[Mechanical R]

So by now, everyone knows who EA are right? Course. Now, whilst EA have been busy bringing you the games we all play today, they've also been bringing us something else. Music.

It was back around the rough timeline of the release of Need for Speed Hot Pursuit 2 when a little something called EA Trax appeared, a small list of songs which made the soundtrack of the game. But rather than created by the developers themselves, these were official licensed music you could go out and buy in the shops. From there EA Trax has appeared in almost every EA title to date bringing us the best new, unheard (and occasionally some oldies we shouldn't forget) music into our gaming habits. Even I will admit to checking the EA Trax's list before doing anything when I get a new EA title.

What's good about EA Trax is it's not only easily accessed by the public to hear new music but it's also a good platform for artists and bands to get themselves more noticed. Which is where EA's next project, comes to play.

EA have formed a company known as Artwerk, which to put it simply are a music label with a twist.

Whilst Artwerk doesn't focus on the producing and selling of records, they do however put all effort into bringing the music to us, through the games, and within communities such as XBLA. The label itself has the power to sign, launch and promote artists to a whole new level by combining the communities of video gaming and music together tapping into a popular and common ground between them.

Xbla has the exclusive chance to work with Artwerk to bring the music from the games closer and even get a little bit of chatter with the artists themselves. And we'd like to start off with letting you music lovers out there, to get a good idea of what Artwerk is all about.


Got a question about EA Artwerk? We're kickstarting our working together with giving you guys the chance to find out more about EA Artwerk, what they're doing, what they plan on doing and more importantly which artists they are working with and how YOU the community can get more involved, post your questions here!

[Mush xx]

How many bands are signed up?
What kind of music do they cover?

[DarkBow]

What Artists are involved?

Being a fan of an 'alternative' style of music, how are you going to make sure that there is a fair mix between what genres are involved?

Alot of games have an associated style of music, for example when playing NBA games i expect R&B and hiphop, however on NHL games it is clear that the emphasis is on rock/punk music. How are you going to change this? Or is it likely to remain similar?

Is this record label purely signing unsigned bands? Will we still see big name bands in game soundtracks?

It says that Artwerk is going to promote bands via games, however are these bands going to be releasing to general consumers?

Music is very much something i cannot live without, how are we at xbla going to be involved?

In the past i have found a few new bands that i still listen to today via Trax. Through new games, am I likely to find more new bands that i will want to listen to alot more?