Playing a music video game such as Guitar Hero or Rock Band makes you more likely to buy the tunes you hear, according to a report released a few minutes ago by the NPD Group.

“Twenty-two percent of music buyers (CDs, digital or mobile) overall – and 35 percent of consumers under the age of 35 — reported playing a music-based video game, such as Rock Band or Guitar Hero, in the prior three months. Many of these music gamers reported that the gaming experience had a positive outcome, such as creating music discovery or triggering a digital-music or CD purchase,” the report says.

One reason why the music games are having such a positive effect is because they are so popular.

“Year-to-date through November, the music and dance genre was the best-selling genre in video games, representing 16 percent of total software sales for the year,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier says.

“Even though gaming competes with music for the consumer’s entertainment wallet share, music-related games are evolving into an important source for music discovery that can have positive revenue implications for the recording industry,” NPD analyst Russ Crupnick adds.

The rest of the news for the music industry is mixed, according to the report, with the expected results: CD sales are down (19 percent in the third quarter, compared with the same period last year), paid online downloads are up (29 percent) and illegal file sharing is up (23 percent — 46 percent among teens). �

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 at 8:18 am and is filed under Audio, Video games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.