Metallica To Premiere New Song On Video Game (Gigwise)

The game in question is Rock Band (Guitar Hero + karaoke + drums). Though the game has offered bonus songs to download at $1.99 a pop, those have been the game’s staple of old hits, and this would be the first time a big band’s single was debuted as something to play with in a video game. (A timeframe hasn’t yet been announced, since Metallica’s album isn’t even finished, but still.)

I can’t really wrap my head around whether this idea is really cool or really stupid. On one hand, it’s nice to see a major label take a proactive step and recognize something fans are interested in, something that is new and weird and different. RIAA dinosaurs waking from their anti-technology slumber? Who’da thunk?

On the other, what if this becomes a trend, and major labels force fans to digest their new material by making them play along with plastic instruments? To be fair, I doubt I’ll care either way about the songs released in this manner—it’ll all probably be major label pap, and I know the Metallica song in question will be better with my James Hetfield “aiiiiiiiiiiii-cha!”-isms. But if people are paying twice the iTunes price, they might not want to smack a fake drumset around to hear the entirety of a new song.

In other news, drummer Lars Ulrich has reportedly pre-emptively sued a 17-year-old kid who he figures is going to record the new single by hooking his Xbox 360 up to his computer and then unleash it on the Internet. “He may or may not leak it on Napster,” Ulrich [might have] said. “I’m still brewing on that one.”