hard at work, all around

This evening, Harmonix officially opened up creators.rockband.com to RBN track submissions, which means that the first half of the RBN system is in place. Creators and authors can now begin uploading the tracks that they have been working on during the last few months. From there they go into peer review, where fellow authors playtest the tracks of technical consistancy. Once they are approved, they await the opening of the RBN Store, so that Rock Band 2 players on Xbox LIVE can purchase and download them.

If you're an indepandant musician and you think you have what it takes to join the ranks of RBN authors, check out the site and see if it's for you. For those of you with social lives and/or loved ones who would like to see you occasionally, signup now for Noble Rhythm and let us do it for you!

when can I start buying tracks?

While the RBN system is now accepting uploads, the RBN Store on Xbox LIVE is not yet open. Harmonix is currently calling RBN an open beta, which simply means that they're still tweaking and perfecting thier system (which is built upon the same web development technology that powers Noble Rhythm's artist account and song upload system), and also waiting until enough tracks pass through the peer review process before opening up the storefront. There are no hard timelines, but the expectation is that the RBN Store will be open in the next month or two.

Stay tuned!

Noble Rhythm has been preparing more and more tracks for the launch of the Rock Band Network Store, which was originally planned to go live by the end of this year. Today, Harmonix confirmed to Kotaku that the launch is now delayed to the first quarter of 2010.

A delay of some kind has been long rumored, and does not come as a surprise. Harmonix has demonstrated that they knows what they're doing with RBN, and there doesn't seem to be anything to worry about with this delay.

Of course, if you haven't signed up for an Artist Account yet, this is the best news you've heard all year. Signup now and you can get your track prepared by Noble Rhythm in time for the launch of the store!

via [Kotaku]

wow...

Noble Rhythm is still just getting started, but we've already had a fantastic response so far. Lots of artists have signed up for accounts and a huge majority of them have already uploaded songs. We've been working non-stop and and we haven't even started promoting the service yet!

What this means is that even without looking at our site analytics I can guess that most of you probably got here via the Rock Band Forums, where we are listed along with many of our peer authoring groups. One of the things about RBN that we have been most encouraged by is the fact that the RBN community is just that, a community of Rock Band players, audio professionals, game designers and enthusiasts. It feels more like a group of volunteer mod developers or an open-source software community than a group of self-interested small businesses and cash-strapped musicians. The only difference is that we all stand to generate some actual cash money for our enthusiasm and cooperation.

Thanks especially go to rockband.com forum member Sayburr for putting up (and maintaining) the "charting group" listing on the Rock Band forums.

nose, meet grindstone

If you've signed up and submitted a song already, it means that (a) you're part of the vanguard of this new distribution frontier, and (b) you chose [nr`] to be your RBN representative over many of the other worthy authoring groups. We are very thankful for your early endorsement.

The only drawback is that we're waaayy busier than we thought we'd be at this early stage. Not a bad problem to have, for sure, but if you've noticed that your song status still hasn't moved from submitted to authoring yet, don't worry. We've ramped up our production pipeline and you can be 100% confidant that we haven't bitten off more than we can chew... we just skipped the appetizer and are diving headlong into the main course!

now is the best time, what are you waiting for?

And if you're just stopping by, either because you're just curious, or because you're shopping for an authoring service, you're as much a part of the vanguard, too, because the RBN basically is as new as it was over a month ago when we launched. Harmonix has released the developer tools and is refining the documentation, but hasn't yet launched the peer review infrastructure or the RBN Store.

And actually, this is good news, especially if you haven't signed up for an Noble Rhythm artist account yet, because you can still get in on RBN for the launch. Why would you want to get in now? Let's just say that we're predicting that it will be good going for the first batch of artists who are part of the store, as millions of Xbox LIVE users put in their copy of Rock Band 2 and say "what's all this about RBN, then?"

take a tour

In other news, we've launched our new site tour page, which gives you a behind-the-scenes look at the artist account and song submission interface. It's the kind of information that doesn't really belong on the faq, but is useful to get out there. It serves as a helpful guide for prospective artists looking to see how easy it is to work with Noble Rhythm, but it's also a great resource for current [nr`] artists looking for clarification on the inner workings of the site. Check it out!

what's next?

We're working hard on the latest song submissions now, and we're also deep in the process of developing some exciting professional partnerships. We'll be announcing those, and a few other nifty new things soon.

Good news, everyone!

That's right, Noble Rhythm has opened it's doors and is now accepting songs from independant artists to adapt for Rock Band Network! Read our faq to learn more, and then signup for a free artist account. You'll be one step closer to making big bucks (we hope!) by selling your work in the Rock Band Network Store!

For the last few weeks, we've been working to develop this website to make the artist experience quick and easy. We've also been putting Harmonix's recently released RBN authoring tools to the test, developing an efficient work flow which will get your track through the authoring process and into peer review ASAP.

We're hoping to update the website soon to include a few video walkthroughs, outlining the entire process from artist signup to authoring to peer review to payment.

The most important thing you should know about RBN right now is that the RBN Store is not yet open to the public. This is important because the first "batch" of work submitted to the store in the coming weeks and months will be the very first tracks available in the store when it opens.

Don't miss your chance to be one of the first artists to inaugurate this brand new digital distribution opportunity!