Rock Band Network To Accept Community Development

Move over Pandora.  MySpace – are you even still here? Music lovers just got a new outlet to find and explore upcoming musicians, and it all starts with a fake plastic guitar.

Gamers have always loved personalizing their games, be it from production-level community mods to fan based maps that can spawn an entire sub-genre (DoTA anyone?). It only makes sense for one of the most community friendly games in years to hand over the keys to the driver’s seat. Rock Band developer Harmonix will soon be allowing aspiring artists to submit there own music and tracks for the world to play with their new Rock Band Network community tool. Costs will range from fifty cents to the full priced three dollars a track, with striving musicians sharing in the profits. While we’ve already seen a music creation feature for Guitar Hero, critics lambasted it for being extremely limited and included a track time limit. Here? Harmonix promises a full fledged tool using “the same professional tools used by our developers.” Got that? Not a little Fisher Price ‘My First Rock Band’ music toy, but the same professional tools that the masters use. How can you not get excited about this?

While it is a bold move to lean upon an entire community to produce high quality content, but it is one that could quickly have an immense payoff for all parties involve. Cue to popular PC rhythm titles like StepMania and Frets on Fire, which have been built completely around the idea of custom, user-made tracks. With a strong community following that has sprung up around these games, Harmonix seems to want to take the same idea and apply it to their own hit rhythm game. While these PC gamers have been getting free custom tracks, fan based and unlicensed, for years, it remains to be seen if gamers will shell out cash for the same product on their home system. Though a pricing plan hopefully can attract a higher quality, as musicians find a new outlet in which to share there works with the world.

Given the success of MySpace and YouTube on the world of music, I can only explain this as a brilliant move.  Combining elements of an iPhone-like app store with an entire community of music lovers sounds like a marriage in heaven. Rock Band has already expanding my tastes in music by there vast diversity of in-game tracks. I would have never found such bands like Freezepop or Hollywood Undead if not for their inclusion into the game. Since then, I’ve bought their CD’s and even been to a local concert. Harmonix has not just sold me an enjoyable game, but they’ve exposed me towards new bands that I have never supported otherwise.

Now, by opening there doors to any musician under the sun, you’re effectively letting gamers play American Idol with their dollar. By having the best tracks rise and gain exposure to fans that would never ordinarily hear them, Rock Band stops being just a rhythm video game, and starts being a social gathering point. Friends sharing their favorites between friends and growing new musical tastes on the fly; this is the very definition of ‘Web 2.0‘ at its finest. Combining social networking, community development and small micro purchases, you have strange brew of everything that’s trendy lately. With it, you’ll see other gamers’ music tastes grow and develop. A band posting their music could find an entirely new outlet of eager fans that will not only buy their DLC, but their CDs, t-shirts, and even concert tickets.

And best of all? Knowing Harmonix, you won’t have to wait for Rock Band 3 for this feature; it’ll be an update.  With an XBL beta planned for August and a full release pending before the end of the year, Rock Band will be well on its way to hitting its projected five thousand DLC tracks. But the real impact here is the revolution taking place that only further defines how we find music. The old RIAA method of million dollar marketing is on its way out, and it’s being replaced by us.

Source: Rock Back Network