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With the wild success of the video game franchise Rock Band and the vastly popular Guitar Hero series, record labels are frothing at the mouth in hope of more profits from these games, specifically.

It is no surprise that possible sales figures for record labels have been taken away by illegal downloads through the last half a decade, with the last year being the worst. And even legal downloads through popular programs such as Itunes, have dropped drastically. Labels are looking for an alternative way to keep their rapidly downsizing company from collapse.

And here steps a new outlet, as Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour, the last two iterations in the two popular series, have accounted for $103 million in sales for their respective companies -- with just one month in the market.

The music elite MTV grabbed Harmonix, the company behind Rock Band, late last year, offering them to the extensive multi-generational library MTV holds rights to. With their backing, they have the ability to easily obtain songs from virtually any decade, where once this task required deep contacting- and money.

But the company behind Guitar Hero, Activision, has their own way of competing with the MTV library. They have been known to pay artists to re-record classic hits where master recordings cannot be obtained. The Sex Pistols re-recorded "Anarchy in the U.K." and Aerosmith re-recorded their iconic track from 1973 "Dream On" exclusively for Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock.

But it is the downloadable songs being offered through each franchise, where one can download a song directly from their video game system to play on the respective title. Record labels are seeing this as a prime opportunity. Harmonix and Activision are purchasing the rights to have a song downloadable from a record label for an amount ranging from $5,000 to $30,000 for a more high-profile song.

Record Labels are discontent because they only receive a flat fee from songs bought by either video game company. "The amount being paid to the [music] industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content that we own and control, is far too small," said Edgar Bronfman Jr., chairman and chief executive of major label Warner Music Group.

Concerns are focused on labels getting more money if their specific song is bought more. Labels also argue that they deserve more money, four to eight cents, for each unit sold of the game, whether it is a Guitar Hero or Rock Band title.

Harmonix argues that it should be the other way around, where the labels pay them for use of their songs. CEO of Activision Blizzard Robert Kotick said last month in The Wall Street Journal "When you look at the impact [Guitar Hero] can have on an Aerosmith, Van Halen, or Metallica, it's really significant…so much so that you sort of question whether or not, in the case of those kinds of products, you should be paying any money at all and whether it should be the reverse."

Labels have realized the power of extra exposure for their artists through video games, as sales of "Black Ice," AC/DC's new power epic releasing last month, sold 1.7 million units in one week- and it was a Wal-mart exclusive. Two weeks after the album's Oct 17 release, 18 live songs from AC/DC became available for download on Rock Band and as a separate disc, undoubtedly fuelling sales of the hit bands coinciding album release.

There is no doubt that labels are benefiting from having music they own being featured in popular franchises, as downloadable songs for Rock Band and Guitar Hero have superceded sales of digital music in 2007. And there is no doubt that the music video game franchises are wildly successful because of the music supplied to them by the labels.

Yet the argument that remains is who deserves more? Is it the supplier, or the maker? Who will earn the upper hand in the dispute?

No matter the conflict, the winner will always be the consumer. We are now exposed to greater amounts of music in new and innovative ways, despite the conflicting greediness going on behind the scenes.

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