One of the tidbits out of today's earnings call from Activision has me just kind of shaking my head. Here's Stephen Totilo's version of the proceedings...
In an earnings call today, Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick said that the “GHTunes” is a smashing success that shows the way to a new business model: “GHTunes has attracted over 25,000 user-generated songs,” he said during opening remarks. “That means we will likely have up to 100,000 songs by year’s end.… The ability to offer these songs on a subscription basis may very well [present] the newest opportunity in our subscription portfolio.”
Sooo... let me get this straight. You want to take user-generated music... and sell access to these songs as part of a subscription package? Did someone forget to tell Mr. Kotick that most of the user-created songs on the GHTunes service are kind of awful? At least they were the last time I looked at it. Somehow I doubt that a significant amount of amazing material has gone online in the last week.
In fact, GHTunes seems to be adhering perfectly to Mario's Law, which states that any console-based level construction tools will immediately be used to create some cheap knock-off of Super Mario Bros. music. Like so...
Here is another video of what was, as of the 27th, anyway, the top user-submitted song on the service, "Impossible."
Would you pay money to access this kid's rad tunes?