Dave Haynes

Sep
15
2008

JamLegend Rocks!

JamLegend Logo

Last week I was lucky enough to get a beta invite for JamLegend.com (and haven’t stopped playing since). I’ve been extremely impressed by what I’ve seen so far and it is definitely a worthy edition to the music gaming space which has included the likes of Guitar Hero, Rock Band and Tap Tap Revenge (iPhone).

JamLegend is quite easy to explain… put simply, it’s Guitar Hero but online. I found the site fairly glitchy at first on one of my machines, but it works perfectly on another. And the fact that it’s online gives JamLegend several advantages over Guitar Hero:

1) MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER. Being online gives you massive reach and you could potentially play in a tournament with 1000s. We had a quick duel online at our office last week and it was one of the most fun 30 minutes I’ve ever spent at work! So far you can only play along as the guitarist but it looks like you’ll soon be able to play bass, guitar or drums giving the game a more ‘Rock Band’ feel. Personally I’d love to see some kind of DJ-orientated version for more dance/electronic based music.

2) DOESN’T REQUIRE ANY SPECIAL HARDWARE. With Guitar Hero you have to already have all the kit; a Playstation, some special guitar controllers etc. For JamLegend it’s just a browser, a keyboard and you’re ready to rock. Holding your keyboard in your hands like a guitar works surprisingly well! You’re not just confined to playing in your front room after a few beers down the pub either.

3) IT’S FREE. This has to be the biggest selling point. But what’s perhaps even more impressive is that despite the zero price tag there’s clearly a very strong model and valuable business here. Potentially there is money to be made from pre-game ads, affiliate links to music and/or downloads, premium user accounts, brand tie-ins (I already noticed an Adidas-placed track). The potential reach is massive too. There are already quite a lot of online-game companies making healthy revenues and there’s no doubt that JamLegend will be embedded on to bands and fans websites and we’ll see a facebook application soon.

So what’s in it for the artist? Well currently JamLegend are only really offering promotional value. On their Artist Sign-Up page they state:

Bands that have been on Guitar Hero have received huge publicity boosts. Dragonforce’s album sales increased from 2,000 to 40,000 albums per week after being on Guitar Hero 3. Similarly, Motley Crue’s single last May sold 4x more copies through Rock Band than on iTunes and Amazon.com combined. Some day, artists on JamLegend will experience the same effect.

Whilst I definitely believe in this and would recommend it to bands looking for exposure it would be nice to see some other monetisation opportunities introduced for artists/bands using the JamLegend platform (publishing royaltyies at least). Nevertheless I have to admit I have at least two of the songs stuck in my head as a result of playing them and this is a great way for fans to connect with their favourite bands. Hopefully JamLegend will allow more artists and bands to have their songs played along to as opposed to other titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band that really concentrate on just the most well known material.

I’m looking forward to seeing the service come out of beta. In the meantime I have just a handful of invites for anyone wanting to check the site out: http://www.jamlegend.com/register/338412772d6034d2

JamLegend Trailer from JamLegend on Vimeo.