Rock Band Network

[GamerMan316]

Rock Band Network live on Xbox 360, 105 songs available



The Rock Band Network has gone live on Xbox 360 with a catalog of 105 songs. With over 4,000 registered authors and peer reviewers participating in the program, we're guessing a lot more tracks are in the pipe; and Harmonix and MTV Games have teased that tracks from from Flight of the Conchords, The Smashing Pumpkins, Twin Atlantic, All That Remains, Clutch, Prong, The Gaslight Anthem and hundreds of other artists are on the way. Song prices currently range from 80 to 160MSP ($1 and $2)*.

A nice new feature of the Rock Band Music Store offshoot is that players will be able to download RBN samples to demo tracks before they buy. Songs will debut exclusively on Xbox 360 for 30 days, after which "a selection of standout tracks" will become available on PS3 and Wii.

*Artists who submit songs receive a 30-percent royalty of the RBN retail price (excluding tax) for every track purchased.

Songs Now Available in the Rock Band Network Music Store

    * 3 Inches of Blood - Battles and Brotherhood
    * Alias Unknown - Top Back
    * Amberian Dawn - He Sleeps in a Grove
    * Amberian Dawn - River of Tuoni
    * Andrew Buch - Trippolette
    * Audio Fiction - Race The Hourglass
    * Bif Naked - Sick
    * Blackmarket - Tongue Twister Typo
    * Bojibian - Still There
    * C&O - We Are the Best
    * Chaunce DeLeon and The Fountain of Choof - Tadpole Search and Rescue
    * Children of Nova - The Complexity of Light
    * Color Theory - If Not Now When
    * Dear and the Headlights - Talk About
    * Despised Icon - Day of Mourning
    * DnA's Evolution - The Heist
    * Error 404 feat. CJ Watson - If Trucks Drank Beer
    * Fake Shark-Real Zombie! - Angel Lust
    * Fake Shark-Real Zombie! - Horses in Heaven
    * Fake Shark-Real Zombie! - Running for the Razors
    * Fake Shark-Real Zombie! - Sestri Levante
    * Five Finger Death Punch - Burn it Down
    * Flogging Molly - Drunken Lullabies (Live)
    * Flogging Molly - Requiem for a Dying Song
    * Foreword - Watch It All Go Down
    * Free Spirit - Far Away from Heaven
    * Full-Source - End Quote
    * Full-Source - It's Not You, It's Everyone
    * Full-Source - Red Sky At Morn
    * Furly - Icarus' Song
    * Gandhi - Arigato
    * Giant Target - In Memories
    * Giant Target - Signs
    * Glass Hammer - Hyperbole
    * Glass Hammer - Sleep On
    * Heaven Ablaze - Parhelia
    * In This Moment - Mechanical Love
    * James William Roy - Paper Valentines
    * Jonathan Coulton - Creepy Doll
    * Jonathan Coulton - Ikea
    * Jonathan Coulton - The Future Soon
    * KMFDM - A Drug Against War
    * KMFDM - Juke Joint Jezebel
    * Kristin Hersh - Fortune
    * Kristin Hersh - Mississippi Kite
    * Lacuna Coil - Survive
    * Lead the Dead - Rip'er
    * Longwave - No Direction
    * Marillion - Whatever Is Wrong With You
    * Matter in the Medium - Persistence of Vision
    * MC Frontalot - Goth Girls
    * Nick Gallant - Inside Out
    * Nick Gallant - Turn Yourself Around
    * Of Last Resort - Fade Away
    * of Montreal - Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
    * Pink Flag - Nancy Drew
    * Ron Wasserman - Fight Back
    * Rose of Jericho - Buried Cold
    * Scratching The Itch - Lemon Juice
    * Scratching The Itch - The Buddy Disease
    * Scratching The Itch - You're My Everything
    * Senses Fail - Lady in a Blue Dress
    * Skeletonwitch - Crushed Beyond Dust
    * Skindred - Stand for Something
    * Speck - Grumpytown
    * Speck - VP of Booty Reports
    * Stars of Boulevard - Limousine
    * Stephanie Hatfield and Hot Mess - Can I Stay
    * Steve and Lindley Band - Backyard Buildyard
    * Steve Vai - For the Love of God (Live)
    * Steve Vai - Get the Hell Out of Here
    * Steve Vai - The Attitude Song
    * Stroke 9 - Kick Some Ass '09
    * Stroke 9 - Little Black Backpack '09
    * Suicide Silence - Disengage
    * Surprise Me Mr. Davis - Sissyfuss
    * The Cold Goodnight - Give
    * The Dirty Love Band - Moonboy
    * The Everybody - You Got That
    * The Fisticuffs - Liverpool Judies
    * The Hold Steady - Sequestered in Memphis
    * The Humans - It's Good
    * The Kimberly Trip - California
    * The Main Drag - Cease and Desist
    * The Main Drag - Don't Let Me Down (Slowly)
    * The Main Drag - Dove Nets
    * The Main Drag - Homosuperior
    * The Main Drag - How We'd Look On Paper
    * The Main Drag - Love During Wartime
    * The Main Drag - Megatron
    * The Main Drag - Talk Them Down
    * The Main Drag - Teeth, Face, Outerspace
    * The Main Drag - Tricky Girl
    * The Main Drag - What's Your Favorite Dinosaur?
    * The Shins - Australia
    * The Slip - Children of December
    * The Slip - Even Rats
    * Ultra Saturday - Not My Fault
    * Ultra Saturday - Superhero!
    * WaveGroup Feat. Becca Neun - Liquid Smog (StompBox Remix)
    * Wounded Soul - Rx
    * You Shriek - Lilith in Libra
    * You Shriek - No Heroes
    * Zack Wilson - Another California Song
    * Zack Wilson - Ox

[nCogNeato]

Fantastic.

If I ever get into playing Rock Band again, I'll be using this.

[Failed]

Gaslight Anthem ftw!!

[GamerMan316]

GDC: Harmonix on the ups and downs of creating the Rock Band Network

Eleven days ago, Harmonix delivered on a concept many of us had fantasized about since the very first time we ever played Rock Band: It democratized the track-making process. For the first time in the franchise's history, any schmo off the street with a bit of MIDI engineering experience and a song in their heart could put that song on the Rock Band Store for the world to see (and hopefully purchase).

At GDC, Harmonix senior sound designer Caleb Epps and Rock Band Network producer Matthew Nordhouse sat down to speak about the challenges that came with opening up the game to user-generated content, and how its dedicated community has organically evolved the song-sharing process.

You're probably familiar with the Rock Band Network by this point. A few months back, Harmonix released a set of tools which could be used to transform MIDI tracks from master recordings into playable Rock Band songs. Anyone with an XNA premium membership can join the Rock Band Creators community, upload their songs for peer-review, and add the tracks to the Rock Band Network store at a price point of their choosing.

This new marketplace posed a number of problems for Harmonix, ranging from legal issues, to technical hurdles, to worries that the content created by the community wouldn't meet the developer's lofty quality standards. Some of these issues were handily solved using the expertise Harmonix has accumulated during its 15 years in operation. Others almost derailed the project entirely.

Epps explained that Harmonix's wisest decision was to "stock the pond" before the Rock Band Network beta even went live with active members of the Score Hero community. The developer quickly built up an engaged group of gamers which had previously been "left out in the cold," creating their own tracks for Guitar Hero using tools of their own devising. The Score Hero community leaped at the chance to have access to the same tools Harmonix used to program their songs, giving the Rock Band Network an early push of content -- most of which is now available to download on the Store.



Harmonix inadvertently created a brand new industry by courting Score Hero modders. Since the RBN tools became available, dozens of third-party song-charting companies have sprung up, offering their services to major record labels and independent bands alike. These organizations have made it easier for larger bands to have their work represented in the game, while helping to increase the presence of smaller bands by giving them a new outlet on which to promote their music.

A lot of major decisions about standards and practices for the Network were left in the hands of this adopted community. With little input from Harmonix, these users organically decided on a number of audio engineering standards: How loud should a song be? What's the best way to represent a crazy guitar solo in the game's UI? What could a Rock Band song be -- a jazz number in which the vocalist sings the saxophone part? A track that features acoustic guitar and nothing else?

Fortunately, this community shared Harmonix's high quality standards, which eased the developer's concerns about a lack of content when the platform first went live. Out of Harmonix's 300-strong staff, only three team members were able to lend their musical support to Rock Band Network while it was still in the beta phase. Without the passionate community, it's doubtful that the Network would have had the manpower or the content to get off the ground.

Of course, some issues couldn't be solved by a strong community. Nordhouse explained he had to struggle with a number of legal issues, like how to avoid copyright infringement and profanity. While he assumed the latter could be automatically moderated, he showed the panel's attendees how a clever note-charter could still sneak some awful imagery into their songs:



Also shown was a note-tracked penis, though our camera wasn't quick enough to capture that fleeting image. (Not that you'd want to see it, anyway.)

Another problem was deciding what gameplay features would be left out of the programming tools to make them more accessible to users. In the end, three functions were removed from the Rock Band Network community's arsenal: Songs could not be played head-to-head, they couldn't be split up into chunks for Practice Mode, and they wouldn't support the Rock Band Stage Kit. We're sure all four Stage Kit owners out there were crushed to hear this news.

It's still a bit too soon to tell how successful the Rock Band Network -- and the third-party companies which have sprung up around it -- will be. Harmonix still has to find new ways to expand the community, and find better ways of promoting their work, so it doesn't get washed away in the 1,280 tracks already available in the Rock Band library.

Fortunately for Harmonix, the pre-launch development of the Rock Band Network proved that the community was more than capable and willing to help them solve these dilemmas. Ultimately, Harmonix's new platform hasn't just been stocked with user-generated content -- it's been shaped by user-generated ideas.

[Failed]

nice find Craig, that was a good read.