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Business News Digital
Rock Band launch network to expand song catalogue
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 20 July 2009
So this could be interesting. The makers of the ‘Rock Band’ franchise, so MTV and Harmonix, have announced plans to launch a new online network that will let unsigned bands and indie labels get their music into the popular pretend-to-play game with minimum investment.
The Rock Band Network will allow anyone who controls both recording and publishing rights on a song to upload their master recordings to a central hub, where they will be picked up by one of a network of freelance developers who will add the game functionality to the track. Another network of developers and major Rock Band nuts will also be set up to test any interactive tracks developed this way. Tracks that go through all stages of the process will then be made available to Rock Band users via a new download store. Content owners will be able to set the price of each download, and will receive a 30% royalty on any sales. The developer who did the interactive bit presumably also gets a cut.
The aim of the Network is to enable unsigned bands and smaller labels to tap into the revenue potential of the pretend-to-play gaming phenomenon, and maybe even major labels too, the lack of resource at Harmonix to do bespoke artists deals and the lack of in-house knowledge at labels with regards the interactive component often a blockage to getting more content into the ‘Rock Band’ system. As well as benefiting artists and labels by providing a new revenue stream, the network will also ensure ‘Rock Band’ has a much bigger catalogue of tracks to pretend to play than their competitors.
The network is reportedly already in private beta stage, with plans to launch a public beta in the summer, and to go live, initially via the Xbox, later this year.
