The makers of 'Rock Band' - MTV Games, Electronic Arts and Harmonix - have launched the Rock Band Network Store, which will sell pretend-to-play tracks by artists who have uploaded their content to the Rock Band Network.
Launched last year, the Network was set up to enable any band to make their music available to - and therefore earn a royalty from - players of the 'Rock Band' game. Not that, even with the Network in place, that's an especially simple thing to do. Songs must be split into a number of specially formatted audio files, while lyrics, tablatures and instructions for camera angles, lighting and choreography need to be provided.
The Network aims to link unsigned bands with grass roots developers who might be able to help with that process. I don't know how well that bit of the proposition is going. Unless you can find a bedroom geek willing to do it for fun, then getting your music Rock-Band-ified can be expensive. Going rates seem to go up to £300 per minute of music. Bands can then charge between 99 cents and $2.99 for their pretend-to-play tracks, of which you they get a 30% cut. So it would take some time to recoup the investment on a three minute song.
Which is perhaps why this programme has been embraced more by established bands and labels than the unsigned acts the Rock Band team initially expected to get involved. An MTV gaming spokesman told the Wall Street Journal: "We expected this to be an initiative that would appeal to unsigned artists. What was surprising to us was how many artists with hit records have offered themselves up".
Rock Banders hoping that the Network might result in them getting less mainstream music to play along to may be pleased to hear that US indie Sub Pop is using the platform and new Rock Band store to make a greatest hits package available to the game's users, which will feature songs from the likes of The Shins and Mudhoney.
But even they admit the Rock Band Network isn't especially attractive to totally new alternative talent, partly because of the set up costs, and partly because no one expects Rock Band players to be using the new Network Store to take a punt on totally unheard of acts. Sub Pop Head Of A&R Tony Kiewel: "At three dollars apiece nobody's looking to 'Rock Band' as a discovery tool. That's not going to happen".
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