"The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small," Warner Music chief executive Edgar Bronfman told Reuters, though he did not list specific amounts.

Several Warner artists have appeared in Rock Band and Guitar Hero, such as Avenged Sevenfold and DragonForce, with Warner label Roadrunner noting a sales bump in DragonForce albums after the band was exposed to a wider audience in Guitar Hero III.

Other artists that fall under the Warner Music Group umbrella include Led Zeppelin, The B-52's, Green Day, Depeche Mode, Paris Hilton, Red Hot Chili Peppers and R.E.M., with a downloadable R.E.M. track pack recently announced for Guitar Hero World Tour.

Led Zeppelin tracks have been among those most-requested by Guitar Hero and Rock Band owners, with the band's management recently stating it wasn't comfortable giving game developers access to the catalog of master tapes.

Both Rock Band and Guitar Hero were created by Harmonix, which was purchased by MTV owner Viacom in 2006. At that time, Activision purchased Guitar Hero property owner RedOctane and assigned development of the guitar game to internal studio Neversoft, while Harmonix went on to develop the multi-instrument effort Rock Band.