Ever had the urge to crank out some nasty riffs in the kitchen, record them, and then watch as millions of Xbox 360 owners rush to download your jam(s)? Don't lie. In a move that marks the next logical step of the
Rock Band journey, Harmonix has confirmed that an open beta registration of the Rock Band Network will open up later today for
Xbox 360 users, enabling amateur (or professional... or novice!) musicians to record, convert and upload tracks to a network where gamers can judge how awesome / not awesome any given song is. Reportedly, those seen as "good enough" will be made available for sale (you can price each tune from $1 to $3), though we're hearing that the actual conversion process isn't a lesson in simplicity. In fact, some outfits are offering their services to take recordings from .wav files to ones that the game can understand, but with rates of $500 per minute (of music), we're guessing that only serious artists will apply. And if you've ever heard "that local band" willing to play shows for free, you'll agree with us when we say that this barrier to entry is probably a good thing.
posted January 19th 2010 1:57PM
FannyPackAttack
@richb93
I wish I had more power to downrank your comment, but only people from Massachusetts get to vote more than once.
@Boh
Was written in the image and is surely better than some asshat putting F1RST ololol I'm so cool.
Sorry you didn't get to. You go home with nothing, but thanks for playing.
@richb93
If entry into this market is only going to be possible with a lot of cash or technical ability then we're really going to be in trouble. Those tech savvy, god awful sounding nerds that play at the end of the engadget live shows will be our only additional musical options outside of the mainstream offerings.
@Boh
Sore loser? Bye, Bye democrats... LOL
@mlittle -- I'm neither a Democrat, or a Massachusetts native. I was referring more to the 2008 shenanigans.
@richb93 -- No, I didn't want to post "first." If you look at my profile, you'll notice my penchant for replying to the first post (when its idiotic). Since your comments now require a click, and mine have a green tinge.... but yes I'll go home with nothing.
I HAVE A RAAAAING CLUE right now.
ps3 will work out something cheaper on either rockband or guitarhero to slap on xbox360's face again, btw, when is that ESPN streaming disc coming to ps3 again?
@htd
And how are they going to do that? Last I checked, Sony has no control over 3rd party pricing?
Besides, if this does come out of beta, someone will figure out how to do it for free.
They should make a game where you can use REAL guitars.
Dear rock/guitar band/hero when will you die. :)P
@One Love
http://xkcd.com/359/
Site is down.
Believe it or not, there are actually people out there that play real instruments that (gasp) enjoy playing rockband!
And Geez. Forums are so passe. I personally think they peaked in 2006. When will sites realize that no one wants to simulate trash talking when we all know the only meaningful way is doing it face to face with real mouths and real fingers! Chew on that, bone-headed flamers!
@bjbroderick I play both real "," and simulated, instruments... and I can say that matching a simulation can prove harder than making up your own music...
@Eugene Action
For sure. Sometimes I just want to be a consumer and not a creator. Just depends on your mood
well its a good thing Im a better geek than musician, because I will flood this store with chiptunes so fast!
It's only $500/minute if you can't or don't want to do it yourself. Find someone you know already that's pretty tech-savvy and music-savvy and they can do it for way less.
Uh-oh. This doesn't bode well.
http://xkcd.com/70/
I'm glad that there's some form of barrier of entry. I don't want just any idiot to be able to upload their terrible song, or try and recreate some famous song and thereby pollute the catalog like Guitar Hero has done with their music creation. Restricting the cost of entry to only those who are serious about their music will help keep the quality of music in the catalog high, I think.
The actual cost of entery is very low. It uses reaper which is a really cheap (in audio-program terms at least) DAW, and anyone with much knowledge of MIDI etc will have no problem laying out a track. To get it into the store it has to be approved by others though, so you can't just sign up for this program, adapt your track for rockband, and make money with it on x-box live. It has to be deemed 'good enough' by others within the developer program before it ever makes it onto live for people to DL.
you are really good at game news (Engadget) you should think about making a section for that you would double traffic
I'm really disappointed that the PS3 is excluded. Because Harmonix hasn't figured out a way to deliver this content to the PS3, I have lost a lot of faith in them. They've always seemed to favor the XBox, anyway. This program would have renewed my interest in Rock Band, but again, they fail. I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way, either.