Rock Band Network Now In Open Beta
Back in October we told you about how Harmonix, along with the Microsoft XNA folks, released some tools as a first step in helping anyone create Rock band tracks. These tools were the stepping stones for fueling the Creators Club, which would allow users everywhere to create, upload, review, and publish their own Rock band tracks.
Well word went out today that the Creators Club has official gone into open beta, meaning that anyone with an Xbox Live Gold Membership, an Xbox 360 and a PC can become a part of the music revolution. The tools are also available for download on the site, and once you get your Xbox/PC setup underway you can easily start creating some tracks for Rock Band stardom. The great thing about the Creators Club going live is that you can now upload your songs an have them play-tested by other contributors, or peer reviewed for final submission. To peer review and playtest songs, however, an XNA Premium Membership is required ($99 for a year membership).
Haromnix has disclosed that while there will be multiple price point tiers to try and sell your songs at, all creators will receive 30% of the sales from their tracks as royalties, which is probably a lot better than most recording artists actually in the industry; This means that you can make a decent profit off of anything that you can create with the tools (that also interests other players); however, part of the peer review process will be testing your tracks for vulgarity, adult content, and legal concerns, so don't think you can sneak remakes of already existing songs into the store easily and make a quick buck.
Harmonix also announced that while for 30 days after a song's release on the Rock Band Network the song will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 system, they do plan on taking a selection of standout tracks and making them available on the PS3 and Wii as well. Overall I have to say I'm pretty excited about the democratization of the Rock Band platform and hope that it leads to great things, and most of all, beautiful music.
PixelPoet
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 20 January 2010
Other stuff like this: dlc, harmonix, music creation, peer review, playstation 3, rock band, rock band network, wii, xbox 360, xna
