Harmonix and XNA Creators Club allowing anyone to
upload their own music to sell as DLC; open beta starts in late August,
initially 360-exclusive.
It's no secret that getting music into a big-time rhythm game can spark significant sales for aspiring and established artists.
Until now, the biggest problem for those wanting to get in on the
action was cracking the games' tightly controlled setlists. That looks
to change soon, as MTV Games and Harmonix today announced Rock Band
Network, a program that lets bands prepare and release their own tracks
for sale as downloadable content in the game.
Beginning
later this year, anyone with a song, some technical know-how, and an
XNA Creators Club membership will have a shot at selling their Rock
Band tracks to the masses and walk away with a cut of the proceeds.
Using the Reaper Digital Audio Workstation
program (available for $225), musicians will be able to take their
master-track recordings and add note charts for each instrument.
Once the note tracks are in place, users will be able to upload it to the Rock Band Network Web site
as part of the Xbox 360's XNA Creators Club, which has a $49.99
four-month membership or $99.99 annual membership. There the track will
go through peer review from other Creators Club members. After earning
approval from that community, the song will go up on the Rock Band
downloadable song store. According to a Billboard Online report, musicians will be able to price their songs between $.50 and $3 and will receive a 30 percent cut of the sales.
The tracks will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 versions of Rock Band for
at least 30 days, but MTV Games has said some songs may find their way
to the PlayStation 3 and Wii editions of the game. The publisher also
has plans to help artists promote their songs on the service, but it
isn't offering details on that just yet.
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