EA Tries to Go Platinum With Music Label

"EA has been instrumental in breaking new artists, but we have been limited in our ability to grow them," says Steve Schnur, worldwide executive of music and marketing for EA.

So, in March 2007, EA, in partnership with publishing firm Nettwerk One Music, launched its own music label to extend its relationship with artists.

With Artwerk, EA hopes to directly sign and launch artists, help them with the digital distribution of their music and offer licensing deals such as a placement in the company's vast portfolio of video games. Artwerk will also profit from the licensing of the music to advertising commercials and other avenues, says Schnur.

Artwerk hopes to help its artists find new outlets for their music and go beyond just CDs or live shows as the primary sales channels for them.

It is a unique experiment. EA's rivals including Activision Blizzard(ATVID Quote), which has the highly popular Guitar Hero music franchise, and smaller players such as THQ(THQI Quote) or Take-Two Interactive(TTWO Quote) remain wedded to just creating new games. EA is playing for bigger stakes, an opportunity to become the next star in the entertainment business and not just be another video-game company.

Although Artwerk has a long way to go before it can bring any significant revenue to EA, it's a start. EA already makes tracks available from its best-selling games for purchase on Apple's(AAPL Quote) iTunes store.

Artwerk has had a "very successful" first year," says Schnur. We have signed seven artists, which is unprecedented for a video-game company," he says, "and we have used our artists in so much of our real estate."