Over 1,000 songs are now available for fans of the Rock Band franchise to buy and download to the game, according to MTV Games and Harmonix. More than 390 bands are contributing tracks to the service, which allows Rock Band gamers to browse and buy songs from directly within the music-simulation game.
With sales of music-based games now reaching a plateau, MTV is hoping to position the Rock Band franchise more as a platform for selling downloadable add-ons to existing versions of the game rather than stressing the need to buy new versions. Gamers have downloaded more than 60 million songs to the Rock Band franchise since its inception two years ago.
MTV expects the number of songs to skyrocket past 1,000 once its Rock Band Network goes live. The Network is a program that allows artists to create and submit their own music into downloadable content for the game.
Not participating in the downloadable content for Rock Band, however, is Warner Music Group. While the Rock Band store has music from the label available due to earlier licensing deals, the label stopped licensing any new music for the downloadable platform over what it calls unfavorable licensing terms.
“Where we’re not being recompensed anything close to what would be fair for artists and services, we see no reasons to license,” WMG CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. said during the company’s earnings call this week. “We don’t see that as a large foregone opportunity because the licensing opportunity in itself is so small.”
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