Rock Band Network
Encyclopedia
The Rock Band Network is a downloadable content service designed by Harmonix Music Systems
with the help of Microsoft
to allow musical artists and record labels to make their music available as playable tracks for the Rock Band
series of rhythm video games, starting with Rock Band 2
. It was designed to allow more music to be incorporated into Rock Band than Harmonix themselves could produce for the games, and it is seen as a way to further expand the games' music catalog into a wide variety of genres. The Network started closed beta testing in September 2009, and an open beta test in January 2010. The Rock Band Network Store was publicly available on March 4, 2010 for all Xbox 360
players in selected countries (US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Singapore). Rock Band Network songs will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 for 30 days upon each songs' release, after which a selection of songs will be made available on the PlayStation 3 and Wii.
The Rock Band Network is based on the XNA Creators Club
model and uses peer review to check songs for playability, copyright violations and profanity in a song's lyrics. Harmonix has developed a suite of software tools, including a modified version of REAPER
, a digital audio sound tool, and Magma, a metadata packaging tool, for use by artists and labels. In addition, Harmonix has helped to spawn the creation of several third-party companies, based on the previous hacking environment for the creation of custom songs, that will author an artist's song into a Rock Band track. Artists retain full control on their songs, and receive 30% of the sales from the Network. Several artists and labels have already committed to expanding the distribution of their music through the network. A second version of the Network, "RBN 2.0" went live shortly after the release of Rock Band 3
. The new version incorporates the ability to author regular and Pro keyboard, vocal harmonies, and Pro drums; due to the complexity and time investment, RBN 2.0 does not support authoring of Pro guitar or bass at its onset. The Network has been considered a more favorable option for the addition of user-generated content for music games than compared to Activision
's previous attempt with "GHTunes" for the Guitar Hero
series.
for the Rock Band
games, consistent with their vision of Rock Band as a music platform and preferring digital distribution instead of new games or media. The downloadable content has been well-received by players, with over 50 million songs downloaded by mid-2009. However, without significantly expanding their company, Harmonix realized they could not expand their authoring process. The company worked with Microsoft
to create the Network, modeling it after their XNA Creators Club
which has produced a series of peer-reviewed titles in the Xbox Live Indie Games
series. The resulting model allows artists and labels to author their own songs into Rock Band tracks, and submit them for peer-review before adding them to the Network, with a 30% cut of the songs' sales. Eran Egozy
, co-founder of Harmonix, noted that "We're changing the way the music industry is working, and we're hoping there's going to be this big community around it". Harmonix' other co-founder, Alex Rigopulos
, sees the Network as the next form of media that people will want to experience music through as with portable music players and in concerts. Rigopulos also stated that creating music in a form that is ready to be used in Rock Band is "just part of what they do now", and considers the Network an attractive way to allow artists and labels to skip the Harmonix middleman in getting tracks to players. The New York Times claims that in order to keep the development of the Network confidential, they internally named the project "Rock Band: Nickelback
", believing that the "quintessentially generic modern rock group" name would deflect any attention to it. However, Harmonix senior producer Matthew Nordhaus denied this claim.
In anticipation of the announcement of Rock Band Network, Harmonix contacted the ScoreHero and CustomHero communities, groups that have been hacking and modifying songs from Rock Band to put in their own custom songs, in order to engage them in helping use their knowledge of song creation. As a result, a company called Rhythm Authors was created by Joseph Cirri, the founder of ScoreHero; for a portion of the song's sale, they will assist bands by creating the appropriate note tracking for their songs, peer review them, and help to train others to do the tasks. Within a week of the company's reveal, sixteen bands had signed up for Rhythm Authors' services. Other companies, including RockGamers Studios, TuneCore
, and WaveGroup Sound
, have also been formed for authoring; while authoring rates vary between the companies, it is estimated to be approximately $500 per minute of transcoded song. Harmonix will also provide training classes on the Rock Band Network tools and promotion at the September 2009 GameSoundCon Conference in Los Angeles. Harmonix' Greg LoPiccolo stated that he believes the authoring community will also come up with further plug-ins for the authoring software to further automate the song creation process. Similar companies that promise to help author note tracks have also been created since the announcement of the Network.
The Network started in private Beta in September 2009, A patch to Rock Band 2 for Xbox 360 users posted in late 2009 included the addition of the "Audition" mode that allowed those in the Beta to try their songs in the game. The development tools and additional documentation were released to the general public in early October 2009. Though originally expected that the Network will become available to general players in November 2009, the open service was not expected to launch until early 2010. An open beta, allowing any player with an Xbox 360 and XNA account, was opened on January 19, 2010. The Rock Band Network Store was opened on March 4, 2010, with over 100 songs available at launch. On opening, it was announced that T-Mobile
would help sponsor the store, highlighting an "Artist of the Month". Harmonix will continue to author songs for release as normal downloadable content alongside the Network. Further interactions between regular downloadable content and Network songs will depend on the performance of the Network. Harmonix noted that the delays in getting the Network out was due to lack of internal deadlines within Harmonix as well as difficulties adapting the XNA system to their needs. Harmonix also identified issues with the closed beta period, during which they used mock-ups of songs instead of real ones for the beta testers to review, as when real songs were then added, a number of new concerns were suddenly apparent. Harmonix also noted that legal discussions on the addition of user-generated content added several months to the release of the Network.
Limited PlayStation 3 support was announced starting on April 22, 2010. Due to limitations with Sony's store system, Harmonix would initially be able to offer 5 songs weekly, selected based on popularity as well as balance of genre and bands from the exist Network library from the Xbox 360; Harmonix is currently working to expand this number.
The number of songs on the Network surpassed 400 in May 2010, and 500 in August 2010, leading to an average release of 3 songs per day since the launch of the Network. More than 9000 users have participated in helping on supporting the Network review process with over 700 of those as track authors or playtesters. Approximately half of the tracks played in the Network's demo mode are subsequently bought by the players, representing an "organic growth" of the service, according to Harmonix' Jeff Marshall.
Songs from the Network will continue to work in Rock Band 3, and will be treated as regular downloadable content across all modes of the game. Rock Band Network 2.0 was announced upon release of Rock Band 3, with a testing cycle starting shortly afterwards. The second version of the network includes support for new features of Rock Band 3, including vocal harmonies, keyboard support, and Pro modes for drums and keyboard. However, it will not include Pro guitar or bass modes initially; this decision was based on the difficulty of authoring the Pro guitar tracks and the expected limited user base available to test these songs on the onset of Rock Band 3s release. Harmonix will review the demand for such features within a year to consider adding this functionality to RBN 2.0. Other changes include improved authoring tools for creators, and better control of audition sessions for reviewers to better evaluate a song. Beta versions of the tools were live shortly after Rock Band 3s release. The Network 2.0 is scheduled to go live on February 15, 2011, with existing Network shut down the day before. After this event, only players with Rock Band 3 will see new songs available through the Rock Band Network; players of Rock Band 2 will still be able to purchases older songs approved for release before the change.
On September 3, 2010, Harmonix announced the first nine Rock Band Network tracks for the Wii, but gave no release date, simply stating they were 'coming soon'. The first tracks for Wii were released on September 7, 2010. Due to limited demand for Network songs on Wii platform, Harmonix discontinued further Network tracks for the Wii on January 18, 2011.
license for the charting tools. A copy of the digital audio workstation software REAPER
, using custom add-ons created by Harmonix, is the key program that artists and track creators will use to author tracks; the program allows the author to analyze the tempo of the track, and then place notes in time with the music for each supported game difficulty. It also has the ability to auto-generate the song's note tracking for kick and snare drums at the "Expert" difficulty, though creators must further tune the resulting note track, and create easy, medium, and hard difficulty gameplay. Following this, Harmonix' "Magma" program, so named jokingly as magma
is the source of "rock
", is used to convert the song and note track information into a Rock Band playable song, and attempts to create reasonable animation sequences based on this information, such as having the camera focus on the guitarist during a solo. These animations can be further customized by the editor within REAPER. Only two aspects of the performance cannot be modified by the editor: they cannot change the lip-synching of the vocalists, and they cannot control the activation of the fog machine
peripheral for the game. Authors are not required to use REAPER; Magma requires a MIDI file that meets documented specifications, allowing users to use other authoring programs if they wanted to.
The authoring of a single track is expected to take between 20 and 40 hours for a newcomer to the process, according to Harmonix. All tracks will be submitted to review through a standard peer review process to judge song difficulty and gameplay standards while patrolling submissions for copyright violations and profanity. Songs can be priced from $1 to 3 dollars, with the artists receiving 30% of the track's sales. The Network will only support creators that reside in the United States with content distributed to the United States, Canada, and Europe, due to current restrictions on the XNA Creator's Club and user-generated content.
In an interview at the 2010 Game Developers Conference
held a few weeks after the Network's launch, Harmonix's senior producer Matthew Nordhaus and senior sound designer Caleb Epps noted that the user community has been critical for helping to identify some of the authoring and playtesting limitations. Though the lip synching animations are generated by REAPER and Magma automatically, they would produce awkward animations on long sustained vocal notes, but the user community found tricks to get around that. Users also helped to identify areas of the authoring process where Harmonix had taken for granted due to three years of past authoring experience, such as advice on the appropriate mixing of audio for tracks. They also found the community was supportive of allowing creative mixes for a song that would otherwise not be in Rock Band, such as using the vocal part of a track to match to the melody of a saxophone for a jazz piece. However, Nordhaus and Epps noted that users have also found ways to bypass some of the content-restrictions on the authoring process, such as the generation of images of swastikas or male genitalia within the note-tracks themselves, and there is reliance on the community to catch and remove these before release. In part, the use of XNA, requiring users to pay to participate, acts as a wall to prevent users that simply are wasting the community's from participating.
Artists must have publishing rights for songs they release through the Rock Band Network, thus limiting the use of cover
s or remixes. However, Harmonix only seeks to gain non-exclusive licenses for songs, allowing artists to also have their songs used in other rhythm games. Artists will be able to remove songs from the Network if they want.
Through a title patch for the game by November 2009, Xbox 360 Rock Band 2 users will be able to browse songs in the Rock Band Network through several different categories; furthermore, a demonstration of each Network song, consisting of either one minute or 35% of the track's total length, whichever is shorter, can be played in Quickplay mode, with the user given the option to immediately purchase the song after playing it. While Harmonix has not ported the tools to work with the PlayStation 3, artists that create Network songs need only "to do some paperwork" to allow the songs to be ported to the PlayStation Network; a similar title patch occurred for Rock Band 2 on that system. The Wii does not allow title patches, and as such, Network songs will only be offered if placed onto the Wii's store by Harmonix. Along with the Rock Band Network on the consoles, users can browse the available songs, with web pages and previews for individual songs automatically generated by Harmonix' software through the Rock Band website. While the initial version of the web site will allow for simple search, they plan to expand its capabilities to include song recommendations and other finer search tools for end users. Harmonix will also help to promote certain songs and will include features such as song or label of the week, though details of how this promotion may affect the artist's revenue is unknown.
Once players have purchased and downloaded Rock Band Network tracks, there are limitations to where the song can be used. Network songs will not appear as a song within the various "Mystery Setlist" challenges within Tour mode, though users can add Network songs to "Make a Setlist". Users can also use Network songs in Quickplay modes. Network songs cannot be played in the head-to-head modes, as this would require Network authors to also balance note tracks for these game modes. Songs can be practiced through Practice Mode, but unlike Harmonix-authored songs, which include hooks to allow the user to practice specific sections of a song, Network songs are not authored with these phrase hooks and can only be practiced in 10% segments.
, who appeared on a panel about the Rock Band Network at the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo
demonstrating the authoring process for his song "The Future Soon", has committed to providing additional songs through it. Boston independent band the Bon Savants
created a series of blog video posts demonstrating and explaining the steps in authoring a song into the Network. Further bands confirmed by Harmonix include The Shins
, Ministry
, Evanescence
, The Stills
, Creed
, and All That Remains
. WaveGroup Sound
also confirmed that they will be releasing several songs from artists such as Reverend Horton Heat, Steve Vai
and Widespread Panic
. Umphrey's McGee
has also announced plans for several songs on the Rock Band Network including the tracks "1348" and "Miss Tinkles Overture".
Harmonix has also been in contact with major music labels who previously have been requesting Harmonix to include their music to participate in creating songs with the Network. One label, Sub Pop
, has revealed they will plan to release all songs and albums on their label to the Rock Band Network, including early music by Nirvana
, Mudhoney
, Sleater-Kinney
, The Postal Service
and The Shins
, though the amount and rate of content will be affected by the difficulty of the tools Harmonix will provide to make the music tracks. For the service's launch, the label prepared 25 songs through the various authoring companies. Tony Kiewel of Sub Pop stated that they see the Rock Band Network as another music distribution path alongside vinyl and CD and plan to release future songs from their label on the Network alongside traditional music media. One such band includes Flight of the Conchords
, who announced that three of their songs, including two from their first album
, would be coming to Rock Band at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards
, later clarified by Sub Pop that they would be Network tracks. Label Side One Dummy announced that they will be releasing The '59 Sound
and Old White Lincoln, the two first singles from The Gaslight Anthem
's The '59 Sound
album in early March 2010. On April 30, 2010, Rhythm Authors announced that they were partnered with Sumerian Records
to bring the label's music to the Rock Band Network; so far Asking Alexandria
, Veil of Maya
and After the Burial
are confirmed to be in production.
The Rock Band Network has also been used to promote songs from video games or other sources. Two songs from the fictional rock group, the Midnight Riders, from Left 4 Dead 2
have been added through the network. At least two songs created for the television show Lost
will be appearing on the network, in part due to fans of the show at Harmonix working with the Lost team to create the works.
On January 4, 2011, rock band Alien Ant Farm
confirmed that several of their songs, including the entirety of debut album ANThology
, would be making their way to the Rock Band Network in 2011. The first three songs have been announced, with an aim to release three more songs quarterly until the album is complete.
Devin Townsend
has been confirmed to be adding the entirety of his Ziltoid the Omniscient
album to the Rock Band Network over the course of 2011.
Harmonix Music Systems
Harmonix Music Systems is an American video game development company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts in the United States...
with the help of Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
to allow musical artists and record labels to make their music available as playable tracks for the Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
series of rhythm video games, starting with Rock Band 2
Rock Band 2
Rock Band 2 is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems. It is the sequel to Rock Band and is the second title in the series. The game allows up to four players to simulate the performance of popular songs by playing with controllers modeled after musical instruments...
. It was designed to allow more music to be incorporated into Rock Band than Harmonix themselves could produce for the games, and it is seen as a way to further expand the games' music catalog into a wide variety of genres. The Network started closed beta testing in September 2009, and an open beta test in January 2010. The Rock Band Network Store was publicly available on March 4, 2010 for all Xbox 360
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...
players in selected countries (US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Singapore). Rock Band Network songs will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 for 30 days upon each songs' release, after which a selection of songs will be made available on the PlayStation 3 and Wii.
The Rock Band Network is based on the XNA Creators Club
Microsoft XNA
Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates video game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code" and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system...
model and uses peer review to check songs for playability, copyright violations and profanity in a song's lyrics. Harmonix has developed a suite of software tools, including a modified version of REAPER
REAPER
REAPER is a digital audio workstation created by Cockos. It is distributed with an uncrippled evaluation license with a nag screen explaining the license cost. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X...
, a digital audio sound tool, and Magma, a metadata packaging tool, for use by artists and labels. In addition, Harmonix has helped to spawn the creation of several third-party companies, based on the previous hacking environment for the creation of custom songs, that will author an artist's song into a Rock Band track. Artists retain full control on their songs, and receive 30% of the sales from the Network. Several artists and labels have already committed to expanding the distribution of their music through the network. A second version of the Network, "RBN 2.0" went live shortly after the release of Rock Band 3
Rock Band 3
Rock Band 3 is a music video game, developed by Harmonix Music Systems. The game was initially published and distributed by MTV Games and Electronic Arts, respectively, with Mad Catz taking over both roles a year later. It is the third main game in the Rock Band series...
. The new version incorporates the ability to author regular and Pro keyboard, vocal harmonies, and Pro drums; due to the complexity and time investment, RBN 2.0 does not support authoring of Pro guitar or bass at its onset. The Network has been considered a more favorable option for the addition of user-generated content for music games than compared to Activision
Activision
Activision is an American publisher, majority owned by French conglomerate Vivendi SA. Its current CEO is Robert Kotick. It was founded on October 1, 1979 and was the world's first independent developer and distributor of video games for gaming consoles...
's previous attempt with "GHTunes" for the Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero
Guitar Hero is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems and published by RedOctane for the PlayStation 2 video game console. It is the first entry in the Guitar Hero series. Guitar Hero was released on November 8, 2005 in North America, April 7, 2006 in Europe and June 15, 2006 in...
series.
History
Prior to the announcement of the Rock Band Network, Harmonix would regularly add approximately 10 songs each week as new downloadable contentDownloadable content
Downloadable content is official additional content for a video game distributed through the Internet. Downloadable content can be of several types, ranging from a single in-game outfit to an entirely new, extensive storyline, similarly to an expansion pack. As such, DLC may add new game modes,...
for the Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
games, consistent with their vision of Rock Band as a music platform and preferring digital distribution instead of new games or media. The downloadable content has been well-received by players, with over 50 million songs downloaded by mid-2009. However, without significantly expanding their company, Harmonix realized they could not expand their authoring process. The company worked with Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
to create the Network, modeling it after their XNA Creators Club
Microsoft XNA
Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates video game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code" and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system...
which has produced a series of peer-reviewed titles in the Xbox Live Indie Games
Xbox Live Indie Games
Xbox Live Indie Games are user created video games released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games are developed using Microsoft XNA, and developed by one or more independent developers that are registered with App Hub...
series. The resulting model allows artists and labels to author their own songs into Rock Band tracks, and submit them for peer-review before adding them to the Network, with a 30% cut of the songs' sales. Eran Egozy
Eran Egozy
Eran Egozy is the Chief Technical Officer and VP of Engineering of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Alex Rigopulos in 1995.-Personal:Eran is a native of Israel. He moved to Lexington, MA at the age of 12, from Israel...
, co-founder of Harmonix, noted that "We're changing the way the music industry is working, and we're hoping there's going to be this big community around it". Harmonix' other co-founder, Alex Rigopulos
Alex Rigopulos
Alexander Peter "Alex" Rigopulos is the CEO of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Eran Egozy in 1995. Rigopulos personally cites Japanese game designers Masaya Matsuura, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and Keita Takahashi as some artists that have inspired his work at Harmonix...
, sees the Network as the next form of media that people will want to experience music through as with portable music players and in concerts. Rigopulos also stated that creating music in a form that is ready to be used in Rock Band is "just part of what they do now", and considers the Network an attractive way to allow artists and labels to skip the Harmonix middleman in getting tracks to players. The New York Times claims that in order to keep the development of the Network confidential, they internally named the project "Rock Band: Nickelback
Nickelback
Nickelback is a Canadian rock band from Hanna, Alberta. Since 1995 the band has included guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist and back-up vocalist Ryan Peake and bassist Mike Kroeger.. The band's current drummer and percussionist is Daniel Adair who has been with the band since 2005....
", believing that the "quintessentially generic modern rock group" name would deflect any attention to it. However, Harmonix senior producer Matthew Nordhaus denied this claim.
In anticipation of the announcement of Rock Band Network, Harmonix contacted the ScoreHero and CustomHero communities, groups that have been hacking and modifying songs from Rock Band to put in their own custom songs, in order to engage them in helping use their knowledge of song creation. As a result, a company called Rhythm Authors was created by Joseph Cirri, the founder of ScoreHero; for a portion of the song's sale, they will assist bands by creating the appropriate note tracking for their songs, peer review them, and help to train others to do the tasks. Within a week of the company's reveal, sixteen bands had signed up for Rhythm Authors' services. Other companies, including RockGamers Studios, TuneCore
TuneCore
TuneCore is an online distribution service for music founded in 2005. TuneCore principally offers musicians and other rights-holders the opportunity to place their music into online retailers such as iTunes, AmazonMP3, Zune Marketplace, Rhapsody, eMusic, and others for sale.-History and...
, and WaveGroup Sound
WaveGroup Sound
WaveGroup Sound is a music production studio located in Fremont, CA specializing in audio post production and design. The primary notability of the studio is its work on many of the currently popular music games for the various major video game platforms...
, have also been formed for authoring; while authoring rates vary between the companies, it is estimated to be approximately $500 per minute of transcoded song. Harmonix will also provide training classes on the Rock Band Network tools and promotion at the September 2009 GameSoundCon Conference in Los Angeles. Harmonix' Greg LoPiccolo stated that he believes the authoring community will also come up with further plug-ins for the authoring software to further automate the song creation process. Similar companies that promise to help author note tracks have also been created since the announcement of the Network.
The Network started in private Beta in September 2009, A patch to Rock Band 2 for Xbox 360 users posted in late 2009 included the addition of the "Audition" mode that allowed those in the Beta to try their songs in the game. The development tools and additional documentation were released to the general public in early October 2009. Though originally expected that the Network will become available to general players in November 2009, the open service was not expected to launch until early 2010. An open beta, allowing any player with an Xbox 360 and XNA account, was opened on January 19, 2010. The Rock Band Network Store was opened on March 4, 2010, with over 100 songs available at launch. On opening, it was announced that T-Mobile
T-Mobile
T-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
would help sponsor the store, highlighting an "Artist of the Month". Harmonix will continue to author songs for release as normal downloadable content alongside the Network. Further interactions between regular downloadable content and Network songs will depend on the performance of the Network. Harmonix noted that the delays in getting the Network out was due to lack of internal deadlines within Harmonix as well as difficulties adapting the XNA system to their needs. Harmonix also identified issues with the closed beta period, during which they used mock-ups of songs instead of real ones for the beta testers to review, as when real songs were then added, a number of new concerns were suddenly apparent. Harmonix also noted that legal discussions on the addition of user-generated content added several months to the release of the Network.
Limited PlayStation 3 support was announced starting on April 22, 2010. Due to limitations with Sony's store system, Harmonix would initially be able to offer 5 songs weekly, selected based on popularity as well as balance of genre and bands from the exist Network library from the Xbox 360; Harmonix is currently working to expand this number.
The number of songs on the Network surpassed 400 in May 2010, and 500 in August 2010, leading to an average release of 3 songs per day since the launch of the Network. More than 9000 users have participated in helping on supporting the Network review process with over 700 of those as track authors or playtesters. Approximately half of the tracks played in the Network's demo mode are subsequently bought by the players, representing an "organic growth" of the service, according to Harmonix' Jeff Marshall.
Songs from the Network will continue to work in Rock Band 3, and will be treated as regular downloadable content across all modes of the game. Rock Band Network 2.0 was announced upon release of Rock Band 3, with a testing cycle starting shortly afterwards. The second version of the network includes support for new features of Rock Band 3, including vocal harmonies, keyboard support, and Pro modes for drums and keyboard. However, it will not include Pro guitar or bass modes initially; this decision was based on the difficulty of authoring the Pro guitar tracks and the expected limited user base available to test these songs on the onset of Rock Band 3s release. Harmonix will review the demand for such features within a year to consider adding this functionality to RBN 2.0. Other changes include improved authoring tools for creators, and better control of audition sessions for reviewers to better evaluate a song. Beta versions of the tools were live shortly after Rock Band 3s release. The Network 2.0 is scheduled to go live on February 15, 2011, with existing Network shut down the day before. After this event, only players with Rock Band 3 will see new songs available through the Rock Band Network; players of Rock Band 2 will still be able to purchases older songs approved for release before the change.
On September 3, 2010, Harmonix announced the first nine Rock Band Network tracks for the Wii, but gave no release date, simply stating they were 'coming soon'. The first tracks for Wii were released on September 7, 2010. Due to limited demand for Network songs on Wii platform, Harmonix discontinued further Network tracks for the Wii on January 18, 2011.
Authoring process
To participate in the Network, artists must purchase an XNA Creators ClubMicrosoft XNA
Microsoft XNA is a set of tools with a managed runtime environment provided by Microsoft that facilitates video game development and management. XNA attempts to free game developers from writing "repetitive boilerplate code" and to bring different aspects of game production into a single system...
license for the charting tools. A copy of the digital audio workstation software REAPER
REAPER
REAPER is a digital audio workstation created by Cockos. It is distributed with an uncrippled evaluation license with a nag screen explaining the license cost. It is currently available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X...
, using custom add-ons created by Harmonix, is the key program that artists and track creators will use to author tracks; the program allows the author to analyze the tempo of the track, and then place notes in time with the music for each supported game difficulty. It also has the ability to auto-generate the song's note tracking for kick and snare drums at the "Expert" difficulty, though creators must further tune the resulting note track, and create easy, medium, and hard difficulty gameplay. Following this, Harmonix' "Magma" program, so named jokingly as magma
Magma
Magma is a mixture of molten rock, volatiles and solids that is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and is expected to exist on other terrestrial planets. Besides molten rock, magma may also contain suspended crystals and dissolved gas and sometimes also gas bubbles. Magma often collects in...
is the source of "rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
", is used to convert the song and note track information into a Rock Band playable song, and attempts to create reasonable animation sequences based on this information, such as having the camera focus on the guitarist during a solo. These animations can be further customized by the editor within REAPER. Only two aspects of the performance cannot be modified by the editor: they cannot change the lip-synching of the vocalists, and they cannot control the activation of the fog machine
Fog machine
A fog machine or smoke machine is a device which emits a dense vapour that appears similar to fog or smoke. This artificial fog is most commonly used in professional entertainment applications, but smaller, more affordable fog machines are becoming common for personal use. Fog machines can also be...
peripheral for the game. Authors are not required to use REAPER; Magma requires a MIDI file that meets documented specifications, allowing users to use other authoring programs if they wanted to.
The authoring of a single track is expected to take between 20 and 40 hours for a newcomer to the process, according to Harmonix. All tracks will be submitted to review through a standard peer review process to judge song difficulty and gameplay standards while patrolling submissions for copyright violations and profanity. Songs can be priced from $1 to 3 dollars, with the artists receiving 30% of the track's sales. The Network will only support creators that reside in the United States with content distributed to the United States, Canada, and Europe, due to current restrictions on the XNA Creator's Club and user-generated content.
In an interview at the 2010 Game Developers Conference
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference is the largest annual gathering of professional video game developers, focusing on learning, inspiration, and networking...
held a few weeks after the Network's launch, Harmonix's senior producer Matthew Nordhaus and senior sound designer Caleb Epps noted that the user community has been critical for helping to identify some of the authoring and playtesting limitations. Though the lip synching animations are generated by REAPER and Magma automatically, they would produce awkward animations on long sustained vocal notes, but the user community found tricks to get around that. Users also helped to identify areas of the authoring process where Harmonix had taken for granted due to three years of past authoring experience, such as advice on the appropriate mixing of audio for tracks. They also found the community was supportive of allowing creative mixes for a song that would otherwise not be in Rock Band, such as using the vocal part of a track to match to the melody of a saxophone for a jazz piece. However, Nordhaus and Epps noted that users have also found ways to bypass some of the content-restrictions on the authoring process, such as the generation of images of swastikas or male genitalia within the note-tracks themselves, and there is reliance on the community to catch and remove these before release. In part, the use of XNA, requiring users to pay to participate, acts as a wall to prevent users that simply are wasting the community's from participating.
Artists must have publishing rights for songs they release through the Rock Band Network, thus limiting the use of cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s or remixes. However, Harmonix only seeks to gain non-exclusive licenses for songs, allowing artists to also have their songs used in other rhythm games. Artists will be able to remove songs from the Network if they want.
Through a title patch for the game by November 2009, Xbox 360 Rock Band 2 users will be able to browse songs in the Rock Band Network through several different categories; furthermore, a demonstration of each Network song, consisting of either one minute or 35% of the track's total length, whichever is shorter, can be played in Quickplay mode, with the user given the option to immediately purchase the song after playing it. While Harmonix has not ported the tools to work with the PlayStation 3, artists that create Network songs need only "to do some paperwork" to allow the songs to be ported to the PlayStation Network; a similar title patch occurred for Rock Band 2 on that system. The Wii does not allow title patches, and as such, Network songs will only be offered if placed onto the Wii's store by Harmonix. Along with the Rock Band Network on the consoles, users can browse the available songs, with web pages and previews for individual songs automatically generated by Harmonix' software through the Rock Band website. While the initial version of the web site will allow for simple search, they plan to expand its capabilities to include song recommendations and other finer search tools for end users. Harmonix will also help to promote certain songs and will include features such as song or label of the week, though details of how this promotion may affect the artist's revenue is unknown.
Once players have purchased and downloaded Rock Band Network tracks, there are limitations to where the song can be used. Network songs will not appear as a song within the various "Mystery Setlist" challenges within Tour mode, though users can add Network songs to "Make a Setlist". Users can also use Network songs in Quickplay modes. Network songs cannot be played in the head-to-head modes, as this would require Network authors to also balance note tracks for these game modes. Songs can be practiced through Practice Mode, but unlike Harmonix-authored songs, which include hooks to allow the user to practice specific sections of a song, Network songs are not authored with these phrase hooks and can only be practiced in 10% segments.
Confirmed artists and labels
Several bands, including the Harmonix in-house band, have already committed to providing songs for the Network. Jonathan CoultonJonathan Coulton
Jonathan Coulton is an American singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans...
, who appeared on a panel about the Rock Band Network at the 2009 Penny Arcade Expo
Penny Arcade Expo
The Penny Arcade Expo is a semi-annual gamer festival held in Seattle and Boston. PAX was created by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the authors of the Penny Arcade webcomic, because they wanted to attend a show that gave equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop...
demonstrating the authoring process for his song "The Future Soon", has committed to providing additional songs through it. Boston independent band the Bon Savants
Bon Savants
Bon Savants is an American indie rock band formed in Boston, Massachusetts.Consisting of lead singer and guitarist Thom Moran, guitarist Kevin Haley, bassist David Wessel, and drummer Andrew Dole, they have been nominated for two awards in the Boston Music Awards .Although their debut EP Post Rock...
created a series of blog video posts demonstrating and explaining the steps in authoring a song into the Network. Further bands confirmed by Harmonix include The Shins
The Shins
The Shins are an American indie rock band comprising singer, songwriter, and guitarist James Mercer, guitarist/bassist Dave Hernandez, Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats, drummer Joe Plummer and bassist Ron Lewis. Their sound draws on several musical genres, including pop, alternative rock, indie rock,...
, Ministry
Ministry (band)
Ministry is an American industrial metal band founded by lead singer Al Jourgensen in 1981. Originally a synthpop outfit, Ministry changed its style to industrial metal in the late 1980s. Ministry found mainstream success in the early 1990s with its most successful album Psalm 69: The Way to...
, Evanescence
Evanescence
Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer/pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording private albums, the band released their first full-length album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Fallen sold more than 17 million copies worldwide...
, The Stills
The Stills
The Stills were a Canadian rock band from Montreal, Quebec, formed in 2000. The band consists of Tim Fletcher , Dave Hamelin , Olivier Corbeil , and Liam O'Neil , Gregory Paquet .-History:The band members have known each other since the age of...
, Creed
Creed (band)
Creed is an American rock band formed in 1995 in Tallahassee, Florida. Becoming popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the band has released three consecutive multi-platinum albums, one of which has been certified diamond, and has sold over 28 million records in the United States, with an...
, and All That Remains
All That Remains (band)
All That Remains is an American heavy metal band from Springfield, Massachusetts, which formed in 1998. They have released five studio albums, a live CD/DVD, and have sold nearly 800,000 records...
. WaveGroup Sound
WaveGroup Sound
WaveGroup Sound is a music production studio located in Fremont, CA specializing in audio post production and design. The primary notability of the studio is its work on many of the currently popular music games for the various major video game platforms...
also confirmed that they will be releasing several songs from artists such as Reverend Horton Heat, Steve Vai
Steve Vai
Steven Siro "Steve" Vai is a three time Grammy Award-winning American guitarist, songwriter and producer who has sold over 15 million albums. Steve Vai is widely known as a flamboyant guitar virtuoso....
and Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Todd Nance, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guitarist Jimmy Herring...
. Umphrey's McGee
Umphrey's McGee
Umphrey's McGee is an American progressive rock jam band based in Chicago whose music is often referred to as "progressive improvisation", or "improg" ....
has also announced plans for several songs on the Rock Band Network including the tracks "1348" and "Miss Tinkles Overture".
Harmonix has also been in contact with major music labels who previously have been requesting Harmonix to include their music to participate in creating songs with the Network. One label, Sub Pop
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman in Seattle, Washington. Sub Pop achieved fame in the late 1980s for first signing Nirvana, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and many other bands from the Seattle music scene...
, has revealed they will plan to release all songs and albums on their label to the Rock Band Network, including early music by Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
, Mudhoney
Mudhoney
Mudhoney is an American alternative rock band. Formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988 following the demise of Green River, Mudhoney's members are vocalist and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison, and drummer Dan Peters. Original bassist Matt Lukin left the...
, Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney was an alternative rock band from Portland, Oregon that formed in 1994. Originally formed in Olympia, Washington, the group's name is derived from Sleater-Kinney Road, Interstate 5 off ramp #108 in Lacey, Washington, the location of one of their early practice spaces. They were a...
, The Postal Service
The Postal Service
The Postal Service is an American electronic indie pop band composed of vocalist Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie and producer Jimmy Tamborello of Dntel and Headset.-Background:...
and The Shins
The Shins
The Shins are an American indie rock band comprising singer, songwriter, and guitarist James Mercer, guitarist/bassist Dave Hernandez, Eric Johnson of Fruit Bats, drummer Joe Plummer and bassist Ron Lewis. Their sound draws on several musical genres, including pop, alternative rock, indie rock,...
, though the amount and rate of content will be affected by the difficulty of the tools Harmonix will provide to make the music tracks. For the service's launch, the label prepared 25 songs through the various authoring companies. Tony Kiewel of Sub Pop stated that they see the Rock Band Network as another music distribution path alongside vinyl and CD and plan to release future songs from their label on the Network alongside traditional music media. One such band includes Flight of the Conchords
Flight of the Conchords
Flight of the Conchords are a New Zealand-based comedy duo composed of Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. The duo's comedy and music became the basis of a BBC radio series and then an American television series, which premiered in 2007 on HBO, also called Flight of the Conchords.They were named...
, who announced that three of their songs, including two from their first album
Flight of the Conchords (album)
-Personnel:*All songs written and performed by Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie*Sara Johnson - vocals on "Foux du Fafa"*Robin Lynn - keys on "Foux du Fafa," "Think About It" and "The Most Beautiful Girl "...
, would be coming to Rock Band at the 61st Primetime Emmy Awards
61st Primetime Emmy Awards
The 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards took place on September 20, 2009. CBS broadcast the Primetime event and E! the Creative Arts event; both take place at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The nominations for the Awards were announced on July 16....
, later clarified by Sub Pop that they would be Network tracks. Label Side One Dummy announced that they will be releasing The '59 Sound
The '59 Sound (song)
"The '59 Sound" is a 2008 song by American rock band The Gaslight Anthem. Written by the band and produced by Ted Hutt, it is the title track of the band's second full-length album. Released as the album's lead single, the song reached the U.S. Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart in early 2009...
and Old White Lincoln, the two first singles from The Gaslight Anthem
The Gaslight Anthem
The Gaslight Anthem is an American rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, consisting of Brian Fallon , Alex Rosamilia , Alex Levine and Benny Horowitz...
's The '59 Sound
The '59 Sound
The '59 Sound is the second studio album by The Gaslight Anthem, released on August 19, 2008 on SideOneDummy Records.In December 2008, eMusic named The '59 Sound the best album of 2008. NME rated it as the 47th best album of the year...
album in early March 2010. On April 30, 2010, Rhythm Authors announced that they were partnered with Sumerian Records
Sumerian Records
Sumerian Records is an American independent record label based in Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. The label was founded in 2006 by Ash Avildsen, who is also a booking agent, and is managed by Shawn Keith. Fellsilent became the first non-US band to be signed to the label, in 2008. The label made a...
to bring the label's music to the Rock Band Network; so far Asking Alexandria
Asking Alexandria
Asking Alexandria are a British metalcore band from York, North Yorkshire. Founded in 2008 when Ben Bruce contacted his old companions upon returning to the UK after residing in Dubai...
, Veil of Maya
Veil of Maya (band)
Veil of Maya is an American deathcore band, formed in Oak Park, Illinois in 2004. They are currently signed with Sumerian Records. They have recorded and released three full-length albums, All Things Set Aside , The Common Man's Collapse and [id], released through Sumerian Records...
and After the Burial
After the Burial
After the Burial is an American heavy metal band from Twin Cities, Minnesota. The group is currently signed to Sumerian Records and have released two of their three full-length albums through the label...
are confirmed to be in production.
The Rock Band Network has also been used to promote songs from video games or other sources. Two songs from the fictional rock group, the Midnight Riders, from Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2
Left 4 Dead 2 is a cooperative first-person shooter video game. It is the sequel to Valve Corporation's award-winning Left 4 Dead. The game launched on November 17, 2009, for Microsoft Windows and Xbox 360 in the United States and November 20 in Europe; in 2010, Left 4 Dead 2 was made available to...
have been added through the network. At least two songs created for the television show Lost
Lost (TV series)
Lost is an American television series that originally aired on ABC from September 22, 2004 to May 23, 2010, consisting of six seasons. Lost is a drama series that follows the survivors of the crash of a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles, on a mysterious tropical island...
will be appearing on the network, in part due to fans of the show at Harmonix working with the Lost team to create the works.
On January 4, 2011, rock band Alien Ant Farm
Alien Ant Farm
Alien Ant Farm is an American alternative rock band that formed in Riverside, California, in 1995. Their name comes from an idea original guitarist Terry Corso had about aliens and the earth: "I was daydreaming at my dull desk job with my feet up, and I thought to myself, 'Wouldn't it be cool if...
confirmed that several of their songs, including the entirety of debut album ANThology
ANThology
Anthology is the first major label album by Alien Ant Farm released on March 6, 2001 in the USA and March 19, 2001 in Australia and the UK. Despite what the name may suggest, it is not a compilation album....
, would be making their way to the Rock Band Network in 2011. The first three songs have been announced, with an aim to release three more songs quarterly until the album is complete.
Devin Townsend
Devin Townsend
Devin Garret Townsend is a Canadian musician and record producer. He was the founder, songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist in extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad from 1994 to 2007 and has had an extensive career as a solo artist....
has been confirmed to be adding the entirety of his Ziltoid the Omniscient
Ziltoid the Omniscient
Ziltoid the Omniscient is the tenth studio album by the Canadian metal musician Devin Townsend, released on his own label HevyDevy Records in May 2007 and distributed in America and Europe by InsideOut Music....
album to the Rock Band Network over the course of 2011.