Ready to upload your music onto Rock Band? The process will be more complicated than just uploading a file, and some training is required to create a game-ready song. But for those willing to make some financial and time commitments, the payoff is pretty cool.
So what are the steps required? For starters, labels and bands will need a premium membership to Microsoft’s XNA Creators Club Online. That costs $50 for four months, or $100 for a full year. The Creators Club provides the framework and instructions for creating game-ready tracks, and interfaces with the Rock Band Network.
It also includes a test-bed and even a venue for peer review. “The proven strength and stability of Microsoft’s game development tools, technologies and services allowed [developer] Harmonix to focus on making an easy-to-use experience for authors without needing to reinvent the wheel,” said Dave Mitchell, product unit manager for the XNA publishing platform.
The songs must then be approved, and content owners can choose pricing levels. Songs will initially appear on the Xbox 360 for 30 days, and stand-out tracks will eventually move to the PS3 and Wii according to MTV Games and Harmonix Music Systems. The Network opens in late August, and the first songs are scheduled to appear on the Xbox in the fall.
Report by Alexandra Osorio.
very cool, thanks
Ok. So you have to pay Microsoft $50 just to find out if it would be feasible to upload a track? Can we not get info on what a “game ready track” is first and how easy or complicated it is to create one from a recording?
I’m sure they just want to weed out the people who are not serious. In order to be in the game you must submit the instruments in stems and at some kind of sampling and bit rate. Like stereo 16 bit 48k .wav etc…