The ''Rock Band'' Network (abbreviated RBN) was a downloadable content service designed by
Harmonix
Harmonix Music Systems, Inc., doing business as Harmonix, is an American video game developer company based in Boston, Massachusetts. The company was established in May 1995 by Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy. Harmonix is perhaps best known as bei ...
with the help of
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
to allow musical artists and record labels to make their music available as playable tracks for the ''
Rock Band
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...
'' series of
rhythm video game
Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to pr ...
s, 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 was seen as a way to further expand the games' music catalog into a wide variety of genres. The Network started closed beta testing in July 2009. The ''Rock Band'' Network Store was publicly available on March 4, 2010 for all
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
players in selected countries (US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Singapore). ''Rock Band'' Network songs were exclusive to the Xbox 360 for 30 days on each song's release, after which a selection of songs would be made available on the PlayStation 3.
The ''Rock Band'' Network was 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 had developed a suite of software tools, including a modified version of
REAPER
A reaper is a agricultural machinery, farm implement or person that wikt:reap#Verb, reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were ...
, a digital audio sound tool, and Magma, a metadata packaging tool, for use by artists and labels. In addition, Harmonix had 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 had 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'' is a 2010 music video game developed by Harmonix. The game was initially published and distributed by MTV Games and Electronic Arts, respectively, in late October 2010. Mad Catz took over both roles and re-released the title on N ...
''. The new version incorporated the ability to author regular and Pro keyboard, vocal harmonies, and Pro drums; due to the complexity and time investment, RBN 2.0 did not support authoring of Pro guitar or bass. The Network has been considered a more favorable option for the addition of user-generated content for music games than compared to
Activision
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one o ...
's previous attempt with "
GHTunes
''Guitar Hero World Tour'' (initially referred to as ''Guitar Hero IV'' or ''Guitar Hero IV: World Tour'') is a Music video game, music rhythm game, rhythm video game developed by Neversoft and published by Activision. It is the fourth main inst ...
" for the ''
Guitar Hero
''Guitar Hero'' is a series of music rhythm game video games first released in November 2005, in which players use a guitar-shaped game controller to simulate playing primarily lead, bass guitar, and rhythm guitar across numerous songs. Player ...
'' series.
Harmonix has since announced that they would be discontinuing regular DLC updates for the ''Rock Band'' series as of April 2, 2013; the ''Network'' would remain functional for Xbox 360 users while the third-party technologies, such as Microsoft XNA, remain automated processes, while the PlayStation 3 would see no further releases after April 2.
The service was fully closed in September 2017 as Harmonix moved forward with other projects, and all of its songs were removed from the DLC store in February 2018. In May 2018, Harmonix announced it would be bringing the most popular entries as well as fan-requested songs from the ''Network'' into ''
Rock Band 4
''Rock Band 4'' is a 2015 music video game developed and published by Harmonix. ''Rock Band 4'' allows players to simulate the playing of music across many different decades and genres using instrument controllers that mimic playing lead and bas ...
''; however, unlike core ''Rock Band'' DLC, users are unable to carry over any previously purchased ''Network'' songs due to licensing constraints.
Development
Prior to the announcement of the ''Rock Band'' Network, Harmonix would regularly add approximately 10 songs each week as new
downloadable content
Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enablin ...
for the ''
Rock Band
A rock band or pop band is a small musical ensemble that performs rock music, pop music, or a related genre. A four-piece band is the most common configuration in rock and pop music. In the early years, the configuration was typically two guita ...
'' 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 Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
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
Xbox Live Indie Games (XBLIG; previously called Xbox Live Community Games; XBLCG) are video games created by individual developers or small teams of developers released on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace for the Xbox 360. The games were develop ...
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 is an Israeli chief technical officer and VP of engineering of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Alex Rigopulos in 1995. He also works as professor of the practice at MIT.
Biography
Egozy is a native of Israel. He m ...
, 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
Alexander Peter Rigopulos (born 1970s in Boxford, Massachusetts) is an American video game designer and musician, best known as the former CEO and current creative director of Harmonix Music Systems, a company he founded with Eran Egozy in 1995 ...
, 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 is a Canadian Rock music, rock band formed in 1995 in Hanna, Alberta. It is composed of guitarist and lead vocalist Chad Kroeger, guitarist, keyboardist and backing vocalist Ryan Peake, bassist Mike Kroeger, and drummer Daniel Adai ...
", 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 calle
Rhythm Authorswas 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 is a Brooklyn, New York–based independent digital music distribution, publishing and licensing service founded in 2005. TuneCore principally offers musicians and other rights-holders the opportunity to distribute and sell or stream the ...
, and
WaveGroup Sound
WaveGroup Sound is a music production company known for its creation of music for numerous video games. Since 2014, WaveGroup has been the official sound design team for Facebook.
History
WaveGroup Sound was originally co-founded by engineer J ...
, 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 provided 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.
History
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 is the brand name used by some of the mobile communications subsidiaries of the German telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG in the Czech Republic (T-Mobile Czech Republic), Poland (T-Mobile Polska), the United States (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 3''s 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 3''s 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 Club license for the charting tools. A copy of the digital audio workstation software
REAPER
A reaper is a agricultural machinery, farm implement or person that wikt:reap#Verb, reaps (cuts and often also gathers) crops at harvest when they are ripe. Usually the crop involved is a cereal grass. The first documented reaping machines were ...
, 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 () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also been discovered on other terrestrial planets and some natural sa ...
is the source of "
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
", 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-synch
Lip sync or lip synch (pronounced , the same as the word ''sink'', short for lip synchronization) is a technical term for matching a speaking or singing person's lip movements with sung or spoken vocals.
Audio for lip syncing is generated th ...
ing 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
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tutori ...
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 which 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, both the use of XNA and the requirement for users to pay to participate, act as a barrier to interference by users who are simply wasting the community's resources.
Artists must have publishing rights for songs they release through the ''Rock Band'' Network, thus limiting the use of
cover
Cover or covers may refer to:
Packaging
* Another name for a lid
* Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package
* Album cover, the front of the packaging
* Book cover or magazine cover
** Book design
** Back cover copy, part of co ...
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 Coulton
Jonathan William Coulton (born December 1, 1970), often called "JoCo" by fans, is an American folk/comedy singer-songwriter, known for his songs about geek culture and his use of the Internet to draw fans. Among his most popular songs are " Co ...
, who appeared on a panel about the ''Rock Band'' Network at the 2009
Penny Arcade Expo
PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX w ...
demonstrating the authoring process for his song "The Future Soon", has committed to providing additional songs through it.
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
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
The Shins is an American indie rock band formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1996. The band is the project of singer-songwriter James Mercer, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The band's cu ...
,
Ministry
Ministry may refer to:
Government
* Ministry (collective executive), the complete body of government ministers under the leadership of a prime minister
* Ministry (government department), a department of a government
Religion
* Christian ...
,
Evanescence
Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer and musician Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording independent EPs as a duo in the late 90's, and a demo CD, Evanescence released their debut s ...
,
The Stills
The Stills were a Canadian rock band from Montreal, Quebec, formed in 2000 and disbanded in 2011.
History
The band's original lineup consisted of lead vocalist and guitarist Tim Fletcher, guitarist Gregory Paquet, bassist Olivier Corbeil and dr ...
,
Creed
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community (often a religious community) in a form which is structured by subjects which summarize its core tenets.
The ea ...
, and
All That Remains.
WaveGroup Sound
WaveGroup Sound is a music production company known for its creation of music for numerous video games. Since 2014, WaveGroup has been the official sound design team for Facebook.
History
WaveGroup Sound was originally co-founded by engineer J ...
also confirmed that they will be releasing several songs from artists such as
Reverend Horton Heat
The Reverend Horton Heat is the stage name of American musician James C. Heath (born 1959) as well as the name of his Dallas, Texas-based psychobilly trio. Heath is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. A ''Prick'' magazine reviewer called Heath ...
,
Steve Vai
Steven Siro Vai (; born June 6, 1960) is an American guitarist, composer, songwriter, and producer. A three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, Vai started his music career in 1978 at the age of eighteen as a transcriptionist for ...
and
Widespread Panic
Widespread Panic is an American rock band from Athens, Georgia. The current lineup includes guitarist/singer John Bell, bassist Dave Schools, drummer Duane Trucks, percussionist Domingo "Sunny" Ortiz, keyboardist John "JoJo" Hermann, and guit ...
.
Umphrey's McGee
Umphrey's McGee is an American jam band originally from South Bend, Indiana. The band experiments with many musical styles, including rock, metal, funk, jazz, blues, reggae, electronic, bluegrass, country, and folk. They have toured regularly ...
has also announced plans for several songs on the Rock Band Network including the tracks "1348" and "Miss Tinkles Overture".
Rapper Teflon Don is an added addition to give the Urban Rap/R&B feel to the platform.
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 is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...
, has revealed they will plan to release all songs and albums on their label to the ''Rock Band'' Network, including early music by
Nirvana
( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...
,
Mudhoney
Mudhoney is an American rock band formed in Seattle, Washington, in 1988, following the demise of Green River. Its members are singer and rhythm guitarist Mark Arm, lead guitarist Steve Turner, bassist Guy Maddison and drummer Dan Peters. Orig ...
,
Sleater-Kinney
Sleater-Kinney ( ) is an American rock band that formed in Olympia, Washington, in 1994. The band's current lineup features Corin Tucker (vocals and guitar) and Carrie Brownstein (guitar and vocals), following the departure of longtime member ...
,
The Postal Service
The Postal Service are an American indie pop supergroup from Seattle, Washington, consisting of singer Ben Gibbard, producer Jimmy Tamborello, and Jenny Lewis on background vocals.
The band released their only album, '' Give Up'', in 2003 on S ...
and
The Shins
The Shins is an American indie rock band formed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1996. The band is the project of singer-songwriter James Mercer, who has served as the band's sole constant member throughout numerous line-up changes. The band's cu ...
, 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 is a New Zealand musical comedy duo formed in Wellington in 1998. The band consists of multi-instrumentalists Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement. Beginning as a popular live comedy act in the early 2000s, the duo's come ...
, 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
The 61st Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 20, 2009. CBS broadcast the Primetime event and E! broadcast the Creative Arts event; both took place at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The nominations were announced on J ...
, later clarified by Sub Pop that they would be Network tracks. Label
Side One Dummy
SideOneDummy Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles. It was founded in 1995 by Bill Armstrong and Joe Sib. The label began as a way for them to release music for their friends' bands. Thereafter SideOneDummy launched the car ...
announced that they will be releasing
The '59 Sound
''The '59 Sound'' is the second studio album by American punk rock band the Gaslight Anthem, released on August 19, 2008, by record label SideOneDummy.
In December 2008, eMusic named ''The '59 Sound'' the best album of 2008. ''NME'' rated it as ...
and Old White Lincoln, the two first singles from
The Gaslight Anthem
The Gaslight Anthem is an American rock band from New Brunswick, New Jersey, formed in 2006. The band consists of Brian Fallon (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Alex Rosamilia (lead guitar, backing vocals), Alex Levine (bass guitar, backing vocals), ...
's
The '59 Sound
''The '59 Sound'' is the second studio album by American punk rock band the Gaslight Anthem, released on August 19, 2008, by record label SideOneDummy.
In December 2008, eMusic named ''The '59 Sound'' the best album of 2008. ''NME'' rated it as ...
album in early March 2010.
On April 30, 2010, Rhythm Authors announced that they were partnered with
Sumerian Records
Sumerian Records is an American independent record label based in Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and London. The label was founded in 2006 by Ash Avildsen.[Asking Alexandria
Asking Alexandria are a British Rock music, rock band from York, North Yorkshire, consisting of guitarists Ben Bruce and Cameron Liddell, drummer James Cassells, lead vocalist Danny Worsnop, and bassist Sam Bettley.
Initially formed in 2006 ...]
,
Veil of Maya
Veil of Maya is an American metalcore band, formed in Chicago, Illinois, by members Marc Okubo and Sam Applebaum in 2004. They are currently signed to Sumerian Records and have released six studio albums. Their first four albums are considered ...
and
After the Burial
After the Burial is an American progressive metal band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. They are currently signed to Sumerian Records and have released five of their six full-length albums through the label. Since their inception in 2004, the band h ...
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'' is a 2009 first-person shooter game developed and published by Valve. The sequel to Turtle Rock Studios's ''Left 4 Dead'' (2008) and the second game in the ''Left 4 Dead'' series, it was released for Microsoft Windows and Xbox ...
'' have been added through the network. At least two songs created for the television show ''
Lost
Lost may refer to getting lost, or to:
Geography
*Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland
* Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US
History
*Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...
'' 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 is an American Rock music, rock band that formed in Riverside, California in 1996. They have released five studio albums and sold over 5 million units worldwide. The band's cover of Michael Jackson's "Smooth_Criminal#Alien Ant Farm ...
confirmed that several of their songs, including the entirety of debut album ''
ANThology
In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors.
In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...
'', 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 Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...
has been confirmed to be adding the entirety of his ''
Ziltoid the Omniscient
''Ziltoid the Omniscient'' is the tenth studio album by Canadian metal musician Devin Townsend, released on his own label HevyDevy Records in May 2007, and distributed in America and Europe by InsideOut Music.
The album is a concept album about a ...
'' album to the ''Rock Band Network'' over the course of 2011.
References
External links
Official ''Rock Band'' website''Rock Band'' Network websiteList of available ''Rock Band'' Network songs
{{Harmonix games
Rock Band series
da:Rock Band
pt:Rock Band
ru:Rock Band
simple:Rock Band (video game)