The past two years has seen a seismic shift in the way the music industry views music-based videogames.

Mostly this is thanks to the staggering sales figures of Rock Band and Guitar Hero and the ongoing revenue stream created by digitally-distributed add-on songs.

Bands and their record companies are only just realising that licensing their material for use in a rhythm action game (whereby players play, for example, the guitar part of their song in the game) is not only a sensible thing to do but increasingly essential for survival.

Piracy’s not only killing music (at least, music by the major label definition) but also the radio and, as a result, the traditional ways in which young people encounter new songs and artists have to change.

If an up-and-coming band manages to secure one of their tracks on Guitar Hero they net an audience wider and greater that they could ever otherwise reach. In addition, their song will receive multiple repeat listens (much like a single in high rotation on a radio station) as players approach their track as if it were a level meriting repeat play regardless of how much they like the music itself.

But this time last year the music industry at large was only just waking up to these truths. As a result the bank of hit songs available for use in rhythm action games was quite small, with Harmonix, Activision, EA and Konami all tussling over which tracks they could secure for their respective releases.

To fill out the song list games like Guitar Hero also feature a raft of songs by unsigned artists. While the bands are unknown, these songs act as bonus levels for players who have exhausted the hits but still want something else to play along to. They’re cheap to buy in and, of course there’s always the chance that one of these artists will go on to become well known, earning the game’s publisher kudos for being ahead of the curve.

Nowadays these unsigned artists are usually competition winners and suchlike, amateur bands who earn their place in the game by virtue of their material (at least, as judged by the game maker). But for the first release of any rhythm action series there’s no established brand to run a competition off, so the unsigned bands featured usually end up being friends of the developers or their own side-project bands.

The people who work on rhythm action titles have often been hired because they are music fans, amateur/ failed musicians or part-time promoters. As such there’s an abundance of unsigned material that people on and around the team want to get into the game – not least for the royalty payments that a successful placement lands the writers and performers.

It’s something that irritates me no end and I’ve been trying to work out why I feel so strongly about it. Having a record deal is neither an indicator of base ability or quality and, as the way in which new artists emerge and gain popularity continues to shift and change, the old system holds less weight and importance.

Besides, most of the music I enjoy is written and performed by people who have to work a day job on the side to make their music project financially viable. Something that makes the kind of ‘professional’ snobbery I feel seem at odds my own listening habits.

But there’s a difference between amateur and niche. Niche acts who cannot afford to be musicians full time may look ostensibly the same as unsigned amateurs but there is a discernible if perhaps intangible difference. Moreover, from my perspective it’s obvious that these bonus songs are principally small favours to friends and family, vanity inclusions based on who the artist knows rather than what they have to offer. To me it reeks of nepotism and again signals an industry yet to mature. Who has played any of the unsigned bonus tracks in Guitar Hero more than once, if that?

I understand that Guitar Hero is a videogame pastiche of the rock industry (a parody aesthetic that uses the rock drama as a way to soften the ridiculous reality of what players are actually doing) and that A&R and unsigned acts are a big part of that industry. But even so, I’d take the slick, narrow professionalism of Singstar over the broad, inconsistent standard of Guitar Hero’s sprawling song list. I wonder if I’m alone in thinking this?