UGC comes to Rock Band

 Posted by (Visited 7506 times)  Game talk, Music  Tagged with: , , ,
Jul 172009
 

Rock Band® has announced that the game will support user-created tracks, creating a completely new indie distribution channel for musicians, one that potentially rivals iTunes in importance. They’re promising a cut of every sale, and help with promotion.

  • Mix your multi track recordings.
    • You will need to mix them to fit the standards for Rock Band.
  • Create MIDI gameplay info.
    • Reaper is a Digital Audio Workstation. We have been working with Reaper’s creators (Cockos, Inc.) to add a number of specific Rock Band Network additions that will make creating MIDI song information simpler and more intuitive. http://www.reaper.fm
  • Create a song package with Magma.
    • Magma is a PC tool that we are creating to allow authors to build Rock Band Network song packages.
  • Audition your song package within Rock Band 2.2
    • We will release a patch to Rock Band 2 that will enable “Audition Mode.” This will allow you to test out your song packages in game with features like speed up and slow down cheats and autoplay.
  • Upload to creators.rockband.com for Peer Review
    • Once your song is ready, upload it here. Other members of the community will try out your song, give you feedback, and submit reviews. Once your song has passed the review process, it is automatically approved for sale on Xbox Live.
  • Sell your song on Xbox Live
  • When the store opens, later this year, songs will be available for others to download via the RBN store ingame.

Probably the most interesting part is the mandatory peer review for publshing tracks up to the network. You’ll need to be a member of the XNA Creators’ Club to participate.

There’s a Wiki up with the full spec.