Game-changing development for indie bands
Posted By Mike Orren in Square Pegs on July 17, 2009
Remember the Dark Ages, some six months ago, when I was surprised and excited to learn that the Old 97's had made their way into my favorite video game, Rock Band 2?
Soon, any of our local bands will be able to get the same treatment and to get paid for it. Rock Band has just announced the Rock Band Network, which will allow anyone to turn their song into a playable track and sell it on the XBox 360.
Some details are sketchy, in terms of the peer review required to approve songs and how the pricing and rev share will work. But, this is a smart way to enhance the game and fairly expose indie bands to a larger audience.

Collin Gouldin, says:
Just like iTunes, no one is going to buy your song if they don't know about you first.
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Mike Orren, says:
Yeah, but I can't wait to play a Watching Cars tune! Should I play as Collin or David?
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Brett Hoerner, says:
Can Pavel and I come over and play as the crowd, wielding our flasks?
(Historically accurate)
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Pavel Lishin, says:
What, they have flask controllers now? Sweet!
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Jeremy Dunck, says:
Cory Doctorow had a good suggestion for culture-propagation-- make a deal with media manufacturers to ship their USB sticks (or whatever's next) full of CC-licensed (or publicly-funded) files.
Sure, lots of people might wipe the data as soon as they bought it, but some would put it on shuffle (wink, David) before doing so.
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