Companies Sprout Up To Fulfill Artists' Rock Band Network Needs
We haven't heard much from Harmonix about Rock Band Network lately, and with the system due to launch on Xbox 360 later this month, now seems a good time to review what we should expect service.
For those unfamiliar with the Network, it offers bands, studios, and record labels a new way to distribute and make money from their music by enabling them to convert their songs into playable Rock Band tracks, then sell them as downloadable content to Rock Band owners. Artists receive a 30 percent cut of their song's sales through the system.
"Our goal with Rock Band has always been to go beyond making music games and create a true music platform," said Harmonix co-founder and CEO Alex Rigopulos back in July. "With the Rock Band Network, we've evolved the platform to its next logical step, giving players access to an incredible amount of new music by putting the professional tools we use in the hands of the artists themselves."
The company's Tim Dwyer maintans a list of bands/songs already announced for the Network via RockBand.com, and while there aren't any "big" acts in the round-up, I saw a lot of personal favorites which have indicated they may debut on the music game series this way, like Asobi Seksu, Sunny Day Real Estate, and I Fight Dragons. Comedy duo Flight of the Conchords is also expected to release a few songs through the system.
And at least two professional/semi-professional companies have set up with the intention of helping bands turn their songs into a playable track for the Network, one of which is RockGamer Studios, a group made up of veteran game developers and formally trained by Harmonix in the conversion process.
RockGamer creates the playable tracks with four different skill levels, animates on-screen characters to perform along with the songs, sequences lighting cues, directs camera cuts, tests the tracks, and submits the completed production to the Rock Band Network Creators Club for peer review and Microsoft certification.
The company has posted two previews of songs its converted for two of its clients, Amberian Dawn and Fake Shark-Real Zombie:
Rhythm Authors is another start-up established with the same goal, and it even boasts that song conversions should take "no longer than 2 weeks for [the company] to complete a song's authoring tasks and submit it for peer review". The company also has an interesting payment structure for the bands and labels that it works with:
"It costs absolutely nothing. Unless we negotiate terms otherwise, our normal contracts are based on a percentage of earned royalties from live downloads. This means both parties mutually benefit from delivering popular content to the marketplace, and we will therefore be fully dedicated to promoting increased sales and exposure of your music because your success is linked to ours!"
Several others have set up sites offering similar services, and while they haven't received direct training from Harmonix, some argue that this introduction to the Network's tools (e.g. REAPER, Magma) isn't a requirement for mastering the song conversion process.
You can find more information on some of those companies at their official sites: Music Game Authors, Interactive Music Productions, and RBN Studio.
Comments
Here's another one:
http://www.notecharters.com
Posted by: Andrew Happsley | November 12, 2009 1:04 PM
And!
http://bombsitestudios.com
A list of charters can be found here at RockBand.com:
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=156832
Posted by: Jon | November 17, 2009 2:14 PM