Doesn’t Grand Theft Auto value musicians and music makers?
On 7 September, British musician-producer Martyn Ware received an email from game maker Rockstar Games. The company asked Ware for permission to use his band Heaven 17’s blockbuster hit Temptation in the new Grand Theft Auto VI game.
When the biggest and wealthiest series in the games industry asks to license the song, you’d think the songwriter would be jumping for joy. The last Grand Theft Auto V grossed more than $8.5 billion worldwide, and next year’s Grand Theft Auto VI is expected to break records.
Martyn Ware expected to receive a generous offer for the song.
“Naturally excited about the immense wealth that was about to head my way, I scrolled to the bottom of the email re the offer”, Ware wrote on the X messaging service.
“It was $7500 – for a buyout of any future royalties from the game – forever… Go f**k yourself.”
Among Grand Theft Auto fans, Ware’s comment quickly sparked outrage. He was seen as ungrateful, and many felt that the huge exposure the game offered would in itself be reason enough to accept the offer.
However, visibility does not pay the bills for musicians, and it does not benefit an established musician like Waren in the same way as it does a fledgling artist or band. Ware also knows better than most the value of his song, as Temptation has been lined up in several major Hollywood films and commercials for tens of thousands of dollars.
It is also a matter of principle: accepting a low offer would reinforce the assumption that publicity is an accepted form of payment and that it would be unreasonable to expect fair compensation for creative work. If Rockstar Games can propose such a low amount and have it accepted, it could also result in future attempts to license songs at even lower prices.
$7,500 is not a completely ridiculous fee, but for a creator like Rockstar Games, it is pocket change. The upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI will have the biggest development budget ever, at over two billion dollars, so there should be money in the budget to license music.
If not, the songwriter has complete freedom and the right to tell the bidder to f**k off.
Did you know?
Gramex does not directly license music for video games. It is done by phonogram producers, often record labels.
