BURLINGAME, Calif.--If you own an iPhone (or iPod Touch), chances are you've played Tapulous' "Tap Tap Revenge," a touch-screen and motion-controlled riff on videogaming's booming music genre. Apple recently revealed that "Revenge" is the third most popular free application on its App Store, and Tapulous Chief Executive Bart Decrem says half a million people play it every week since it debuted last summer.

Record labels, looking for another "Guitar Hero"-like vehicle to drive album sales, have taken notice. Last October, Tapulous released a game app for the iPhone that features 13 Nine Inch Nails tracks. On Thursday, the company released "Tap Tap Dance," an app priced at $4.99 that features 10 tracks from artists like Moby and Daft Punk. Later in December, an app featuring Christmas carols from Weezer will hit Apple's (nasdaq: AAPL - news - people ) App Store; the app, "Christmas with Weezer," will also sell for $4.99.

There is so much interest from bands that Tapulous plans to release new packs of songs and special editions every month in 2009.

Artists are clamoring to be involved with "Tap Tap" in the hopes of benefiting from a "Guitar Hero" boost that has been known to double album sales. Neilsen SoundScan documented a 136% increase in sales of the Aerosmith single "Same Old Song and Dance" the week after it was released in "Guitar Hero III," prompting the band to create a special "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith" edition. Sales of Weezer's song "My Name is Jonas" increased 10 times after appearing in the game. Other bands have even reunited to rerecord songs for the game or hit the studio to increase a track's difficulty.

"These games have found a way to make music cool again," says Embassy Multimedia Consultant Scott Steinberg. "It's bringing value back to music ... now you get to live it as opposed to listen to it."

Tapulous has launched seven applications in the hopes of mimicking the diversified social application portfolios of Slide and RockYou, but "Tap Tap Revenge" has become its focus. Not only is there demand for the app, but expansions of it are relatively cheap to build and can be turned around quickly. Decrem had no experience working with the music industry until late June--two weeks before "Tap Tap Revenge" launched.

Although Tapulous expects two-thirds of its revenues to come from paid downloads, Decrem says supporting the free "Tap Tap Revenge" is still important to the company. The improvements to the game introduced with "Tap Tap Dance"--particularly customized backgrounds that turn the game into an interactive music video--will appear in "Revenge" early next year.