"I know the game."
Martyn Ware is one of the greats of electronic music. He may not be a household name, but you’ll certainly have heard of two of the bands he co-founded: the Human League and Heaven 17. Ware’s a composer, songwriter, music programmer, has a list of production credits as long as your arm, and of course has been involved in the creation of several global hits.
One of these is the Heaven 17 song Temptation, a pulsing track about lust that builds around a lyric from the Lord’s Prayer (“lead us not into temptation”). Ware has now revealed that Rockstar games contacted his publishers about using this song in the upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6, and to say he wasn’t impressed by the company’s offer would be an understatement.
“I was recently contacted by my publishers on behalf of Rockstar Games RE the possibility of using Temptation on the new Grand Theft Auto 6,” says Ware. “Naturally excited about the immense wealth that was about to head my way, I scrolled to the bottom of the email RE the offer…
“It was $7500—for a buyout of any future royalties from the game,” said Ware, though later clarified that this was his cut as one of three co-writers. “$7500 each for 3 writers—Still utterly unacceptable.”
So the offer was $22,500 upfront, but with the caveat that Ware and his co-writers would forego any future royalties from the use of the song in the game. You might well be thinking that 20-odd grand doesn’t sound too bad, but Ware puts this in the context of Grand Theft Auto 5 grossing $8.6 billion. “Ah, but think of the exposure…” writes Ware: “Go fuck yourself.”
Surprisingly, or perhaps not, Ware found himself somewhat brigaded by GTA-likers saying they’d never heard of him, GTA’s reach would make it worthwhile anyway, the game will be amazing regardless, and so on. But as a successful artist who’s now reached the ripe age of 68, Ware has absolutely no truck with any of this.
“I haven’t ‘fucked up'”, says Ware, responding to someone who said he had. “I’ve worked in artist rights’ advocacy for 20 years. I know the game. This is iniquitous.”
Ware also addressed the “exposure” argument again, pointing out that an extra one million streams of the song “generates each writer a pitiful $1k each.” In response to someone saying Rockstar’s offer would be better than nothing, Ware simply says “get off your knees.”
Ware may well be in the right, and musicians should be thankful he’s opening up a conversation around royalties in Grand Theft Auto: $22.5K might be a typical song licensing fee for something used in a cutscene or boss fight, but the way those games use licensed music is effectively the same as radio stations. Heaven 17 get a royalty payment when their song is played on IRL radio stations: why shouldn’t it get one when that same song is played in a videogame? They wrote and performed it, after all.
Rockstar Games does not deal with criticism all that well, especially when it’s made public like this. The upshot of this is likely to be silence, and Grand Theft Auto 6 releasing without any Heaven 17 tracks in it. Who knows, this could even mean no Human League. Either way, it’s a sad day for fans of Vladivostock FM.
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