Rock Band Network and the Indie Scene

We've posted previously about the new ways bands are using to try to be profitable in this age of torrents and p2p programs (here, here and here), but one way neither Dan nor I have mentioned was music games. The record industry has been paying an increasing amount of attention to this new possibility for profits. Not only have musicians handed over master tracks for use in games like the Guitar Hero series or the Rock Band series, but bands such as Aerosmith, Metallica and soon The Beatles have signed up for entire games to be created around their music. Aerosmith have made statements that Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was more profitable for them then any of their cds, so obviously music games are a viable market.

But what does that mean for an indie band? Well Rock Band publisher Harmonix has just recently announced its answer to that: Rock Band Network. Basically it's a means for any band to put their songs into the game and program a note chart for each instrument with the tools provided. Then the song is sent off to be reviewed by a team of people at Harmonix and possibly released online for digital purchase, the artist getting a cut of each download purchase.

This could be one more weapon in the indie bands constantly evolving arsenal to make money. Many questions remain to be answered though. How easy the programming process will be for the band, how many submissions the team at Harmonix can actually handle, what will make it through the review process, and whether or not a small band can make a profit from this whole ordeal are questions that we will have to wait to find the answers too. Rock Band Network is set to launch in August, and I will be keeping a close watch on it to see if the bands I love will submit and ultimately make it through the whole process.