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The ''Rock Band'' Network (abbreviated RBN) was a downloadable content service designed by Harmonix with the help of Microsoft to allow musical artists and record labels to make their music available as playable tracks for the ''Rock Band'' series of rhythm video games, starting with ''Rock Band 2''. It was designed to allow more music to be incorporated into ''Rock Band'' than Harmonix themselves could produce for the games, and it is seen as a way to further expand the games' music catalog into a wide variety of genres. The Network started closed beta testing in September 2009, and an open beta test in January 2010. The ''Rock Band'' Network Store was publicly available on March 4, 2010 for all Xbox 360 players in selected countries (US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Singapore). ''Rock Band'' Network songs were exclusive to the Xbox 360 for 30 days on each song's release, after which a selection of songs will be made available on the PlayStation 3. The ''Rock Band'' Network is based on the XNA Creators Club model and uses peer review to check songs for playability, copyright violations and profanity in a song's lyrics. Harmonix has developed a suite of software tools, including a modified version of REAPER, a digital audio sound tool, and Magma, a metadata packaging tool, for use by artists and labels. In addition, Harmonix has helped to spawn the creation of several third-party companies, based on the previous hacking environment for the creation of custom songs, that will author an artist's song into a ''Rock Band'' track. Artists retain full control on their songs, and receive 30% of the sales from the Network. Several artists and labels have already committed to expanding the distribution of their music through the network. A second version of the Network, "RBN 2.0" went live shortly after the release of ''Rock Band 3''. The new version incorporates the ability to author regular and Pro keyboard, vocal harmonies, and Pro drums; due to the complexity and time investment, RBN 2.0 does not support authoring of Pro guitar or bass at its onset. The Network has been considered a more favorable option for the addition of user-generated content for music games than compared to Activision's previous attempt with "GHTunes" for the ''Guitar Hero'' series. Harmonix has since announced that they will be discontinuing regular DLC updates for the ''Rock Band'' series as of April 2, 2013; the ''Network'' will remain functional for Xbox 360 users while the third-party technologies, such as Microsoft XNA, remain automated processes, while the PlayStation 3 will see no further releases after April 2. The service was fully closed in September 2014 as Harmonix moves forward with other projects, though songs on the service will still remain available for purchase. RBN songs are not compatible with ''Rock Band 4'' at launch; however, Harmonix has stated they will explore the logistics of bringing RBN songs into ''Rock Band 4'' after completing the transition of all official DLC, packs, and disc exports. ==Development== Prior to the announcement of the ''Rock Band'' Network, Harmonix would regularly add approximately 10 songs each week as new downloadable content for the ''Rock Band'' games, consistent with their vision of ''Rock Band'' as a music platform and preferring digital distribution instead of new games or media. The downloadable content has been well received by players, with over 50 million songs downloaded by mid-2009. However, without significantly expanding their company, Harmonix realized they could not expand their authoring process.〔 The company worked with Microsoft to create the Network, modeling it after their XNA Creators Club which has produced a series of peer-reviewed titles in the Xbox Live Indie Games series. The resulting model allows artists and labels to author their own songs into ''Rock Band'' tracks, and submit them for peer-review before adding them to the Network, with a 30% cut of the songs' sales. Eran Egozy, co-founder of Harmonix, noted that "We're changing the way the music industry is working, and we're hoping there's going to be this big community around it". Harmonix' other co-founder, Alex Rigopulos, sees the Network as the next form of media that people will want to experience music through as with portable music players and in concerts. Rigopulos also stated that creating music in a form that is ready to be used in ''Rock Band'' is "just part of what they do now", and considers the Network an attractive way to allow artists and labels to skip the Harmonix middleman in getting tracks to players. The ''New York Times'' claims that in order to keep the development of the Network confidential, they internally named the project "Rock Band: Nickelback", believing that the "quintessentially generic modern rock group" name would deflect any attention to it. However, Harmonix senior producer Matthew Nordhaus denied this claim. In anticipation of the announcement of ''Rock Band'' Network, Harmonix contacted the ScoreHero and CustomHero communities, groups that have been hacking and modifying songs from ''Rock Band'' to put in their own custom songs, in order to engage them in helping use their knowledge of song creation. As a result, a company called (Rhythm Authors ) was created by Joseph Cirri, the founder of ScoreHero;〔 for a portion of the song's sale,〔 they will assist bands by creating the appropriate note tracking for their songs, peer review them, and help to train others to do the tasks. Within a week of the company's reveal, sixteen bands had signed up for Rhythm Authors' services. Other companies, including RockGamers Studios, TuneCore, and WaveGroup Sound, have also been formed for authoring; while authoring rates vary between the companies, it is estimated to be approximately $500 per minute of transcoded song.〔 Harmonix provided training classes on the ''Rock Band'' Network tools and promotion at the September 2009 GameSoundCon Conference in Los Angeles. Harmonix' Greg LoPiccolo stated that he believes the authoring community will also come up with further plug-ins for the authoring software to further automate the song creation process.〔 Similar companies that promise to help author note tracks have also been created since the announcement of the Network. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Rock Band Network」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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