The game Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was recently released to moderately positive reviews.

I’ve heard the skill progression is much improved over Guitar Hero III, which was punishing on Expert. Now that I’ve learned the difficulty level is more sane, I’ll probably pick up a copy of this game up in a week or two. I’ve been an Aerosmith fan for years. In fact, my very first concert experience was an Aerosmith concert, in the “Dude Looks Like a Lady” era.

There’s an interesting bit of information buried in the Wall Street Journal article Aerosmith Stars in Guitar Hero Videogame:

The success of Guitar Hero and Rock Band have made them important new sources of income for bands. Irving Azoff, whose Front Line Management manages Aerosmith and other major artists, says videogame deals can be “much more lucrative than anything you can do in the record business.” Industry executives say bands can receive millions of dollars up front, plus a generous royalty on sales. A person close to Aerosmith says the band expects to make more money from the game title than it has from any of its dozen-plus studio albums.

Since the last versions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, game companies have paid artists a royalty on sales of their games in exchange for rights to use their master recordings in the games. Before that, music games typically featured covers of famous songs by sound-alike bands.

Mr. Azoff says music videogames can also help his clients by boosting traditional music sales. Sales of Aerosmith’s “Same Old Song and Dance” shot up 130% in the week following the release of Guitar Hero 3, which included the track, Activision says.

Clients including Van Halen, the Eagles, Steely Dan and Guns N’ Roses “all have deals of varying types in the works with one or the other or both of these companies,” says Mr. Azoff, referring to the makers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

I was shocked to learn that music games can be “much more lucrative than anything you can do in the record business.” I guess fake plastic rock is bigger business than I thought!