IMO, I feel EA Trax is an awesome marketing tool. It records into your subconscious by playing in the background and when you hear the song on the radio, you already know the words and could potentially purchase the album. Just ask Green Day how pre-releasing “American Idiot” on Madden ‘05 paved the way for 15 platinum plaques…[/quote]

I agree with most of your post, most people have never heard most of these songs, just like in past years. EA has introduced me to some great bands that I never would have heard of otherwise.

As for Green Day prereleasing American Idiot, I highly doubt having it on a video game was a key reason they sold so many albums. Green Day has been around for almost 20 years and has sold millions upon millions of albums.

For the people saying “in Flames and Trivium arent emerging bands, they’ve been around for a long time”, you do realize that they are just emerging as popular bands,right? They have both been popular in their own genre but they are just becoming more mainstream, meaning theyre emerging. Im not saying that bands that are mainstream are better, but they do sell more which makes them more successful.