Musikbranchen har i årevis forsøgt at finde nye måder at tjene penge på og sukket efter nye forretningsmodeller. Hvis de ikke allerede har fået øjnene op for de muligheder, som Guitar Hero & Rock Band giver i form af nye salgskanaler, burde se lyset meget snart. Arts Technica bringer en ganske interessant histore som påpeger, at digitale downloads af flere af de kunstnere som optræder i Guitar Hero III, steg ganske kraftigt i ugerne efter spillets udgivelse i sidste måned i USA. Især The Strokes og Slipknot har tilsyneladende nydt godt af den øgede eksponering de har fået i Guitar Hero III.

Take The Strokes’ track “Reptilia” as an example. 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 percent 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. The following chart shows the week-over-week sales increases for five of the tracks.