MTV has given artists a new first step toward having their music reach gamers by launching Rock Band Network. Any artist, signed or unsigned, can submit songs for consideration in the Xbox 360 version of the game (Sony Playstation 3 and Wii to follow). As long as your tunes are of playable quality with lyrics that don’t offend anybody and your copyrights are clean, you’ll be able to submit your music through Harmonix game developers who will make the call and decide if your tracks will be available for Rock Band gamers in a store separate from the existing one. You can even set your own price from $.50 up to $3.00.
For indie and unsigned artists, Rock Band Network is a new portal opportunity through which to use the video game to market and sell your music. Considering that the 700 songs already available have spawned a whopping 50 million downloads, Rock Band Network presents artists with an opportunity to leash the MTV behemoth as a new channel for sales and exposure. And because MTV is leveraging Rock Band Network as a music distribution vehicle, interactivity can take a higher position in an artist’s marketing matrix.
As I always caution, look at both sides of every opportunity. MTV will be challenged to manage a predictable tsunami of submissions and will need to maintain standards so that Rock Band Network doesn’t become the dollar bin step sister to the existing store. That said, if MTV does everything right, the new store will open up terrific new opportunities for artists to push their music business further than before.
Tags: copyrights, gamers, Harmonix, indie artist, MTV, Rock Band, Rock Band Network, Sony Playstation 3, unsigned artist, Wii, Xbox 360