high as six figures ROM sampler down the line." Starwave's "All This Time," featuring the Irvine, Calif. -based Graphix Zone, for one of the first games to incorpo- Sting (November), and "Eve," centered has a longer -term view on the subject, rate one of our member's music back STAYING ON TOP OF IT around music by Peter Gabriel (early Rolling Stones' 'Voodoo Lounge" having released one of the first major - in 1994. At '96). EMI Music Publishing, Joanne and a scene from "Devo Presents artist CD -ROMs last year: "Prince "Our job is to help producers cut the Boris, executive VP, music services, Also among the high -profile CD- The Adventures Of The Smart Patrol." Interactive." red tape to get in touch with any pub- has seven departments, with licens- ROM releases on the 1995 -96 retail "We've sold more than 80,000 copies lisher through the HFA. It's such a ing, copyright, promotion and track- radar are Crunch Media's "Virtual to wrap that footage into a much broad- of that title to date, and that many of confusing problem to clear all the ing (payments) most involved with Graceland," Interplay's "Tommy," 7th er game /adventure CD -ROM, which Dylan in the few months since it's been rights in a multi -song CD -ROM and to CD -ROM and E -CD product. "Pub- Level/Quincy Jones' "Q's Jook Joint," features five distinct "worlds" repre- out," he says. "They are the two most do it quickly and efficiently. We can lishers have the responsibility to edu- Graphix Zone/Herbie Hancock's still - senting each of the band members. successful music CD -ROMs out help any producer get a license direct- cate themselves and their staffs," unnamed history of jazz, Philips "It's not a sales piece for the band or there." ly from any NMPA member, or work Boris says. "We attend many confer- Media's multi- artist "Virtual Night- a career retrospective or fanzine, It's a moving target other con- through the HFA with that publish- ences and share notes with the entire club" and Santana, and Inscape's although there is a strong documen- tenders will be shooting at this winter. er-or any number of publishers. staff; we have speakers from ASCAP, Thomas Dolby- scored Edgar Allan Poe tary element," says Matthew "Every new genre needs a category - "With a new, growing technology BMI and other groups come in to talk adaptation "The Dark Eye." MacLaurin, president of Santa Cruz, breaker," says Pivnicny. like CD -ROM or the E -CD, this is about key topics like online licensing; In short, music -based CD -ROMs Calif.-based MediaX, which developed Toni Young, co- executive producer where the royalty payment makes a we constantly review articles on the are as different as the growing num- the Queensryche title as well as MCA's of the Stones' CD -ROM, is among the lot of sense. Producers shouldn't have `new media' from a variety of publica- ber of artists creating them -and are forthcoming "B.B. King." "I'd describe many developers who think they've got to make a buy -out to survive, and our tions. And we're looking to develop adamant about not being pigeonholed. it as an island of documentary in a sea what it takes. "This is truly the band's publishers have to be mindful of the our own Internet home site by next And while that may give headaches to of fantasy." project; there is so much of them in need to nurture this new area of year." marketers, who must somehow posi- Like "Devo Presents The Ad- this," she says. "We went out on the income and share the risk on this new Her department has both a licens- tion them for consumers as mu- ventures Of The Smart Patrol," the road with them, we caught them doing programming." ing form and a data form in place to sic/games or music/bios or music /ex- Queensryche title also contains new exclusive acoustic jams of songs, we've His comments draw solid agree- cover CD -ROMs. The latter includes plorations, and to retailers, who must music in addition to snippets from its got their influences and their humor ment from several key publishers. the number of songs, duration of use, decide where to stock them, it's giving "Promised Land" album. An exclusive and live footage and casual banter. It's Brady Benton is manager of the film, number of times each song can be artists a "new canvas," in the words of song, "Two Mile High," which the band really like hanging out with the band." TV and new media department for accessed, the selling price and the A &M artist Sting, and software wrote for the project, is the gamer's The title, expected to retail around peermusic -a global network of 74 nature of the product. "We have to developers a rich new source of con- "reward" for solving all of the CD- $40, is themed around a 3 -D rendering wholly owned music publishing com- make a distinction between a 'music - tent. ROM's mysteries and puzzles. of a virtual "Voodoo Lounge," through- panies in 24 countries, with a catalog enhanced' product, which might have The Devo CD -ROM, which Casale out which visitors can wander and of more than 250,000 titles. "While our more or less music content, and a WE ARE NOT ROMS describes as a "darkly humorous explore -going into bedrooms (don't key duty is to protect our writers' 'music- based' program that would be "Devo had a lot of ideas and concepts adventure game," also represents, in ask) and bathrooms (ditto), the library rights, we want to be an active partic- artist -oriented, like a history of rock, and humor that we never got to use effect, a new album from the band, and the lounge. At the bar, visitors can ipant in all the new technologies," says for example," she explains. "A lot of because we were funneled into being a though one with a number of twists. choose a drink and create their own Benton. "We want producers of CD- judgments come into play, and, as the band on a label putting out pop records While the title features classic Devo customized screensaver, choosing ROMs, as an example, to tell us what volume of these projects increases, we and doing videos for MTV," says songs and music videos, it also contains background music for it from a menu of they want -not just musically, but want to have guidelines in place." Devo's Gerald Casale, who along with new songs written by the band mem- previously unreleased mixes of tracks how we can work together to make the Boris believes that developers have partner Mark Mothersbaugh scripted bers but performed by the titular from the "Voodoo Lounge" album. In opportunity work for the writers, the to recognize that publishers have a lot and wrote the music for a CD -ROM due "Smart Patrol," real -life musicians (Continued on page 64) publishers and the producers." (Continued on page 64)

BILLBOARD NOVEMBER 11, 1995 63 www.americanradiohistory.com