LOS ANGELES (YBH.ME) – Platforming off XBox 360, Playstations and even Wii, Rock Band, the mega-successful video game, has sold 4 million units and generated more than $600 million in revenue. When released in 2007, Harmonix CEO and Rock Band co-creator Alex Rigopulos said the game “takes the core premise of Guitar Hero and expands it tenfold. It lets you create a complete collaborative band.”
Rock Band: Soon Featuring Undiscovered Music like The Sugarmen
Harmonix, owned by MTV, was able to use long-standing label relationships to make classic rock songs of every era available to players. Now the game-makers are adding a whole new type of music for download: yours.
That’s right. Indy songwriters, garage bands and the about-to-be-famous can now upload a song to the Rock Band Network and make it available to those 4 million game players. Hardcore game users can easily generate 20,000 downloads of a newly-available song in a week. The game, along with itunes, is seen as a bright spot in the ever-diminishing music business revenue stream.
However, the process isn’t as simple as uploading an mp3. Tracks need to be uploaded individually and users will need to spend some time tinkering to get a track in rocking order. David Hadshinow, an avid gamer and computer programmer said, “the tools Harmonix makes available are great and ‘rockbandizing’ a track is a lot of fun. But, be prepared to spend some time perfecting your creation.” Mr. Hadshinow chose the track “TV Song” by the Los Angeles based band The Sugarmen for his first effort. Mr. Hadshinow once tagged along for a week as an unofficial roadie for the band when they toured the United Kingdom in late 2008.
Asked about potentially being included in Rock Band, The Sugarmen bass player, George Nakonechny said, “I’m glad Rock Band has opened up the process to independent artists, any new revenue stream available is great for bands like us.”
Those who wish to start the process of getting their music in Rock Band should visit http://creators.rockband.com, and, if the track passes a peer review (technically not musically!) by other Rock Band users, it will be available for sale and download at Rock Band’s web store.
“TV Song” by The Sugarmen is now under peer review and should be available for sale shortly. David Hadshinow can be contacted at hadshinow.com.
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Laura spent years as a Hollywood story analyst, did a big 180, and is now an entrepreneur focused on web marketing and analytics. She's also a mom of one.Laura Glendinning article archive.
