Rock Band Network Enters Open Beta
By Joe Dodson, 1/21/2010 1:14 AMHarmonix's weird web 2.0 experiment, the Rock Band Network, has entered open beta. This means that anyone with an XNA Creators Club membership can now turn their own songs into Rock Band tracks and try to sell them through the game. Just what the world needs, a new way to not make money writing music.
That's a little bit unfair, because songwriters will actually receive 30% of the cut from any songs they sell. While it's true that 30% of 0 is still zero, and while it's also true that the XNA membership costs $100, meaning you have to sell $100 worth of songs before you break even, it is hypothetically possible that the Rock Band community will suddenly become a successful song market in which songwriters sell their musical wares directly to happy consumers. This is not the worst idea ever. I repeat, not the worst idea ever.
Snarkiness aside, this is the worst idea ever. But it's a ballsy bad idea, and we admire Harmonix for the attempt. This may, in turn, lead to a great idea, or it may not. But at least Harmonix is taking shots at creating something completely new. And if it doesn't work out, it's not like they'll lose a ton of money on a crappy plastic turntable.
If you're interested in signing up for the beta, you can go here. You should know that the store has not yet been implemented, and there is no actual release date for the service itself.
Anyone who wondered why there wasn't just a huge flood of music to the Rock Band store should know that the problem was one of resources. Putting each track together with all the notes actually takes quite a while, and Harmonix' ability to add music to Rock Band was at capacity. They were adding an average of six to eight songs to the game per week, and that was all a huge team could handle.
Soon, record companies will be able to set up their own development houses (or pay others') to add their catalogs of music to Rock Band. It's not really for some kid trying to make a cute rock song in his basement; it's for getting more of the same big-name bands' music out there. Hopefully with RBN, we'll start seeing dozens of tracks added to Rock Band every week.