Posts Tagged ‘Rock Band Network’

Well, I had a feeling it was coming soon, but not THIS soon… as in TODAY!  According to Billboard, “The Rock Band Network Music Store is open for business.”

Details are sketchy at best right now, as all the info I have right now is based off of the Billboard article.  If anyone can get to a console and fire it up, let me know what you’re seeing.  I’m not sure how you purchase RBN tracks exactly.  They could be issuing a patch to Rock Band 2, but I have a feeling that the tracks will be available initially exclusively through the Rock Band Music Store “game” on Xbox Live.

Also, looks like MTV will be partnering up with T-Mobile to promote a Rock Band Network Artist of the Month…

Mobile operator T-Mobile is on board as a launch partner, implementing an “Artist of the Month” program under which MTV and the operator will select one artist submitting music to the Rock Band Network each month to promote on MTV’s TV platform and on T-Mobile, beginning in April.  Exact details of the partnership are pending.

My wallet is going to be in trouble once I get home…

UPDATE 1: Looks like people are being prompted for an update when they fire up Rock Band 2 on their 360’s.  I can’t get to my console until after work, so keep me updated! Thanks @Dark5static!

UPDATE 2: Rumors are swirling that the “star ratings issue” has been fixed with the patch, although people are not seeing an RBN store details… yet.

UPDATE 3: Rock Band superstar @BillTVShow let me know that this thread over at the official RockBand.com forums has people also commenting on what they’re seeing.

UPDATE 4: IT’S OPEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s available under the “Music Store” menu! GO, GO, GO!!!!  (You may need to restart, but all signs are saying the RBN is now officially a-go!)

UPDATE 5: Also from @BillTVShow, the RBN is its own “location” in the sortable menu, so you can sort by RBN tracks.  He noticed too that if you press SELECT, you can rate a song!

UPDATE 6: The RBN is currently only available in the US and Canada (and I’ve heard Canadians are having some trouble getting it to work).  EU and other territories will be receiving it hopefully in a few weeks.

[Billboard.com via @Gurnkiller]

The Rock Band Network was announced in July of last year, and since that time, Rock Band fans and music fans alike have been waiting for the day when the RBN Music Store goes live.   While not yet live, Harmonix will be tentatively taking another giant step towards making this reality by opening up the beta to everyone later today.

What does this mean to you?  Very soon, you can go to the creators.rockband.com and check out the current tracks in development, in peer review, or approved and waiting for the RBN Music Store to go live.

This article from the Wall Street Journal was sent to me from @Toymachinesh last night talks about the forthcoming RBN, and some of the bands currently committed to submitting music.  I’ve listed some of the more major artists below that have already been announced, but the WSJ article was the first mention that Creed will be featured on the RBN.  And Destructoid has also spilled the beans that Billy Idol will be also be featured.

• Evanescence
• Creed
• Billy Idol
• All That Remains
• The Stills
• Ministry
• The Shins
• Flight of the Conchords
• And Sub Pop Records is committing approximately 25 songs

I’ll update this post when the the beta is open up to everyone, so you can have a look!  I’d love to hear your thoughts on the current state of the RBN, so feel free to leave your thoughts below.

UPDATE: As for the public go-live for the Rock Band Network Music Store, there is still no firm date, but according to comments made to Destructoid, the finalised Rock Band Network Store won’t be live “until we accrue a good base of content, though we’re already really excited by what we have in the pipeline.”

I’ve known about this for some time, but looks like everyone else was touching on this during the Thanksgiving holiday, so it’s probably only appropriate that I address it, as well.  The Rock Band Network, initially planned to emerge from the closed beta in November, has now been postponed until early 2010.  The reason is that the product should be released free of bugs, instead of rushing a product to market that needs to be patched.  As someone who has play tested tracks, I can assure you that the wait will be well worth it!  Plus, with the delay, there will be even more songs available now at launch!

Via an MTV spokesperson:

“We’re working hard to get the Rock Band Network open public beta release of tools up before the end of the year, with our RBN storefront launching in early 2010. Exact dates still TBD. The tools necessary for bands to start authoring and prepare their content for review are already live on Creators.rockband.com/tools/download. The open beta launch will add access to the currently private website where all of the RBN community activity and peer reviewing of tracks will take place. People who join the Rock Band Network (bands, fans or otherwise) will be able to play and preview any song before it hits the store, so they should stay tuned for the official launch.”

[via Kotaku]

@11YOD on Twitter notified me of this, and I thought it was cool enough to send out to everyone else.  Sounds like the closed beta will end around October, allowing anyone in the United States to begin submitting their authored tracks, and the Rock Band Network store will go live in November.  I’m trying to get one of my favorite bands into Rock Band, so I cannot wait until this goes live!

[via @11YOD]

Just got done reading Destructoid.com’s in-depth and screenshot-laden posting about their preview of the Rock Band Network.  The article basically takes the reader through everything they need to know about getting an artist’s original master tracks in to Rock Band.  As daunting as it looks, I believe once the Rock Band Network is out of closed beta, and the learning curve has been passed, you will see just about every artist clamoring to get into this thing (and subsequently making money).

If you don’t have the time to read the whole thing, here are some of the big take-a-ways:

• A patch will come out once the Rock Band Network is ready for go-live.  You’ll be able to search many different way to find songs (by artist, by genre, even by author), as well as through songs highlighted by Harmonix, top sellers, etc.
• The author/artist will set the price (now between $1 and $3… you won’t see many $3 songs unless it is a MAJOR artist).
• You can demo a song anywhere between 35% of the song’s length and 1 minute (whichever is shorter).  This demo option will however be unique to RBN songs; this does not include Harmonix-authored DLC.
• Songs must be created for the Xbox 360, however Harmonix will decide to port songs over to the PS3 at their and the artist/author’s discretion.  Wii owners, looks like you’ll get the short end of the stick again, as the hardware features will not allow for much of the RBN’s functionality.
• The Rock Band Network is tentatively slated for go-live in November.

[via Destructoid.com and Joystiq.com]