Rock Band To Include The Greatest Music You’ve Never Heard

Harmonix Music Systems and MTV Games are preparing to launch Rock Band Network, giving everyone from major labels to that new band that just formed in your neighbor’s garage the opportunity to transform their compositions into Rock Band game files.

Whether anyone outside of an unsigned band’s immediate group of followers will rush to use the files in game play remains uncertain. The main attraction for the Rock Band series as well as the competing Guitar Hero franchise is giving music fans opportunities to faux-jam with famous performers. Whether the same gamers will want to spend time re-creating unknown material by obscure bands is anyone’s guess.

But Harmonix and MTV Games is big on the Rock Band Network. Scheduled for a late August beta launch, the network will provide a toolset and documentation detailing how bands can transform their music files into Rock Band gaming files and submit their finished work for play-testing and peer review.

But all this potential exposure for unknown bands doesn’t come free. Authors will need to join Microsoft’s XNA Creators Club Online in order to test and publish game content. A four-month membership to XNA Creators Club Online costs $49.99 while a year’s membership is priced at $99.99.

“Our goal with Rock Band has always been to go beyond making music games and create a true music platform,” said Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos. “With the Rock Band Network, we’ve evolved the platform to its next logical step, giving players access to an incredible amount of new music by putting the professional tools we use in the hands of the artists themselves.”

Click here for the Rock Band Web site.