Harmonix anounces Rock Band Creator's Network @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on July 20, 2009

News: Harmonix plans to allow bands to upload their own tracks to the Rock Band Store very soon.

After Activision announced Guitar Hero's GHTunes, a way for users to create content for the game, Harmonix replied that they would not offer music creation options for Rock Band until they could do it right.

Well, they did it, and it sounds very right.

This weekend, Harmonix announced the Rock Band Network, a new service that will allow bands and record labels to turn their songs into Rock Band tracks and upload them to a special section of the Rock Band Music Store. The bands/labels would then choose a price for these songs (from 50 cents to $3) and then reap 30% of the price in royalties. With that kind of money involved, I can see a lot of bands signing up for this.

To ensure that the note charts for each uploaded song match the quality of the tracks created by Harmonix's internal team, the company has partnered with Microsoft to use their XNA Creator's Club platform at Creators.RockBand.com. With this system, other Creator's Club members will check the uplaoded tracks for things like playability, inappropriate lyrics and copyright infringement.

Because of this partnership with Microsoft, all of the songs approved by the Creator's Club will be added to the Xbox 360 edition of the Rock Band Network first. After an exclusivity period of 30 days, Harmonix will make "stand out tracks" available to download for PS3 and Wii owners.

The Rock Band Network song creation tools will be made available to bands and developers starting in August and Harmonix hopes to make songs available to download from the Rock Band Network Store by the end of the year.