During a recent livestream, Harmonix announced that selected tracks from Rock Band Network are coming to Rock Band 4. There’s a distinction between Rock Band Network’s return and tracks from Rock Band Network coming back. Harmonix explained that only some of the tracks are coming back.
Rock Band Network started in 2010 and was a platform that allowed artists to upload and sell their music tracks as Rock Band DLC. It allowed smaller bands to get recognition while filling out Rock Band‘s track library in a way Harmonix couldn’t do by themselves. Despite users creating over 2,000 songs, it shut down in 2014 due to “technical issues” and Harmonix wanting to dedicate resources to other non-Rock Band projects.
The selected tracks will be slightly touched up and brought up to Rock Band 4 standards. But they also had to be relicensed, which, sadly, means users will have to rebuy the songs they want. The first batch of Rock Band Network songs will be peppered in throughout season six, which starts next week and is a Rock Band retrospective.
“To us, they are new DLC,” said Harmonix’s Troy Ferrio. “Just a little bit of the work has already been done.”
Harmonix put out a survey a few months ago asking players to decide if they would be content with rebuying tracks. An overwhelming percentage (“like 86%”) claimed they would rather have the choice to rebuy the songs than not have them at all.
If you want the chance to rebuy some of your favorite Rock Band Network songs, you can go here and tell Harmonix what you songs want. They clarified that you do not need to specify whether or not the song is from Rock Band Network.
Harmonix also teased that there is “more to come this summer” but there’s no word on what it is. However, it isn’t an E3 announcement.
