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Rock Band getting user-made tracks

By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpotPosted Jul 17, 2009 10:18 am PT

Harmonix and XNA Creators Club allowing anyone to upload their own music to sell as DLC; open beta starts in late August, initially 360-exclusive.

It's no secret that getting music into a big-time rhythm game can spark significant sales for aspiring and established artists. Until now, the biggest problem for those wanting to get in on the action was cracking the games' tightly controlled setlists. That looks to change soon, as MTV Games and Harmonix today announced Rock Band Network, a program that lets bands prepare and release their own tracks for sale as downloadable content in the game.

A group of XNA Creators Club members celebrates getting their song in Rock Band.

Beginning later this year, anyone with a song, some technical know-how, and an XNA Creators Club membership will have a shot at selling their Rock Band tracks to the masses and walk away with a cut of the proceeds. Using the Reaper Digital Audio Workstation program (available for $225), musicians will be able to take their master-track recordings and add note charts for each instrument.

Once the note tracks are in place, users will be able to upload it to the Rock Band Network Web site as part of the Xbox 360's XNA Creators Club, which has a $49.99 four-month membership or $99.99 annual membership. There the track will go through peer review from other Creators Club members. After earning approval from that community, the song will go up on the Rock Band downloadable song store. According to a Billboard Online report, musicians will be able to price their songs between $.50 and $3 and will receive a 30 percent cut of the sales.

The tracks will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 versions of Rock Band for at least 30 days, but MTV Games has said some songs may find their way to the PlayStation 3 and Wii editions of the game. The publisher also has plans to help artists promote their songs on the service, but it isn't offering details on that just yet.

281 Comments

  • Nosferatu2894

    Posted Sep 26, 2009 9:00 am PT

    $100 for a year? Sorry, playing Foals on my Xbox isn't that important to me.

  • xbox360555

    Posted Jul 24, 2009 3:57 pm PT

    Now thats awesome! If only i had online connection for my xbox360......

  • Tengoles

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 7:32 pm PT

    Wow that is prettu cool, i hope everything works out as expected

  • KSigMTSU

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 10:09 am PT

    Possibly the greatest news ever for this game. This will allow small bands and even large labels to submit music to the game without having to wait for the developer to do it for them. Any band including large ones could do this, through any studio, I can't wait for the flood of great music that could come from this.

  • Supreme4dmira1

    Posted Jul 21, 2009 8:37 am PT

    wow... this is actually really cool. I might have to get my band back together : P (and learn computer game programming!)

    But I'm sure there will be a bunch of people using this. I wonder what the average song price will be...

  • luigigreen

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 3:43 pm PT

    This is like 10 million times better then the GH studios. People can make real songs and prepare them however they want, plus they get a cut and can get their sound heard. Very cool.

  • Jedilink109

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 3:13 pm PT

    Sounds like a great idea....as long as people actually use it that is.

  • KillbombX

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 1:18 pm PT

    @DredWulf: That's exactly what I was thinking. I think this is the only hope for us metalheads after seeing the Guitar Hero 5 songlist.

  • 2x4b96123

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 1:13 pm PT

    awesome!! hopefully there shall be a crapola load of the living end, tool, nine inch nails and silverchair coming into my collection

  • Crash6

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 12:33 pm PT

    Phenomenal idea!

  • 360James

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 11:29 am PT

    Sounds like a good step-up into the music industry for smaller bands to me.
    Looks like a decent addition to a decent game which will soon be copied by GH...

  • halosniper52

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 11:21 am PT

    No that's ok I'm good with some real music. Than some BS crap that some little no good bands make, and have to pay for. I will only pay for the real classic rock music.

  • Gblazer01

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 11:05 am PT

    im still waiting for the day when i can play my own songs on Rock band..That would be so SWEET!! ;]

  • Weddum

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 10:45 am PT

    How many of you actually read the article? All songs go through a peer review process from other Creators Club members. Copyright infringement would be rare as it just takes one person to put their foot down and it doesn't go onto the store.

    Its a good idea to have this, there are lots of small bands with real talent who may never get recognised and this is a good way to get them the publicity they need.

  • Vital_Shot

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 10:42 am PT

    That's a neat idea. I wanna see if they follow through with it.

  • damonkeypirate

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 10:27 am PT

    Why can't rock band and guitar hero stop copying each other...this is obviously a jab at the music creator..and the new GH5 has a revival system in the event that you are playing with people who do terribly...I wish each company could just do things original instead of emulate each other....for once!

  • basskill2000

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 9:52 am PT

    not for nothing, it seems like a good idea, but i see lots of copyright law violations and people just getting ripped off for 400 bux and possibly not even getting the song they posted in the download store. this is B$

  • Hvac0120

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 8:52 am PT

    360-exclusive, but not really because it could end up on PS3 and Wii after 30 days, maybe, so it's exclusively non-exclusive potentially...
    _

  • DredWulf

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 8:20 am PT

    I don't know about the intricacies of the prices and all that but imagine how great it would be for those who listen to a particular genre of music like Death Metal or Black Metal...it would be amazing in months we could see Dimmu Borgir, or Immortal, or Vader or Nile stuff that would never be in normally on RB now a possibility...I for one being an extreme metal fanatic look fwd to seeing some more actual metal in the game.

  • kiraburu

    Posted Jul 20, 2009 8:16 am PT

    225 for REAPER + 99 ANNAL FEE + 50 MORE ANAL FEE + COPYRIGHT + WHATEVER THEY WANT TO CHARGE....GTFO

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