Posts Tagged ‘Rock Band Network’

I knew it was going to happen, but I didn’t think it was going to happen this quickly! It looks like record company Sub Pop will be the first label to pledge its support for the Rock Band Network. Sub Pop is an indie label best known for helping to introduce the world to Nirvana and Soundgarden, but also includes such bands as Band of Horses, Helio Sequence (check out their song “Lately”), Hot Hot Heat, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Mudhoney, Postal Service, Reverend Horton Heat, and the Shins.

Rolling Stone notes that according to Sub Pop A&R executive Tony Kiewel, Sub Pop is “looking at converting its entire catalog, which includes early Nirvana, the Postal Service and the Shins, into Rock Band-ready tracks for sale in the new Rock Band Network store. ‘You’d be crazy not to make your stuff available and sell it if you can,’ he says. ‘My fears are we haven’t actually used the software yet and audio multi-tracking software in general is pretty complex. This’ll be a ‘release’ as far as I’m concerned. This’ll be another format alongside vinyl and CD.’”

[via Joystiq]

And here it is.  The thing that I have been dreaming about (quite literally… here’s the proof).  User generated content (AKA songs) in Rock Band.  In other words, if you are a musical artist, you can actually submit your songs to be in Rock Band.  I could paraphrase, but I’m just going to let Harmonix explain it all (lazy blogging at it’s best) from the official site Creators.RockBand.com:

The Rock Band Network is a revolutionary system that will allow bands, studios and record labels to create and sell playable game content from their master recordings using the same professional tools used by our developers. Check out this overview video for more on how it will work.

Coming Soon – Use our tools to author playable tracks. Upload and submit your tracks for review by the Rock Band Creators community. Approved tracks become available in the Rock Band Store and on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace (select songs may appear on the PS3), and you get a cut of every purchase.

Step One: Author Your Track

You’ll be able to take the stems from any master recording (you must own the rights to the recording in order to participate) and create MIDI charts for each instrument using the Reaper Digital Audio Workstation equipped with our free authoring plugins. Audition the track on your Xbox 360 console to make sure it rocks properly. When it’s good to go, you’ll package everything up and share your track with the RBN community.

Step 2: Upload

When you’re satisfied with your track, upload it to this site so that your peers can evaluate it. Anyone in the Creators community will be able to download and audition the track on their own Xbox consoles, and they’ll give you valuable constructive feedback that will help you revise your work and make your track as fun and challenging as possible.

Step 3: Review

When you upload your song to the Creators site, it will be immediately available for any other Creator with a Premium Account* to download and audition. Your peers will post valuable, detailed feedback on your song. Once you and your peers agree that your song is ready for primetime, you’ll submit it for peer review. Once it passes peer review, your song is released into the world.

Step 4: Publish

All your hard work will have paid off, literally. Once your song is approved, it will go straight into publication, available for purchase to millions of Rock Band fans in the Rock Band store and on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. And you’ll get a cut of every sale.

Step 5: Promote

Getting your music into Rock Band is a huge deal—we’ll help you tell the world about it! Stay tuned for more information.

Full details here.

I’ll publish more details as they become available!