DailyTech - Music Store from Activision Blizzard May be in the Works

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Gadgets Music Store from Activision Blizzard May be in the Works
Shane McGlaun (Blog) - July 11, 2008 2:18 PM

20 comment(s) - last by dandaman247.. on Aug 4 at 9:01 AM

Download store would be based on Guitar Hero game platform

Activision Blizzard merged in a deal that closed recently making it one of the largest players in the video game business. According to Reuters, Activision Blizzard is already considering ways to expand its presence and increase profitability.

The way the company is thinking of expanding will be a direct competitor to Apple’s iTunes service. Plans are far from concrete, but Activision Blizzard is considering launching its own download store on its Guitar Hero game platform.

Activision Blizzard CEO Robert Kotick told Reuters, “When you think about the potential for what we will be able to do together, there have not been many viable alternatives to iTunes.” Vivendi owns the world’s largest music company Universal Music, which complements Guitar Hero very well.

Kotick also told Reuters, “If you're downloading a song to play on your 'Guitar Hero,' there's no reason why you can't download the performance also. So there's all kinds of things you can think about.” It sounds like Activision Blizzard has in mind a store that when a track is purchased would also give the user a track for a MP3 player and a playable version for Guitar Hero.

The Activision Blizzard merger makes the company worth $19 billion. Blizzard owns and operates the world’s most successful MMORPG, World of Warcraft, and made $1.2 billion last year mostly on the back of World of Warcraft.

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Original StarCraft music in high definition

By hellokeith on 7/11/2008 3:06:34 PM , Rating: 2

I'd gladly buy the original StarCtaft music, if it were available in drm-free high definition. :)

RE: Original StarCraft music in high definition

By Master Kenobi

(blog) on 7/11/2008 3:12:12 PM , Rating: 2

Indeed, I wouldn't mind grabbing Starcraft, Diablo 2, and even Warcraft 3 music.

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RE: Original StarCraft music in high definition

By sprockkets on 7/12/2008 12:57:42 AM , Rating: 2

You can buy the soundtrack, you know (unless the deceased allofmp3.com just made the soundtrack up). Or, I simply recorded it from the line out since doing it on the computer itself was not 100% perfect, same with doing it through the S/PDIF.

Yeah, the Starcraft soundtrack was awesome, especially the Terran music. Also from Warcraft III, I liked the Orc Music, like Bloodlust, or Doomhammer's Legacy. Lorderon Fall was a good track too.

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RE: Original StarCraft music in high definition

By NullSubroutine on 7/12/2008 4:33:16 AM , Rating: 2

Diablo II's collector edition had the soundtrack of their music on CD. I don't normally get collectors edition of games (usually just junk inside) but I really liked my collectors edition that I had reserved for DII.

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RE: Original StarCraft music in high definition

By oab on 7/12/2008 11:07:20 PM , Rating: 2

I'm pretty sure that a .MPQ file editor would be able to extract the requisite audio files in whatever format they are stored in (.wav, .mp3) from the game files directly similar to the people getting "still alive" out of the HL2 GCF files.

Note: you are probably not allowed to do that in the US due to copyright law for some reason so ... I'm not a lawyer.

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RE: Original StarCraft music in high definition

By MrBlastman on 7/11/2008 4:07:09 PM , Rating: 2

I played StarCraft so much in college it felt like a second job. Man I loved Case's ladder on Kali.

The music was great - heck, what Blizzard game has bad music?

I can only hope StarCraft 2's is just as good.

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RE: Original StarCraft music in high definition

By Chaotic42 on 7/11/08, Rating: 0

RE: Original StarCraft music in high definition

By Shwanzig on 7/11/2008 9:29:40 PM , Rating: 2

Ever hear the last song from Warcraft III, holy hell...

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RE: Original StarCraft music in high definition

By DCstewieG on 7/12/2008 1:04:51 AM , Rating: 3

The original StarCraft music itself wasn't exactly high definition, just simple 22kHz wavs. You have a couple options:

The legal way (in my eyes anyway):
Find an MPQ Viewer and StarCraft listfile (hint: Google "mpq viewer") and open the main StarCraft MPQ file. You can extract the wav files and encode MP3s or your format of choice yourself. Depending on the encoder you may need to convert them to 44kHz wavs first. I had to.

The shady way (but if you own the game, what's the problem?):
Little place called Pirate Bay. Just search Blizzard Soundtracks.

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Failure

By foxtrot9 on 7/11/2008 2:36:57 PM , Rating: 2

I call failure before this thing even gets off the ground. There is no draw here

RE: Failure

By Cheapshot on 7/11/2008 2:57:06 PM , Rating: 2

Seconded.

A 19 billion dollar company can't conceive of new ways to drain the mass public of thier dollars.

Perhaps if they did some research on some Indie devs they could buy a better idea.

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RE: Failure

By BladeVenom on 7/11/2008 4:59:46 PM , Rating: 3

I think music sales would have a much better chance on Steam.

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RE: Failure

By StevoLincolnite on 7/11/2008 5:42:35 PM , Rating: 2

I think they have a very strong platform for Advertising already, that would be Battle.net - Blizzard already Advertises other games in Battle.net already, thus adding a new having a new add would probably do more good than harm when getting users on board is concerned.
Battle.net consists of the Diablo, StarCraft and WarCraft universes on the one framework, and those games are also the most popular online.

Plus if people can feel comfortable paying a monthly fee to play World of WarCraft, then they probably wouldn't mind paying a second monthly fee in order to get some cool tunes for Guitar Hero and other Music, perhaps even downloadable maps and other content for other Activision and Blizzard games in the future which would make the service even more appealing.

Heck most people buy a Blizzard game because it was "made" by Blizzard and that is all.

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RE: Failure

By BladeVenom on 7/11/2008 6:18:48 PM , Rating: 2

If a subscription service was what most people wanted you might be right. But I think that Apple has proven that the traditional purchasing method is what most consumers prefer.

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RE: Failure

By dandaman247 on 8/4/2008 9:01:18 AM , Rating: 2

I second that. Steam has greatly improved over the past few months/years. I will never forgive it though...the horrors of when it first came were too great!

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its a good idea

By Silver2k7 on 7/12/2008 3:24:44 AM , Rating: 2

I think this could take off the ground given that songs are without drm, in a good format FLAC, perhaps have all the cover art for the albums in a pdf file or something.. and then the right price of course.

Ive got all my cds on computer in FLAC format, and wouldn't mind buying some things if the store had the same format.

Was searching for a song: 'Doki Doki - Too fast for love' on youtube.. can't find it at all.. if a good online store had an album for a fair price i would atleast think about getting it..

Considering that 50% of all Swedish IRL music stores have closed in the last 5 years.. there is a need for a new model..

RE: its a good idea

By Silver2k7 on 7/12/2008 3:27:27 AM , Rating: 2

I would never buy drm'ed crap, that becomes obsolete once someone got the bright idea to change the model etc..

What I would buy is flac files in cd-quality or higher.

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The Merger

By Sulphademus on 7/11/2008 3:02:40 PM , Rating: 1

I still cant believe Blizz and Act merged. Feels like its a long running April Fools gag.

But hell, Apple wasnt a music company and they hit one out of the park with iTunes and iPod. I dont see why ActiBlizzion cant too if they execute it well.

RE: The Merger

By Silver2k7 on 7/14/2008 2:37:02 AM , Rating: 2

Its A Bliss to get your music from "Ablizz" lol ;)

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Universal Music Group

By Complex Pants on 7/13/2008 12:53:48 AM , Rating: 2

Vivendi, besides owning blizzard, also owns Universal music group. So Activision Blizzard has a lot of power to throw around in the music community too.