The game publishers pay the record labels about $10,000 for the rights to re-record a song and up to about $25,000 for master recordings by the original artist or new releases, according to executives close to the negotiations. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the terms are confidential.
More recently, music companies have sought a royalty of 4 to 8 cents for each copy of a game sold.
Labels also sometimes see a resurgence of older music. "Same Old Song and Dance," a 34-year-old Aerosmith tune, saw a 446% jump in downloads on iTunes and other online stores in the two months after its release on Guitar Hero 3, according to Tim Riley, vice president of music affairs at Activision Blizzard.
In some cases, sales of the game version of a song outsell those of the real thing. In the week after releasing its single "Saints of Los Angeles," Motley Crue sold 47,000 copies of the Rock Band version for Xbox 360 while selling just 10,000 copies of the original song as a digital download.
"We get the content, and they get a financial royalty and the promotion and exposure for their bands," Riley said.
Music industry executives declined to comment publicly. Some privately expressed surprise that Bronfman had spoken out, but said they too wanted better deals with game makers.
In a prepared statement, Warner said it had "enormous respect" for the investment and creativity of game publishers.
"We hope that our partners in the gaming space appreciate not only the value of their own contributions but also those of the recording artists, songwriters, record labels and music publishers on which their games are significantly based," the company said.
Laura Martin, a senior media analyst at Soleil Securities Group, said she expected to see "more of the economics shared with the content creators."
But IDC analyst Susan Kevorkian said the "major music labels need to reposition themselves as proactive players in developing digital music businesses rather than victims. They have a lot of power."
Not as much as they once had. The games have moved from niche to phenomenon, and musicians want in.
"The number of people interested in being associated with the game is probably a thousand times more than we can get into the game," Riley said.
"Our in-boxes are full with CDs every day."
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michelle.quinn@latimes.com
alex.pham@latimes.com
