Music games help digital music sales
New digital sales statistics seem to show that music featured as part of the Guitar Hero 3 rythm game see a "dramatic leap" in numbers.
Assuming the tracks have already obtained the most popularity mainstream media could give them upon the time they were released, it’s likely any new noticable rise in sales come from new listeners created form new means.
A source close to Ars Technica reports "the week GH III was released, "Reptilia" sold 127 percent more digital copies than it had the week before. The following week saw another 96 percent jump in sales. That number stayed high the next week as well, as the song saw a modest 3 precent increase. The story was similar for Slipknot’s track "Before I Forget." That song jumped up 75 percent the week of the game’s release, and an impressive 140 percent the week after."
It will be interesting to watch this behaviour as Rock Band enters the rythm game scene.